Cal Football Spring Practice Day 3
BERKELEY - For the first time this spring, bright sunny skies greeted the Bears at Memorial Stadium, just in time for their first days in pads.
“The third day means we get to put on shoulder pads, which is welcome, because the spiders - the helmets and the spider pads, it's what we call ghost tempo, which is not throwing blocks, try not to contest the ball in the air," Cal head coach Justin Wilcox noted after practice. So we keep everybody on their feet. Today, there's more collisions. Shoulder pads are on contested balls. So it's more real football, because this stuff the first two days, a lot of sign technique, which we still need, but the physical part of the game is not the same. So that ramped up today.
“There's a lot of variables, because we've got our third install in. So defense has got more calls, offense has got more calls. Inevitably, there's some mistakes being made on identification. So we've got to be better there. And now it starts to set in where the volume picks up. You know, there's three practices in a row, so the stamina is going to show up. We need guys to continue to grow and get better throughout spring, not just the first three days."
Wilcox was asked about what they’re evaluating to determin an eventual starter at the QB position and what the three current main starting QB candidates are able to do on the ground with none of them being traditional dual threat QBs.
“Yeah, I mean, Devin kept one today on a little boot," Wilcox noted. " Jaron is a good athlete. I don't know what his 40 yard dash time is but he's athletic enough to pull the ball down and get in yards and same with EJ. They all have strengths and weaknesses, but they all move well enough for sure.
"Comfort within the offense, running the offense, getting the ball to the right places at the right time, their efficiency. They're all - the mentality is there. How do they approach meetings and practice?
“They're coming from different places. Obviously, Devin's a college football veteran. National championship coming from high school. EJ's had one year of college. So they're just different stages there. They all have the demeanor and then it's just about the mastery of offensive communication. It's all the intangible quarterback things, and then it's the tangibles of delivering the ball where it needs to go, when it needs to go."
DT Aidan Keanaaina
All three QBs were fairly sharp. Some of Brown’s highlights included a 15-yard completion to WR Trond Grizzell, an 8-yard curl to WR Kyion Grayes, consecutive 15 and 30-yard completions to Grizzell, another 20-yard completion to Grizzell down the sideline and a nice 20-yard QB keeper where Brown showed good wheels.
Sagapolutele’s highlights included a 25-yard sideline completion to WR Isaac Torres, a 10-yard completion to RB Byron Cardwell, who had his first extended run of action this spring and an 8-yard scramble for a first down.
Caminong’s highlights included a swing pass to RB Jamaal Wiley for an 8-yard first down, a pass to WR Trevor Rodgers for 15 on a crossing route, in a series with the 1’s hit RB Jaivian Thomas for 15 with a nice adjustment on ball behind him and a completion to WR Mavin Anderson for 12.
Running highlights included an Ott run for 5 up the middle, a Cardwell for 8 up off tackle, a tough 5-yard run up the middle by Cardwell, a15-yard run by RB Jamaal Wiley who bounced it outside, a Cardwell run outside for 15, a 25-yard run by senior RB Kadarius Callow and a pair of 15-yard Jacob De Jesus jet sweeps.
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A couple of defensive highlights saw DT Nate Burrell with a stuff at the line along with a short TFL and a Curley Thomas sack on Caminong.
The Bears will be back in action again Monday morning at 9:30 in a practice open to the public.