Breaking Down the Depth Chart: Idaho State
Idaho State comes into Berkeley on Saturday, as they become the second Big Sky opponent in two years for the Bears. The Bengals of Pocatello won their first contest, a 45-10 home win over Division II Western State Colorado, and they're coming off a 4-7 season in 2017, where they scored their first win over an FBS school, Nevada.
"I played against them for years when I was at that level," Beau Baldwin said Tuesday, "you watch them, they beat Nevada last year. You turn on the film, they won pretty handily in their first game this year, they played Utah State better than that score indicated too."
While the Bengals did fall to their common opponent with the Bears, Weber State in 2017, Baldwin noted that it's still a team that's going to come in wanting to play spoiler.
"They're going to come in here to win, that's the attitude they're going to take," Baldwin said, "they have college athletes on scholarship, and that's what people sometimes forget."
That said, the staff already has some built in motivation for the players.
"We remind them about Weber and they wake up pretty quick," Baldwin said
Quick Facts:
Base: 11 personnel, Pistol
Returning Starters: 8
Key Players: The Gueller brothers and James Madison
The Guellers, QB Tanner and WR Mitch, are the first players to start with when looking at Idaho State, as they're both at the prototypical size for their spots, and they connected four times for 82 yards and a score the last time Idaho State played. Tanner did throw an interception in the opener, and with Cal leading the country in interceptions with six, they're going to try to force him into more.
Madison is their leading rusher, running for 114 yards in their opener. Combined with Flanagan, they rushed for over 1500 yards in 2017.
Size-wise there's a couple outliers in the 5'6" Michael Dean and the 5'5" Kieran Yancy (both are capable pass catchers), but for the most part they're similar to plenty of D1 teams. Up front, Jack Tufono stands out as the smallest of the OL, but the rest of the offensive line is around the same size as Cal's. Jacob Molenaar and Dallen Collins both earned Big Sky All-Conference Honorable Mention honors a year ago as well.
Key Matchup: Cam Bynum vs. Mitch Gueller
Another big wide receiver for Bynum to deal with, after handling Anthony Ratliff-Williams relatively well in week one. Cal's redshirt sophomore corner will undoubtedly get the call to handle Gueller in the early going for the Bears.
Quick Facts
Base Personnel: 3-4
Returning Starters: 7
Key Players: Paea Moala, Caleb Brown
Another large offensive line, thought not as tall of a defense as the Bears played a week ago in Provo, as Aloi looks to be a true nose guard in the middle of the defense.
Moala's the leading tackler among the group, picking up 13 tackles in the opener along with a sack and a QB hurry, as he's a physical player capable of dropping into coverage from his outside linebacker spot.
Caleb Brown returned an interception for a touchdown against Western State (and he wore #22 in that game), and he's a corner with good reaction time for the Bengals. Safety Adkin Aguirre is highly regarded as well.
Key Matchup: Cal wideouts vs. ISU DBs.
This is one of the few times the Bears will have a size advantage over their opponents on the perimeter. The wideouts, mainly Kanawai Noa, showed some glimpses against BYU, but this is the week to build confidence in finding holes in a defense going forward.
Not much to say about their special teams, other than Sheidlow being perfect on extra points so far and Ryan punting for 41 yards on average. Yancy did have a 58 yard punt return in the opener, so coverage has to get on top of him.