As Cal readies for its much-anticipated showdown in South Bend, Ind., on Saturday vs. Notre Dame, we take an in-depth look at what the PFF grades, snap counts and advanced stats show about the Golden Bears' performance through the first two weeks.
Full offensive snap counts: OG Brian Driscoll 143, OT Ben Coleman 143, QB Jack Plummer 143, C Matthew Cindric 143, OG Spencer Lovell 143, WR Jeremiah Hunter 107, WR J.Michael Sturdivant 100, WR Mavin Anderson 100, OT Brayden Rohme 84, RB Jaydn Ott 73, TE Keleki Latu 71, TE Jeremaine Terry 65, OT T.J. Session 65, RB DeCarlos Brooks 48, WR Monroe Young 45, TE Elijah Mojarro 35, RB Damien Moore 26, WR Tommy Christakos 24, TE Andy Alfieri 21, WR Mason Mangum 15, OG Sioape Vatikani 6, C Bastian Swinney 6, QB Kai Millner 6, OT Everett Johnson 6, OG Ender Aguilar 6, TE Chris Rogers 6, TE Grant Daley 4, RB Ashton Stredick 3, TE Nick Alftin 2.
Freshmen redshirt tracker (players can play in 4 games still maintain redshirt): RB Jaydn Ott (2 games played), OG Sioape Vatikani (2).
Offensive notes
-Quarterback Jack Plummer has taken an average of 2.6 seconds to throw on his drop-backs.
-PFF has credited Plummer with just 3 "big-time throws," which it defines as "a pass with excellent ball location and timing, generally thrown further down the field and/or into a tighter window." But he's also generally protected the football with just 3 "Turnover-worthy plays," which are defined as "a pass that has a high percentage chance to be intercepted or a poor job of taking care of the ball and fumbling." Plummer has 2 interceptions so far.
-He has an average depth of target of 9.1 yards per pass and an adjusted completion percentage of 77.5, which also credits him for 4 dropped passes. To this point, though, Cal has not shown the aggressive downfield passing attack it teased in the spring and preseason. Plummer has attempted only 10 passes of more than 20 yards, completing just 3 with a long of 37 yards. He's 23 of 27 on passes from 0-10 yards and 13 of 19 on passes 11-20 yards in depth. Interestingly, both of his interceptions have come on short passes of less than 10 yards.
-Plummer has been kept clean on 71.1 percent of his drop-backs so far. He's used play-action on 17 of 83 passing plays.
-Here's how Cal's most targeted receivers and tight ends have fared: Jeremiah Hunter, 11 catches on 16 targets with 1 drop (157 yards, 1 TD); J.Michael Sturdivant,10 catches on 14 targets with 1 drop (104 yards); Mavin Anderson, 7 catches on 12 targets with 2 drops (60 yards, 1 TD); Keleki Latu, 6 catches on 7 targets with 0 drops (59 yards). No other receiver (excluding RB Jaydn Ott) has more than 5 targets.
-Of those receivers, Hunter has the longest average depth of target at 15.2 yards. Anderson (2) and Sturdivant (1) have Cal's only contested catches, but there have only been 6 such attempts, meaning Plummer is mostly only targeting clearly open receivers.
-As for the running backs, Jaydn Ott has forced 10 missed tackles on 25 rushing attempts and is averaging 4.04 yards after contact, which is tops among Cal's running back rotation. Five of those carries have gone for more than 10 yards. He's also hauled in 5 of 7 passing targets.
-Moving up front, here's how Cal's primary offensive linemen have fared thus far: RG Spencer Lovell, 1 pressure (which was a sack) allowed in 91 pass-blocking snaps; LG Brian Driscoll, 3 pressures (0 sacks) in 91 pass-blocking snaps; C Matthew Cindric, 4 pressures (including 2 sacks) in 91 pass-blocking snaps; LT Ben Coleman, 5 pressures (including 2 sacks) in 91 pass-blocking snaps; RT Brayden Rhome, 5 pressures (including 1 sack) in 54 pass-blocking snaps; RT T.J. Session, 3 pressures (0 sacks) in 37 pass-blocking snaps.
-Lovell is the only Cal offensive lineman with a positive run-blocking grade (70.2) while Rhome (43.5) and Session (46.1) have struggled the most in that area. For that matter, the right tackles have been fairly even and underwhelming so far with Rhome receiving a season grade of 44.3 and Session 42.3.
-Cindric is the only lineman to have drawn multiple penalties so far with 2.
