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Bye Week Injury Thoughts and Exhibition Takeaways

Cal goes into the bye week battered, bruised, and lineup-wise, incredibly different from the beginning of the season. They've made it to their bye week 5-5, with two road games ahead with the Big Game and a trip to the Rose Bowl looming. They get the dreaded Saturday-Friday road split, where the road team hasn't won the Friday matchup at any point this year.

How much has the team had to adjust from where they thought they'd be in early parts of fall camp is a point to look at.

Projected Starters on Offense (About a week into fall camp)

OL (L to R) - Mekari, Bennett, Ooms, Uluave/Daltoso, Curhan

WR - Robertson, Noa, Veasy/Wharton

RB - Watson

TE - Hudson

QB - Bowers (this might be a reach, but he was ahead coming out of the spring, McIlwain's eligibility was a question, and Garbers wasn't quite ready)

FB - McMorris

Projected Starters on Defense (Same time frame)

DL - Looney, Mekari, Bequette/Udeogu

OLB - Saffle, Goode/Funches

ILB - Downs, Davison

CB - Bynum/Hicks, Allensworth/Franklin

S - Tartabull, Derron Brown

Now, the changes.

Starters Now

OL (L to R) - Mekari, Bennett, Ooms, Saffell, Curhan

WR - Noa, Wharton, Veasy

RB - Laird

TE - Wells/Reinwald

QB - Bowers

FB - McMorris

Defense

DL - Looney, Mekari, Bequette

OLB - Davison, Funches

ILB - Kunaszyk/Weaver, G. Brown

CB - Bynum, Allensworth/Hicks

S - Hawkins, A. Davis

Some of these changes, like half the offensive ones, have been due to injury. Cal is missing their projected top starter at WR, RB, TE, OLB, and ILB now due to injury. They lost Zeandae Johnson before the season began, same with Evan Rambo. Johnson would've started in Bequette's spot, while Rambo would have pushed for time at safety.

Those apparently weren't meant to be, and it's forced players into new roles, one of the most interesting ones being how much Malik McMorris has seen the field, especially as a starter. Cal has started McMorris 8 times this year, running him as an H-back to compliment a 3-WR set and using him as a lead blocker or clear-out blocker across the formation. If Ray Hudson were healthy, he'd likely be in for many of those plays instead of McMorris, often times as an inline blocker.

It's been apparent to see that Wharton, Noa, and Laird have been the other beneficiaries of injuries, as far as getting the opportunity to produce goes. With Robertson out, Beau Baldwin has gone away from some deeper throwing options, sticking with RPOs, rollouts, other quick hitters, with the occasional wheel route or double move thrown in. Wharton's gotten a number of catches on the RPOs, whereas Noa has been the target on quick outs, crossing routes, and wheel routes (TDs against Oregon and Colorado on those). With Laird, he's gotten more swing passes, but has been effective at times playing the cutback style of running back they need off the zone blocking.

On the offensive line, with Mekari back after two weeks of being gone, there hasn't been much upheaval. Uluave got hurt early in camp, and Daltoso beat him out, and then got hurt at the end of the Colorado game, moving Saffell into a starting role, which he did well in a week ago.

Defensively, the Bears have been somewhat effective even after losing Saffle after North Carolina. Goode and Downs have been recent, with Downs having a breakout year and Goode showing some potential at his spot. Davison moved offer, Weaver moved to ILB in camp, Kunaszyk got healthy, and Gerran Brown stepped up.

At the DBs, Franklin fell out as a starter (getting some reps in reserve). Allensworth had to work his way back, playing some nickel recently. Bynum has been solid. Hicks has had mistakes, but he's playing as a true freshman. The big shakeup came at safety, where Davis came on as a surprisingly good tackler and alley filler at a new position, and Hawkins appears to be a multi-year starter at the spot. The competition that Wilcox wanted to build has propelled that group forward.

In all, at least five starters have been lost for the season since the beginning of August (more if you count those injured in the offseason). Yet this team is 5-5, with a chance to make a bowl, and they've honestly left a lot on the table, but the coaching has been good and the execution is steadily getting better. Now they need to show it in a place they haven't won since 2009, either at Stanford Stadium or in the Rose Bowl (or both).

Injuries:

Aside from Daltoso, everyone injured at the moment is out for the rest of the year. All of them, except for Billy McCrary, have been 'lower body' injuries. While the specifics aren't out there, not all of them are knee injuries. That being said, it's something that needs to be looked at in the offseason, and with the attention to detail surrounding this staff and moving to the strength staff (with position specific workouts, GPS trackers for looking at velocity during workouts, nutrition plans, etc.), it seems like something they'll adjust to.

Basketball Exhibition Takeaways:

Cal won their exhibition with Providence (MT) 81-52. It wasn't close, as even without three rotation players in Juhwan Harris-Dyson (sick), Cole Welle (thumb), and Justice Sueing (stress fracture), the Bears still were much bigger and stronger than the Argos. Even though Kingsley Okoroh had a triple double and Marcus Lee looked like a man among boys in getting rebounds, there wasn't too much to take from this, other than scheme and rotation thoughts (those were also thrown off by the injuries).

RECAP | Wyking Jones Postgame | Lee, Coleman, Okoroh Postgame

- Okoroh in a lot better shape. While he mostly spent the game smacking away shots from a Providence team that was all under 6'7", his final block was impressive, sprinting down court, tipping the ball off the backboard before careening into the band. He dealt with an ankle injury before the season, but he's looking a bit more conditioned, playing more minutes that Marcus Lee, which seemed like it would be the other way around.

- Guard rotation, at least a little. Getting JHD back will mix this up a bit, but Darius McNeill started at the point, and Deschon Winston came in first off the bench, sometimes playing with him or coming in for him. The two PG pairing will be interesting to see develop, both have a solid handle and are aggressive pressers, but they're still young and adjusting. There was a surprising amount of them playing together, and that could continue

- Pace, press and fouling. The Bears played fast, something that Wyking Jones noted that they needed to improve postgame, as they start to get the press going. Again, without Harris-Dyson, the press isn't quite what's expected for Friday, with the 'Spiderfly' back in action, but it helped to force 19 turnovers. It also had the Bears fouling, 23 fouls total, especially Winston in the early going. It was a bit sloppy at times, but the Bears had the athletic edge to overcome that. It needs to tighten up before they lose that athletic edge.

- Coleman is going to be the scorer. Don Coleman put up 18 shots and turned the ball over 6 times. At this point, you know what you're going to get with Coleman, a high intensity player who can get you back into a game with his slashing ability, or one that is at times reckless with the ball sticking to him too much. That needs to be moderated, as Coleman's energy can be a boon for this team.

The Bears are going to run through their bigs offensively and defensively, with Lee and Okoroh stationed down on the blocks (playing more sudden off the entry passes, something that wasn't done a year ago), and it was good to see them dominate inferior competition. Now they have to do it a step up, against a team that has size to matchup in UC Riverside.

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