“Everything is fresh,” Justin Wilcox said.
And indeed, everything did feel fresh. On an absolutely perfect day, the Cal Bears took the field for their first of 15 spring practices in 2022, with fresh faces, fresh coaches and fresh air. With the stresses of last season firmly out the window and a new contract to boot, Wilcox walked and talked like a man with a new lease on life.
“It’s a lot of fun to be back out here, that’s for sure,” he continued.
Cal is one of the last teams in the country to undertake spring ball. While the conditions were just about as perfect as it gets, it was a bit of a long haul to get here. But just because there wasn’t any ‘real football’ happening doesn’t mean that the Bears were fully in hibernation.
They were busy working.
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Brian Johnson, the head athletic performance coach for Cal, had them working out just about every week since their return to campus in the spring. The results have been clearly paying off.
“There’s a bunch of guys, either some guys trimmed down, added some muscle mass and some guys gained some weight,” Wilcox said.
He immediately gestured to tight end Keleki Latu, who clocked in at 6-foot-6 and 230 pounds a few days ago — 15 pounds heavier than what he was as a freshman last season.
