While it was billed as the spring game, and Cal wore their home gold and blue uniforms, the Cal Spring Game boiled down to practice. So, much like Allen Iverson once exclaimed, we're talking about practice, not a game, but practice.

Despite that, it was a morning of live tackling, aside from the quarterbacks, which provided for a strong performance from the running backs, particularly Marcel Dancy, though all of them had their highlights. Dancy had two of the five touchdowns on the day, including the sole receiving touchdown by making Deon White miss, then following a Jeremiah Hawkins block for a score off a pass from Devon Modster

"I saw Deon (White), he was the first tackler so I had to make him miss," Dancy said, "right when I spun off him, I saw the two so I just reacted, then (Jeremiah Hawkins) let me into the endzone."

Dancy also finished the day with a score for Bears, as the running back room had some solid success, as Deshawn Collins scored a touchdown as well, and both Alex Netherda and Chris Brown broke off some runs, before Brown went out with what looked like an ankle injury.

"We've noticed them more than what they probably showed today," Justin Wilcox said of the RB room, "in Spring practices, a lot of the drill work. It was good to see them make some plays. We'll see what happened with Chris, but they showed up and made some plays."

With the day being tilted toward live tackling situations, a few different names stood out, outside of the running back group:

- Deon White, playing a 'big nickel' role, had a handful of tackles, including a monster stop on a run by Deshawn Collins

"He's been playing outside linebacker, then he also plays our big nickel," Wilcox said, "last year Quentin Tartabull did that, that's a valuable spot for us, because Traveon does some things in nickel coverage wise, sometimes it's nice to have a bigger body out there, just for different types of down and distances and different calls we like to use. You just want to see the consistency with the 1s and the 2s."

- Daniel Scott picked off a Robby Rowell pass intended for Gavin Reinwald, playing at corner as the Bears had guys move around the defense to get familiar with what the guy next to them does

"I was in unfamiliar territory at corner," Scott said, "I saw two (the inside receiver) go vertical, so I knew there had to be some high low with my dude coming out, then I kinda read the quarterback, you could tell he was reading me to see if he was throwing the flat or the 7 (deep out/corner, then I broke on it and made a play."

- Kuony Deng broke on a slant intended for Makai Polk, picked off the Jack Newman pass and probably wouldn't have gotten caught if the officials hadn't blown the whistle.

"Pre-snap I saw him reading that side a little bit," Deng said, "it gave me a little bit of freedom in my drop in that situation. Kinda anticipated it a little bit, he kinda gifted me, you've got to finish the layup when you get the layup."

- Jeremiah Hawkins had a couple jet sweeps back to back, with the second of the two scoring a touchdown from 12 yards out. Hawkins showed some of the shiftiness seen in small doses over the first two years he's been in the program.

"He's almost that, running back quality in a receiver," Beau Baldwin said, "we want to find more and more ways, now that he's more comfortable in the entire offense, understanding that he can play that much faster. I thought he did a great job, he showed up last scrimmage as well. He's doing a great job, and he'll continue to work to be that complete receiver, where he can do some of the things that you saw, but also doing the things last week where he's catching the seam ball and scoring."

Other Notes:

- A handful of players got held out today due to playing 2000+ live reps already, those being Cam Bynum, Jaylinn Hawkins, Ashtyn Davis and Evan Weaver. It gave guys like Deng, Scott, Trey Turner, and Josh Drayden more time out there

- The DBs did some position switching, with Turner and Scott playing corner, and Drayden and Hicks playing safety, as Wilcox noted that it's good for guys getting to know what the guy next to them is doing.

- Mike Saffell and Jordan Duncan were both in full pads, but neither played. Saffell, who Wilcox called 'a ham,' got on the Pac-12 Network broadcast to the entertainment of multiple people on Twitter

Scoring Plays

12 yard reception by Marcel Dancy from Devon Modster

2 yard Deshawn Collins run

4 yard Chase Garbers run on 4th and 3

12 yard Jeremiah Hawkins run

3 yard Marcel Dancy run

Final Stats

Team:

Rushing: 42 attempts for 187 yards, 4 TDs

Passing: 23-32, 177 yards, 1 TD, 2 INTs

Individual:

Rushing

Netherda: 12-76

Collins: 9-39, 1 TD

Dancy: 8-33, 1 TD

Hawkins: 3-28, 1 TD

Reimigo: 1-7

Rowell: 1-5

Brown Jr.: 1-4

Garbers: 5-2 1 TD

Modster 2-(-7)

Passing (Comp-Att-INT-Yds-TD)

Garbers: 7-10-0-60-0

Modster: 6-7-0-27-1

Rowell:7-10-1-68-0

Newman: 3-5-1-22-0

Receiving (Rec-Yds, TDs)

Remigio: 6-38

Dancy: 3-29, 1 TD

Hawkins: 3-18

Castles: 2-25

M. Young 2-24

Polk: 2-11

Netherda: 2-13

Brown Jr.: 1-7

Collins: 1-6

King: 1-6

Field Goals

Greg Thomas: 4-4 good from 36, 38, 40, 42

Gabe Siemieniec: 1-2, good from 36, no good from 38

Dario Longhetto: 1-2, good from 40, blocked from 42 (Deon White)

Defense

D. White: 7 tackles, 2 TFLs, 1 sack, blocked FG

Humphries: 6 tackles

Vanis: 5 Tackles

Deng: 4 tackles, 1 INT

Bickett: 4 tackles

Scott: 4 tackles 1 INT

Turner: 4 tackles

Croteau: 3 tackles, .5 TFL

Fuimaono: 3 tackles

Hicks: 3 tackles

McIntosh: 3 tackles

Nisich: 3 tackles

Tattersall: 3 tackles

Tevis: 3 tackles

Udeogu: 3 Tackles

Angelillo: 2 tackles

Beck: 2 tackles

Cherry: 2 tackles

Z. Johnson: 2 tackles, 2 TFL, 2 sacks

Bosche: 1 tackle

Doughty: 1 tackle

Goode: 1 tackle, 1 TFL

Hopkins: 1 tackle

Moos: 1 tackle

Paul: 1 tackle

Patu: 1 tackle, .5 TFL

Toailoa: 1 tackle

Drayden: 1 tackle