The sun was out at Memorial Stadium Sunday afternoon. Blue skies all around. Blocking sleds and various pads sat on the sideline. The only thing missing? The players, the coaches, and the assorted support staff.

Cal's originally scheduled practice for Sunday got made into something else, but not the full pads affair of the past two days.

"It was a lot of mental work," offensive coordinator Beau Baldwin said, "we had meetings this morning, special teams meetings, we'll meet as a staff in the afternoon. (The players) will come back, we'll get more meeting time in the evening and a Thursday type practice, which is a slowed-down, controlled (day). We knew how we were going to structure them, and sometimes over the course of 25 practices, we have certain themes of how we're going to practice. Coach Wilcox does a great job of setting that up, so you have those peaks, where you can bring them back then get them to those full pads peaks. It's very 'game-week-ish' when we're going through it."

Cal will go through what's essentially a walkthrough after the last two days, as a mental rest before two more days of practice, with the next break being on Wednesday.

This gave Baldwin the opportunity to reflect on the previous two days of full pads practice.

"We improved a lot from day one to day two," Baldwin said about the two practices, "in terms of how to handle the two-huddle situation, which our version of an inside run (drill), how to handle some of the speed that comes when you start adding pressures as more of the things get installed and the defense is doing more things. I think the way we progressed from day one to day two was handling (blitz periods) later in practice when you're tired and you've got to think."

The blitz periods served as a time for the staff to see where they have to learn, because it wasn't perfect on the offensive side.

"At times well, and at times there's things we have to learn from, it's definitely a give and take," Baldwin said, "we can go back and say 'we handled this well, we knew where to go with the football,' other times this could have been a time where we redirected,' whatever the protection may be."

Right now, the plan is for the Bears to be back in pads Monday morning, as they continue their Fall Camp practices. Monday's practice, scheduled for 10:30, will be open to the public.

More from Beau Baldwin is below.