After Tony Tuioti left for Nebraska, Cal had to make a quick move to fill the DL coaching position. Andrew Browning was a defensive quality control coach for the Bears a year ago, and had five seasons of defensive line coaching under his belt at UTEP for experience. The hire was made near immediately, as Browning ran the first two days of spring ball before being officially hired as the defensive line coach.

Since then, Browning has been focused on the defensive line group, at the position he played under Justin Wilcox at Boise State. He answered a few questions for us after practice 4 Monday.

It has been about five months since you got hired on as the DL coach here, how does it feel having been here for that long?

It feels great, I probably said it in the spring, it's a blessing for me to get the opportunity to coach the guys that I have, just tremendous character in that room, great leadership. It makes it pretty easy for me when I come to work.

You played in a similar scheme to this one under Wilcox at Boise State, how much does that help from a teaching standpoint?

I don't know how much it helps in terms of being able to coach, but at times when they find themselves in certain positions, and you can relate to that because you've been through something similar. I think that helps when you try to help them progress and give them a coaching point, and they know that you've been in a similar situation, sometimes it helps, not all the time. Sometimes it helps them to relate.

Has the scheme changed that much with you taking over for coach Tuioti, as I hear more from recruits about playing a five technique (straight up on the tackle) vs. a 4i (inside shade of the tackle)?

Well, we are a base 3-4 defense but we're a multiple front defense, so depending on the look that we get, we can play a number of different alignments.

Wanted to ask about Brett Johnson and Ben Coleman, how are they looking so far, getting early reps with Siu and Maldonado out?

Really impressed with both of them in terms of their physical ability, both very sharp young men, they've come in and they've picked up our scheme really well. They fit our program in terms of character, and they fit our room, the D-line room. We're still working on consistency and the way they do things, but they're doing a tremendous job the first couple days of camp. They're picking a couple of things to get better at each day and they've done that, and they're starting to stack days on top of each other. That's one of those things we've talked about that can be overwhelming as a freshman, not trying to pick a million things to get better at, but just trying to get better at a couple things every day, we feel better about where we're at after four practices.

You've also got some senior leadership in the middle with Luc and Zeandae, how have they taken to their final year?

They're doing great, really everybody's doing a tremendous job, coach Becton's done a tremendous job. Those guys have really built themselves up physically. They've obviously played a lot of snaps, so they've seen a lot of stuff. Everything they do, they're responding a little bit faster this year because of that experience, and they're also imparting their wisdom on the younger guys, which makes it easier for me.

What differentiates Luc and Zeandae as players and athletes?

They're good complements for each other, Luc does a really good job in the run game, he's developing as a pass rusher. Zeandae has great pass rush ability, and he's done a great job since the spring working on his run technique, and to have guys who can play the run and rush the passer, that's what you want as a D-Line coach.

This may be a bit of a dumb question, but what changes in playing run defense versus pass rush, is it approach or coming off the line?

The biggest thing is being able to recognize the situation that you're in and being able to put yourself in a mode, that's kinda what we talk about in that room, and that comes with experience. There's things your opponent gives to you, cues, stances, splits all that stuff, and it's a combination of that, knowing what's going on in the game, down and distance, and being able to take all that stuff and process it. That usually comes with the older you get where everything doesn't feel like it's going a million miles an hour.

You also have Lone, who's been mentioned as a potential nose guard, how has he developed in year two?

Lone's done a really good job coming into his second year, he's really worked on developing as a run defender. He's got a knack for rushing the passer, a knack for getting on edges and working on hands, does a good job on our line movement stuff, but the thing I notice with him is his commitment to getting better in the run game and I think he's doing that. I think it's going to lead to more opportunities for him.