Cal Football Countdown: 31 Days, Fall Camp Preview, Offensive Line

Welcome back to Day 2 of "two a days", (and the Cal Football Countdown as a whole) where we'll be preparing you with what you need to know about the lines. First up, the offensive one.

This is your projected starting five at offensive line, and all of them will have eligibility for the 2020 season, so you should get used to the names and the order.

A couple quick notes here:

Will Craig’s weight gain, now up to 290, was crucial this year – he obviously had to come in earlier than preferred after the injury to Patrick Mekari, and the stats do reflect someone who had a rough freshman year, particularly in the run blocking department (something Steve Greatwood has stressed). That often suggests some trouble matching up physically, which should be helped somewhat by the ongoing strength and conditioning, plus he has plenty of time left to develop into the high level player many expected.

Saffell is another budding star on the offensive line here, as you can see just from the pass blocking grade last season. Smart, charismatic, and technical, the Bears have him taking Addison Ooms’ spot in the middle for a reason.

No one else besides Craig (in the starting lineup, Matt Cindric made a jump in size during the offseason) was asked to really do much differently with their body, so that tells us that everyone’s in the preferred weight range for Greatwood’s system. The rest is just getting the reps together, the coordination, and developing functional strength on their frames. I have high hopes personally that this is happening, and anecdotally on this week’s pod, Trace shared the same. Fall camp may not be the best time to really get a read on this group though, just because of the quality of opponent.

Trace's Note: Williams was called by Justin Wilcox 'one of the most improved players during the spring,' and multiple guys noted Williams' athleticism

Obviously few useful stats exist for the backups, so we’ll just go ahead and handicap the race:

You can go ahead and put Cindric in as the backup center. He’s undergone a massive body transformation to get up to 295, has really good athleticism on his frame as a converted defensive lineman. The depth chart doesn’t really work out for him to play yet because of Saffell, but he’s flexible enough to play guard too. Should see the field in some capacity this year.

Miles Owens and Jasper Friis have a lot to prove this year – the staff has mentioned as they’re a little behind publicly, and considering how rarely they say things of that nature makes it quite telling. The true freshman Rohme could conceivably jump right over them before long– he’s been well coached, is extremely polished technically, although his weight is still an issue at 260.

Trace's notes: Wilcox said good things about Brandon Mello at media day, and the former Clayton Valley Charter lineman should be taking some reps this fall as a part of the rotation.

PJ Poutasi took reps at both guard and tackle during the spring, which is why he's listed under both. He's a better fit for guard, but it doesn't hurt to have him knowing more than one position.

Don't count out Tanner Prenovost either, as he played a bunch this spring with the first unit, as Saffell and Daltoso were out. He can play either guard spot or center.