Cal Football Countdown: 57 Days, A Good What If, Part 5
There are only a few new faces on the 2019 defensive depth chart, but even on a group that ranked near the top of the country last season, it's those few new faces that might be the keys to the any improvement. (Yes, there is improvement possible.)
What if...Cal gets dominant pass rushers?
We're speaking, of course, about outside linebacker Cam Goode and JUCO transfer Kuony Deng. To understand why these guys could unlock the next level of the Cal defense, we have to look at some numbers under Justin Wilcox:
2017: Ray Davison (4.5), Alex Funches (4.0), Jordan Kunaszyk (3.5), James Looney (3.5), Devante Downs (3 in 6 games) = 18.5
2018: Alex Funches (5.0), Luc Bequette (5.0), Evan Weaver (4.5), Jordan Kunaszyk (4.0), Evan Rambo (2.0) = 20.5
Those are the top five sack leaders the last couple of years (in which we ranked 45th and 50th in the country in sacks, respectively), and although effective pressure can't be measured only by sack production, there's still a few things to take out of this list. Under Wilcox's 3-4 oriented defensive fronts, the pass rush comes from the four linebackers, any of whom can be sent from any angle to mess with opposing linemen as the 4th or 5th pass rusher, compared to 4-3 systems, where the pass rush is mostly dependent on winning battles up front from the defensive line (often the ends). This changeover from Dykes' 4-3 to Wilcox's 3-4 systems can be seen just in who leads the team in sacks -- 8 of these 10 sack leaders under Wilcox are linebackers, compared to 13 of 25 in Dykes' 5 years who were defensive linemen.
To break it down even further:
OLB: 15.5 (While Davison did slide around, particularly toward the second half of the 2017 year, for the purposes of this exercise we'll count him at the OLB spot)
ILB: 15
DL: 8.5
On the surface, this looks like a desirable distribution of pass pressure across all responsible parties, and some balance is indeed preferable, if only because of how much more difficult it makes life on offense. But that is where Goode, Deng, and when he's ready, freshman Orin Patu all can potentially come into play. The outside linebacker position these last few years has been manned by basically Davison, Funches, and Tevin Paul, who have played well collectively, but none of whom are the explosive in space athlete that Goode, Deng, or Patu all project to be (and in the case of Deng, the luxury he provides is his previous experience already pass rushing from the outside, which you can be sure DeRuyter will keep in his pocket). If all projects well, and health wills it, Cal will have the type of pass rusher/outside athlete from this trio they haven't...in forever; no Cal player has gotten double digit sacks since CFBStats started keeping these numbers in 2009, and only 5 guys in the last 10 years have even reached 6. (Last Cal player to have double digit sack totals was Zack Follett in 2008)
As far as Goode goes, well, you can take it from the coaches themselves. He's played only a handful of games the last few years, yet continues to be praised as possibly the most talented member on that side of the ball -- no small feat, considering Evan Weaver still runs in the middle. So yeah, they know what he can do, if he's on the field to do it. Wilcox and DeRuyter have had to compensate for the loss of Goode these last two seasons -- a fluid playmaker fit for the modern college game -- by asking more of their inside linebackers in the pass rush, often sending one, or both of Kunaszyk/Weaver in key moments when they absolutely have to get pressure. Imagine the kind of games they could play if they weren't forced to deploy Weaver next year, but could hold his pressure more selectively? That, in turn, makes Weaver's opportunities more meaningful.
We've not yet even talked in this space about getting the same type of every snap dominant, disruptive athlete up front on the defensive line, which would be a bonus in any 3-4 system. Over the next couple of years, you'll see a lot written about Brett Johnson and Stanley McKenzie representing on that unit the same thing that Patu, Goode, or Deng could for the linebackers -- the possibility of Havoc from places Cal has survived not getting a ton from.
That's the scary thing. They could get better simply because this dimension of the defense has been missing already. If that's not an unexpectedly Goode what if, I don't know what is.