Cal went back out to practice Monday afternoon, preparing for an early morning road contest against Ole Miss, and Justin Wilcox had a lot to say about a bunch of different areas coming off Saturday's 23-17 win over North Texas.
What specific areas the Bears need to improve in:
Defensively, it was leverage in tackling, we have to improve pass rush on defense. We lost leverage a couple times, we had some one on one situations we think we can play better, a couple zone matchup issues we can correct.
Special teams, punt team has got to continue to improve, a couple guys had nice returns in there and guys worked hard for those, but we've got to get better on punt team.
Offensively, we called a significant number of pass plays and there were a number of reasons, whether it was a block or the progression by the quarterback or a slight adjustment on the route that did or didn't happen that we just have to get better at. We've done it in practice, now we've got to apply it to the game.
Preparing for a Time Zone Change and Potential High Humidity
We'll get our body clocks ready on Wednesday, then we'll head out on Thursday. It won't be an issue and we'll hydrate like crazy. We leave Thursday, we'll go to bed early Wednesday, then Thursday morning we have an early morning, and we'll stay up, so we'll be tired and get used to that Central time. We practiced the entire fall in the morning, the kickoff time isn't an issue.
Injury Update
Everybody should be good to go, nobody out for the season, we're expecting them back ASAP. We had (Daltoso) back out here today, it was nice having him out and hopeful he'll be available back Saturday.
Thoughts on Ole Miss and what they bring to the table and what pops out off tape
Personnel changes, scheme changes, a lot of change. That jumps off the tape and we know a couple of their coaches, we've competed against them for a long time, so we know what kind of coaches they are, and they'll have those guys ready to play.
The spread, whatever that means, a lot of Y-off (the ball), they use 12 personnel, coach Rodriguez has done that in the past as well, there's elements of it that you've seen before from the Arizona days and the Michigan days in Rich-Rod's offense. He's really good at coaching that system, with a few wrinkles, he'll play to his player's strengths, which he has always done. They're good, got a really active quarterback, their skill is talented, receivers and running backs, big tight ends, they use some 12 personnel, and their OL is really big
Other Notes:
- Wilcox noted that Ben Coleman had switched to offensive line, but they weren't sure if they were going to make that a permanent move. Nick Alftin could also see some time at OLB if need be, after moving to TE late in fall camp.
- Still no official comment on the status of Devon Modster. Modster transferred from UCLA three games into last year, which may have been the cause of his eligibility issues for the first three games of the year (he didn't dress for any of them)
