Saturday's practice was open to the public, but the impending rain in Berkeley drove away plenty of attendees, aside from the scores of recruits in attendance, as the KT Prep 7 on 7 team funneled their way into Memorial Stadium. The day gave the Bears the opportunity to do a few things.

First was bringing in referees, as the Bears looked to simulate more situations in the first day of full pads.

"It makes it real," Justin Wilcox noted, " for example, we had a really nice play on the sideline here, a contested catch that Makai (Polk) made, made a great play on it. Then after the play, it would have been a 15 yard penalty. Those things, great to learn them now and not wait until the season."

Polk made an excellent play on the sidelines, bringing in a deep ball from Devon Modster in between two defenders, but avoiding some of the extracurricular pentalties is something Wilcox stresses with his group.

The second part was having a ton of 11 on 11 work, as the Bears rotated through a ton of players as they search for the right fits.

Notable Plays:

- On the third play of Team work, Monroe Young hit a double move, and ended up open by a solid 10 yards. Chase Garbers lofted the ball in, Young made the catch and took it the rest of the way for a 60 yard touchdown. With Jordan Duncan sitting out this week, Young has been a part of the contingent that has stepped up. His cuts are crisp and he's shown a good understanding of where his leverage is off the cuts. He's putting himself in line for some playing time down the road

- Two plays later, Colt Doughty nearly came away with a pick, reading the slant route on the RPO and cutting under it. Doughty has been running with the first team a bunch over the first four practices.

"He continues to get better," ILB coach Peter Sirmon said, "he's done a good job in the meeting room and you see development. I thought during bowl practice, he started coming on, but live situations when we get them during the spring are going to be very important for where he's at and what his contributions are gonna be, but I like what I see. We've got to keep developing him during those live situations."

- Special Teams competition was a big part of Saturday's practice, with skill work on kick and punt return blocking being a particular focus. The loudest the drill got was when Trey Turner laid another player out on the kick return portion, as the drill was meant to give the day just a little bit more juice.

"Spring can get monotonous for those guys," ST coordinator Charlie Ragle noted, "special teams even more so, it's good to get their juices flowing and get them excited, having some competition."

- Nick Alftin batted down a Modster RPO as well, as the redshirt freshman OLB ran with the first group for parts of the day.

- Chris Brown cut back on a run, after McCallan Castles got pushed back into him, broke back to the right and found about 20 yards in an uncanny burst of speed that he hadn't shown to this point.

- The first play of 3rd down team work saw Deshawn Collins burst through the line for 15-20 yards. When asked what he's bringing to the team this spring, the CCSF transfer put it simply.

"Whatever the team needs."

Wilcox noted that Collins has three years of eligibility left after the transfer, as he sat a year after originally signing with Rhode Island out of high school.

Other Notes:

- PJ Poutasi played a bit of right guard with the first team, as Matt Cindric continued to play more center (also playing RG). Poutasi had played some left tackle with the second unit over the past couple days.

- This day also saw Kuony Deng playing with the first group some, as the Independence CC transfer is showing his understanding at the spot early. Sirmon noted that while they're using him solely at ILB right now, they haven't installed too many of the 3rd down packages yet, where they plan on using Deng as a pass rusher.

- Both McCallan Castles and Gavin Reinwald saw time with the first group in 12 personnel sets. Castles in particular is seeing time in crossing routes, where he made a couple nice grabs in space in 7 on 7. Reinwald also had solid catches on out routes as well. Castles in particular was a difficult cover in 1 on 1 drills (only Ashtyn Davis made a stop on him), and he looked good as a dump off option on play action

- A notable change today was seeing Jeremiah Hawkins getting a bit more use in space, as the Bears ran a couple swing screens and crossing routes to get him open with room to run. One particular instance, during the 3rd down drill, got him open with a bubble screen that got him a big chunk of yardage and the first down.

- Traveon Beck got his first INT of the spring, thanks to a Daniel Scott tip off a Modster pass intended for Ben Skinner. Beck noted Monday that he plans on leading the group in interceptions this spring.

Going forward, Justin Wilcox has talked about the team putting together a body of work, as despite it being a productive week, nothing's been decided, and there are three more weeks of practice to go.