Cal Football: The Spring Game Novella
The Bears played the Bears on a glorious Saturday afternoon in Strawberry Canyon, in a scrimmage that could best be described as even.
Both teams scored points, both teams made stops, both teams got some calls, and certainly, both left feeling like they had more to work on heading into the summer months.
That, of course, is the same script of every spring and fall scrimmage, where it is more fruitful to search for soft observations than hard conclusions, particularly in the early months of the year. What we saw a few days ago will change by August 31st, as guys inevitably get stronger, more into game shape, and new faces emerge or (god forbid) people fall off with injury. Keep all that in mind as we discuss some of these indicators shown over those two hours.
(Massive Disclaimer: This was a practice, not a game, but we're talking about practice)
Indicator 1: Still no deep passing game
Yes. There were some starting members of the offensive line not available.
Yes. Kekoa Crawford is not yet here. Neither is Trevon Clark, guys who were brought in to provide the boost they are looking for.
And yes, they are throwing against one of the best secondaries in the entire country.
But under the tutelage of Beau Baldwin, the QBs combined for a paltry 5.5 YPA on Saturday, with the two leading candidates for playing time at 6.0 (Garbers) and 3.85 (Modster), mostly filling their passing charts with checkdowns and swing passes. One 23 yard gain to McCallan Castles and one 17 yard catch by Monroe Young accounted for all the explosive gains through the air all day.
Of course, had they dominated the Cal secondary, there would leave cause for worry in the other direction, which is why these things are of limited use...so the best we can say is that things are still a work in progress here. Overall, though, the emergence of Castles and Young, plus Remigio being a consistent catch threat (six on the afternoon) can only be positive ones.
They’ll just need more by August.
For those curious, they averaged 5.7 YPA last year, which was 124th in the country out of 129 teams.
Indicator 2: Chase Garbers has taken some steps forward.
The general accuracy, the playbook he was allowed to run, and the decisiveness with which he stepped up when pressured were all signs that he is ahead of Modster at the moment.
Tempo was also more intentionally deployed on the afternoon than we saw it last season, with the team hustling around after big plays in hopes of generating a second. A promising development, certainly.
Indicator 3: Marcel Dancy is probably ahead in the Running Back By Committee
Big get well wishes to Chris Brown, who came up limping after catching a swing pass and had to be helped off the field, because the team will still need him come fall, but Dancy seemed to pick up where he left off last year before getting injured – he broke tackles regularly, he cut with intention, and he was a threat in the pass game to boot, which we hardly got to see Brown do at all. The first two traits were absent on the team in 2018, and the latter’s going to be necessary to give us some semblance of receiving options going forward.
Deshawn Collins flashed at some points, and with most of us having learned our lesson about walk-on backs last time around, Netherda shouldn’t be counted out, since he had the biggest runs of the day, racking up 76 yards on 12 carries.
Indicator 4: Despite losing Jordan Kunaszyk and Alex Funches, the Cal linebackers will be just fine.
The assorted stats from guys who didn’t really play last year:
Orin Patu – 0.5 TFL
Cameron Goode – 1 TFL
Kuony Deng – 4 tackles, 1 INT
Deon White – 7 tackles, 2 TFL, 1 blocked field goal, 1 missed tackle on Marcel Dancy for a touchdown.
All jokes aside, Deon White was fantastic outside of that one mistake, and the one dimension the Bears were able to succeed without – truly disruptive pass rushing play from the edges – looks a step closer to realization this year. It wasn’t their best performance as a unit, but with Weaver and company not really playing anyway, this year’s spring game felt more like an opportunity for us to get looks at depth. Hard not to come away somewhat reassured.
Daniel Scott also backed up some of the glowing reports on him with a leaping interception, because it’s not a Cal defense under Wilcox if there isn’t some appearance from the #TAKERS.
Indicator 5: Jeremiah Hawkins needs more touches.
Indicator 5.1: Jeremiah Hawkins needs more touches.
Back to back jet sweeps, including one that resulted in three broken tackles and a touchdown, showcased the thing I’ve been yelling for for an entire year. Even if he’s the highest risk of losing the ball, he’s the most emergent gamebreaker on the team right now.
Also huge was the lack of drops for him.
Indicator 6: Mike Saffell will have a fantastic career in media, should he choose it.
Some guys aren’t cut out to be on camera, lacking the prerequisite charm and storytelling abilities to fill the broadcast hours. Some of them are so bad at it, they end up unretiring to play more football.
But if you were at home and heard Saffell on the Pac-12 Network broadcast, effortlessly shooting the shit about his beach bod, his need to sunscreen up at all times, and how he and Chase Garbers set a bag of popcorn on fire in the dorms, it’s pretty easy to imagine him in the same spot 20 years from now.
I need more Mike Saffell content. We all do.