Cal's Offense Still to Come with Bill Musgrave

The Pac-12 is expected to make a decision on if and when they'll play football this fall today. Whenever Cal gets on the field, they still have a new offense to learn and perfect.

That has been a focal point for Cal's offensive returners under new offensive coordinator Bill Musgrave, who's bringing an NFL style system to Berkeley.

"There’s a lot of elements to his offense that are going to make it successful," junior wide receiver Nikko Remigio told Golden Bear Report in July, "that have made it successful in the past. You definitely see the difference in levels from a college-style offense, to an NFL-ran offense. The concepts make a lot more sense through coach Musgrave’s offense."

It's set to be an interesting dynamic when Cal gets back to the practice field, especially with Musgrave and fellow new hires for this season (Angus McClure and Aristotle Thompson on offense, Marcel Yates on defense) having been out of the football facilities for nearly double the time they've been in them. Without having the in-person time that can be crucial to early offensive development, the volume aspect of the job becomes the biggest challenge

"I think as coaches we’ve got to do a good job of knowing what’s too much in terms of volume," Musgrave told Golden Bear Report in an interview last night, "with the season and the circumstances surrounding it, less would be more in terms of volume and number of concepts to master. A good system is always easily communicated in a concise manner, that’s what we’re striving to achieve so our guys can play fast, minimal thinking and hesitation, embrace it, know it like the back of their hand and cut it loose."

Though the Bears had four spring practices before the NCAA-wide shutdown, it's still somewhat unclear what the Cal offense will look like. There will be an increased use of the tight end. There will be use of the fullback, with Kentucky grad transfer Drew Schlegel coming in to man the position. At the base of it all is a system rooted in the Erhardt-Perkins language, with some west-coast influence owing to Musgrave's playing days under Mike Shanahan.

"It’s very similar to the west coast language where routes are named," Musgrave said, "not numbered, a go route is a go route, not a 9, a corner is a corner, not a 7 like it is in the Air Coryell system. Very similar to the west coast offense that’s being run, that went to multiple Super Bowls whether it was Denver, San Francisco and is back in San Francisco with Kyle (Shanahan) now and the West coast is back with the Raiders with Jon Gruden."

"Certain routes will build off each other, certain routes come with certain plays in packages," redshirt junior quarterback Chase Garbers told Golden Bear Report in July "it’s easier to learn from a wideout perspective. In an NFL system, a lot of wide receiver routes are tagged. For example on NFL Redzone, you might hear them saying ‘X post, Z slant’ that also helps the wideouts so they may not need to memorize a full play and it’ll go over smoothly."

The Erhardt-Perkins system, developed by Ron Erhardt and Ray Perkins while with the New England Patriots in the 70s, is a playcalling language based on concepts, where a combination of routes is simplified to a word (one of the most famous being Ghost - a go route on the outside with an out underneath and Tosser - a quick slant on the inside with a deeper slant on the outside). It allows for playcalls to be quick to understand, along with tagged routes (a staple of a West coast system), and it is one still prevalent in the NFL to this day.

"Ron Erhardt was really the father of this system," Musgrave said. "The three systems were Bill Walsh’s West Coast offense, the Air Coryell system and Ron Ehrhardt’s system that was used in Pittsburgh, with the Giants, with the Patriots, Mike Mularkey has taken that to his stops. A lot of people are running it to this day, Bruce Arians is running it down there in Tampa Bay. It’s very similar to Bill Walsh’s west coast system, we’ve got some similar words that we’ve inserted into our system, it’s probably a blend of Ron Ehrhardt and Bill Walsh."

With the relative simplicity of the calls, the system Musgrave is installing in Berkeley will allow for Garbers and backup Devon Modster to make changes at the line, along with giving Cal the ability to utilize tempo (like with Tom Brady in New England).

"I think both Chase and Devon Modster have played a lot of ball and are very well versed in recognizing defenses," Musgrave noted, "they’ll be given a lot of freedom at the line of scrimmage, because they can correct a bad call from a coach and get us in a much better play."

Even with the limited time in the offense, Garbers has felt confident in executing, with the only truly new thing being going under center.

"Generally, in football, plays tend to look alike," Garbers noted, "offenses tend to steal from each other. Knowing that I’ve seen these concepts before and strategies, just watching past film from Musgrave when he was coaching the NFL and watching football in general. The learning curve was pretty easy for me, especially being in college for 3-4 years at this point. I picked up the offense right away when we started in January, and at this point, it’s about staying on top of everything, making sure you’re mentally ready."

What's next is figuring out what Cal's personnel can do with flexibility. The Bears have four running backs with major playing experience, five wideouts who have started multiple games, and every rep from the tight end room a year ago. In early talks and work in the offense, there has been plenty of movement from those groups.

"I’d say one of the biggest things about it is that every player gets to play every single receiver position, even the running backs have a lot more," Remigio said, "(the RBs) are placed in one on one situations with the backer more, playing as a receiver, even the slots will switch around with the outside, outside (receivers) will play in the slot, there’s lots of different elements to it. People are placed in positions to win every single time."

"I think slot guys get stereotyped that they can’t do anything outside the numbers," Musgrave added, "and I think a guy that’s multidimensional can be tougher to cover if they don’t know where you’re going to line up. I don’t think you have to be tiny to work in the slot or that you have to be real tall to work on the outside. I think the guys will be taught by Burl to be real good route runners in our system inside and outside."

The bells and whistles will have to wait until the Bears can actually practice, which could be as soon as tomorrow. In whatever time Cal does get, Musgrave went back to the expectation of limiting volume of what's needed to learn, all while trying to keep players as safe as possible. Senior experience should help, with 10 starters returning from a year ago on offense, but it's still a newer system that will need all the time it can get.

"We want to be sound. We’re going to have limited preparation," Musgrave said, "but that’s okay, we want to enjoy the process and we’re going to be thankful that we’re back in a safe manner playing football. The number one responsibility of any coach in any sport is player safety, both on the field and off the field, so that’ll be our main focus, playing football and playing it safely. Football-wise, we’re going to keep it limited, less is more in terms of volume of plays so our guys can not be hesitant, they’ll know what to do and how to do it, so they can cut it loose and enjoy the experience of playing Pac-12 football."