Cal Spring Practice Notebook: Mar. 1st
Friday night's Cal football practice saw half-pads, an increasingly fascinating quarterback competition, and the emergence of Kenny Lawler. Here's info and analysis from practice No. 3...
Advertisement
Redshirt freshman Zach Kline started with the first-team reps, and true freshman Jared Goff ended with them on Friday. Goff got 60% of the snaps, thanks in a large part to his accuracy on Wednesday. "We wanted to throw him into the fire," head coach Sonny Dykes said. "He did some good things, he was pretty productive. At times he looked really confident and others not so much. He's really far ahead of the game for a young guy, he's calm, and he's confident."
###
Goff looked much more comfortable in two of his three 11-on-11 series: his first he led a perfect drive down the field aided by a Maurice Harris one-handed grab. Kline missed just one throw on his first 11-on-11 series, and Hinder and Boehm split the third reps (and that's about all either would see on the evening). In his second 11-on-11 Goff showed great touch (see a 35-yard floater to Darius Powe running down the middle of the field), plus another one-handed grab -- this time from Lucas Gingold -- in the flats. He also hit a 35-yarder to Patrick Worstell over the top of the defense that got some golf clapping. Goff hit the deep ball pretty well all night, whereas Kline was a needle-threader. He made tougher throws, through tighter windows and managed to connect on virtually all of them.
###
Inside wide receiver Richard Rodgers did some light contact 11-on-11 against an offensive-player-filled shell defense.
###
On hand for the first half of Friday's practice? Former Cal running back and Detroit Lion Jahvid Best.
###
Goff and Kline again got time doing two-wideout, two-defensive back head-to-head throw-offs. The biggest takeaway from the drill? Redshirt freshman Kenny Lawler could be in for a big year. Lawler caught balls over blanket coverage, he climbed the ladder and made an absolutely ridiculous grab over the top of DB Isaac Lapite, and later caught a toe-tapper in the back of the end zone from Hinder. Highlight of the day at wide receiver, hands down.
###
One thing you can thank open practice for? We all now know that offensive coordinator Tony Franklin curses like a sailor.
###
Don't be surprised if the grip of quarterbacks is trimmed to two in the next week-plus. "The coaches are about to decide on a top two," Drake Whitehurst told GoldenBearReport.com on Friday night. "They'll have certain wide receivers that will go with each of them. It should happen in the next one to two weeks."
###
Who's standing out to Cal's 6'6" wide receiver after the first week of practice? "I'm still trying to learn everyone's names," Whitehurst said.
###
There was no tire and sledgehammer out on Friday, but Cal's injured contingent ran the rest of the medicine balls, cones, and MMA-style boxing-filled side circuit, including Chris McCain, Austin Clark, Chris Adcock, Brendan Bigelow, Jason Gibson, Alex Logan (who suffered a minor knee sprain according to Dykes), Sione Sina, Chad Smith, and Spencer Hagan. Stefan McClure was help out at the end of practice, as was Adrian Lee.
###
Goff was the only quarterback in leggings Friday.
###
Hardy Nickerson and Khairi Fortt both had great pursuit of the ball the entire night. Fortt looks to have one of the linebacker spots locked up along with Nick Forbes, while Nickerson could challenge for the third spot along with Gibson once he's back from injury.
###
Player of the Day on the defensive line? Kyle Kragen. He was an animal without pads on Monday and Wednesday, and continued to be one with half-pads on Friday. He had back-to-back sacks on the QB bag going against Freddie Tagaloa, which had the entire defense going nuts. Loudest moment of the entire practice. "I was pleased with Kragen," Dykes said. "He consistently gives you 100% effort, if you do that good things happen. We expect there are always going to be some growing pains (with the offensive line), they're always the last group to come around." Gabe King, Deandre Coleman, Antione Davis and Mustafa Jalil all also touched the bag, with "Moose" putting on a power move where he basically power sledded 330-pound lineman Geoffrey Gibson back far enough to just turn and tap the bag. Bill Tyndall was one of the few lineman who wasn't beaten in the bag drill. Had a real nice day.
###
Keni Kaufusi had the only sack in 11-on-11s.
###
There were two interceptions, one from Forbes on a ball thrown by Goff off his back foot and the other by Kameron Jackson where he ripped the ball out of Lawler's hands in the back of the end zone.
###
The only non-snap fumble came from Whitehurst, he had the ball stripped, defensive lineman Nathan Broussard picked it up and Kline actually came over to get in Broussard's way and Broussard trucked him to the ground. Kline popped right back up and went right back under center.
###
Linebacker Michael Barton showed a ton of athleticism on Friday, the most he has all week, and had two absolutely bone-crushing hits on screen passes.
###
WR Bryce Treggs, Hagan, and WR Patrick Willis split the punt fielding duties, in that order.
###
For the second practice in a row, the quarterbacks tried their hands at the "hit the trash can in the corner of the end zone" drill. Goff made two in, both walk-on quarterbacks dropped in one, as did Allan Bridgford. Goff, Hinder, and Boehm also all hit the lip of the can.
###
Practice reports will be SUBSCRIBER-ONLY starting Monday, sign up here:
Click Here to view this Link.