Injury Updates and Depth Chart Notes: Pre-Oregon
Cal is hoping to get a handful of players back from injury this weekend in taking on Oregon, with three offensive linemen and a handful of other contributors potentially coming back from contact tracing protocols or injury.
The first injury note starts with true freshman defensive end Ethan Saunders. After playing in Cal's first two games, he missed the Stanford game, as Justin Wilcox noted he's out for the rest of the year. He joins DL Aaron Maldonado, WR Jeremiah Hunter, and OLB Curley Young in being out for the season.
All of the other guys on the depth chart who didn't play against Stanford, namely Jake Curhan, Valentino Daltoso, Will Craig, Collin Moore, Braxten Croteau, Stanley McKenzie, and Tommy Christakos, are day to day.
"We will know day to day, they're all for different reasons," Wilcox said, "but day to day and looking forward to get them getting back as soon as possible."
Christakos and McKenzie have been out for injury related reasons, while the first five have been in contact tracing protocol since the Friday before the Oregon State game. With the Bears having special teams issues that have cost them over the past two games, it's important to note that Moore, Daltoso, and Curhan were all starters on the field goal unit prior to going out before the Oregon State game, while Moore and Croteau were starters on the punt team (on the punt shield) for the first game.
In addition, Chris Brown was somewhat limited against Stanford, though he did score a touchdown on his four carries for 26 yards. Whether he gets more touches against Oregon will be determined throughout the week, as Brown scored Cal's only touchdown against the Ducks last year.
"Chris is continuing to improve but that'll be determined throughout this this week of practice," Wilcox said. "He's a real competitive guy. He's a tough guy. He's had to work through through some some things on the injury front. We would love to get him up to speed as fast as possible, but that'll be determined throughout this week."
Evan Tattersall also didn't play a week ago, as Wilcox noted he needed to work through some things in his post-game press conference. Muelu Iosefa started in his place, as Tattersall has also had some injury issues to work through.
"He's been working through some injury things," Wilcox said. "We'll see where he is this week, he was at practice yesterday, where he could do a little more. We'll see what he can do moving forward. I also think Mo earned some reps with his play in practice, on special teams and in the game, so we'll continue to work with him as well."
- A lot of these injuries have been noted on the depth chart. There are still ORs at left tackle, left guard, right tackle and tight end because of the contact tracing/injury issues
- Notably, Braxten Croteau is the only one among the contact traced/injured to not have an OR next to his name. Part of this comes from the Bears running with one outside linebacker with a modified 3-3-5 scheme,.
- Damien Moore is listed as a co-starter at running back thanks to his productivity against Stanford, with 10 carries for 121 yards.
- Cal also ran only three defensive linemen during the Big Game, as the Bears lacked depth without Saunders or McKenzie. Jaedon Roberts was the only one of the true freshmen who dressed, as he and McKenzie may be pushed into action Saturday, if they're up to speed
- Also new on the depth chart are Myles Jernigan and Miles Williams, as the two redshirt freshmen from Texas have played more on special teams in recent weeks.