Cal Football is back for their spring football sessions, with the first coming Wednesday morning. Per Justin Wilcox, they have their largest spring roster (104 players) due to early enrollees and a handful of 'super seniors,' and 99 of those 104 practiced. The other few were out with injuries Wilcox termed day to day, as the entirety of the Cal apparatus strives toward improvement.

"Our whole mission in life right now is to improve," Wilcox noted, "that may seem like a catch-all, but it's true. Myself, every coach, every staff member, everyone attached to Cal football in some shape or form, we need improvement. Through meetings, development on the field for the players, how we support the players, the entire program needs to improve, and in order to attain our goals, that's what it's going to take."

On day one, the Bears still had a handful of things surrounding them that are reminders of the past year. The field is split in half at Memorial Stadium, with certain limits on who can be a certain side of the field at times. The Bears have a vacancy on the coaching staff still, and a spot just filled. That spot filled, the tight end coach spot by longtime NFL assistant Geep Chryst, gives the Bears someone who knows the offense the Bears are teaching.

"I've known Geep for a few years, known of him for a long time," Wilcox said, "He's a highly experienced coach, and his ability and track record speaks for itself, but he's a fantastic person, fantastic human being, incredibly smart. He's great with communication, Bill Musgrave had also worked with Geep with the Broncos. There were a lot of great candidates at the position and a few different ways that we could've gone, but we're really fortunate that Geep was eager to be with our program. He was able to hit the ground running quickly because the verbiage of the offense is very familiar with him."

The defensive back coach spot is still vacant, as Wilcox didn't give a definitive answer when asked if Keith Heyward could move back to a spot he's familiar with. Until another coach gets hired, Wilcox, along with graduate assistant Ryan Conry, is working with the DBs.

"There's a ton of interest with some really great candidates. What we don't want to do is to hire somebody just to get him here," Wilcox said, "we want to make sure to get the right person for our program. In the meantime, myself and Ryan Conry, who's a graduate assistant for us, are working with those guys. It's really enjoyable to spend some time in meetings and on the field with them. I'm sure they'll be looking forward to the new DB coach getting here, but it has been a lot of fun the past few days."

For the moment, there's a day by day focus, as thinfgs can and have changed in an instant for Cal in the past year.

"We can't change the past," Wilcox said, "we can't change some of the circumstances we're in, but we can take advantage of the circumstances we have. Nothing is guaranteed right now, we've been living that for a year or so. We don't know what tomorrow is going to bring, but we do know that today we're going to have practice, we're going to have meetings this afternoon and we're going to have another practice Friday afternoon, God-willing. It's really about keeping it that short sighted."

- The fullback position is one that Cal is still going to use, even if they don't have players listed at the spot. The onus will be on the tight ends to give the Bears a boost at the position.

"That position, we can grab people from other spots," Wilcox said, "it might not be labeled as a fullback, but they can play that position. We have some guys on the team who we think can do that, Gavin Reinwald's a guy who can do some of those things, really a number of those guys can get in the backfield and create some two-back looks."

- Usually spring will be a time for experimentation with positions, but there has only been one big position change, as Trey Paster is moving down a level.

"Trey Paster is going to play some inside linebacker," Wilcox said, "he came in as a safety, but during recruiting we thought Trey, because of his build, he might put on weight pretty easy, and he has. He is a physical guy, we played him last year at our star position, which is really an outside linebacker, and we're giving him reps as an inside linebacker."

In addition, Erick Nisich is staying on the defensive side of the ball (he started a game for the Bears in 2019 on the offensive line) and Brett Johnson will continue to do Brett Johnson things.

"Brett Johnson is doing what he's always done," Wilcox said, "he could line up anywhere from the center to the tackle, and anywhere in between."

- Among the day to day injured is Aaron Maldonado, who missed the 2020 season with a lower body injury. That injury was not enough to keep him out a full calendar year, as he's expected to see the field this spring.

"We're expecting him back sooner than later," Wilcox noted, "he's out there and doing things to get back out there on the field"

In addition, two more 2020 recruits who were kept out during the season for one reason or another are back (mainly injuries), with Jeremiah Hunter and Stanley McKenzie getting to show what they could've done during the four game slate.

"Both of them probably had the opportunity to help us last year and for whatever reason, weren't able to," Wilcox said. "This spring will be incredibly important to them, like a lot of the guys. Spring football is a great opportunity for so many players to take the next step in their development, that's what it's all about. It's really enjoyable because that's what we're invested in, there's no game to prepare for right now, it's all about getting better."

- Lastly, Wilcox noted that the Star position could mainly be inhabited by guys at the linebacker positions, as the Bears move toward having more hybrid-type roles on their defense.

"I think Cam Goode can do that," Wilcox said of the Star position, "there's a few guys who can do it who are mainly from the linebacker room, we may not bring guys forward to do that. We'll have a nickel, you're going to see Josh Drayden, Collin Gamble, B(randen) Smith, those guys playing nickel, but we would never ask them to do the jobs of a star."