Notebook: Day Two of Spring Ball 2021

Cal reconvened for day two of Spring Football, a second day with helmets prior to strapping on shoulder pads Saturday. It's a day, like in many spring practices before it, where things start to ramp up as more and more gets installed.

"Today, the defense stepped it up a little bit," offensive coordinator Bill Musgrave noted, "on Wednesday things were a little more vanilla, it started to escalate today between the offense and defense, that's how we get better."

For defensive coordinator Peter Sirmon, the energy surrounding the players as they ramped up was most apparent.

"When I go out there," Sirmon said, "it's 'what's the culture, what's the attitude, what's the energy,' and I think that's indicative of where the program's at. We have a group of older players, our super seniors, they are not practicing like super seniors, they're practicing like they're young, energetic and eager. That's where, as a coordinator, I like to see everybody excited, everybody taking the coaching."

The coaching is another piece that's ramping up for the Bears, as they've integrated two new coaches into the staff. The first of those is Keith Heyward, as the Bears' new outside linebackers coach has plenty of familiarity with Peter Sirmon, as the two worked together at Washington and USC.

"Keith and I have a long history together, being at a couple different stops," Sirmon said, "Keith is a very immportant addition to what we're doing here, he's a quality person, he's a fantastic football coach, he'll help us improve recruiting with his connection to the players, and we're fortunate to have him in any capacity. He could coach a lot of positions, he's coaching outside linebackers, he could coach the secondary. Right now when we look to the position, it's all about bringing great people to the staff."

The other is Geep Chryst, officially announced as the tight ends coach earlier this week. Musgrave worked with Chryst on the Denver Broncos staff in 2017 and 2018, and that prior experience has helped Chryst leap into the Bears' system.

"Geep brings a wealth of experience with coaching multiple positions and being a coordinator at multiple stops," Musgrave said, "I got a lot smarter as a coach the day we hired Geep. Today's his fourth or fifth day on the job, he's jumped right in headfirst."

With that, Chryst also brings an analytics background to the table, something the Bears look to take advantage of moving forward.

"He's really good about the percentages associated with going for it on fourth down," Musgrave noted. "We're an aggressive outfit anyway, and our players want the opportunity to make it happen, Geep fits in with our existing philosophy anyway, and he'll provide some good data to follow going forward."

There is one spot not filled on the staff, as the defensive backs post is still open. Justin Wilcox has been working with the DBs over the first couple of practices.

"Right now we've got a pretty good DB coach back there," Sirmon joked, "getting those DBs right, being hard on them. We have a certain standard of playing DB here, so I hope we can play up to that standard, coach up to that standard."

Wilcox being in more of the defensive meetings has been a reminder for the defensive staff to be at their best, as they look to ramp up their coaching at the same rate as the players ramp up.

"What it forces you to do," Sirmon said of Wilcox being in the room, "it forces you to get better with your language in your coaching progression. He has a different perspective on our defense, because he's not in the room every single day, it's an opportunity (for us to learn) how to coach this better, and for him to be day to day with the players, they can ask him questions, and if things aren't as concise and clean for our defense, he'll have us instruct them better. It has been pretty healthy for us, because it does make us all better."

- The big position move announced Wednesday by Wilcox was Trey Paster moving down to inside linebacker, giving the Bears more speed at the position. Sirmon elaborated on the move today.

"We feel we have a pretty talented group in terms of movement skills, we really like our size and we've been pretty disciplined in the stature of what we've tried to attract here," Sirmon said. "Trey is a big, athletic player, and it's an opportunity for him to get closer to the line of scrimmage and continue to develop in that kind of role. He's doing well, in the first couple of practices, there's a transition as you get closer to the football, things happen a lot faster, but he's been good in the meeting rooms and he's been good in terms of learning on the practice field."

- The bigger might have been that of Kuony Deng to outside linebacker, where he'll spend most of his time this spring. The move serves a couple purposes. The first is to use his length on the edge, where he can be difficult to deal with.

"We're going to explore a couple different options with Kuony," Sirmon said. "He has a really good understanding with the experience of playing at that inside linebacker spot and we're going to continue to develop him at that outside linebacker spot. We'd like him to play both positions, if possible. His body type lends to being a very tough block on the outside, so during the spring he'll be taking a majority of reps at the outside linebacker position."

The second is giving some of the younger inside linebackers, of which there are many, more reps with the first unit.

"Those are things that are yet to be determined, Kuony playing some outside linebacker isn't something that never happened," Sirmon said, "this isn't a monumental shift for him. As we wrap up spring and evaluate the roster, we know there's a lot of positional flexibility with him, and we'll continue to get the less experienced linebackers more reps."

- The backup quarterback spot will be a position battle that will go into the fall, as will filling out a running back rotation, as multiple running backs go through the lineup. The quarterback spot may take a higher place in people's minds, and all four backups have rotated through the lineup.

"We rotated the QBs today from what we did Wednesday," Musgrave said. "The way we're configured on the field, we're doing two-spot (two sides of 7 on 7 or team work), nobody's standing around, which is great."

- In front of them is Chase Garbers, who's continuing to learn the various run and pass checks he'll have control of at the line. Musgrave noted that Garbers' footwork is something they've been working on through the first couple of days.

"Chase was in there with everybody," Garbers said, "we've got some good run checks that he's on top of, and today we were working on some pass concepts that really fit us. We embarked on those today, he had his moments, and we take our lumps from time to time and we try to learn from those. We're working on our footwork, making sure we're nice and on balance, that's a constant mechanism among all quarterbacks, making sure that we're more accurate and putting the ball into those small windows."

- On the other side, the depth is the focus of the spring, running multiple players in on both sides of the field. The defensive line has been in need of depth, and the Bears have recruited a handful of players over the last two cycles. That depth is starting to take shape.

"Talking to AB (Andrew Browning) today," Sirmon said, "I think we had nine guys in the rotation, nine or ten. That's a position we're going to continue to recruit, recruit, recruit, attracting walk-ons at that position is something we want to do. There's so many different levels to that defensive line position that we need, obviously for games, but for practice, development, to continue to have really productive practices."

The same goes in the defensive backfield, where the Bears have a lot of youth behind the starting five of Drayden, Anusiem, Woodson, Scott, and Hicks. One second-year player has stood out to Sirmon, as the Bears look to find more guys who can play moving forward.

"Collin Gamble is a guy that we need to improve," Sirmon said, "and he's shown some signs of being a playmaker. The more reps we can get in spring, the more comfortable and we'll be able to get a better understanding of 'can we play with five, can we play with six,' and it'll allow us to have better depth, better special teams, and better production later in the year."