In the aftermath of the late signing day Wednesday, Justin Wilcox, Bill Musgrave, and new outside linebackers coach Keith Heyward spoke the media about the Bears moving into spring ball, new responsibilities and thoughts on the team going forward.
Super Seniors
Cal has ten returning 'super-seniors,' six on offense, four on defense, and none of them counting against the 85 man scholarship count. They are:
- RB Marcel Dancy
- WR Kekoa Crawford
- WR Trevon Clark
- OL Mike Saffell
- OL Valentino Daltoso
- OL Gentle Williams
- OLB Cameron Goode
- ILB Kuony Deng
- DB Josh Drayden
- DB Elijah Hicks
Clark was the only unreported super senior to this point, he left the team prior to the Oregon game for personal reasons, but is back with the Bears for one final go around.
"It’s great news for the program," Wilcox said, "it’s a win win, it helps our team from their ability and a leadership standpoint, especially at a time like this. I think it benefits them as well with their futures in football."
Ieremia Moore
Moore signed with Cal yesterday, as the Bears felt comfortable taking a gamble on a guy who still hasn't played a down of football outside of practice
"We found out about him about a year ago as we were watching a workout at St. John Bosco. We know the coaches down there pretty well," Wilcox said, "they have an excellent program down there, and throughout the offseason we were eager to watch him play. He has a limited football background, but the athleticism and the football traits are really impressive. We saw some video throughout summer, some camps he was able to take part in, and we felt comfortable with his physical traits. Honestly, we felt if there was a fall season, his recruiting would have skyrocketed."
Heyward
The hire of Heyward was announced a week ago, as Wilcox had kept in touch with his new outside linebackers coach, after the two worked together at Washington and USC. In Wilcox's words, the decision to hire Heyward moved real quick.
"You always have relationships and people that we know and think would be a good fit here." "I’ve known Keith for a long time, he’s an excellent football coach. That’s the root of it, and even more so as a human being, he’s got great relationships with his players. I’ve seen that firsthand, he’s a real humble guy, extremely smart and a great teacher."
"When the position opened up, it was a no-brainer," Heyward noted, "specifically coaching outside linebackers, a position I’ve never coached. Just the growth, and with coach Wilcox, Cal has had tremendous success since he’s been here, the opportunity to grow and the opportunity to help the program grow as well (were factors in taking the job)."
Heyward has a reputation as a solid recruiter at every one of his stops, and for him, it boils down to making sure that he's able to develop more than just on-field skills.
"(As much as) I’m developing a relationship and as much as I’m trying to get to know them," Heyward noted, "I’m trying to get them to know me. I go by three things, teaching, accountability, and attention to detail. I’m showing them how to be a man, in college football it’s about development, you’re taking these young men away from their parents, they’re choosing you to develop them not only as players, but as men. I always talk about football as the nucleus that brings us together, but we learn so many different life lessons, I enjoy the part of building relationships in the recruiting process, you build trust."
The outside linebacker position is new to Heyward (he'll also be coaching the nickel defenders), though his skillset should translate from previously coaching defensive backs.
"I’ve always studied the front, and when you’re coaching the outside linebackers, depending on whether you’re a three down or four down," Heyward said, "here we’re very multiple, in the three down, they’re typically overhangs, where one or both of them could be dropping in coverage. My defensive back background helps with that, because now I’m just taking a longer body and he’s playing some sort of three match, three zone, or cover four concept. When you’re in four down and they’re part of the front, there are different techniques that they’re executing, they’re setting edges, spill or splattering blocks, that’s what it is and the finer details as far as the eyes, the hand placement, those are things that when I’ve had the secondary and you’re coaching the nickel, when he’s coming from the field, he’s doing the same thing as the outside linebacker, now you’re coaching guys who are primarily up there and part of the front."
Heyward will also work with the Star position, an OLB/safety/nickel hybrid that the Bears introduced in their defense last year.
Other Staff Moves
Cal recently lost a couple support staff people in Marshall Cherrington (director of recruiting strategy) and Nick Mitchell (creative director) to USC, and both Cherrington and Mitchell were a big part of Cal's social media presence over the past two years. One of those roles has been filled, one is in the process of being filled.
We have a couple positions in recruiting that were opened," "Brendan McInerny, who was a student here and has done a great job for us in a volunteer role, he’ll fill one of those roles, and we’re in the process of filling another. We’re looking to grow that department, recruiting departments in the last five years have really exploded, especially when it comes to creative content and social media. We have definitely made some really strong strides there, we’re going to build on that and be better in the future."
Other Notes
- The backup quarterback battle is set to be one of the bigger storylines in spring and fall camp prior to the 2021 season, something both Wilcox and Musgrave touched on.
"There’s going to be a number of opportunities throughout spring ball and summer for those guys to get valuable reps and put it on tape," Wilcox said, "Some guys are younger, some guys like Robby and Spence have a little more experience. Kai Millner is going to get an opportunity when he gets here, he’s a talented young man, we’ll let that present itself when it does, we don’t have a timeline for that."
"Spencer’s got a real live arm, he’s got some length," Musgrave noted, "probably the most height of the candidates, has really done a nice job with getting some limited exposure to the offense so far. Both Jaden Casey and Zach Johnson are real accurate, got quick releases and are good athletes. Robby Rowell, he had a good scrimmage or mock game before the start of last season."
- Both of Cal's fullbacks from 2020 are in the transfer portal, and per Musgrave, the Cal roster has some tight ends who can fill those roles as an H-back.
"We’ve got some tight ends that have some H-back qualities that can do some fullback jobs," Musgrave said. "They’ll be asked to do some fullback jobs, we want to employ those concepts. We’re always on the lookout for fullback candidates both already on campus and not yet to arrive."
Gavin Reinwald is chief among those, as he's excelled as a blocker and can catch passes out of the backfield.
"He’s a little more stocky than a long 6’5”, 6’6” tight end," Musgrave noted, "he’d definitely be a candidate for some fullback jobs."
- One of the pieces Justin Wilcox mentioned during Cal's Wednesday night virtual signing day event was that the Bears had a number of guys ready to contribute from the 2021 class right off the bat. Musgrave was asked about J. Michael Sturdivant, Mavin Anderson, and Jermaine Terry in particular in this category
"I think they’re going to be ready to contribute," Musgrave said, "like how Damien Moore was able to contribute. In the OL department, I’d say Bastian Swinney seems ready to contribute."
Swinney should be in the mix for the right tackle spot, which is open in the wake of Jake Curhan heading to the NFL.
"We’ve got a number of guys that we’ve talked to about it," Musgrave said, "they’re going to have a chance to crack the starting lineup in that right tackle spot. We’ve got guys with different experiences, guys who could move from guard to outside or even flip guys from left to right. Brandon Mello did a super job at right, but even in practice, we’re comfortable working with him at left."
- Musgrave was also asked if they had kept things a little simple last fall over their four-game schedule. The answer was yes, as the Cal offensive coordinator admitted that the Bears have to be able to do more while putting players in a position to succeed.
"We’ll take the training wheels off when we have more time on task this spring and this summer," Musgrave said, "It’s exciting for Chase and the whole offense. The one thing we didn’t want to last fall was make it too complicated or too exotic to where our guys would be hesitant. I think our guys played real aggressive. Did we put our guys in the best position to be successful, I would say no, we will in the future, we wanted to make sure they knew what to do and had enough turns to do it confidently, we’ll balance that in the future."
- Per Justin Wilcox, Cal will be looking to start spring ball either with enough time to finish prior to spring break or after spring break. That is currently dependent on getting clearance to practice with the full team. The Bears just got back into the weight room in 25 player groups this past week.
