Cal head coach Justin Wilcox spoke to the media Tuesday about his thoughts on his team 11 days out from game one vs. Washington. We've got some of the big takeaways from that press conference below.

The QB Room

Wilcox reiterated what Bill Musgrave has said before, that the Bears have a clear starter and primary backup, and the third string spot is up for grabs.

"Chase (Garbers) has done a really good job," Wilcox said, "he's had a great camp. I think Devon (Modster) has gotten a lot better too. Some guys that are upperclassmen like that, maybe there's a guy that's ahead of them, but Devon practices like he's the starter, and that's what you want. Currently it's pretty clear, one and two, but the battle for that three spot is wide open."

Right now, that third spot has four competitors, true freshmen Jaden Casey and Zach Johnson, redshirt freshman Spencer Brasch, and redshirt sophomore Robby Rowell

"Jaden (Casey), he played a lot in high school," Wilcox said, "was a really successful high school quarterback, he's a good athlete. That's one of the things that has jumped out a bit more, his athleticism. I thought we had seen some of it on his high school tape, but he has more athleticism than even I thought he might have had. I think he's learning a lot, a different style and system.

"I think the thing that's jumped out about Zach is his leadership ability, he's very aware, he's really into football, and he can really throw it. Both those guys have had good moments, as good or better than we even hoped when we recruited them."

"Spencer (Brasch) continues to improve, Spencer can throw the ball, he's working to improve like all of them, to grasp the offense, they've come a long way in a short amount of time, and Robby, Robby Rowell has done some good things."

Defensive Line Notes

Cal's defensive line is shaping up to have a two deep featuring two freshmen, two Johnsons, and two linemen from the class of 2018. The Johnsons, Brett and Zeandae, are likely to be the most versatile pieces and the guys expected to play the most among the group.

"I think Zeandae is playing really well," Wilcox said, "physically and mentally he's tuned in, he's playing really well. And Brett has taken the next step that you'd expect from someone who played as a freshman, basically started the entire year. They're not always going to be the 4i or the 0, we've got things where Zeandae can play from the guard to the tight end and Brett from the 0 all the way out to a 4 or 5 technique."

Maldonado should be the other starter, along with JH Tevis playing some more snaps. Both were mentioned by McKade Mettauer as the biggest trashtalkers on the team, and Maldonado is healthy and ready for the year.

"He's a real active guy, he loves football," Wilcox noted, "expect him to do some things in there on the interior."

Among the true freshmen, Stanley McKenzie and Ethan Saunders have made the biggest impact, with a chance to play a bigger role in the two-deep than anticipated.

"I would expect Stanley McKenzie, expect him to do some things for us, we'll have to see by game or in certain packages," Wilcox said, "but I think Stanley's done a nice job. Jaedon Roberts, we kinda recruited as a two-way guy, he's very talented and learning a lot about the position technically. Ethan Saunders has got some quick twitch traits, he's a powerful guy. Some of these guys might play early, sometimes it's the first week, sometimes it's the third, fourth or fifth."

Football 101

One of the most amazing football plays happened Sunday night, with Seattle Seahawks wideout DK Metcalf chasing down Arizona Cardinals defensive back Buddha Baker to prevent a pick-six, while spotting Baker a five yard head start. Wilcox, who recruited Baker while at Washington (Baker flipped to UW from Oregon after Wilcox left for USC), noted that the play made their Football 101 segment.

"We have this little segment we string together that we call Football 101," Wilcox said, "we usually string them together for Thursday meetings during the season. Last week, we had pylon plays, what are rules around that play, in-bounds, out of bounds, like the pylon play that came up in (Penn State vs. Indiana), that one is on the reel. The situation 'no más' where you go down before the end zone, that came up twice with the Falcons and the same Indiana-Penn State game. Then you have the effort plays, from the guy Seattle chasing down Buddha (Baker), who is a fast guy, and they held them to a fourth down stop on that series. It's fun to show those, and we've got a bank of them, and we've got guys who will text me and say when are we watching that one. We'll absolutely show that one, what an incredible play not only physically, but the effort it took."

Chris Brown Jr.

Brown, a junior running back, should be the Bears' main runner this year, and the challenge is keeping him healthy, as he had a shoulder issue that plagued him through the middle of the 2019 schedule.

"Chris is a talented player, as we've all seen. He's a good runner, a tough guy, and he's had to fight through things injury-wise," Wilcox said. "We have to do a good job of getting him involved, and using some other guys. We've got some other guys in that room that we think can help us in certain ways, I'm excited for all those guys, but Chris is a talented guy. It's important for him to stay healthy and we're going to do everything we can, but football is a physical game and you're gonna have injuries from time to time, we'll do our best to mitigate those. The position he plays is a physical position, he's a physical guy, he embraces that part of the game. Chris is one of those guys where sometimes we've got to protect him from himself a little bit, every run at practice he wants to finish 40 yards down the field, he'll take every rep if you let him."

Election Day

Like many other schools in the country, Cal will not be practicing next Tuesday, in an effort to get their players involved in their civic duty of voting. The past month, the Cal staff has made an effort to get their players involved in doing the research on candidate, and more importantly, getting guys registered to vote in their home states.

"We will not be practicing next Tuesday. Maybe a month ago or so, some of our staff, we all got together to try to find a way to do something that's tangible," Wilcox said, "to get people involved and we created a living document of no matter where you're from, Texas, California, Washington, you name it, that you could get registered pretty easily. We got anybody who wanted to get registered to make that as simple a process as possible. Everybody got registered to vote, then it's encouraging them to be informed. It's centered around that, and guys have taken that to heart."

More Live Work

In the past handful of days, Cal has put in more and more live work as they prepare for the year. There's a focus on getting into the finer points of football, and having guys getting back to playing the game that they love, figuring out the problems along the way

"It's good for them to have to solve some of their own problems to no have that safety net. We're going to continue to do more of that," Wilcox said, "but those are really productive periods, you see where you're at with substitutions, playclock. They've done a good job with it. You never feel like you're quite there, we're a work in progress, but we've made a lot of progress."