As Justin Wilcox looked to bring a running game back to prominence after being hired in January, he tapped a man he'd been familiar with for a long time, someone who his older brother Josh was recruited by, longtime Oregon offensive line coach Steve Greatwood. Greatwood brought in over 30 years of experience, a mountain of respect from his peers, and an attention to detail that matches Wilcox's.
In the month and change of spring practice, Greatwood has earned the respect of his charges and peers with his knowledge, his straightforward attitude, and attention to detail.
“Coach Greatwood has been really helpful. It’s a little bit of technique changes here and there. Nothing too drastic. It’s really good coaching points, obviously everyone know coach Greatwood’s been around forever and he’s done a great job at Oregon for the past however many years. Just knowing and having a guy with that experience, you can trust everything he tells you. He is where he is today by doing things right, so that just speaks for him as a coach.” - RT Jake Curhan on Coach Greatwood
"So when you're talking to this dude and he's showing you the drills, you're like 'you may have created this drill,' this is probably your thing, so it's cool." - C Addison Ooms on working with Coach Greatwood
"When you really broke down and looked at the meat and potatoes of it, and really what it was, regardless of Marcus (Mariota) and some of the guys they had skillwise, you saw an O-Line that was in front, leading the nation in rushing, or at least up near the top ten in different years." - OC Beau Baldwin on what made Oregon's rushing attack a success with Greatwood as offensive line coach.
As the Bears head into Saturday's Spring Game, the focus will mostly be on the quarterback competition and the revamped defense, but the offensive line lost three starters and six linemen who had played at some point in 2016. That has left Cal with ten scholarship linemen in the spring, and two of them, Daniel Juarez and Gentle Williams, had struggled with injury throughout, with Juarez being out for the spring with hip issues. It has led to an offensive line with a number of moving pieces, but during the last open practice, the group started to mesh, helping the group to score four rushing touchdowns during the team sessions.
Greatwood took the time to answer a few questions after Wednesday's practice this week.
What’s been the biggest point of growth from practice one to practice 13
“I think from a technical standpoint we’re getting better. Kids are starting to understand all the little nuances that go into being effective and consistent in running the football, footwork, hand-placement, targeting, all those type of things, body leverage, where their eyes need to be, anticipation. As we rep things more and more, they become more comfortable with the scheme, and I see things, their understanding and their confidence beginning to grow each practice.”
What’s the overarching theme that you try to impart on your guys?
“It’s kinda what we talked about again, each day we come out here, we want to set a standard for our own performance and the way we work, and just continue to raise the bar higher, even if it’s an inch. Just continue to raise the bar, and I think for the most part they’ve done that this spring. We’ve had a couple lapses in there, but for the most part they’ve come out and they’ve worked and they’ve raised the bar. Like I said, I see them feeling more comfortable as a unit, and I haven’t made it easy on them. I’ve been shuffling guys around in different positions and whatnot, just trying to get them exposure, but like I said I see their comprehension of what we’re trying to do growing, and as I told them, the game will slow down for them as they become more comfortable with what we’re trying to do here and get more comfortable with the schemes and having answers for what the defense presents to us.”
How have Patrick Mekari and Kamryn Bennett done shifting between the left tackle and guard spots?
“I think they’ve performed pretty well, and I’m still not done experimenting. I’ll probably do some more experimenting as we go into fall camp. Our depth unfortunately has really kind of limited how much I can, but I moved (them) around, I moved Semisi around, today he was at tackle, J.D’s been playing tackle and guard, so probably the only one that’s been at the same position the entire time is just Addison Ooms, but that’s because we don’t have a lot of depth at center. I’ll continue, that’s always been my philosophy, I want to expose them to as many different positions as possible so that they’re comfortable with it if they’re ever called upon to play it in a pinch.”
How has it gone teaching the technique for a zone scheme?
“As I said, I think all those little nuances, footwork, hand placement, targeting, they’re starting to come. Are we where we need to be? Absolutely not, but like I said I think the kids are understanding where they have to A, get their feet in order to get their hands, to get their head to where that needs to be, and it’s just been a slow process, but it’s starting to gel for us.”
How has working with Coach Baldwin been?
“Oh, it’s been great, he’s a no-ego guy, we have a great interplay, we bounce ideas off each other, and I’ve learned a lot from him, and he’s taken some of my ideas and run with it too, so I think the whole staff in general is great. We play well off of each other and I think we’re all on the same page.”
