Quick hits from Tedfords weekly presser
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BERKELEY -- The strength of the California football team heading into both spring and fall camp this season has undoubtedly been the defensive line. With the maturation of youngsters like Viliami Moala, Mustafa Jalil and Todd Barr, the defensive front was a strong two players deep at every spot.
Towards the end of fall camp, though, that depth was tested. Projected starting defensive end DeAndre Coleman was slowed by a lower leg injury, redshirt freshman Puka Lopa the same, and both Jalil and Moala were severely limited late in camp because of a knee and a head injury, respectively.
One week ago, Moala returned to practice during the Bears' mock game in the new California Memorial Stadium, and on Tuesday, Jalil returned to action, as well.
"The D-line all practiced today, so hopefully they came out of practice today healthy," said head coach Jeff Tedford. "We did some live work today. We were pretty physical in practice today, so we did some live work. I haven't heard that there are any ill effects from that. A few days of work, I expect them all to play. Jalil practiced today."
In other defensive news, outside linebacker Cecil Whiteside was announced to be academically ineligible for the 2012 season.
[RELATED: Whiteside Declared Ineligible]
Now that Cal has been able to practice on the new field at Memorial for over a week, Tedford also gave his review on the playing surface.
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"It's fine, it looks great, it feels great," Tedford said. "It really reacts like grass, in my opinion. The footing is good. It seems like a fast track, so there's really no slipping. With a new field like that, what you have to watch out for -- 10 years ago, when we put in that new field, initially we had too much rubber in it, and then it's like running on marbles. When you want to stop, you're sliding. To me, that's the beauty of this field, is the rubber sets down lower in the field and lets your cleats sink into the fibers. It's performing really well."
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Also in his weekly presser, Tedford shed some light on the improved communication between the players and the staff, and how the team captains will be chosen.
"Captains will go game-to-game," Tedford said. "We have a team council that we talk to, as far as keeping a pulse on the team and things like that. Captains will go from week to week."
Senior safety Josh Hill said that the council is the voice for the team.
"A lot of times, they (the staff) do a good job making schedules and making things for us, but us, we're doing it, so it might be a little different," Hill said. "The council is basically a voice for the team just to talk to coach (Tedford), to have a straight line from coach to player and we try to fix things that we think is a problem, just to give him a heads up on how we feel so we can be on the same page."
Senior corner Marc Anthony said that the council is comprised of the seniors, and that it serves to form a link between the players and the coaches.
"It's just to fill them in on how we feel about things, how we view things," Anthony said. "What he tells us, it's our thoughts on how it is and if we need to fix it, to help us and change our schedules, we do whatever is necessary to help each other out."