Run It Back: Cal's Running Back Situation Going into the Fall

On the surface, Cal's run game didn't play a big role in the spring game, as 26 plays ended up as running plays involving the running backs (out of 98 total plays). The raw numbers weren't entirely inspiring, as one of the prospective starters at the spot, Tre Watson, was held out as head coach Justin Wilcox wanted to get the rest of the group more carries.

Spring game RB totals:

Echols 4-3

Enwere 8-32, 1 TD

Clark 5-26

McCrary 4-11

Laird 4-8, TD

Hale 1-0

Those can be explained a bit, with a focus on situations that necessitate passing (like the two-minute, hurry-up drill) and the heavy use of the run game in the previous open practices. The run game as a whole has been a focus this spring, experimenting with new formations as the spring went on.

"We have a lot of tight end sets," Tre Watson said during spring ball, "and so far throughout practice we've been running the ball a lot more than we usually do."

The three tight end set is again a possibility in Berkeley, as the Bears demonstrated during the spring game, using it as a goal line set, with Justin Norbeck subbing in for Malik McMorris at the H-back spot. There a bunch of new material for the offense, especially with the wide receivers learning all the spots and offensive linemen working at new positions, but the running backs have had an easier transition than the others.

"There’s a steep learning curve with the new offense," running back Patrick Laird noted,"but as far as for running backs, there’s only so many ways that you can run zone or power, so we’re the guys that have been picking it up the fastest."

A possible contributor to that is having Beau Baldwin as their position coach.

"It's the greatest situation," Watson said, "especially for us. He sees us putting in all the work, he tells us how he wants the things to be run, so we get the one on one action rather than having a position coach and having to go through to the OC."

Baldwin brought a system down from Eastern Washington, a system that he is loathe to give a name to, other than "multiple," but the "unfinished product" offense has a couple key pieces to it when it comes to the running backs.

First, there's been a transition to more of a zone blocking scheme, which puts a bit of the onus on running backs to be patient and make cuts off what the defense gives them. "As a running back, you just react," Laird said, "no set plays have one or two cuts, you’re just playing off how the defense plays the run."

There's sets where running backs will split out, giving the Bears a five wide look. Baldwin has done this in the past, putting tight ends and running backs out wide to give the offense a formational flexibility, and when you have backs like Watson, who claims to have the best hands on the team, if not the country, having another receiving threat who can line up anywhere can take advantage of the defense even further.

The last big thing is that the use of running backs is "multiple" for Baldwin. Watson and Vic Enwere will be the guys, as they were a year ago in forming the first unit of RBs with Khalfani Muhammad, but Baldwin had four running backs with over 35 carries a year ago at Eastern, spreading the running load out between four backs and quarterback Gage Gubrud, who led the team in carries at Eastern. Neither Ross Bowers nor Chase Forrest is the runner that Gubrud is, so those RB carries.

"I want them all competing like they’re a starter," Baldwin said about his group at the end of spring practice, "and competing this summer like they’re a starter, and they’re a hungry group that just keeps progressing."

With the backup RBs getting some run over the final week of the spring, Baldwin had a lot to say about his guys.

Baldwin's thoughts on the four RBs behind Watson and Enwere

"They're continuing to take tremendous strides. I think Pat, Pat's one of those guys, he's played a decent amount of football here, I don't know what the total number of snaps is, but he's played some football here, so you can see that with him. He's got a confidence, it's not over the top, it's just he's confident that he's gonna know exactly what to do, where to go, and sometimes that gets overshadowed in areas. Sometimes people look at him and 'oh yeah, he's a smart player, he's this and that,' no he's a talented player. Pat's got some stuff to him. I know he had incredible high school numbers and that carries over, so he's got some stuff to the way he plays the game and he brings a lot of quickness in terms of picking up the system.

Billy obviously has a lot of speed and he's still working on learning how to truly play the position at college, take some of his speed and quickness, and truly translate it to on the field stuff.

And then you talk about both Z and Derrick Clark, little bit different in their styles. Z's shown some things, ability to get on the edge, very good hands on the backfield, has some speed. And he's continuing, and he's not fearful of going between the tackles either, which I like, sometimes because you don't want that, a guy who, yeah, his strengths might be on the edge, but is he still willing to hit it downhill, and he is. And DC's kind of more of that between the tackles type guy. He's going to run downhill for you. He's not afraid of anything, he's strong. We've just got to continue to work on his pad level when he's in those situations, but there's no fear to the way he plays the game either, which I like. It's just a few things we've got to work on. It's been fun, fun to work with that group."

With Biaggio Ali-Walsh set to join the six main competitors in the fall, it could be a more crowded backfield than first thought. All six of the backs had their moments during the spring, and while Watson and Enwere have numbers to back up their performance, any one of these guys has the ability to step into a bigger workload in 2017.