Cal came back to the practice field Friday morning to a cloudy day and a second day of implementing offensive schemes. Like any other practice, there was good and bad.
"We weren’t up to par with the execution of the offense today," quarterback Chase Garbers said, "but it’s the second time on the field, we’re gonna watch film tonight, come out here tomorrow, and hopefully execute better."
"I think we were able to get lined up in some of the formations a little bit better," offensive coordinator Bill Musgrave noted, "guys were able to hear it the second time instead of the first. The huddle mechanics, I think the motions were crisper, rather than feeling our way. Maybe (we were) dipping our toe in the water Wednesday, we were in with a can opener or a cannonball today, which is much better."
It's a growth process for the Bears, as they look to adjust to a new offense, as well as getting their defense re-acclimated with a few new pieces in place.
The biggest piece might be the under center play, something that many of the current Bears have never done on a consistent basis, especially their quarterback.
"High school I was all shotgun," Garbers noted, "then we were under center 15-20%, primarily run plays and play action, it’s a little bit different taking a five or seven step drop, I haven’t done this since young football training or something like that."
It's a piece of installing an offense that Musgrave has used at NFL stops in Atlanta, Oakland, Denver, and Minnesota. The Bears' offensive coordinator noted that he plans on using the same verbiage that he used in those stops, but still wants to get them moving forward quickly.
"I want to be a good teacher," Musgrave said, "I don’t want to slow them down and make them think out there. I want them to cut loose and play, so I’ve got to do a good job of teaching them in the meetings, and scripting them so that the guys feel confident in what they’re doing."
There is some crossover between what the Bears utilized during their three game winning streak that ended last year and what they're using now, with heavier tight end sets and deep play-action looks. There have been a handful of RPO concepts as well that the Bears have utilized over the past three years still. The deep play action under center for the most part is still new, and it's a key for the Bears to create explosive plays.
"Heavy play-action really gets teams," Garbers said, "especially when you’re under center and can run the ball downhill so hard and aggressively, there’s going to be those shots downfield to take, you’ve just got to execute them."
That's a part of making up an offense that's more effective than what the Bears had for most of 2019. Another oft-mentioned piece is the fullback position, something that may not be a part of the Bears' base offense, but is something that should play a role moving forward with Zach Angelillo at the position, and tight ends Elijah Mojarro and Gavin Reinwald taking reps at the spot.
"We want to be difficult to defend," Musgrave said, "and at times when you have a fullback on the field, you can be a bit more difficult to defend than if you have three or four wide, we have that too and we enjoy that. I think the defense feels the impact of the fullback out there, both formationally and when you execute a play. We’ve got Zach, our linebacker, our aspiring fullback in training, he’s doing some good things out there in two days. A small sample size, but he’s been very promising."