Spring Wrap-Up: What We Learned and What's Still to Come

With the first spring for Justin Wilcox and company in the books, the Bears have a little more than three months before the start of fall camp. There's still lots that needs figuring out before the season opener in Chapel Hill on September 2nd, but the spring practices, while media access was more limited than it has been in the past, showed the Bears' growth over the fifteen practice period.

With installing a new scheme across the board, trying to bring back a defense that was at the bottom in stopping the run a year ago, and replacing another quarterback, the coaches had a tall test going in.

What We Learned:

Schemewise, the 3-4 might be a better fit than the 4-3

The transition into a 3-4 seemed like an odd fit going into the spring, with a deficit of linebackers, a seeming lack of a true nose tackle, and not as much size up front. Tim DeRuyter's experience rebuilding defenses came into play, moving a few defensive ends to outside linebacker, adding a few blitz packages, simplifying some of the responsibilities for the middle linebackers, and giving a few players who had been buried on the depth chart under the previous staff an opportunity.

For the most part, that's worked, though it's still early to tell. Zeandae Johnson, Russell Ude, Derron Brown and Quentin Tartabull all emerged as contributors. "Sometimes when a new staff comes in," DeRuyter said, "a new set of eyes, players take that as ‘hey I got a brand new opportunity to rebrand myself.’"

Those guys have taken that opportunity, along with newcomers Alex Funches and Elijah Hicks. Cam Saffle looks natural at the OLB spot, having previously played the position in high school. Tony Mekari has been frequently praised for his speed at the nose tackle spot. It remains to be seen how much the defense will improve, but combined with the attention to detail and the consistent tackling practice, there should be a noticeable improvement from a year ago

The defensive backfield has surprising amount of depth

In addition to Tartabull, D. Brown, and Hicks, the defensive backfield under Gerald Alexander had better technique, stuck tighter on receivers, and were a generally opportunistic group. Probably the best recruited defensive position under Sonny Dykes, the DBs, all coached by Alexander, have a lot of depth now, going more than two deep while being without key pieces in Evan Rambo, Trey Turner, and Josh Drayden during the spring.

As we've said multiple times this spring, Darius Allensworth will be a big piece at one corner spot, but Hicks stood out in his first spring game, Camryn Bynum pushed for playing time, Marloshawn Franklin's technique is miles ahead of where he was last fall. Traveon Beck can play both on the inside and outside at the corner.

At safety, Luke Rubenzer and Jaylinn Hawkins already had a good amount of field time, but seeing Brown and spring interception king Tartabull make big gains speaks to an untapped well of ability. Malik Psalms also flashed at times, and while Wilcox has said that you can't have enough depth, the amount of depth can only help the defense, and the special teams.

Tartabull had this to say about Alexander:

"GA’s one of the greatest coaches I’ve been around, and he has us being able to work together and our communication is key. So as all of us are in there, we’re talking during film, we’re figuring out little adjustments, and critiquing all of our little details, that’s for sure, and GA leads us with that.”

Early Enrollees all have a chance to play

Hicks, possibly the spring game MVP, and Funches have been frequently mentioned as standouts by the coaching staff, with Funches being noted by Beau Baldwin as someone who gave the offense the most trouble all spring.

Aside from those two, Gabe Cherry and Taariq Johnson have the ability to play right away. Cherry may be more because of the lack of depth on the defensive end, but at 6'5" and 260 right off the bat, he has the size to go right away. He's still developing, but Coach Jerry Azzinaro has been effective coaching up the defensive line with extreme focus on detail.

Johnson will have to find playing time among a very crowded receiver group, but he has a big frame to build on, and his route running and footwork has improved from his HS tape. He still has a ways to go, there's still a need for game experience and getting his body positioning right to keep corners from making plays, but his frame and ability makes him an intriguing prospect to play right away, filling a similar role to what Jordan Veasy will do in the upcoming year.

Offense started slow, but is grasping the concepts with more and more reps

After the first open spring practice, the defense looked to be leagues ahead of the offense, a tough task in and of itself, but as the offense went along and the two quarterbacks started to get more comfortable, it clicked a little more, though by Baldwin's own admission, they're far from finished products. Here's what Baldwin had to say on the subject:

“I think the fact that these guys can handle some info, I mean you come to a place like this and there’s things that they retain in terms of what you want to put in offensively and you want to do, there’s things that they retain that at times took me a little longer, or took some more reps to get to that point. That as a whole excites me, just the feeling that you feel like you can correct things once and get them corrected, I’m not saying that’s all the time, but that is something that excites me, because then you’re thinking ok we’re not going to be starting over come fall camp."

What's Still Up in the Air?

The Quarterback Situation

There have been enough words bandied about on the subject, but the quarterback situation is unsolved. It's going to be either Bowers and Forrest, even with the incoming Chase Garbers, the two QBs will have to settle this battle at some point in the fall. They both looked improved in the spring game, but one didn't definitively pull away from the other. Bowers had the better stats, but Forrest surprisingly had the better deep ball. It could go down to the wire.

How they'd like to use Demetris Robertson

Robertson was busy with track, as he just ran a 10.72 100M at the Kansas Relays in Lawrence. The sophomore has been learning the offense through practice scripts and film, but not having the reps in a new system where the receivers have to know all the positions is a setback. Along with that, Robertson's game-changing athleticism will give Baldwin a number of options on how to use his, like he did with Cooper Kupp at Eastern Washington. Those ideas haven't been put into reps on the field and the offensive coaching staff is going to have to acclimate Robertson to the offense.

How the defensive line rotation is going to work

There were a few missing pieces on the defensive line this spring, with James Looney, Luc Bequette, Noah Westerfield and Evan Weaver (who moved to OLB and back) all out during the spring game. Those are four guys who have a solid amount of game experience, and who also figure to be a part of the line rotation in the fall. Looney is the best defensive lineman, and tinkering with who gets the reps on the defensive line is still a tall task for Azzinaro and DeRuyter.

The Offensive Line Depth and the Run Game

In an interview with GoldenBearReport.com, Steve Greatwood had this to say about the offensive line depth:

"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."

With Daniel Juarez and Gentle Williams getting healthy and Poutasi Poutasi and Mike Saffell joining the roster, there'll be twelve scholarship guys, but there aren't too many tackles among them, which could be a limiting factor.

On that note, the run game didn't entirely bust anything out on Saturday, though it had at different points in the spring. Establishing a run game continues to be a goal for the offense, and the continued building of the line depth will prove to be key.

Longsnapper not chosen

Not exactly the biggest concern at the moment, but Bradley Northnagel's departure could be a bigger deal than expected. Grant Gluhaich and Garrett Frum still have a long way before either of them can definitively claim the longsnapper mantle.