Cal head coach Justin Wilcox took to the Zoom podium, as the Bears started off a string of six consecutive days of Fall Camp practice.

"It'll be more physical this week, there will be more reps," Wilcox said, "we've built up over the past nine practices. The amount of team reps, the amount of individual we're doing, that will grow into this week, and we'll have some really competitive days."

Cal started full pads practices last week, though unlike other schools in the conference, they haven't had a full on scrimmage as they work themselves into shape. Wilcox noted that they likely won't do a 100-play scrimmage, but would ramp up some of their live work as they get through the week.

"We have not had a live scrimmage yet," Wilcox said, "we're still working ourselves into condition, getting the systems down, and we'll have some live work this week."

Takeaways

- The first bit of bad injury news came from Wilcox to lead off, OLB Curley Young will be out for this season. Wilcox said "we look forward to getting him back in the springtime"

- The defensive backfield does have four of five positions that will see new full-time starters, but Wilcox noted there's plenty of experience.

"With Cam back and Elijah (Hicks)," Wilcox said, "between those two guys and Josh Drayden, who has played a lot of football for us, there's some guys that have taken some reps for us that have done good things. Daniel Scott and Chigi, there's some young players pushing to get in the mix as well."

- The Pac-12 came out with rules about postponements Monday, looking at baseline needs for scholarship players (53), quarterbacks (1), offensive linemen (7), and defensive linemen (4) needed in order to play. With a rash of coaches in college football contracting COVID-19, Wilcox was asked what their contingencies would be if he couldn't coach.

"We would break it up between offense, defense, and special teams," Wilcox said. "'Do we accept penalties or do we not' would be a group effort and everybody would have responsibilities."

Currently, Tim DeRuyter is the associate head coach, and would likely be the logical successor in this situation.

- Cal's punter and kicker spots may have found new players to man the position, starting with Aussie punter Jamieson Sheahan, who has impressed with his maturity and his ability.

"Jamieson Sheahan has done a really good job," Wilcox said, "as you know, he's our punter who has never punted in a game before. He's a talented guy, we expect to do well. He's a mature guy, and he's been through some competitive sport in his day, just not a lot of American football. If you came out and watched him practice, you'd think he would've done it all his life. He doesn't have just one punt, he has a couple styles of punts that he works with."

- At the kicker spot, Dario Longhetto is the only player with game experience in college (albeit at punter), but he's made a jump in his performance to where he's the front runner.

"Dario Longhetto right now is kicking well," Wilcox said, "there's a lot of competition at that position, but Dario has noticeably improved from last year."

At kick returner, Wilcox was a bit more opaque, not mentioning names. Among the young players who could return, Justin Baker and Ashton Stredick are in the running, and older guys like Nikko Remigio and Josh Drayden could be in consideration.

- Stredick has been a hot topic among Cal media, since it's not everyday where you get a roster and find that a running back who rushed for 3700 yards as a senior popped on the roster (Patrick Laird did rush for 3117 yards as a senior in high school though). Stredick had made it over to Berkeley in the summer of 2019, taking running back MVP honors at one of their skills camps, which is where the Bears first saw him. Stredick (who had an offer from Baylor, as well as being committed to Princeton for a time) is working with the Bears' developmental group, but could see playing time as a true freshman

"There's times when it's a really good match, throughout the country, whether it's in Texas or the East Coast or the South, when a guy has interest, especially a really good student and he is a really productive player," Wilcox said, "He had other options in terms of where to go play college football, and he's not the biggest guy, so I'm sure there were schools that thought he wasn't big enough. We liked his tape, knew what kind of student he was, and got a chance to meet his family when he came out here. You don't put up the numbers he put up on accident."

- Kuony Deng was brought up, as he's expected to take the helm of Cal's defense, but there was a big of an interesting piece on who plays next to him.

"We've got some other guys competing next to him in Evan Tattersall and Mo Iosefa," Wilcox said, "it's fun to watch some of those other guys run through there too."

Iosefa, a true freshman early enrollee, impressed during spring ball, and it sounds like he's forcing his way into playing time on defense.

"Mo is still learning a lot, and there's a transition there," Wilcox said, "but he's a big athletic guy. He's got the size, speed, agility for that position, he looks like an inside linebacker. He's still learning a lot, there's a lot of moving pieces, but we're excited about Mo's future, because in a short period of time, he's made some impressive plays."

- In addition, the senior wideouts (who we talked with Burl Toler about here) got a mention from Wilcox as well, as Trevon Clark and Kekoa Crawford are likely to get a ton of reps going forward.

"Trevon's gotten back and is working himself into shape," Wilcox said, "He's got some really good skills and can do some things that can help us on offense. Kekoa, boy he looks fast right now. Last year he was battling through some injury things, but he's leaned up and looks really lean and quick right now. He knows the offense, he's smart, and he's really competitive."

Now, the Bears have a string of six practices before their next day off, Monday the 26th.