The Golden Bear Mailbag: June 7th

The Golden Bear Mailbag continues this week, with questions all over the board relating to Cal athletics.

From @CalKam19 on Twitter: My question is in regards to the Beau Baldwin offense and its viability for success without a receiver that fits the Cooper Kupp mold? Also if any underclassmen (Young or Skinner) or top recruiting targets might be able to fill that role?

(Note: I’m defining Kupp more as a go-to receiver who can lineup anywhere on the field)

This is one I had to go back and do some research on. With Baldwin’s last few teams at Eastern Washington, Kupp was a star, but there were more pieces than that. In Baldwin’s final year in Cheney, Eastern had three 1000 yard receivers in Kupp, Shaq Hill and Kendrick Bourne. Kupp was obviously the best of the group, seeing as he’s in the NFL right now, but he wasn’t the only one to catch a ton of passes.

Let’s not understate the importance of having a go to wide receiver though. Kupp being good took pressure off other wideouts, and the threat of them took pressure off Kupp in turn. Baldwin’s offense at Eastern Washington over the latter portion of his tenure there featured a ton of RPOs and pace, which for one simplified defenses, and for two, took advantage of what they had. At Cal, there’s been more focus in the run game and eating up more clock, and while Vic Wharton filled this role more in 2017, he was hurt enough in 2018 and with the Bears rotating QB situation, that role was left unfilled.

For what it’s worth, I don’t think you necessarily need a 6’2” WR like Kupp to have a go-to wideout, and a successful offense in general. That said, with Baldwin running the QB room this year, this may be a year where the QBs run more RPOs than they did in 2018, and with that, you need a guy who can make those routine catches, then extending the play afterward. The guy who’s probably the best equipped to do that is Nikko Remigio right now. As far as recruits who could do it, commit Jeremiah Hunter is as versatile as anyone, he’s smooth in his release, and he can avoid tackles after the catch while having a big frame to make contested catches.

It is well known that we need to restock our defensive backfield with this recruiting class. I trust that GA and others can learn from past mistakes and close on some of the names that we have heard. What I am wondering is if there are any specific safety prospects that Cal is going after. It seems that most of the prospects we have been connected to are cornerbacks or are listed as defensive backs.

There are a few guys listed at safety per Rivals that the Bears are going after in Jared Greenfield, Alaka’i Gilman, and Jordyn Morgan. There’s other guys who could play safety at the next level, like a Trey Paster or a Nate Rutchena.

Right now, Cal has four scholarship safeties set to return in 2020, in Daniel Scott, Isaiah Humphries, Craig Woodson, and Miles Williams. The target number for the group is six, so landing at least two safeties among a bigger DB group would be the expectation.

Do you think the team will have any trouble playing in front of an SEC crowd in September?

One thing that’s been pointed out to me on that subject is that Ole Miss didn’t sell out a non-conference home game last year. Of course, they played Kent State and Southern Illinois, but I have doubts that Cal will draw more Ole Miss fans, considering that the program has had to rebound from the Hugh Freeze aftershocks and 6-6 and 5-7 seasons under Matt Luke.

As far as playing there, I don’t think it’ll be too different from the atmosphere Cal faced in going to North Carolina in 2017, with more people in attendance, but the defense should travel, and the offense runs off signals and silent counts often enough anyway that it shouldn’t matter.

What are your thoughts on the current Grad Assistants?

There’s only two listed on the Cal website right now in Ryan Conry and Will Heck. Heck comes up in a fair amount of recruiting interviews, and while Conry is new, I expect the same thing to happen with the upcoming recruiting cycles. I admittedly don’t know them as well as I should, but I’ve heard plenty of good things about each of them.

What, if anything, you are seeing or hearing that makes you think Modster will play significant snaps for Cal this year at QB. Presumably, your current thinking is the opposite (e.g. Garbers will presumably start and play majority of snaps) but I'm looking for the contrarian opinion here. At the very least, I'm am hoping that you hearing good things about Modster that makes us all believe he is at least a very good backup option.

Let me state that I think Chase Garbers will win the QB job for this year.

What gives Modster a fighting chance is his willingness to take chances over the top. He has a solid arm and makes the right decisions for the most part. With more time to work on his craft with teammates over the summer, he should be able to knock off a bit more of the rust, as it’s worth remembering that he didn’t play football last fall.

What’s state of Cal sports with both hoops down, FB in rebuild, baseball losing etc.

I’m going into a bit of foreign territory here, without knowing as much about women’s basketball and baseball as I should, but I’ll break this what the biggest question mark is for each team.

For men’s basketball: How competitive can Mark Fox’s first year be?

Fox has revamped the roster, losing five guys to transfer, bringing in five more with a potential sixth in Lars Thiemann. Whether that translates into a competitive first year is another thing altogether. While the Pac-12 isn’t at its strongest, this is the time for Fox to build his groups confidence, which will have at least seven freshmen and sophomores among its midst.

For women’s basketball, who replaces Anigwe’s production?

While that’s surely not going to be possible with one person, Lindsay Gottlieb has the unenviable position of replacing one of the most productive players in Cal history. Cal also lost their four top scorers from 2018-19 in Anigwe, Asha Thomas, Recee Caldwell, and Kianna Smith. Jaelyn Brown and McKenzie Forbes return, along with CJ West and Alaysia Styles, that’s everyone who played significant minutes for the Bears a year ago.

Mi’Cole Cayton will return after a surgery to repair damaged cartilage in her right knee (stemming from an ACL tear the prior year) and the Bears will add solid recruits in the form of Lauren Fields (1st team all-state Oklahoma), Lakeside (CA) G Jazlen Green, and Evelien Lutje Schipholt (from the Netherlands).

For Football, it’s what can the offense do to get back to the middle of the pack

That’s a question that’ll have to be answered in fall camp, because spring ball was inconclusive, thanks to not having key contributors (Mike Saffell and Valentino Daltoso on the OL, Trevon Clark and Kekoa Crawford in the WR group). Chase Garbers did show growth physically and mentally from his first year starting to now, and guys like Chris Brown, McCallan Castles, Jeremiah Hawkins, Monroe Young, and Marcel Dancy all stepped up. With the summer workouts nearly in full swing and fall camp in less than two months, we’ll have a clearer picture soon enough.

For Baseball, it’s replacing the meat of the lineup.

Andrew Vaughn and Korey Lee are gone, it’s up to Mike Neu to solidify the middle of the lineup. Quentin Selma, with 10 home runs as a freshman, could slide into that role. Sam Wezniak also showed some power with 10 homers of his own. Next years’ roster composition should slide more into view as the fallout from the MLB draft is dealt with, as to who signs and who comes back.