Urgency without anxiety.

It's the phrase Justin Wilcox used to describe the mood of his team and his staff in the wake of today. February's signing day came and went without the Bears signing a player, having signed 25 members of their 2020 class back in December.

"Urgency without anxiety is a good way to put it," Wilcox said, "there’s some definite urgency, but it doesn’t mean we need to be anxious. I’m excited to get into spring practice and watch these guys compete and see who’s going to take the next step, there’s a lot of guys, even guys who played a lot last year who could be a lot better. I’m excited for them, some of the new guys, to have an impact on our team. Dynamics change every year, even if the majority of the people are the same, that’s the fun part, seeing the team take shape."

And there's been change. For the first time in his Cal tenure, Wilcox has had more than one coach leave. Beau Baldwin and Nick Edwards went to Cal Poly. Gerald Alexander made the jump to the NFL with the Miami Dolphins. Steve Greatwood retired to fish, spend time with his grandchild, and fish some more. Thus, the second phase, as only three members of his initial staff remain.

The moves Wilcox made were meant to keep the Bears on their upward trajectory, as they had two winning seasons in a row for the first time in a decade. Wilcox brought in assistants Aristotle Thompson (RBs), Angus McClure (OL), and Marcel Yates (DBs) in order to keep up a level of development and recruiting, but the changes started with Bill Musgrave being hired as the offensive coordinator. This many new coaches will change the dynamics of the team.

They'll have a month to see those dynamics unfurl, to see some of the coaches get to know their players, and to adjust to a new offensive coordinator in Musgrave. Wilcox recapped how he got the longtime NFL coordinator to Berkeley after Baldwin took the Cal Poly job.

"It’s my job to be prepared in these moments," Wilcox noted, "so I had a list in my phone, I started talking to Bill and we just started talking football, what it was like here, things he was doing that he liked. It wasn’t convincing either side, we were just talking more about our program, how he saw things and it was pretty organic that way."

The alignment of philosophies played a role in Musgrave coming to the Bears, as Wilcox is looking to take an 8-5 team to the next level, after the Bears finished at the bottom of the Pac-12 in scoring and yards per play metrics offensively in 2019.

"Coach Musgrave and I believe a lot of the same things and we’ve had a lot of discussions about philosophically what the team should look like," Wilcox said. "When this all happened and talking to him, I was wondering if he’d want to come back to college. He’s a well-versed football mind, he’s an unbelievable teacher, I’ve known him a long time, but I talked to a lot of people that worked with him that all said the same thing in terms of his ability as a teacher, his football IQ, his communication with the players, the guy that he was, really just fortunate he was eager and excited to do it."

With Musgrave, there's a plan to move toward somewhat of a pro-style offense, though that term may not mean what it used to mean. For Musgrave, it's about tailoring the offense to the strengths of personnel.

"We’ve got a good nucleus of tight ends and wide receivers," Musgrave noted, "they seem to be very fluid route runners, I think we’ll be able to do some choice and some option routes, because I think they’ll be able to recognize coverage. They’re sharp, and it’s great to be able to take advantage of that in a passing game system, and in the run game, it’s an upper-class laden offensive line, our right tackle (Jake Curhan) and our center (Mike Saffell) are great leaders, our big runner, Christopher Brown, we’re gonna do a lot of exciting run game concepts to set the table, hopefully set the table for some fun play actions. I think when people say pro-style, they think of conventional formations, like I-right, I-left, under center. At times it is good to be under center for run game or play action, not as good for passing with the QB, we’d much rather be driving the Cadillac back there in the shotgun, not getting stepped on as you depart from center, but I think we’ll have a good mix of both."

"In terms of style of play might look a little bit different in terms of personnel groupings," Wilcox added, "we’ve been doing that over the past couple of years, if you look at the last couple games in terms of using tight ends. We’re still going to push the ball down the field and create explosives with our receivers and we’re going to recruit explosive guys at that position and at tailback. Using tight ends, we’re open to recruiting a fullback or two if we find the right person. Some of the run game might look a bit different, some of the play action might look a bit different. There’s enough in terms of the style of play that there’ll be a change, but football is football, we’ll still have inside zone, we had inside zone last year, we ran power last year, but it might look a little different, might be some wrinkles, bells and whistles and (movement). Might be a few new concepts in terms of run game and pass game just to accentuate the guys on our team."

Now starts a waiting game for that second phase of the Justin Wilcox era, as the recruiting dead period extends through the month of February, and spring football starting March 4th provides the next opportunity to see what the Bears evolve into.

Spring Ball Notes

(One note: an interview with new defensive backs coach Marcel Yates got corrupted by a recording device)

Cal also had their new coaches in the building for Wednesday's media event, as Musgrave, DB coach Marcel Yates, RB coach Aristotle Thompson, and OL coach Angus McClure spoke to assorted media members. Thompson and McClure noted that they've both got some experience to work with in their groups on offense, which should help them pick up Musgrave's new offense.

"I’m excited about the players, we’ve got a great group of running backs here," Thompson said, "really trying to help them grow into what we want them to become, we’ve got Chris Brown, Marcel Dancy, Deshawn Collins, those guys have played some downs. Now it’s about how we can get them to take another step and keep growing them into what the Cal Bears need them to be."

"I’ve already met with all of them individually," McClure added, "you’d be amazed with how many guys I was involved in recruiting from when I was at UCLA. I’m familiar with the majority of them and some of them I did in-home visits with not too long ago, Will Craig (for example), I went after a few of those guys and it’s good to see them again and get a chance to work with them. I’m excited about the group, it looks like we’re going to have some good depth. This spring is going to be a great experience, a lot of fundamentals, and focus on the new offense with Bill."

Wilcox noted on the Pac-12 Signing Day show that Gentle Williams and Craig will be back on the offensive line, and that the scholarship numbers moving forward are "right on it, tracking for fall," with regard to the 85 scholarship limit. They'll move into spring with eight new scholarship players joining them (Jaden Casey, Mason Mangum, Everett Johnson, Jaedon Roberts, Muelu Iosefa, Trey Paster, Isaiah Young, and Jamieson Sheahan).