Great day - perfect weather, great format, tons of scoring - I thought the Pac 12 network did a great job. Yogi Roth knows his stuff. Fantastic to have a bunch of recruits in the house and you got a great sense for how tight this team is and how much fun they are having playing football at Cal.
Disappointing crowd and the jersey # changes was a FUBAR.
Football wise, I think it was a salve for those who were anxious about whether we had any QBs and WRs and it was far from a Maalox for those who are worried about our defense.
Some really insightful comments from posters here on the QB play. Zach Kline was Zach Kline at his best: Arm talent 2nd to none, enthusiasm is boundless, charisma off the charts. He also struggled to make quick decisions (despite barely any pass rush) and held the ball far too long on too many of his throws. He won the stat war yet was not the best QB on the field IMO.
Chase Forest was to my eye the clear leader in the field. The first possession nerves got him. After that, he looked like the real deal. Not only was he accurate, he was accurate in terms of ball placement especially on the tricky shorter routes to the flats (the ones that gave Goff fits). Last Fall, he was better on short balls than Jared and yesterday did nothing but reinforce that strength. His release timing was by far the best. Not much of a pass rush but he was Goff like in his mental processing and release. I liked that he audibled two times and completed both passes. I loved hearing Spavital talk about his drive and that he's clearly the leader of the pack when it comes to understanding the offense and making the right decisions. Footwork is solid, arm strength is plenty good enough.
Bowers looked good as well. Yogi was kissing his ass a bit much for my taste given their elite 11 connection but a lot of what he said was true. He's got really good feet and pocket presence. The 2nd best release timing to Forest. Arm strength is the weakest of the 4 IMO but not a liability save for long outs. His INT shows that he's not there with Forest mentally just yet. My guess is that he's well liked by the players and the "moxie' that Yogi talked about makes him a gamer when the lights go on.
Gilliam is as good as advertised. Oozes athleticism. His footwork and release aren't as polished as Bowers and Forest just yet, though I saw good enough arm strength and some nice touch passes blended in with some higher velocity throws. Would have loved to have seen him on a designed run or two.
OL was clearly the MVP and DL was clearly the LIP (Least impressive position group). The OL ate up their counterparts on both run and pass plays (especially pass protection). They looked solid, coordinated and their fundamentals look 200% better than in the Yenser days. I thought Cochran, Palmer and Moore in particular jumped out at me.
We didn't play many of our RBs - Was not quite as taken by McCrary as others. Props for him for running with some patience and vision (especially given the position switch) and he broke a few tackles yet I didn't see elite burst (first step quickness) nor blinding speed. Not a knock on him as he looked good just not "wow" good. Enwere is an athlete and huge though he still needs to be more decisive and quick with his first few steps. Laird looked good. He's got a knack for finding holes and has better speed and power than one might think.
WR corps looked really good. Helped that QBs had all day yet they often had separation on quicker throws. Couple of bad drops early - Stovall, Veasy, Singleton all had one. And the only really spectacular catches were on two balls that were caught out of bounds - Stovall and Hansen. Yet, the group looked big, fast, diverse and confident. Stovall is the real deal. Quick on quick, precise footwork, strong as heck and he'll make you miss in a phone booth. He has that something special you can't teach. Hansen was smooth and polished. Not a YAC guy but his speed is impressive. Love Veasy, Duncan and Strickland's body type. BIg, strong kids. Natural hands all of them. Singleton's burst on that last TD was ridiculous. He's got some wiggle to him as well. Feel like he's also going to be special but mentally not quite as far along as Stovall.
Defense was bizarre. Tons of kids sitting out nursing injuries followed by our next best 5 players up front only playing a series or two. Once Nickerson, Looney, Wilson et al went out, it was embarrassing how bad we looked. We also must have told them not to go all out with tackling and hitting as twice defenders let up on plays that were very obvious. I realize Drew, Downs, Piatt, Westerfield, Saffle, Hawkins, Allensworth and other two deeps didn't play but still. Tackling was flat out bad and the lack of a pass rush was disappointing. I thought Trey Turner missed an easy tackle in the backfield though his INT was nice. Brown has really nice lateral quickness and reaction time. He's going to be good on passing downs but he scares me when teams run at him (technique against the run is no bueno right now). Loved seeing Hamilton Anoi flash his wheels and Tartabull looked good. Antoine Albert had a rough day in coverage yet he can tackle and has some presence out there. Psalms made a couple of silly mistakes but blanketed guys more often than not. Didn't see Rambo or Vanderbilt do much of anything - not sure how many snaps they played.
On one of Kline's TDs, I went back and counted 7 walk ons as defenders on the play. Silly.
Interesting to me they were so protective of the defense. Drew injury scared them? It should as we don't have enough difference making defenders on the team. If Looney or Nickerson went down as well we'd be screwed. Depth in terms of athleticism is good and team speed looked better at times (tough with so many walk ons running around) yet we still could have been better against the run and you'd have liked to see someone put pressure on the passer.
Loved Spavital's pace of play. Super high tempo. I also liked the running plays and the crossing routes. Good stuff. Interestingly, his A&M teams were not nearly as high octane as TFs Cal teams. Bears didn't seem to go that fast that often the last two years, yet we were top 20 in plays per game on offense both seasons. I guess we'll see whether this is a Spavital reality or just practice window dressing.
In summary, I think Chase Forest can be very good this year and our offense can score a lot of points. Learned nothing about our defense other than our walk ons would get killed and our staff is worried about injuries. We feel young and that gives me mixed feelings: Excited about uptick in overall talent from the youth and worried about our lack of experience.
Disappointing crowd and the jersey # changes was a FUBAR.
Football wise, I think it was a salve for those who were anxious about whether we had any QBs and WRs and it was far from a Maalox for those who are worried about our defense.
Some really insightful comments from posters here on the QB play. Zach Kline was Zach Kline at his best: Arm talent 2nd to none, enthusiasm is boundless, charisma off the charts. He also struggled to make quick decisions (despite barely any pass rush) and held the ball far too long on too many of his throws. He won the stat war yet was not the best QB on the field IMO.
Chase Forest was to my eye the clear leader in the field. The first possession nerves got him. After that, he looked like the real deal. Not only was he accurate, he was accurate in terms of ball placement especially on the tricky shorter routes to the flats (the ones that gave Goff fits). Last Fall, he was better on short balls than Jared and yesterday did nothing but reinforce that strength. His release timing was by far the best. Not much of a pass rush but he was Goff like in his mental processing and release. I liked that he audibled two times and completed both passes. I loved hearing Spavital talk about his drive and that he's clearly the leader of the pack when it comes to understanding the offense and making the right decisions. Footwork is solid, arm strength is plenty good enough.
Bowers looked good as well. Yogi was kissing his ass a bit much for my taste given their elite 11 connection but a lot of what he said was true. He's got really good feet and pocket presence. The 2nd best release timing to Forest. Arm strength is the weakest of the 4 IMO but not a liability save for long outs. His INT shows that he's not there with Forest mentally just yet. My guess is that he's well liked by the players and the "moxie' that Yogi talked about makes him a gamer when the lights go on.
Gilliam is as good as advertised. Oozes athleticism. His footwork and release aren't as polished as Bowers and Forest just yet, though I saw good enough arm strength and some nice touch passes blended in with some higher velocity throws. Would have loved to have seen him on a designed run or two.
OL was clearly the MVP and DL was clearly the LIP (Least impressive position group). The OL ate up their counterparts on both run and pass plays (especially pass protection). They looked solid, coordinated and their fundamentals look 200% better than in the Yenser days. I thought Cochran, Palmer and Moore in particular jumped out at me.
We didn't play many of our RBs - Was not quite as taken by McCrary as others. Props for him for running with some patience and vision (especially given the position switch) and he broke a few tackles yet I didn't see elite burst (first step quickness) nor blinding speed. Not a knock on him as he looked good just not "wow" good. Enwere is an athlete and huge though he still needs to be more decisive and quick with his first few steps. Laird looked good. He's got a knack for finding holes and has better speed and power than one might think.
WR corps looked really good. Helped that QBs had all day yet they often had separation on quicker throws. Couple of bad drops early - Stovall, Veasy, Singleton all had one. And the only really spectacular catches were on two balls that were caught out of bounds - Stovall and Hansen. Yet, the group looked big, fast, diverse and confident. Stovall is the real deal. Quick on quick, precise footwork, strong as heck and he'll make you miss in a phone booth. He has that something special you can't teach. Hansen was smooth and polished. Not a YAC guy but his speed is impressive. Love Veasy, Duncan and Strickland's body type. BIg, strong kids. Natural hands all of them. Singleton's burst on that last TD was ridiculous. He's got some wiggle to him as well. Feel like he's also going to be special but mentally not quite as far along as Stovall.
Defense was bizarre. Tons of kids sitting out nursing injuries followed by our next best 5 players up front only playing a series or two. Once Nickerson, Looney, Wilson et al went out, it was embarrassing how bad we looked. We also must have told them not to go all out with tackling and hitting as twice defenders let up on plays that were very obvious. I realize Drew, Downs, Piatt, Westerfield, Saffle, Hawkins, Allensworth and other two deeps didn't play but still. Tackling was flat out bad and the lack of a pass rush was disappointing. I thought Trey Turner missed an easy tackle in the backfield though his INT was nice. Brown has really nice lateral quickness and reaction time. He's going to be good on passing downs but he scares me when teams run at him (technique against the run is no bueno right now). Loved seeing Hamilton Anoi flash his wheels and Tartabull looked good. Antoine Albert had a rough day in coverage yet he can tackle and has some presence out there. Psalms made a couple of silly mistakes but blanketed guys more often than not. Didn't see Rambo or Vanderbilt do much of anything - not sure how many snaps they played.
On one of Kline's TDs, I went back and counted 7 walk ons as defenders on the play. Silly.
Interesting to me they were so protective of the defense. Drew injury scared them? It should as we don't have enough difference making defenders on the team. If Looney or Nickerson went down as well we'd be screwed. Depth in terms of athleticism is good and team speed looked better at times (tough with so many walk ons running around) yet we still could have been better against the run and you'd have liked to see someone put pressure on the passer.
Loved Spavital's pace of play. Super high tempo. I also liked the running plays and the crossing routes. Good stuff. Interestingly, his A&M teams were not nearly as high octane as TFs Cal teams. Bears didn't seem to go that fast that often the last two years, yet we were top 20 in plays per game on offense both seasons. I guess we'll see whether this is a Spavital reality or just practice window dressing.
In summary, I think Chase Forest can be very good this year and our offense can score a lot of points. Learned nothing about our defense other than our walk ons would get killed and our staff is worried about injuries. We feel young and that gives me mixed feelings: Excited about uptick in overall talent from the youth and worried about our lack of experience.
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