In one set, quarterbacks alternated plays, rotating through
Longshore, Ayoob, Levy, Reed, then back to Longshore. In that set,
with Longshore
at the helm, he recovered a bounced snap but then threw a high floater
to the right sideline - too high to be caught. Later he dropped
back into the pocket, got "tagged" with a nice tap on the shoulder
by Worrell Williams (linebacker) as he blew by, and Longshore then
took his time to complete a pass to Robert Jordan who - nicely - cut back across
the field and found some room down the left side.
Of course that pass should never have been completed. Had this been
live football Longshore would have experienced the intense pleasure of being
pancaked
by
the 257 lb Williams.
In that same set, Levy tossed a (slightly underthrown) 40 yard completion to
David Gray on the right sideline - who made the catch under tight coverage. Kudos
to
Levy for
spotting the play, excellent marks to Gray for the catch under heavy pressure.
Gray has "been catching everything" says the buzz around the stadium.
Place kickers (Kay and Schneider) nailed everything at 37 yards from the
goalposts, then missed one out of four from 42 yards (roughly a 35 yard field
goal). Cal is again using a high horizontal
bar that kicked balls must go over to avoid being
blocked. Kay and Schneider both took turns at it; there were two instances
when the
ball hit the bar with a loud clang - and the bar structure went down like Burning
Man in final agonies.
In a second set of scrimmages with about 24 total snaps, Reed took 3 of
them, with Longshore, Levy, and Ayoob roughly splitting the rest.
In his 3 plays Reed
a) was rushed hard up the middle, b) fumbled a snap, and c) had to sprint to
the sideline under heavy pressure.
In his attempts, Ayoob threw one interception, three incompletes, one completion,
and scrambled on other plays. He threw one very nice swing pass to TE Stevens
who caught
it in stride for a good gain. Levy got three completions, one of them a long
pass down the middle to a streaking Sean Young, another a swing
pass to Forsett, but - on another play, he threw very late - and high
- into double coverage on the left sideline, a bad decision. The coverage
had
closed
on
the receiver
almost before the ball was thrown. Longshore was not a lot more
successful, throwing one interception and several incompletions.
Focusing on the wide receivers, Robert Jordan made a nice 20 yard shoestring
catch on the sideline. Sean Young pulled in a couple of quick grabs and made
nice, quick runs after the catch. LaReylle Cunningham made one nice catch in the face of a rapidly closing linebacker.
In offensive line one on one rush/block drills with rushers coming up the
middle or around the O-Lineman, Tepper, Bemoll and Robertson consistently stood
out.
Cal's whole defense is strong, consistently making the big push up the middle
and staying in good cover in the defensive backfield. This presents a formidable
challenge to Cal's set of young and inexperienced quarterbacks, though to a
man they say they love the challenge and are benefiting from the experience.
These difficulties are compounded by the constant rotation of O-line players,
so there is little consistency at this point.
After practice, Cal's new wide-receiver coach Dan Ferrigno said that Jackson,
Jordan and Hawkins have been the most impressive in practice - but that Sean
Young really impressed today and that Gray was making a good transition back
to receiver.
The defensive backfield seems to be rounding into a core group of 5 players
- Brandon Hampton, Tim Mixon, Bernard Hicks, Daymeion (Donte) Hughes (he is
still listed in all Cal pubs as "Daymeion"), and Thomas DeCoud. The
single biggest asset of this group is speed - it helps recovery
even if a misstep is made. While Mixon and Hampton clock in at 5-10 187 lbs,
the Hicks/DeCoud additions add size to the backfield - Hicks at 6-1, DeCoud
at 6-3, both near 200 lbs. Big, strong, fast.
Experience will be the issue, primarily for Hicks and DeCoud, but the talent
is there. We put Daymeion Hughes on camera to talk about the defensive backfield,
his role in it, and the learning curve he sees his teammates working through.
To view Hughes' comments, click
here.
Seen in the Stands:
Tracy Slocum and the Crenshaw pair, Darian Hagan and RJ Garrett, were there
and fired up to watch practice. Hagan is listed at 5-11/175, but he looked
6-0/185 yesterday. Garrett was huge, too, with massive legs. Slocum said his
leg is 100%. Derrick Hill was there - as were old timers Geoff McArthur and
a big rangy tight-end type that could have been Garrett Cross.
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