“[In these early practices], we’re hoping to get the kinks out, get a
jump-start on offense, defense and special teams as far as terminology and
schemes,” Cal head coach Jeff Tedford said. “We can get the young guys
acclimated and evaluated because they’re getting some reps right now.
“[To evaluate during these practices], we focus on mental assignments,
people making plays on balls, being in the right spot, taking the right
steps. You don’t worry so much about the physical part of the game because
it’s all different with pads. Mainly it’s mental. It’s assignments, it’s
plays on balls, it’s getting the snap count down, things like that.”
The defensive highlights included an impressive pass break-up by sophomore
Darian Hagen, who went on to pick off a pass later in the day. True
freshman Chris Little and redshirt freshman D.J. Holt both added
interceptions in situational play, while true freshmen Mychal Kendricks
and Aaron Tipoti and redshirt freshman Solomona Aigamaua all put good
pressure on the quarterbacks.
“It was fun today,” said Aigamaua, who is making the transition from the
line to linebacker. “The entire defense is making a great effort. It
wasn’t just me today, the defensive line was giving me plenty of openings
to attack the gaps and pressure the quarterback.”
Sophomore Jeremy Ross had a pair of solid receptions in the early action
and redshirt freshman Michael Calvin had a spectacular leaping grab over a
defensive back. However, the offensive highlights were multiple hook-ups
between senior quarterback Nate Longshore and junior Cameron Morrah,
including a 25-yard touchdown on a perfectly thrown ball to the tight
end’s fingertips.
“I’m just trying to get back into things,” Morrah said. “Everything’s
going real well right now. Workouts have been going well; we’re working on
getting our timing down with the quarterbacks and just trying to make
plays.”
Much of the post-practice focus from the media was on true freshman
receiver Marvin Jones, who has been impressive in the first two days of
action.
“So far, so good [for Marvin Jones],” Tedford said. “He’s shown he’s got
the ability to make plays, he has very good hands, he can run, he has good
body control. Now we have to check how he does with the learning curve.
He’s still young. He just needs to keep working hard every day, but he has
shown signs of being a special player.”
The Bears will add shoulder pads for Wednesday’s practice which should
give the coaching staff more pertinent information for study.
“We’ve only been here two days without pads; there’s a lot of evaluating
still to do,” Tedford said.