Cal offensive coordinator Mike Bloesch chats RB rotation, recruiting, offensive goals

The Bears are back in action!

The California Golden Bears returned to the practice field on Wednesday and will be hitting the field hard for the next three or so weeks. Offensive coordinator Mike Bloesch was available after practice to provide his thoughts on how the offense is looking and his expectations going forward.

Was there any kind of rust or anything like that coming back from the break?

I think any time you take 10 days off, there's going to be a little bit of rust. But I feel good with where we're at from an install standpoint.

The thing that I've been challenging the offense with and we've been challenging our team with is 11 guys doing it together and obviously spring ball, you're moving guys around, new spots, new positions.

So what we can't have is 10 guys do it right and one guy busting. So the more we can clean that up,the more efficient we'll be and the better we'll be able to execute offensively.

Are there any guys in particular you've moved around that you like?

So we're looking at some different lineups on the O-line. We're moving, some of the receivers are getting some inside and outside reps.

We're moving the tight ends all over the place. All of those guys are handling the information and and the install very well.

Looked like a lot of Mavin [Anderson] and Mikey [Matthews] early in practice today. How valuable are those guys?

I just think they're going to give us that explosiveness in the slot. Trond [Grizzell] was a really good player for us last year. He's going to be a great player for us this year in the slot.

Having some versatility with those guys, kind of the punt returner type bodies in there, we feel like is going to give us a chance to be a little bit more explosive in the slot. And then Trond will be able to win his 1-on-1 matchups outside.

How much do you sense [players] kind of grasped things and have really learned from that first week of practice?

Yeah, the good thing is we got a good start before spring break, even with our install meetings in the three weeks leading up to spring ball.

So, again, I'm not as concerned with our guys knowing what to do. It's just how we're doing it. That's what we're focusing on when we're out here is how is how well we can execute.

Can you talk about Kadarius Calloway? What makes him a little different from the next guy?

Yeah, I mean, Callaway is a big, big physical guy. He's explosive and he's just learning right now.

So you can tell whenever he knows what he's doing that he's got some juice to him.

So our job is just to keep getting him comfortable in the offense and in the scheme and letting him go out and play at a high level.

How many running backs can play in a game, assuming everybody's healthy?

Probably four. I think is probably realistic. Obviously Jaydn Ott is going to be our guy, but we've got to have guys that can spell him. And, you know, at the end of the day, it's going to be about production with those guys.

So once they get their opportunities in games, if they're producing, then we're going to get those guys more touches.

Ott was getting a lot of carries toward the end of the season up to close to 30. Is that okay over the course of the season?

Yeah, I think 30 is a little high because I want him to be explosive every time he touches it. But with some of our depth issues we had at the end of last season, that was kind of where we were at and we had to lean on him, and he was able to handle that.

So, I think he definitely has shown that he can be that guy. But from a production standpoint and an explosiveness standpoint, I think 30 would be the max of what I'd want him carrying it.

Particularly early in the season?

That doesn't really matter to me. I mean, every game is kind of has its own story, you know.

And so when you get into a game, guys get hot and we let guys that are hot roll. So, that's always just kind of drive to drive and game to game.

What's been your pitch to the recruits that you talk about, about why they should be playing in your system and why you guys want them here?

I think first and foremost, they're going to be developed, they're going to be coached, they're going to be treated the right way.

They're going to be in a program where they can have the best of the best.

They can be elite on the field, play Power 4 football is what we say now, since there's no Power 5 football. But you're going to get to go line up against the best in the country. You’re going to Auburn. You're going to Florida State. Miami's coming here. You're playing in a big-time conference.

But then you've also got an opportunity to get a degree from the No. 1 public school in the United States of America. So it takes a special person, takes an elite person.

Those are the type of guys I'm trying to bring in here. That's what Cal's had success with in the past. We want to recruit the best talent that we can, but we want them to fit and we want them to stay and develop and grow here.

Any particular kind of benchmarks that you're looking to seek and reach out over the course of the spring?

We want to be efficient in the run game. We want to average five yards a carry on first and second down. We want to be efficient in short yardage.

Those are things that we'll track throughout the spring and then we want to be efficient in third down in general. So whether it's third, medium, third and long, we have to stay on the field.

We're tracking all of that stuff every day. We're tracking completion percentages of the quarterbacks, those guys, depending conceptually on what we're running now, if we're pushing the ball down the field, you're not going to complete 70% of those.

But if we're running our quick game stuff and our RPO stuff, we need to be over 70% completing that. So those are all things that we're keeping track of and kind of evaluating as we go through the spring.

When you looked at the first week was kind of the message to the quarterbacks?

Keep it up, keep it up. I thought they handled everything really well the first week of practice.

They've competed really well. They've worked really well together. I think they're making each other better. And coach Gilbert's done a great job of really tying their feet into their eyes and their progressions and everything else.

So I like where they're at and where they're headed.

Is there any chance there will be a number one quarterback at the end of spring?

I said it last time I was up here. Fernando is our number one quarterback right now. He's our returning starter. Obviously, Chandler has played a lot of football and is a really good player as well, so I don't think there's a timeline on anything, just like we're doing at every position across the board.

We want to continue to bring in competition. We want those guys to challenge each other. And the more we can create that competition, the better everyone's going to get. So I don't have a timeline on when that would be.