Cal football 2024 spring practice no. 2: Offensive coordinator Mike Bloesch talks shop
What is the new Cal football offensive leader observing in his first days at spring practice?
What Cal offensive coordinator and offensive line coach Mike Bloesch does this season for the Bears will likely make or break this team’s first year ACC chances. Here’s some of what he’s seeing from his first press conference with the media during spring ball.
On offensive line depth this spring:
Yeah, so only have 11 guys practicing right now, so they're all in rotation. And, we know the guys that have played a lot of games started a lot of games around here. But we need to elevate the play in the room as a whole and get some guys ready to go if we need them.
So competition I think it's been really good. We brought in a couple of transfers to continue to develop that competition in the room and I'm excited about where we're at after two days.
On tight end turned offensive tackle Nick Morrow
Nick Morrow is a guy that came in as a tight end and he had to add a lot of weight. He seems to be more prototypical OT size right now.
Nick's doing great. I'm really, really impressed with his offseason and really just his last year since he's been here. I think he's gained about 50 pounds since he's been here. He's gained a ton of strength. He's gained an understanding of what we're doing offensively. So I've been very pleased with where he's at.
On the two transfer linemen
[Rush Reimer] is doing good. He's doing good. So just two practices under his belt. But he is another guy that's played a lot of football. So you're not having to coach some of the things that you have to coach freshmen offensive linemen with. We're really just straightinto scheme, technique, fundamentals of how we do things here.
We've got him working inside right now, but we're going to definitely take a look at guys in different places.
Victor Stoffel is on the right side, working at tackle.
On wide receivers
Yeah, so, excited about the speed really across the board of that room and then getting Mavin Anderson back healthy is going to be huge for us. But the new guys, [Jonathan] Brady, Mikey Matthews in the slot, we want to be more explosive in that and at that position and I think we addressed that need in the in the transfer portal.
Marquez Dortch was a young guy he transferred over last year, didn't see much time, but he was making some plays out there. Dortch is really coming along too. He got here last year and had to adjust to being a long way from home, new school, new system. But he had a really strong off season. I think he ran one of the fastest 40's on the team.
There's no substitute for speed. We're going to find a way to utilize our fastest players. I can promise you that.
On Fernando Mendoza improvements
Yeah, Fernando can run. A lot of people see him as this big, tall, 225-pound quarterback, that he's just kind of a pocket guy.
We're not going to run him just to run him, but he's going to be able to help us, account for extra guys in the run game and definitely keep people honest with him.
He's definitely faster and stronger, but that's a testament to how he works. Nobody ever says anything bad about the way Fernando works. So we know he's going to put in the time, the effort, the energy with our strength staff. When it's off season and we can't meet with them, he's down in the weight room and he's out on this field training with the strength staff, so he's doing whatever he can to make himself a better player.
I like where Chandler's at. He's played so much football, has a ton of experience, and I think just the competition between him and Fernando is going to be huge, elevating both of their games.
We want competition in every single room, every position on this team. We want guys to feel like there's somebody trying to take your job.
And that's the reality of college football. So we're going to continue to try to bring that in, even in the probably the next transfer window, continue to add to our offensive roster with more guys that can create competition.
On managing being both the offensive coordinator and the offensive line coach
I think I manage it just by coaching football the way I've always coached football. Off the field there's a lot more involved to it, as far as running staff meetings, running unit meetings, really getting everybody on the same page schematically with how we're going to attack things.
But on the field, the reason I've always done it and the reason I did it when I got my first coordinator job was I knew that no matter what I installed offensively, if the O-line wasn't any good, it didn't. It wouldn't matter.
And so that's something that Justin and I talked about. Whenever he promoted me to the spot, he felt like I did a really good job with the O-line last year.
I obviously have a ton of confidence in what I can do coaching those guys and I want to continue to see that unit develop because if they develop, and we can dominate the line of scrimmage, it's just going to make everybody's life easier.
On the improvement of TJ Session and Sioape Vatikani
Just savvy vets now, which is nice. I got here last year and really had to clean up some things with those guys.
So they're a year in the system, obviously, from a run game protection standpoint, a lot of the stuff we did last year was my stuff.
So they're very comfortable now going into spring number two with me and schematically what we're doing. So we're really fine tuning some minor details with them to clean them up.
I think just their leadership, really the standard that we're trying to uphold in that room and them understanding what that looks like every day.
When I got here, whatever it was, 14 months ago, I talked about that with those guys. I walked in and I said, We're going to be the reason why we win games.
But saying that and doing that are two completely different things. And we had some games where we did close out games up front. And we just leaned on those big boys and we got out with some big wins down the stretch following the O-line.
But we also had games where we didn't, and so we're still trying to raise the bar. I told those guys the other day that we are that is now the floor of who we're going to be going forward.
And so that should be, last year's should be the worst that the O-line is while I'm here.
On what Bloesch’s offensive scheme is looking to accomplish
We want to obviously start off with running the football. I think every great offense is built around being able to run the ball. We did that well last year with Jaydn ended up leading the Pac-12 in rushing. So with four guys coming back, that's, we got to make people respect the run.
And then I think the one thing that's probably a little bit different about me is we're going to try to push that thing down the field. We're going to create matchups on the outside. We're going to see a lot of single high defense because of the way we can run the football. And we're going to have guys isolated.
And so our goal is going to be super explosive in the pass game. We're going to run our RPOs and things like that that we've done. But you're probably going to see a few more shots down the field.
On the center position
Obviously losing Cindo early in the year last year was a detrimental hit to us. But Brian [Driscoll] did a great job of stepping in.
But we have guys that we've also been repping there for the last year. Bastian Swinney has been repping at center last year. Matthew Wykoff actually started 10 games at center at Texas A&M.
So we have guys that are going to be able to snap the football and, again, as we go through spring and really determine who our best five players are, that'll kind of determine how that shakes out.
On Kadarius Calloway, Byron Cardwell and the RB room
I've been impressed with [Calloway]. Yeah, we know he's got the home run speed. It's great to have another guy like that. And so we just, we'll put the pads on on Friday and we'll really get a true feel for those backs.
I think [Cardwell is] as good as he's been since before the injury. We're still trying to take care of him and bring him back slowly but surely. But I think he's going to be [ready] by the end of spring. I think you should see him rolling out there.
[We’ll] keep feeding them, keep feeding them and leaning on them and letting those guys find their unique skill sets and utilize ways to get them on the field. Again, you could see some packages where there's multiple guys on the field. So those are all things that we'll evaluate as we go through spring and post-spring heading into the fall.
On the QB battle
I think obviously right now Fernando is our starter, so he's our returning starter. But the competition that's going on right now is definitely elevating his play. We'll evaluate that at the end of spring and if we feel like there's a clear cut difference and we need to do that and speak on one side or the other of it.
But right now we're just letting both of those guys get reps and see how good that room can get.
I’m impressed with Bloesch. Listening to him, it really makes sense why guys would want to play for him. Good for recruiting and good for player development. Confidence and diligence are infectious.
Mike Bloesch comes across as a smart, sincere, level-headed man who knows what he wants and has a specific plan to get there. I’m impressed. Thanks for the introduction.