The fall camp routine is routine for everyone now. Ian Strong is back in the full swing of practice. Ricky Fletcher is leading stretches again and working back in. Scouts from the Steelers, Rams, and Jets talked amongst themselves and with personnel guys during independent drills.
Auburn transfer Towns McGough appears to be excelling in the battle to be Cal’s kicker on opening day. The Auburn transfer, who is also an Auburn native, could be seen sinking shots beyond the 40 yard dash this morning. Later, a special teams coach assures his room they’ll be getting in reps all over the field today. “We’re gonna be everywhere today, it’s like when you’re a dancer, use all the space.” He jokes. Three weeks in, one thing to be noted is that no player ever seems to be too far away from their next rep.
The offense works through some fun passing drills giving multiple quarterbacks chances at meaningful reps, something returning quarterbacks coach Nick Rolovich touches on in his press availability later. The drill appears to be a layered option designed to make sure the back is finding their reads on top of the one-on-one battles corners and wideouts get to engage in.
On the other side of the field is Tosh back with his defense. A redshirt freshman from Houston, Khamani Hudson, is praised for reading out the situation correctly. I think back to yesterday’s coaches availability and their comments on freshmen lighting a fire under the vets and making their own push for the field now that the limitations on underclassmen are lessened. In another catching drill, inside linebacker Tristan Jernigan gives presumptive RB1 Adam Mohammed hell on a rep, and they praise each other afterwards, piling back in line to go again.
Quarterbacks coach Nick Rolovich and running backs coach Keith Bhonapha are made available to speak with press after practice. Bhonapha is an Oakland native who also serves as recruiting coordinator. He is noticeably methodical in his coaching manner during independent drills, and is seldom heard yelling. He also has the full attention of his position group, who typically drill along the sideline nearest the goal zone, and are to be watched for by any bystanders with a sense of personal safety.
In addition to his main title, Bhonapha is also helping handle special teams, particularly returners. “The thing with the kick return responsibility is overall making sure we have the ball at the end of the play,” he says, hinting at a smile, “so really just getting these guys decisive, communicating out there.”
Bhonapha is happy to have a lot of different assets in the room, referring to the varying skill sets as a “gumbo” that comes together as a cohesive unit. He does point to Adam Mohammed and Carter Vargas as standouts not just in running, but in pass protection.
“Carter surprised me with how cerebral he is with the pass protection, understanding the checks, understanding what needs to happen, and he is physical in the pass game. Adam is just so stout, when it comes to getting up there, he’s just a bigger dude with really good technique, he can sit down there and really hold the point.” He notes that in pass pro an overlooked inflection point is the depth and width of the pocket depending on who’s blitzing, and those two have delivered thus far.
Nick Rolovich is presiding over an under-discussed but crucial aspect of this fall camp: the battle for QB2. Rolovich is quick to bring up the unusual wrinkles in practice structure and how they specifically help situations like this.
“The way that Coach Tosh has set up practice has been very effective when you’re talking about a battle like (the battle for QB2). The amount of reps every guy gets…you get a huge piece of work you’re able to make decisions off of, and I haven’t really been around that before.”
Continuing on about practice structure: “The way practice is organized it really leads to everyone feeling a part of it, everyone feeling like they have a chance, and it’s been really good for us to track numbers, decision making, you start seeing patterns, what is someone better at, what is someone maybe struggling with, you find things sooner I found…More banked reps in those types of situations that allows for a fair evaluation.”
With regards to JKS, Rolo stated that the “restart of sorts with the new offense was the new focus.” Referencing things they’ve been working with him on, running back screens, working on certain aspects of arm slot placement and sack avoidance were listed.