Cal Football Fall Camp: Practice Notebook #3

8.14

8.14 - Vic So'oto, Terrence Brown, Julian Griffin

Upon entering the stadium as practice winds down the only change that’s apparent is in the weather. Bay Area summer doesn’t kick in until mid August, and almost everyone I walk past in the facility or the field will remark what a nice day it is. No new injuries to spot, one position group earned themselves some post-practice up-downs. Occupational hazard.

Co-Defensive Coordinators So’oto and Brown seem to balance each other out visually as well as well as temperamentally. So’oto was up first and represented the soul of the trenches admirably.

Vic So’oto

The general sense is that the physicality and desire to hit is showing through in the whole group, you hear reserved satisfaction with the effort being put forth, with the unspoken understanding that anything less would be a disaster and unacceptable. It’s not hard to envision what Cade Uluave meant in his first week stating “The standard is the standard” after listening to Coach So’oto. Expectations are clear.

• “These guys are really hungry. We have a lot of guys with a lot to prove…there’s been a lot of position battles, both offense and defense. We’re seeing our guys attacking the ball, really trying.” The approval is tentative because ultimately you don’t know where you’re at until you’re playing opponents. “What you can tell, from what you’ve seen in the past, from guys that come in is; Do they like to hit? Is there a stomach for violence? Day in and day out, are they running to the ball? Where is the effort level regardless of how they feel.” So far, so good.

• In addition to Cade Uluave, we can expect defensive lineman Aidan Keanaaina to start as well in terms of known shoe ins when asked.

• Where there is turnover you will find intense competition; “At the cornerback position, we lost two guys to the NFL, we bring in some really good players, young guys are stepping up, so there’s a consistent battle there. The outside edge guys, my guys, the outside backers, who took a lot of snaps, are in different places, and now we have guys that have been in the program, and guys that have been brought into the program that are battling there as well. At every level, even opposite Cade, there are 3-4 guys that can play really well, now it’s just who’s consistent and who’s productive… Usually (by now) things have really settled, right now our defense is really competitive.”

• On Buom Jock: “Physically, he’s built like an Outside Linebacker, he’s a big dude and he can run. He shows a lot of playing time, a lot of violence in what he does. Seeing him in live practices up in the front is what we’ve been evaluating.” But there’s no temptation to move him to outside. “We’re pretty loading outside.”

• Coach So’oto spoke to the culture that has been built in the DB room and how it’s attracting an exciting type of player; “It’s a credit to the coaches, they’ve created a culture that you want to be a part of. You wanna be in that DB room, you wanna play like the guys that have come before you. So coming in…that is the mindset. The mindset is to come in and be an elite DB. And so they have the habits, how they work together, they have the culture in that room first and foremost and then the players we brought in are humble and hardworking. These guys show up every day ready to work, and they know there’s an opportunity, that’s the other thing, it’s wide open.”

• Speaking on his experience coaching special teams, So’oto touches on the special recent past of the room, and tells us that’s what we can expect of the players who will ultimately be making the plays; “There wasn’t a doubt in anyone’s mind, when they stepped on the field as a Special Teams player, they knew what to do, they knew they had to do it fast, and they knew they had to be physical, and that is what I think you’ll see on Saturdays…We’ll give them opportunities to be in one on one situations, and it’s on them to win those one on ones through technique and fundamentals.”

• The focus is simple. Physicality is law. “At the end of the day, you play defense at Cal, you’re gonna hit somebody. There is no way around it.”

Terence Brown

If So’oto brings the thunder, Coach Terence Brown brings the lightning. He’s spritely and energetic without betraying any inner chaos. He has a bright energy that feels grounded. I can also imagine him sending a wideout into a blind rage while backpedaling during his playing days.

• Off season preparation has been successful. Coach Brown is as happy as everyone else with the way Coach Novak got the boys right physically over the summer. We’ve heard enough people say this to understand it’s made their jobs easier in certain regards, but it’s just as important that the players were proactive; “These guys have really bought into what we’ve emphasized, in terms of being aggressive, hunting, going after the ball, creating chaos…turn on the tape and you’ve got big guys like Aidan Keanaaina running on the perimeter, I mean, that’s saying a lot.”

• On Cal defense’s recent tendency to send DB’s to play on Sunday’s; “The defensive back room specifically, those guys have set the bar really high, we’ve set the standard, and we’ve been fortunate enough to have some guys that were in the room with a few of those guys, the Craig Woodson, Elijah Hicks…so they know what the standard consists of.” He continued on to mention the incredibly stiff competition has also come with intense comradery, in line with what we’ve been hearing most of camp.

• More DB talk; “Those guys (the DB room) have done a really good job at taking the reigns themselves, they’re running their own walk throughs when we’re not around, in the meetings, going on the board, watching tape when we’re not around, and then that translates to when we come around, we continue to uphold that standard, and challenge them even further than that.”

• It was noted that players call (Cameron) Sidney ‘Old Head” in the room.

• The word “hunt” has become thematic this camp. “We took it upon ourselves to gather the leaders of the defense and really establish the identity that they wanted to be identified as, how they want to be seen, and there was a list of words, adjectives, that were presented. They all fell under the umbrella of hunting. Nothing has changed in terms of how we play defense, it’s just that now they know, subconsciously, ‘I’m out there aggressively hunting.’”

Julian Griffin

Coach Griffin was officially announced as the Cal running backs coach in late January of this year. In what has been a historically limited Fall Camp, it’s been impossible to miss Griffin’s energy as he drills the backs during second period. He set aside a little time to talk about what should be a very physical running game.

• Griffin brought senior Brandon High with him from UTSA, which has helped quickly translate what is being asked of the position group; “Brandon bring a lot to the room, obviously he knows me, my temperament and style of play, but another thing he’s brought to the room is just a knowledge of the game, he’s a young player, but extremely smart, high academic kid as well. He understands defenses, and how to play with leverage, obviously has speed.”

• The skillset between the three primary backs (Brandon High, Kendrick Raphael, and LJ Johnson) are “very different”; “I was just talking about Brandon, you know he’s 5’10-5’11, but he’s also 219 pounds, but he was a 10.4 hundred meter guy coming out of highschool, so he’s a big kid that can run. On the flipside you have Kendrick. Kendrick’s a great player, he has great speed, he has long speed, he’s very quick, he’s like cat quick in the backfield, he’s a guy that can make people miss. LJ, he has the best of both worlds, he’s able to run pretty fast, right? He can get downfield, he has great hands, and on the flipside of it, he’s powerful. I can see him getting in between the tackles and making those hard and tough runs.”

• Pass protection is the key to getting on the field. “When it comes to pass protection, I’ll tell you this and you can quote it, ‘Pass protection is job protection’, if you cannot protect the quarterback you will not play.” Who’s the best at pass protecting currently? “Probably me” He answers laughing. “Out of those top three guys you mentioned, it’s pretty close. I don’t wanna rank em, but they’re close.”

• On who is the best at catching the ball out of the backfield; “Oh, I will say that. Right now I’ll say that LJ Johnson has the best hands, and I hope he sees this so the whole room can lose their minds about that. He has the least amount of drops.”

• Last week Harsin mentioned leaning on two backs, and this room sounds as though it has three guys capable of stepping up. The order isn’t clear, but, “There will be a featured first and second down guy, you’ll have somebody that can be a change of pace back, and then obviously we’ll have that third guy. That third guy’s gonna be the guy that’s gotta go get it. Is it short yardage, is it end of game, is it situational. Yes it will be a heavy rotation of top two but that third guy…the talent level in the room is different. We have guys that can play all over the field.”

• The clear goal of this room is to get downhill. “We want to be a downhill run football team, and so the guys that we brought in, these transfers, they know, we’re between the tackles, we’re hitting the A gap, we’re running downhill behind our pads. It’s just a mindset, I think that with these new guys, with this new energy, that everyone understands this is what we’re doing and why we’re doing it, and once we do it and we believe it, then success will come.”