Cal Football Fall Notebook #6

8.21 Aidan Keanaaina, Trond Grizzell, Ryan McCulloch

As Fall Camp winds down and September approaches, Bay Area summer truly kicks into gear. “We call it sneaky hot” smiles camp stand out and team leader Aidan Keanaaina, affably. The scramble of intensive competition is giving way to game prep, with Corvallis coming clearer into view a little more than a week out. Keanaaina is first to hit the banner fresh off the field; he assures us sweating older writers that he will be more presentable next time. “Camp look, no shave, no haircut.” Half of us adjust our sweat-stained ball caps and laugh.

• The D-line has been a room with more consistency between this season and the last, and so it has garnered more positive attention than other areas of the squad, but the new guys are coming along too: “MA (Michael-Anthony Okwura), BJ (Buom Joc), they’re put in a position to play for us and do well for us this season, and we’re really relying on those guys to fill in those roles, the guys that are still here, Stan (McKenzie), Derrik (Wilkins), TJ (Bush), we expect them not only to do as well as last year, but improve.”

• Offseason training is often working on two competing truths, and so Keanaaina’s work was both general and specific, “My hands, my strike, my extension, my hand placement, workin’ on a little pass rush, when getting on edges, when I have one-on-one blocks, really taking advantage of that.” Adding, “I want to be as consistent as possible within my job, my technique.”

• This doesn’t always mean stats that show up on paper: “As an interior guy, there’s a lot more than just tackles, TFLs, we also do a job for our linebackers who are able to scrape over top. Sometimes we’re outnumbered on certain blocking schemes and we need to win on a double down block for a counter scheme, and we’re in a two wide, and we’re getting down by the guard and the tackle and we have to replace, we’re outnumbered on that side and one of us has to win the job and do a little bit more so we can win that matchup…It’s our job and something I love doing.”

Trond Grizzell is a player you know and love. A Cal player through and through, he is one of the longest-standing members of the team, a rock in a constantly flowing river. Much to that point, he’s a guy of quiet intensity.

• Mark Hamper and Jayden Dixon-Veal have made an impression on the vet of the wide receiver room, as has Quaron Adams.

• On Coach Harsin’s playbook, “Tough playbook this year, gotta put your time in studying, but everyone’s done a good job coming out knowing what they’re doing and making plays.” Without saying too much, expect shifts and motions. Later, he mentions he may see more snaps outside, as opposed to in the slot.

• On Jaron-Keawe; “You always have to be ready with him, you can never think the ball’s not coming to you.”

• Grizzell is encouraged that Coach Wilcox wants to continue the walk-on program that gave him his shot: “I think it's great, walk ons, you always gotta come in every day and prove yourself and i think a lot of walk ons here, for example Jeffery Johnson (Grizzell gestures off to Johnson, who’s still putting in work) come in, prove to the coaches you can play, prove to yourself that you can play, you’ll get the opportunity." As to where he’d be without the program, it’s a hazy rearview mirror that doubles as a useless crystal ball: “I don’t know, prolly would have played JUCO football, or would’ve just gone to college, a non-football life.” How would that have been? “Who knows how that would’ve been.”

Ryan McCulloch comes from a small enough high school that his opening answer is clarifying that his school did field an 11-man football team, despite a graduating class of 19 people. His largest class as a freshman at Cal was well over three times the size of the school where he came of age.

• The size of his high school was not necessarily a benefit from a recruiting standpoint, but he was able to play a lot of different positions on both sides of the ball. There were questions about some of the competition his prep school faced, however: “I have some God gifted abilities and my size, so I was able to put my name out there.” He recalls the many camps he attended as a counterbalance, including one at Memorial Stadium.

• McCulloch is fully healthy and present, recovered from past year’s injury and ready to play. Like many other players we’ve spoken to, he takes a moment to emphasize the help of the new strength and conditioning staff.

• Specific improvements; “It all starts with workouts.” Attack is the key word. “Things are moving in slow motion more when I’m on the field.”

• Maybe look for McCulloch and TJ Bush to attempt a few more punch outs this year, and don’t sleep on Jayden Wayne’s length and size.

• Goals are calcifying into hard numbers. When asked how many sacks he’s aiming for this year, McCulloch says “For sure double digits, but i’m hoping for 12 and a half, 13.”

• We as humans love team sports in part because of the difficulty in creating the kind of harmony and commitment to one another winning takes. In this regard there’s a lot to love from the 2025 Cal Bears; “Our room, compared to last year, it’s just…we’re more of a team. Not just in our room, but I’d say spread out across the board. There’s more team guys than there are individuals, and the best teams, that’s what it comes down to. People that put the team first instead of putting themselves first, so it’s been great.”