Cal Football Spring Practice: Day 5
Bill Musgrave takes the stand alone after losing a QB to transfer.
The major Cal news of the day wasn’t about on-field activities, but on-Twitter ones. Sophomore QB Jaden Casey, the former Calabasas recruit with an offer from Alabama, announced his intention to transfer. Offensive coordinator and QBs coach Bill Musgrave spoke to the media after Wednesday’s practice.
Musgrave stayed focused on the remaining quarterbacks on Cal’s roster, telling Casey that “we wish him the best” before getting back into a discussion on the current Cal QBs.
With Casey and QB Devon Modster’s transfers, the backup QB position for the Bears is unclear. Spencer Brasch, Zach Johnson, and Robby Rowell are the three contenders. Musgrave was adamant that “all of them are doing good things,” saying he’ll know more as practice progresses.
Zach Johnson is the only QB left that hasn’t featured in a Cal game during his career, so Musgrave took the time to break down Johnson’s game. What Musgrave emphasized were traits that made Johnson one of the traveling QBs last season - he’s “real sharp,” studies the playbook to anticipate routes on the field, and can run nearly as fast as starter Chase Garbers.
In regards to Musgrave’s offensive vision, he believes that there’s a good chance that Jermaine Terry will see some action, and more action than special teams, this fall.
“He’s getting a lot of turns playing our Y-position,” said Musgrave, referring to an in-line TE that’ll both block and run routes. He thinks that Terry remains raw but has certain abilities that make him a clear candidate for playtime.
Musgrave also spent some time talking about the wide range of skills that the wide receivers group has. Trevon Clark, Kekoa Crawford, and Nikko Remigio were the targets of Musgrave’s praise today.
In the running backs room, Musgrave has loved the play so far of Chris Street and DeCarlos Brooks. Overall, he calls the room a “good young stable,” a necessity as he also mentioned that Christopher Brown Jr. was injured in the fall. In fact, Musgrave said that last year was an anomaly for the Bears’ maligned run game. This spring, Musgrave mentioned “we’re definitely ready to expand the run game” with some gap and zone schemes that were not featured in the playbook at all before.
The Bears will practice again on Friday. As Musgrave brought up at the end of his session, last spring, the Bears only got to have four practices. With today’s fifth, “we’re already in the black.”
To me, Crawford, Remigio and Clark are mostly possession receivers that don't stretch the field very often. I wonder how Musgrave is going to prevent defenses from cheating up to the line of scrimmage to stop the run in his pro style, run first offense. I don't believe that any true freshman is going to make a huge difference in that regard. They rarely do.
Is it just me or does Musgrave give some of the best interviews. He is so mellow, and old school, and seems to give more detail if asked for it. I think if the reporters were to ask him better scheme questions, he would happily bring out a white board and diagram things! Not to give away what Cal plans to do, but just explaining some of the finer points of football.