Cal assistant Aristotle Thompson chats up his running backs

The Cal running backs coach was interviewed after last Wednesday's spring practice.

What was it like to be back out there after the break? And what did you see from today's practice?

It was a lot of fun being back out there. I wish we had a little bit more pads on. Bu you want to get back out and just get the guys to move around, get their legs going.

It was a good tempo. It was good seeing guys push the issue, get some more tempo stuff going. Really getting plays out there and it was a lot of fun seeing guys take the ball the distance, saw the jet catch a couple of them, take it down the sideline, had a good run in there.

But one of the things that stood out from it is we got to continue to work ourselves into shape. Jet [Jaivian Thomas] has a really good run then he comes back and he's dragging tail. I'm looking at him and I'm like, “Hey, you're coming out.” And he's waving me off. And I'm saying, hit it then.

Don't, don't, don't be over there, huffing air, huffing and puffing, all that. Hey, get going, man. So that was a sense of something we need to work on. We got to do some more conditioning. We got to push the issue because we're not looking just to be in football practice shape.

We're looking to be in the best shape of our lives. Every time we go out there onto the field, we've got to show we're in the best shape of our lives.

In addition to that, what are some other things you have your guys focusing on this spring?

Well, one of the big things for us is always going to be contact balance. We've got to be able to play through guys' hips. Guys are going to fall off of blocks, guys are going to come unblocked sometimes. We've got to be able to take that hit and keep going.

So playing with great pad level, playing with great leverage and ball security. We got to put the ball underneath our chin, got to be able to clamp that thing.

What are some of the focuses for Jaydn [Ott] coming into this season?

Some of those things I just said. Play with better contact balance, getting yourself back to square, not having a narrow base when he is getting into those in-between the tackle runs. He's getting vice-tackled by two linebackers, being able to power through and have some knockback from the guys.

We all know that he can run. We all know that he can get an opening and go, but we want him to show that how he's grown that he can play behind his pads even more to be a force in and every down.

On rotating between all the runners

Well, the thing that stands out to me about the guys from Jaydn through Dean-Taylor Chapman, one thing that stands out for me is their mindset. They come to work every single day. They're locked in. They don't flinch.

I press the issue with them. I am not a coach friend. I don't have kid gloves about it. I'm going to press the issue with you because our standard is our standard here. And so the way that they respond to the way that I challenge them gives me confidence to put any one of them in at any time.

And so that's probably the biggest thing. Oh, hey, this guy does these routes, or this guy runs these plays really well. It's the mindset that they approach the game with. They're willing to work and get better and show they can do it all.

Can you talk about Calloway? What does he bring? What makes him different?

Well, Calloway brings a little edge to him, right, up here from Mississippi by way of Old Dominion. He's got a little different edge to his game. He is very good at dropping his path and stepping on somebody's face and keeping going.

But do not let his running style in that fool you. He can fly. He can fly. And I love that about him, that he has a dynamic balance to his game.

And so I have to continue to grow him in the way that we operate the system and the way that we continue to finish and in the way that we will stone guys in the pass pro, the way that we'll make guys miss in the open field. But I love his edge that he brings to the table.

How many running backs can play in a game?

Well, it all depends on where we're at in the season, how guys are health-wise, all those things come into play. I think we went to the USC game last year, we played five backs and it was not by design.

Some guys got dinged up, had some other things going. And so we just kept it going. And that's what I talked about, about the mindset of our guys, that we had guys that week in that SC game that were on scout team that week and we didn't bat an eye to put them in the game.

That's what the room is about. It's not about one guy, it's about the room.

With Calloway, he's had such an interesting journey from being one of the highly-touted kind of safeties in the country, to going to Alabama and then going to Old Dominion.

Have you sensed that there is like a different kind of hunger with him about how he approaches everything?

Well, what I sense really about him is somebody who grew up fast and understood what he needed to work on and what he needed to be.

And when you look at the journey of the different places that he's been, it shows perseverance. It shows somebody who says, okay, hey, no matter the scenario that I'm put in, 'm willing to work to get what I want and where I want to go.

So when you have somebody who's a fighter in life, you rock with them on the field because when they get the chance to get in between the lines, they're going to give everything because they've had to do so much just to get to that opportunity, just to get to that spot.

So he's not going to fold. He's not going to whittle under pressure. He's going to keep elevating, keep pushing to be the best he can be.

How happy are you see Byron [Cardwell] back out there? And what was that adversity like for him to kind of battle through last year?

I think it was a really, really tough scenario because Byron is a guy who's really conscious of his body and understands what's going on within his body. So to have that injury is almost a disbelief. Like, wait, like what? What's going on?

And so to see him attack the rehab process, he is ahead right now of where he should be and he has been. But we just kind of kept the training wheels on him a little bit.

But to see him back out there moving around now, he caught a ball, I think it was in practice four, caught the ball in the flat and it was behind him. Right. So he flips his hips, catches the ball, gets it, turns and gets vertical. So, I said okay, he's getting back to stride. And so it's going to be fun to see him take these next couple of steps as we start giving him more contact so he can get back to playing the way he's capable of.

It's been a lot of fun seeing him work and seeing him smiling again.Yeah, I mean, it's a tough deal when you sit through a season and you got this knee brace on and you're just doing rehab stuff on the sideline.

But when you get a chance to get back out here now and you see him smiling, see him enjoying it, that's fun.

That's why we coach, put the smile on the kids' faces.

Now, you mentioned Jet earlier, he made a couple of plays. How much of that experience last year helped him and how valuable is that going to moving forward for him?

Well, I think any experience that you get helps you grow, right, and it could be any experience, even being on the scout team. But then him playing in a game, right.

Him scoring a touchdown against USC, him having some plays against Oregon State and then also his pitfalls that he had.

He had a really, really scary injury in the Oregon game. So I think it's allowed him to say, okay, I belong here, I can do this.

And I don't have to play cautious. I don't have to worry about, oh, I'm only this size or I do this. I think he's starting to realize I'm a college football player, a dang good one at that. And we'll continue to see him ascend and be a threat on this team and in this conference and in this nation.

Coach Bloesch has talked about establishing the run a lot. How do things change with you guys with the new OC?

Well, I think that coach Bloesch brings a mindset of we're going to run the ball down your throat if we have to, right. Now, we got some dynamic wide receivers that we'll get the ball out to, but I think it gives a sense to the O-line that, hey, our guy is calling it now, so we're going to go even more. The running backs know that he's going to lean on the run game, so we're going to give it a little bit more.