Cal OL Nick Morrow chats about starting at left tackle in spring camp

One of the surprise stories of spring practice is finding a potential tight end turned offensive line competitor.

On learning how to play with the 1s

They've been good. Got more comfortable with it now. Just adjusting to the speed and the physicality of everything. It’s just made it a lot easier to focus on the offensive playbook and reading the defense.

Going against the ones you have to deal with some some heavy pressure sometimes. David Reese had a sack today. What's it like dealing with more dynamic pass rushers?

Going against a guy like Reese every day, it's a challenge for sure. I started doing that last season with him and X [Xavier Carlton] and all the other edge rushers we got during Scout [team practice].

I think it's just a blessing to be able to work every day against edge players that are that high level. The guys that we have just help make me better. Obviously going to lose some reps, but we just learn a lot through it.

The journey and transition from tight end to playing first team offensive line.

It's been crazy. It's a lot of eating, a lot of food, just trying to remind myself every day, especially when I first got here, that it's going to take it's a journey, it's a process. It's not going to happen overnight, just keep getting better and better every day.

Has it been difficult to put on weight?

Once I got used to it. At first it was definitely challenging, but I feel like once I started adding, it was a lot easier because I was more in a routine, got used to how I was doing things and just working at it.

Do you have a calorie target?

Not necessarily. Just talking with the nutrition team we have on the strength staff, just eating as much as I can. I'm not really worried about exactly what how many calories I'm eating.

Where have you seen your biggest development from day one?

Probably just comfort level, being able to attack the defense on run plays and being able to make my reads and know what I'm doing compared to just reacting to what the defense is giving me, just being able to control it.

On learning to communicate with many new offensive linemen

It's always gonna be a work in progress, but I think we've come a long way from the start of spring ball, just echoing calls from side to side of the line, and just working together at it and just realizing that that's something that we needed to be better on, focusing on it.

On Matthew Wykoff doing left guard, working at center.

It's been good working next to him. I definitely have some footwork, but I kept running into him on some of our combos, so something I had to get cleaned up, but he's been great. He helped me out understanding that I might be a little bit slower on some of the calls and recognizing guys and stuff.

Him and Bastian [Swinney] at left guard today, both of them have been a huge help. And then on the other side, even Vati [Siaope Vatikani] and TJ [Session] helped me recognize the right side and maybe things I don't see.

On working with Coach Bloesch as the new offensive coordinator

I was really excited just knowing that he believed in me from the first day he got here and that he was going to be moving up with us and just continue. I was just excited that I got to keep working with him.

On what Bloesch is stressing as the new OC/OL coach

He's just stressing, not making the same mistake twice. You know, it's okay. You're going to make mistakes and mess things up, but not doing it twice in a row. Just working out our mistakes that we keep making.