For things to work in my puny head, graphics are required.  I constructed a graphic of one potential Cal defense for next season, and since there had been discussion by others here , I thought I'd post it up.  I reviewed the Stanford game again, which I considered relatively successful defense, and  blended-in my own opinions.  It has their class ( in 2010 terms) and their experience level next year beside it.  Hope it helps any who, like me, rely on visuals a lot.

Edit: I reviewed the comments and the poll results and updated the graphic and the text beneath it. Accordingly, the graphic below is the second version for this post. Edited text is in italics. Thanks to those who commented and/or responded to poll.

Click to enlarge

DLine used rotation in 2009. Assuming that continues in 2010, the front three above are considered the current top three of those. Consensus was pretty strong from responses to this post that Derrick Hill will start at NG, so I moved Kendrick Payne into the rotation pool and out of the start NG position. Inserted Chris Conte into the second safety position, presumably FS, removing Alex Logan. Finally, reviewing the poll below, I placed DJ Holt in the fourth linebacker position, an open position on the original graphic.

I don't know if I'm happy with it, but I expect Hagan at corner if he can keep his demeanor together. Josh Hill will be competitive if healthy, and hopefully he is coached well to develop properly.  That is the largest question mark in my mind for next year - DB coaching.  Where I arguably go against the grain is with Nnabuife; I believe he has good ball instincts and good fundamentals. He doesn't appear to be an athletic powerhouse, at least not in 2009, but his head and instincts are more consistent than others. I like that and coaches like that. We'll see.

I intend to post another one of these for the offense, time permitting, unless someone else does. Hope it helps. Happy holidays.