Cal Football Spring Practice: April 8th Report

Another Wednesday means another day of spring practice for our Golden Bears. This one went relatively quickly, ending within 2 hours with shorter segments being the norm for the day. There were two team segments, along with 7 on 7, and 1 on 1's between WR/DB and OL/DL groupings. It was a pretty simple day, and considering that the team was in shells instead of full pads, it didn't need to be a hard hitting Wednesday

First off, it was sunny and not at all windy like Monday's practice, so the quarterbacks had a much easier time slinging the ball around. For parts of 1 on 1's the wide receivers had a mild case of the drops. Trevor Davis, Ray Hudson, and Darius Powe all had a couple easy passes hit them right in the hands and bounce off.

Jared Goff and the rest of the first team got a lot of run today. After a few drops and overthrows, Goff got the offense humming in the first team session, completing a couple quick passes before the perfect play call against the six-man rush the defense brought. They called a screen to Vic the Brick for six. Seriously though, the screen to Enwere went for 64 yards where he rumbled untouched. Enwere seems to have a big play every day of practice, which bodes very well for the fall.

Chase Forrest is definitely benefiting from watching Jared operate, There was a point where Jared pump-faked, freezing the defense to get a couple of guys open. The next series of 7 on 7, Forrest does the same thing, opening the field up for him to find a target. Forrest's development is a surprise this spring, but it bodes well if Jared chooses to leave next spring. Forrest also has a better than expected pocket presence, scrambling well and throwing on the run. It is the first time in a while that there has been this high of a level of confidence in our quarterbacks. You have to go back to 2003, after Aaron Rodgers took over for Reggie Robertson, to have a similar feeling to today.

During the first team session, which was a situational third down drill, there was a bit of a rumble that occurred after, and Cedric Dozier and Dominic Granado were in the middle. Dozier was in the red jersey today, so that was definitely a lapse in judgement on his part. The defense didn't look too impressive during this period, but that can be chalked up to an offense that was clicking today. One point of note was Kyle Kragen's newfound explosion. He got off the line extremely well today, but that can't win when the quarterback gets the ball off as quickly as Goff does.

A few miscellaneous notes from today:

• Stephen Anderson was out today. Matt Rockett, Kyle Wells, Patrick Laird, and Chad Hansen all got some good run in his absence
• Wells did get cracked by a smaller David Gardner on a crossing route.
• Only two kickers were used during the FG attempts at the end of the team period at the end of practice. Beito and Cervenka only had the two field goal attempts. They do practice up at the new Maxwell field during practice though
• Leininger is starting to get a little more Bryan Anger-esque. He's vastly improved from his freshman and sophomore years

During the final team period, there were a few gems. Jared read the defense in spite of some good pressure from Kragen, and delivered a ball to Maurice Harris right over the linebackers and defensive backs for a 30 yard TD. Two plays later, he threw a 15 yard TD to Darius Powe on what looked like a Spider 2 Y Banana. Two perfect throws for Goff, who only missed on one throw during the last team session. There weren't too many runs at the end, though Lasco did get some good gains on his few runs. The best play of the team session came on a Trevor Davis catch from Forrest. Davis was blanketed by defensive back Hassan Ibrahim, but managed to reach around the side of Ibrahim to steal a catch for a long gain.

Anyway, it was a short practice, which should foreshadow a much more physical practice on Friday.