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Rob's Practice Notebook:
- It was a pretty short practice at 8:30 AM. With Golden Bear Day and the Pigskins & Pearls event, the team had a packed schedule to go on yesterday. To The Football!
- A lot of fundamentals work and light drill work was done. With Pac-12 Networks on the field filming as well, the team didn't delve too deep into the play book during walk throughs as well.
- They did have a scrimmage session though.
- Jared Goff only had a couple of drives, the rest of the reps were taken by Chase Forrest and Ross Bowers.
- A lot of fumbles today. Trevor Davis had a fumble that was thankfully recovered by Darius Powe. Khalfani Muhammed had a fumble forced by Michael Barton.
- Harry Adolphus is great when he hits his punts with solid contact but the consistency hasn't arrived yet. He also got a punt blocked after taking too long on the catch and wind up.
- On Defense, the 1s, 2s, 3s were all mixed up. there was no real depth chart today. I saw units that I had never seen so far in Fall Camp.
- On offense however, the different personnel groups were set and noticeable who the starters and backups were.
- Ross Bowers has thrown well of late. Capped the day off with a TD to Worstell, and a great fade throw to Austin Aaron.
- Watching Cole Leininger punt is pretty amazing.
- In my opinion, Tre Watson has the best side step and juking out of the RBs. He danced his way to an easy 20 yard run. He's a great change of pace type back compared to Daniel Lasco and Vic Enwere.
- Juju Coprich is by far the biggest surprise out of the RB group. He has been running with authority and force through the gaps and easily has had some of the outstanding runs.
- Kanawai Noa has been pushing for play time with his play. He had another highlight reel grab and shed a tackle from Joel Willis for some extra yards.
- From there, the team went into a simple 2 minute drill where the offense needs a TD to win and the defense just needs one stop. The play clock and game clock was on to simulate.
- The offense pushed the defense back and back. and with under 10 seconds left, Jared threw a perfect pass to Stephen Anderson in the corner of the end zone. Anderson fully stretched out diving for it as well.
That did it for practice, but I had a chance to talk to 2 new freshman, Brandon Singleton and Malik Psalms. Here's some of the key quotes!
Brandon Singleton:
- "I feel like I'm just as fast and just as strong [as the other WRs], but I do need to work on the little things."
- When asked about Coach Dykes saying Brandon is the fastest guy on the team, "I'm not going to argue against it!"
- When asked about any position in particular he wants to play down the line, "Anywhere they need me, I think I can play inside and out."
- When asked about his adjustment to College, "I have a great support system, my mom my dad, they try to help me through this whole process and what I'm going through."
Malik Psalms:
- When asked about how campus life has been, "I love it, just moved into dorms and getting roommates. Love that I can go and get all the food in the area...I love C.R.E.A.M."
- Talking about the speed and physicality of College Football, "The shocking part about everyone is how fast everyone is on every play. Usually guys slow down as the game goes on but everyone here gets faster."
- Talking about freshman class, "We're all family, we came in together, we lived together through the Bridge Program, we might jaw each other out a little, but the ultimate goal is to make each other better, and make this team better and hopefully win a championship."
- Talking about the WR corps, "This is the one program where I can honestly say that they are consistent in everything they do. Consistent out of their breaks, consistent about their speed, consistent about their route running. There isn't a drop off from the 1s to the 3s. even from the 1s to the 5s. They are going to catch the ball."
The two freshman were great interviewees and could not have answered the questions with more poise and composure. The season is just around the corner and when asked about what they are most excited for about Gameday they both had the same answer, "The football and the atmosphere."
California Love. California Rising.