Cal football practice notebook: Andre Carter joins the staff!

Today was a pretty mellow practice, with guys doing some scout work and a good amount of special teams. Not much to note on in-depth, so I'll just get straight to the bullet points. Here goes:

• Daniel Lasco looks really good w his cuts & balance
• Dylan Klumph looked good and I saw Cole Leininger with one short kick. All of the guys have a big leg but get a so-so punt every now and then
• Highlight play: Jared Goff to Kenny Lawler for 60 yard TD over D White
• The 2nd team DL was beating the 2^nd team OL, and got to the QB a couple times, but...
• Forrest looks solid in the face of pressure and actually got a couple completions off with guys right in his face
• Griffin Piatt was the only guy in red. Crazy healthy camp!
• Both Austin Aaron and Carlos Strickland are gonna be good for us this year. They have ridiculous reach and height

And the interviews...

Dykes:

• Voting on captains on Friday. It could be as many a 5, few as 2
• Borrayo was held out a bit today. Nothing physical, he was just a little sick
• Guys are overall in really good shape, and they keep getting bigger and stronger "as good a camp, as healthy a camp as we've ever seen," and the "healthiest I've ever been a part of" as a coach. He really praised the strength & conditioning program as well
• They have been mixing up the o-line a bit. He said that you'd "like for your starters to play 80% of the snaps," so that's what they are aiming for. He did mention a couple other guys that could contribute
• McClure is way ahead of schedule
• Piatt did a lot yesterday and not sore today, so they are hopeful for him playing earlier on in the season
• When asked about the record-breaking offense, he said that "Statistics are in a lot of ways for losers. We want this program to be a championship program"
• When asked about who could play dime, he feels like they have about 3 or 4 DBs that could rotate the position
• The third corner is Darius White
• Grambling plays a spread offense, and overall is a good football team. They're excited to play them
• Andre Carter, one of the great Cal D-linemen, is coming in as a student assistant coach.

James Looney:

• Looney is a fun guy to talk to. He's quite gregarious, and was excited about the upcoming season, and coming back to finally play after sitting out a year
• As for Berkeley, the people are the best thing about the town
• His favorite food in town is Zachary's pizza
• He mentioned that the defense as a whole are like all good buddies off the field
• Moose, DeVante and Kragen are all playing really well together, and are all good friends
• As far as the offense goes, his favorite player to go after is Jared. But he chuckled and said that's pretty off-limits,
• I asked whether he would beat Vic Enwere or the other way around. He said he'd win. "Vic, I don't think you got me one time."

Vic Enwere

• Vic said that he's gotten Looney angry a couple times, because as a running back you tend to juke around the tackles and they can't get off blocks to catch you
• His favorite food in town is Hawaiian BBQ, and Chicken macaroni salad
• When I asked how many guys he's going to truck this year, he responded: "Hopefully enough to where I can't count"
• He's really excited to have a 300-pound fullback in McMorris. "even when he's wrong here's right," and he's done a great job acclimating to the college game. Also just a nice guy
• We talked a bit about how there's a full group of running backs. He mentioned the great history of Backs at Cal, and noted that there are 5-7 guys that could see the field and really contribute
• Favorite guy to go against on D are Michael Barton and Looney and Hardy Nickerson

Andre Carter was over in the corner chatting with folks as well, but I couldn't catch most of the questions since I was chatting with the other players. I did get one thing at the end, though - just that he's finally getting to slow down  and take in all the beautiful things in Berkeley and the Bay Area. He seemed like he was just really happy to be back.

Looks like Tuesday practices will be open for the rest of the season, so if you're free in the afternoons (around 4:15 PM) feel free to drop by!