Cal football weekend practice notes: Darius White, Brian Farley, tempo updates

We're one week away from the start of Cal football. We're almost there.

This is a short one. Here are the latest press conference notes from Sonny Dykes.

Matt Anderson would be the starter over Noah Beito if the season started today.

Cole Leninger consistent. There’s also about a minute of talk on punting.

Kanawai Noa will play for sure, confirming that at least one true frosh will be in the rotation this year. Brandon Singleton is a possibility, but his status as to whether he’ll play still remains up in the air.

With regards to the tempo, it’s looking like the Bears will try and move faster than they did last year, when they generally moved at a more traditional pace rather than the up-tempo pace that we saw in Cal’s first season. Sonny felt they rushed Jared his first year and tried to slow things down for him to operate more efficiently in year two.  The offensive line is moving much more quickly to get to the line, allowing for faster tempo.

Sonny did something similar at Louisiana Tech in year two, when his team decided to slow down when it was clear the offense wasn’t quite up to par. The defense actually stepped up, and that helped produce a conference champion. Last year Cal's defense wasn't ready for the challenge of keeping up with the offense, and Goff needed time to figure things out. Thus, the tempo had to come down as a result.

It's looking like this year both the offense and defense will be ready to play at an upgraded pace. Can't wait to see what they do.

• Execution. Execution. Execution. Execute. Heard this word a lot.
• Darius White looks a lot better this season after getting a full season of reps. White had to be thrown into the fire last year and had to learn on the job with little practice time. Dykes really thinks White could be an elite cornerback.
• Aaron Cochran was sick and missed practice. Aisea Tongilava had a toe injury and will be reassessed.
• Cal is looking for more physicality from now starting right tackle Brian Farley. They’ve seen athleticism, but they want him to be stronger and more consistent at the point of attack now that he’s won a starting tackle spot.