The most important news actually didn't come from the press conference, but the Pac-12 coaches teleconference. Sonny Dykes has confirmed that Matt Anderson beat out Noah Beito for the starting placekicking job. Beito had been leading in the spring, but Anderson has put on a strong performance this fall to win the job.
Griffin Piatt, as expected, is also a no-go for Saturday. If both are healthy, expect Damariay Drew and Stefan McClure to be the starting safeties.
To the press conference notes (You can watch the full press conference above.)
Sonny Dykes
On team quality: "We’re in a good place right now." Want to take the next step, get to a bowl game, eventually a championship.
On academics: Cal has gone from one of the lowest performing to one of the best performing programs in the country. The numbers will prove that (APR scores should be released later this fall).
On running back rotation: We’d like to play all of our running backs, because they’ll all play at times this season. Tony Franklin is committed to running the football and it’s important for us to run the ball.
On Grambling State defense: They're very aggressive. They got 45 sacks last year, and they provide pretty good size and strength to pressure.
This may include true freshman Lonny Powell, but it's not clear. The five running backs in the rotation for sure will be Daniel Lasco, Vic Enwere, Tre Watson, Khalfani Muhammad, and Jeffrey Coprich.
On Dominic Granado at center: Did a very good job at camp, accepted the challenge well, performed better than expected. Most importantly, he's snapping the ball well. He'll be facing off with a nose guard against Grambling, so that will be a challenge.
On Darius Allensworth: He had a good spring, got stronger, got confident, continued that progress.
On Jared Goff: He's improved from last year's excellent season. Goff seems more comfortable at going faster and Cal is more efficient at getting the calls and the signals in.
Jared Goff
On his Cal experience: "When I was making my choice about where to go to college, everything about Cal made it an easy choice."
What he's looking forward to: "Seeing what our team can do this year. We've put in a lot of work."
On Grambling State defense: "They're going to have some athletes over there no matter what. There is going to be some pressure."
On self-improvement: "I've been working on having more control out there and doing more things on my own. I've gotten a lot more comfortable with it."
Goff on goals on offense: "We want to try and score every time we get the ball. That's our goal in every game."
On relationship with Granado: "He's doing a great job. We have 100% trust there." He's improved a lot during fall camp.
On the senior class: "This is a year with a senior class that's been through a lot and no one wants it more than they do. We want to send them out on top."
Bryce Treggs
On goals for the season. On what score points.: "Coach Franklin says our goal is to score more points than the opposition... If we do our job, we expect to score 50 or 60 points per game. The whole #drop50 thing is good, but we don't have a set thing we want to do."
What Bryce sees on the gamefilm from Grambling: "They run ... presnap ... defensive backs are flat across the same plain about seven, eight yars. They roll to Cover 3, Cover 2, disguising coverages."
On gameplan: "We're going to game plan against what we saw, but we're also going to be ready to see something completely different."
On what this season means: "The season means a great deal because we've struggled in the past... This is the year that we'll... put Cal on the right trajectory..."
On Tony Franklin and experience: He gives the offense a lot more freedom, allows Jared to do more checks with the line, checking routes in general. In the first few years Franklin wasn't comfortable with that.
On execution: "If everybody does their job, I don't think there is a team that can stop us. That's really what we believe."
On Jared: Goff is more comfortable with getting on young guys, getting on receivers. He didn't want to overstep his boundaries the past few seasons. He's taken on a greater leadership role this season. Coach Franklin has given him the opportunity to tag his routes at any time.
Jalen Jefferson
On biggest improvements: Darius White and Darius Allensworth have taken the biggest leaps. James Looney and Mustafa Jalil help bring it together up front.
On playing against this Grambling offense: We have to work on fundamentals, avoid getting gashed by big plays.
On White: Came in last year in dire circumstances. Loudest player on the defense; "I don't get tired."
On Allensworth: Allensworth has been locking up Treggs and Lawler this preseason, should bode well for the preseason.