Cal Football Practice Notebook: The Starters.

15 days until Cal v. Hawaii. 9 days until the team leaves for Australia. It’s getting close folks. Let’s get to the details.

Rob’s Practice Notebook:

• Today was a day for the starters. The 1s were locked in and seemed to be in midseason form.
• On that note, let’s be realistic. Our WRs may have starters who are listed, but how many believe that they will get the majority of the snaps there like we had our starters last season? My take? Our WRs snaps are equal across the 2-deep.
• Jordan Veasy will be a fan favorite. He plays like a mad man... IN A GOOD WAY. He attacks the ball, doesn’t forgive himself for any dropped pass, and gets fired up over times he makes plays over defenders. His intensity will be a great spark for THE BENCH this upcoming season.
• Have we had a notebook without talking about Brandon Singleton? The kid redshirted last year, but is playing in camp like he was a three-year starter. It’s simply amazing how much he has improved from just his raw speed to becoming a polished WR. Back-shoulder TD catch. 40-yard TD on a go route. He capped off his day with an AMAZING (and I mean PLAY-OF-THE-DAY AMAZING) grab leaping over Chibuzo Nwokocha—Nwokocha had no idea what happened. Singleton can beat you in a variety of ways. He’ll be a household name at Memorial the next few years.
• “Davis Webb throws downfield. TOUCHDOWN DEMETRIS ROBERTSON!” That’s going to be a phrase we hope to hear quite often this season. So far in camp it seems as though that will be the case. The two are building a good connection with each other.
• Different RBs get the start to 11s at every practice and today was no different. Vic Enwere got the start at RB today and boy did he look good. His first two touches resulted in first downs.
• The front 7 of the defense is looking a lot better in relation to the start of camp. They’re more active on going after the ball carrier and feed off the energy created by the DBs. Our front has become a lot more athletic and it seems we’re making strides to nail down the fundamentals to make sound defensive plays.
• Chase Forrest seems to have picked up a few things from Jared Goff. 14 was 16 when he threw a PERFECT fade pass to Vic Wharton III who was surrounded by two DBs.
• Matt Anderson missed his first FG Attempt of the day. A 29-yard attempt clanged off the upright.
• Luke Rubenzer as a full-time safety has helped him fully grasp the position. He’s making great plays, reading the progression of the offense, and getting to the right spots to make the play.
• D-LINE ALERT. D-LINE ALERT. Cameron Saffle soundly beat Steven Moore on a OL vs. DL 1-on-1 drill.
• Kanawai Noa is getting into the thick of the battle for the WR depth chart. He’s been forcing his way into snaps every practice and Sonny said today that Noa would be getting more as camp goes on.
• Davis Webb is slinging it and slinging it well. He has a particular warm-up that he has been doing and teaching the younger QBs. He says that the warm-up is great and he has never felt this fresh halfway through a fall camp. (The warm-up drill he does is one developed by Tom House and used by NFL QBs such as Tom Brady and Matt Ryan)
• Ray Davison has been making plays. He almost had his third INT of camp and just barely missed hauling it in. The defense looks fast, plays fast, and loves attacking the ball.
• Darius Allensworth is going to have one side of the field locked down for Cal. He's been making plays on the ball either with PBUs or INTs. The question now is who gets the start across from him. As it stands right now it is a two-way battle between Marloshawn Franklin and Antoine Albert. It’s hard to tell who has the lead in this competition, but it’s safe to say the competition is pushing both of these corners to get better quickly.

Some random small notes:

• Pac-12 Network was on hand filming for their Fall Camp Preseason series.
• Roxy Bernstein was on hand taking in practice, maybe getting some prep work in for the Bears games he might call this season.
• Ray Davison’s presser was fun and awesome. Take a watch below.

California Love. California Rising.

Post Game Pressers:

HC Sonny Dykes

LB Raymond Davison

QB Davis Webb