Cal Football Spring Game 2018: A final notebook.

So here we go. Spring is coming to a close. Summer is upon us. Fall is right behind. Before I leave you with our most substantial football write-ups for months (excluding recruiting), we end with the Spring Game 2018. The setup once again was not a full blown spring game but a practice with four Live Game periods. Instead of making it analytical, I want this piece to just lay out the facts. What happened. Who did what. How many yards did he get. So on. The usual. You know me. It’s notebook time.

• A few players were held out of the live scrimmage due to injury, fatigue and/or unknown. Elijah Hicks, Kanawai Noa, Melquise Stovall, Demetris Robertson, Vic Wharton, Evan Rambo, Zeandae Johnson, Gabe Cherry, Lone Isaara Toailoa. Some of them actually suited up and went through the first half of practice with positional drills or walkthroughs, but were all kept out of the live tackling period.
• Even though Hicks has been injured he has been everywhere on the sidelines and interacting during drills, on the sideline during plays, and hyping up the entire defense on any given play.
• Biaggio Ali-Walsh is coming into his own. He’s getting comfortable in how to use and control his speed and elusiveness. During the Oklahoma Drill along the sideline, he “juked the shoes off of Ude.” Thats a direct quote. From me. On the CGB Twitter account.
• Biaggio also scored a rushing touchdown with a huge burst of acceleration to get through the gap and into the secondary where he shed two tackles. He celebrated with a Fortnite emoji, the simple high stepping in semi-circles.
• Malik McMorris had a ballerina moment down the sidelines during the Oklahoma drill. He literally did circles as he tightroped the sideline. It was a sight to behold and cherish.
• So now for the stat time. This is compiled stats of three live tackling play the game sessions and one 4th and 1 live tackling session.
• Only three touchdowns were scored during the periods. Biaggio Ali-Walsh with a 19-yard TD Run. Malik McMorris had a 1-yard TD Run. Ross Bowers threw a beautiful fade to the back corner for a 16-yard TD to Jordan Duncan.
• Play calling as a whole was split 39 run plays to 31 pass plays, there are some in there that are RPOs so they could have gone either way.
• Team rushed for 85 yards on 39 attempts and two TDs.
• Team passed for 139 yards on 18/31 passing with one TD.
• Biaggio Ali-Walsh led all rushers with 46 yards on 6 carries with a TD.
• Derrick Clark had the most carries with 14 and gained 45 yards.
• Patrick Laird participated in the early half of practice, but Coach Wilcox said he had taken alot of snaps during practices so just withheld him from the live tackling periods as a break.
• Ross Bowers was 6/11 passing with 66 yards and a TD.
• Chase Garbers has emerged as a legitimate player in the QB race. He ended his day with 8/11 passing with 35 yards. The stats may not show it but he flashed with some solid runs and very sound decision making.
• Brandon McIlwain was 2/3 passing and 35 yards. He had a beauty of a throw down the sideline, that may have had a little too much air, but was thrown in the perfect over the outside shoulder of his intended target 20 yards downfield.
• Derrick Clark led all receivers with 6 receptions, but only got 15 yards.
• Ray Hudson had the most yards with 35 on 2 catches. Those catches also came on consecutive plays that were the same route but just a flipped play.
• The other side of the ball absolutely dominated today.
• Rusty Becker had 7 tackles and 2.0 sacks. He was an absolute disruptive force.
• Alex Funches had 5 tackles and 1.0, though he was just a half second away from a second one.
• Evan Weaver showed his middle linebacker prowess with a solid 5 tackles.
• Cameron Goode had 4 tackles and 1.0 sack and looks to be a great 1-2 punch on the outside with Funches.
• Newly minted linebacker Ben Moos also had a great day with 4 tackles and a sack. The linebackers were raving about him and how he is going to be a great player once he fully grasps the system and playcalling. He definitely has the body build to play LB right away.
• Colt Doughty, Siu Fuimaono, Jaylinn Hawkins, Daniel Scott, Trey Turner all had 3 tackles a piece during the live periods.
• Cam Bynum only had 2 tackles and one PBU, its pretty evident that he’s locking down that side of the field that the QBs are not willing to throw in that direction.

Alright. There you have most of it. Well, I lied. Now I want to rewatch the game and do a more thorough breakdown of plays. Also to over think the playcalling and guess who will be playing where and when. So be on the lookout for that in the next week or so. As always. Go Bears.