The Notebook: Spring Football 2019 #9

With the Spring game in the rearview mirror, the Bears finish out the spring with three more practices. The Bears took to the field on Monday with some particular points of emphasis to work on from the Spring game. Let’s take a step back though, many of you are probably wondering where the report from the Spring game is. Due to my decision to watch from the stands and take notes, and not from the press box, theres a few things I need to rewatch and check via my DVR. I’ll have that analysis for you on delay for this Wednesday. Thanks for understanding! In the mean time, here are the notes from Monday’s practice!

• Light practice of game scenarios, instead the practice was more focused on individual drills and working on some negatives from the Spring game.
• What a day for the defensive line. Would-be sacks by Zeandae Johnson, Braxton Croteau, Lone Toailoa, Tevin Paul, Chinedu Udeogu, Siulagisipai Fuimaono, Luc Bequette and Orin Patu. Added quite a few hurries and pocket collapses as well.
• Kuony Deng at OLB is a force to be reckoned with. Coach DeRuyter had said that they had packages for him to be moved outside in pass rush, and they showed off some of those looks in practice. The amount of speed and power in the front 7, without needing to add more pressure, to create mismatches and mistakes was mind-blowing.
• That being said, the QBs battled in passing situations. Chase Garbers only had two incompletions and one was due to Colin Moore not expecting the ball to be thrown his way and had the pass come off his hands. The other miss was just the wrong throw to McCallan Castles. His feel for the pocket is improving as well. He did not look to run first even though the pocket around him collapsed, but instead waited until there was nothing to throw to before scrambling away. Chase threw passes with what the defense gave him, and did not test taking the top off of the defense.
• Devon Modster had a solid day as well. Modster had the only would-be touchdown of the day. A deep pass down the sideline to Jeremiah Hawkins resulted in an easy 35 yard+ TD. He also arguably made the hardest throw of the day, throwing from the right hash all the way to the left sideline for a comeback route to Ben Skinner. Modster did have some easier misses on the day though, including some short passes.
• The OL seemed to struggle today in passing situations. They were contested and overwhelmed by the DL on multiple occasions. There were moments where the OL lost their first step off the snap to the fast DL package and gave the QBs no time to survey the field.
• Traveon Beck continued his march to most interceptions for Spring camp with another pick. This one was reminiscent of his pick against USC this past season.
• We got an update on Christopher Brown Jr. from Cal Football during practice as well. After being injured in the Spring Game, Brown is expected to miss the rest of camp, but be ready for workouts very soon. Thankfully, it seems like it was a smaller injury.
• The scariest package on defense on Monday was seeing Cam Goode and Kuony Deng line up outside with Tevin Paul and Zeandae Johnson inside, backed up by Evan Weaver and Evan Tattersall. My gosh, the amount of speed and terror that group can bring to an OL and QB is down right scary. There was also much more variety in those speed packages with who was lined up where, but this lineup, in my opinion was the scariest.

That’s it for Monday. You know the drill.