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Football: Scrimmage recap
By Jonathan Okanes
Saturday, April 10th, 2010 at 11:10 pm in Football, off-season stuff.
When asked to rate the quarterback play at today’s controlled scrimmage, Jeff Tedford pointed out the difference in experience between Kevin Riley and his competitors, Beau Sweeney and Brock Mansion.
Tedford was pleased with Riley’s decision-making on two bad snaps. Instead of trying to make something out of nothing, Riley scooped up the loose ball and immediately threw it away. Tedford compared that with Sweeney and Mansion’s inability to throw it away and instead take sacks at inopportune times. Mansion was sacked in the end zone for a safety while Sweeney took a sack that knocked the offense out of field goal range.
“That’s probably what separates (Riley) from the other two, his experience,” Tedford said. “Those two guys took sacks when they shouldn’t. Instead of him running around and then falling on the ball, (Riley) just gets rid of it. Experience is paying off for him right now.”
Tedford has also been pleased with the new competitive elements he’s added to practice. On many occassions, either the defense or offense has to do a set of “up-downs” if either the defense holds or the offense registers a first down.
Tedford says the players have responded positively to the heightened spirit of competition.
“You just hear it with the energy level that they have and the things that they say,” he said. “Today when the defense had to do three up-downs, they’re saying, ‘Why not five? Why not seven? It’s not about doing the up-downs. It’s about a competitive situation when you need to think about what’s going to make you win that situation.”
Riley talked a bit today about wide receiver Marvin Jones, whom he said looks like “he’s dedicating himself to try to be the best receiver in the Pac-10. Riley said Jones is working on getting off the line better so he can better separation and improve his playmaking ability down the field.
“When someone is up on him, he’ll kind of bounce back and dance around a little,” Riley said of Jones. “But he’s a strider. He gets past people. You don’t really realize his speed until he gets striding down the field. The biggest thing is he catches it. He has giant hands. They are like twice my size.”
Cal now has five practices left, including the open controlled scrimmage next Saturday. The Bears are back on the field on Tuesday.
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April 11th, 2010 at 8:26 am
Thanks for the report. Glad to hear that M Jones is stepping up, Cal clearly needs better wr play. What’s your observations on the other wrs?
Would be nice if we can get at least 2 other guys turn into legit p10 wrs. With Jones and Miller, then we might actually have a passing game if the oline can learn to block.
April 11th, 2010 at 10:44 am
On one of last year’s national telecasts it was interesting to hear the two play by play announcers talk about the WR corps of Cal. They mentioned that it was one of the best in the nation and I kept asking myself if I was still on planet earth. Potential to be the best and being the best are two different things. I hope that this component of the offense is up to the challenge this coming year, for if they are, it will make us that much more explosive. Thank you for the update and your dedication to Cal Athletics. The basketball team knocked the wall down. Now it is time for the football team to do the same.
April 12th, 2010 at 7:05 am
robert lerma Says:
April 11th, 2010 at 10:44 am
The basketball team knocked the wall down.
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I am told that given the nature of the poor play the entire season by EVERY Pac 10 team this was more like knocking down the wall of legos on a foundation of sand.
April 12th, 2010 at 8:08 am
You might want to rethink that analogy. Knocking down a wall of legos on a foundation of sand sounds really hard (that is, if you want it to break apart rather than just fall flat in an unsatisfying way)…You should spend less time on this. Go with your initial instinct — like what they teach you in SAT prep.
April 12th, 2010 at 11:01 am
Mustang, Jeremy Ross had a pretty nice scrimmage, as did Alex Lagemann. Michael Calvin still isn’t there yet. But in general, remember that i am not allowed to watch most of practice so it’s hard to really get a good gauge on how they are performing on a consistent basis.
April 12th, 2010 at 12:06 pm
Lagemann is the man. He was last year. Wish we’d have utilized him even more. Dude is always open for a short gain, and never drops the ball. Maybe this year we’ll stick to 5-10 yard passes and try to break for more yardage, instead of heaving the ball 40yards downfield into covereage.
April 13th, 2010 at 2:38 am
If healthy do you expect Michael Calvin to get back to where he was on the depth chart before the 2008 season? I mean he was #1 back then, so you think if he puts it altogether we would have a major weapon back. The guy looks like a power forward.
April 13th, 2010 at 11:08 am
Jon Wilner on the scrimmage…
http://blogs.mercurynews.com/collegesports/2010/04/11/cal-football-thoughts-from-spring-practice/
April 16th, 2010 at 3:08 pm
Will, it appears Calvin still has a long way to go. He was healthy for a lot of last season and couldn’t work his way up much of the depth chart. Don’t think he is making many inroads this spring, and now he is hurt again (groin). I think it would be considered a major bonus if Calvin becomes a starting-caliber wide receiver this season.