BearTalk

In between media access sessions here at practice.  As usual, there isn’t a whole lot to see during the first 20 minutes, which is almost entirely focused on drillwork. But the defense did line up as an 11-player unit a couple of times during drills.

This is the first  day of practice, so obviously not too much stock should be put into this, but here is who lined up with the first unit on defense:

DE: Trevor Guyton, Ernest Owusu

NT: Austin Clark (?!)

OLB: Dave Wilkerson, Ryan Davis

ILB: D.J. Holt, Mychal Kendricks

S: Sean Cattouse, D.J. Campbell

CB: Marc Anthony, Steve Williams

Josh Hill is not practicing. He is on the field but not participating. Not sure if he has an injury or there is another reason, but will find out after practice.

Kendrick Payne is in his practice gear but wasn’t lining up with the defense. Neither was Aaron Tipoti. Interesting that Clark was getting the reps there. Keni Kaufusi was with the second unit at nose tackle.

Not sure if Kendricks is moving to the inside for good or this is just one of those experimental spring practice things. Kendricks has played on the inside in the past, and I believe he prefers playing inside.

The second unit looked like this:

DE: DeAndre Coleman, Gabe King

NT: Keni Kaufusi

OLB: Cecil Whiteside, Lucas King

ILB: J.P. Hurrell, unknown (player without a number on his jersey showing)

S: Alex Logan, C.J. Moncrease

CB: Vachel Samuels, unknown (player wearing No. 15, but there is no No. 15 listed as a defensive player. QB Zach Maynard wears No. 15 on offense).

A coule notes about the third unit: it included Nick Forbes at linebacker; I thought he would be higher on the depth chart. …Chris McCain was getting OLB reps on the third team. He is an impressive  physical figure on the field — helps to be 6-6, 213 pounds.

There was nothing that gave you any indication what the pecking order is at quarterback. During backfield drills, Brock Mansion was taking reps with Isi Sofele and Will Kapp, making you wonder if that means he is starting as the No. 1 guy. But walk-on Ryan Wertenberger followed  with the second reps, which means there probably wasn’t any order to the drill.

During offensive line drills, it looked as though Mitchell Schwartz was at left tackle, Matt Summers-Gavin at left guard, Dominic Galas at center and Justin Cheadle at right guard. Then several guys were taking reps at right tackle, including Chris Adcock, Alexander Crosthwaite and Matt Williams. Not sure if this also means that Cheadle is starting in front of Brian Schwenke at right guard.

Again, these units may not have a whole lot of signficance. Spring is a time to look at younger players and use different combinations. But the first team defense sure looked a lot like what you would expect it to be at this juncture.

Today’s practice is at Skyline High School in Oakland. It would have been at Golden Bear Field on the  Clark Kerr Campus, like some others will be, but the recent heavy rains made it unplayable this afternoon.

A couple of other notes:

• True to his promise, Jeff Tedford appeared to be very involved coaching the quarterbacks from the outset today.
• Schwartz appears to be even bigger this year. The spring roster lists him at 6-5, 325 pounds.
• Jim Michalczik in his Cal gear coaching the offensive linemen — like he never left.

More tonight after practice and I file my story for tomorrow….