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I'll try to have my thoughts on Spring Practice as a whole by the end of the week as soon as things at work die down a bit.
For now, enjoy some of the always terrific reporting that Bear Insider has up over on their site. They're also sharing two videos. The first is 8 minutes of footage from the first spring practice over at Oakland Skyline High. Remember, the Bears will be moving around this spring to different locations for practice, due to the returfing efforts at Witter Field. Which, might I add I think will ultimately be a good thing. It'll be nice for the Bears to practice on different kinds of surfaces in preparation for the season. I know it'll be a bit inconvenient in the short run, but I'm hoping it pays dividends.
Anyway, back to the video. A couple of quick thoughts:
1) I'm impressed with new QB Coach Marcus Arroyo's energy. I had some previous clips of him leading some drills back at Wyoming, and liked what I saw. It's apparent that his enthusiasm and intensity during drills won't die down one bit here at Cal. Tedford has stated that the guy is a pure football junkie, so I'm cautiously excited about the joint mission (along with Tedford himself) to revitalize the QB corps for the Bears. Actually, I'll settle for one QB for now.
2) I almost shed a tear seeing Coach M back coaching the O-line. Coach M. wasn't always the loudest coaches during drills, and there was only a brief highlight of him with his o-linemen, but it was nostalgic and comforting to see Coach M. doing his thing again. Quietly coaching, perfecting, and hopefully dominating.
3) Coach Lupoi is as fun as ever to watch coach. The guy is gets all the credit in the world for being one of the nation's best recruiters, but I don't think he gets enough props for the work he does with his defensive line unit. They are in my mind the deepest and most solid of the three units on defense, and you can't take away the work Lupoi has done with his group in his short time as D-line coach. Tosh'd.
4) Anyone else salivating at the idea of what Coach Kiesau might do with this group of wide receivers? I couldn't make out too much of his directives to his group, but let's just assume it was something about being awesome. Yes? Let's.
5) Coach Tedford has stated that he would be much more involved with the QBs this year, and you could already see that in his interactions with the QBs. I haven't attended many practices in the past, so it's hard to see if this was a noticeable change over previous years, but his involvement was obvious in the clip.
6) Coach Gould looks as fearless as always coaching up the runningbacks. Very brief thoughts on the backs. Trajaun Briggs looked explosive in his cuts and his footwork looked solid for a guy coming off injuries. FB Eric Stevens still appears to be the most athletic and fluid of the fullbacks. I'm excited to see how he'll do with another year at the position.
7) Austin Hinder still looks really skinny. Can't remember the last time I saw a Pac-10 quarterback that thin. I don't think he's topped 190 pounds yet. For a guy who's 6'5, that's pretty stringy.
8) Fun to finally see Zach Maynard throw some balls in a Cal helmet. He's easy to pick out. The only lefty quarterback on the field.
9) And no special teams footage? I'm craving me some Anger smashes.
The second video has an interview with Jeff Tedford as he gives some fairly standard responses about the importance of Spring practice, as well as some nice info on injuries and Josh Hill's current status.
Read the rest of the post and comments here >>
