Cal Football: Camryn Bynum Says Watch Out for Safety Craig Woodson

Almost every year some player comes out of nowhere to become a mainstay for Cal. Players like safety Ashtyn Davis and running back Patrick Laird leaped into stardom after living in football anonymity.

In 2020, that player could be safety Craig Woodson.

Camryn Bynum, a fifth year senior who has been a starter at cornerback the past three seasons, is among those who have been wowed by Woodson, a redshirt freshman who played sparingly in four games last season.

"He can just find the ball," Bynum said in the latter part of the video above. "In bowl-game practice, he had at least 10, 15 interceptions in a couple weeks. There's days when he would get two or three in one segment of team, so he just has a knack for the ball."

Bynum expects to get some practice time at safety and may play on the backline occasionally in games next fall. As a result he is watching film of Davis and Jaylinn Hawkins, who were Cal's starting safeties the past two years.

"I watched them a lot," Bynum said, "and Trey Beck also, because I may play a little nickel, but I've been watching their safety work a lot, and I realize how good they really were."

The Bears also have a new secondary coach in Marcel Yates, who replaced Gerald Alexander. Alexander, who left to take a job with the Miami Dolphins, received a lot of credit for the success of Cal's secondary the past two seasons.

Cal has a lot of changes in the defensive backfield, but it still operates under the system head coach Justin Wilcox installed. There seems to be plenty of talented defensive baks to fill the voids, but experience at those positions could be an issue.