Cal Spring Football: First Day in Full Pads -- Some Good, Some Bad

The first time players put on full pads in the spring always brings loads of anticipation. It's when the hitting and real assessment can begin.

Well, Wedneday was the fourth day of spring ball and the first practice in full pads. It was nice to see the defense and offense going semi-live against each other, but it was difficult to make any value judgments. I say "semi-live" because the offensive and defensive lines went at each other, and running backs took some hits as they maneuvered through the line, but the whistle blew before ball-carriers were brought to the ground and before wide receivers took hits. Quarterbacks are always off limits to hits.

A number of front-line players sat out with injuries, although inside linebacker Kuony Deng, outside linebacker Cam Goode and offensive takle Gentle Williams are the only potential starters who will miss all 15 spring practices.

The Bears' offense looked like a squad that still learning the new scheme being put in by new offensive coordinator Bill Musgrave.

"First day of full pads, learning going on," head coah Justin Wilcox said of the Wednesday practice. "With the new offense going in and new verbiage there, I think they've done a great job in one week, learning from the repetitions that they're getting.

"The more you put in on offense, the more you put in on defense, the variables grow exponentially, so just a ton of really good learning going on."

Wilcox was reluctant to characterize Wednesday's practice as being a good or poor workout.

"Both," he said. "There's some good, there's some not so good -- that's generally how it goes this time of year. I think their effort has been good. There's a lot of nuances that they're thinking about."

Wilcox noted coaches are finding roles for certain people "and finding out what we're going to be good at."

The coronavirus has not yet had a signficant impact on Cal's spring practices. Sanitizing is an emphasis but there have been no changes in terms of practice and the practice schedule.

"Nothing has changed in terms of scheduling as of yet," Wilcox said.

Does he expect it to change?

"I don't know," he said.