Cal Football: Is RB Coach Aristotle Thompson Ready for FBS Level?

Ask any football coach, scout or interested party, and they will say the same thing: "Football is football."

You can't argue with the statement, because football certainly is football. It's as irrefutable as the coaching phase "It is what it is," which is how coaches respond to a question they don't know how to answer.

But the point of the expression "football is football" is that coaching football is the same at the high school level as it is at the college level and the pro level. Now, you can debate whether coaching high school kids is the same as coaching skilled adults in the NFL, but the principles presumably are the same.

Which brings us to Aristotle Thompson, who is Cal's new running coach, replacing Nick Edwards, who left Cal to join Beau Baldwin at Cal Poly as the Mustangs' offensive coordinator.

Thompson finished off the Trading Places transaction by coming to Cal from Cal Poly, where he was the running backs coach for 11 years.

But Cal Poly is an FCS school, a level below the FBS plane at which Cal operates.

Thompson has worked a lot of places, but he has never been a coach at an FBS school. Yes, he was an assistant strength and conditioning coach at Boise State in 2001, and he was assistant director of football operations at Boise State in 2007 and 2008. But he was never an on-field coach at an FBS school. His coaching has been at the high school and FCS level.

Cal's running-back corps is a critical part of the Bears' offensive plans under new coach Bill Musgrave. Powerful Chistopher Brown Jr., is very capable of rushing for 1,000 yards in a season after gaining 914 yards in 2019. Marcel Dancy provides speed, DeShawn Collins has versatility and DeCarlos Brooks has potential. And Brown and Collins are talented receivers as well.

Thompson needs to develop his group as effecitvely as Nick Edwards did.

Thompson had a 1,000-yard rusher in nine of his seasons at Cal Poly, and he says the difference between Cal runners and Cal Poly runners is in the depth of talent.

"I think the pace is relative as far as the tempo of the practice," he said, "but the bodies you have moving around are moving at a higher click. You've got big bodies like Chris Brown moving around fast. Marcel Dancy moving around fast. We got a guy moving over from linebacker, Zach Angelillo, over there; he's moving fast.

"It's moving at a little higher click overall. At a place like Cal Poly you may a few guys moving at that pace. Get here you've got a lot of big bodies moving around fast."

Thompson is pushing his Cal players to be more physical, to punish the defender rather than step out of bounds. And there is no question he has the enthusiasm for the job, as suggested by his Tweet below. So far the running backs seem to be heeding Thompson's instructions to good effect.

Bottom line, the Cal running backs seem to be in good hands with Aristotle Thompson. The proof will come next fall, but, afterall, football is football.

Stepping into practice today like #GoBears 🐻 pic.twitter.com/pJ66OU2xO7
— Aristotle Thompson (@CoachAT23) March 6, 2020