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Cal Football 2020 Assessment: Part 2, Rushing Defense

One critical component of the Bears' run defense is gone, but will it matter?
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Part 2 of our seven-part series assessing Cal's 2020 season deals with the Bears' run defense.

Cal inside linebackers coach Peter Sirmon, who was promoted to defensive coordinator in the offseason and will call the Bears defensive signals in 2020, provides a video on what the Bears will try to do to stop opposing teams' run games.

Cal Stats That Matter

2019 Opponents' rushing yards per game -- 126.2, 4th-best in Pa-12

2019 Opponents' rushing yards per carry -- 3.6, 4th-best in Pac-12

2019 Opposing players who rushed for 100 yards -- Washington's Salvon Ahmed (119), Arizona State's Eno Benjamin (100), Utah's Zack Moss (115)

The two teams that met in the Pac-12 championship game last season ranked first and second in opponents' rushing yards per carry. Utah led the way, allowing just 2.7 yards per attempt, and Oregon was second at 3.3. (The NCAA lists Utah's yards-per-attempt allowed as 3.0, but it still would lead the conference.) That tells you how important rushing defense is.

Cal has done well against the run the past two seasons, allowing just 3.6 yards per rushing attempt in both 2018 and 2019. It's a major reason Cal went to bowl games the past two seasons. But to compete for a conference title the Bears have to be even better against the run.

Five issues will determine whether Cal can achieve that:

1. How much will the loss of Evan Weaver affect the Bears' run defense?

Cal returns six of the players from its front seven, which sounds promising. But the one player who is not back was the best run-stopper in the country. Inside linebacker Evan Weaver was the Pac-12 defensive player of the year, a first-team All-American and the nation's leading tackler. He was also the emotional leader of the defense.

"Evan was a very, very productive player, really the energy of that front seven," defensive coordinator Peter Sirmon said. "But we're at a point as a program where that next player is ready to step up."

That "next player" might be Evan Tattersall, and whoever occupies that spot will be surrounded by some excellent talent, most notably outside linebacker Cameron Goode and inside linebacker Kuony Deng. Lost amid the publicity that Weaver received is the fact that Deng ranked fourth in the conference in tackles last season and is positioned for a big 2020 season.

Cal's two defensive ends, Luc Bequette and Zeandae Johnson, are both proven sixth-year seniors, which leads us to . . . 

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2. Can Brett Johnson be a force at the nose guard position?

The most important position in a 3-4 alignment in terms of run defense might be nose tackle.

"That's a position where the dominant defenses typically have an interior force that's very disruptive," Sirmon said.

A nose guard won't rack up impressive statistics, but a man in the middle who can occupy blockers and reset the line of scrimmage makes it easier for other defenders to make plays.

As a freshman last season, Johnson opened some eyes as a nose tackle, a position that is difficult for a young player to master.

"He's a guy that has the versatility to play a couple different positions," Sirmon said of Johnson. "He made some really great plays last year just trying to survive, not really understanding where he fits in in the grand scheme of thing."

You could make a pretty good case that the 6-foot-5, 285-pound Johnson is the Bears' single most important player in determining Cal's succes against the run in 2020.

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3. How much will the loss of both safeties hurt Cal's run defense?

Typically the front seven get the credit or the blame for a team's run defense, but safeties Ashtyn Davis and Jaylinn Hawkins accounted for 113 tackles, including 5.5 tackles for loss, in 2019. And a lot of those tackles came in the run game. Losing two sure tacklers who were taken in the first four rounds of the NFL draft will have an effect. 

Elijah Hicks was moved from cornerback to safety to fill one of those vacancies but the other safety spot seems to be open. In any case, Cal's back line of run defense figures to suffer a bit.

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4. Will the promotion of Peter Sirmon to defensive coordinator make a difference?

Head coach Justin Wilcox went to great lengths to suggest that naming Sirmon defensive coordinator did not change the defensive decision-making process much. But there has to be a reason that a new person will be calling the shots on defense after Tim DeRuyter had been doing it the past three seasons. 

Sirmon would like to get more tackles behind the line of scrimmage.

"I'd like to be able to grab a few more tackles for loss," he said. "On first and second down for the offense to get behind the sticks, and give our team a little better opportunity of rushing the quarterback."

Second-and-11 puts the defense in better position to determine the offense's play-calling than second-and-5.

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5. Will Cal's defense be able to deal with the addition of more "heavy" offensive formations?

Sirmon notes that defenses have adapted to defensing the run game out of spread formations, but there seems to be a move afoot by Pac-12 offenses toward more power running sets, which require the defense to adjust.

"The conference is continuing to give us challenges between 12, 13 personel," said Sirmon, referring to offensive alignments with one back, two tight ends and two wide receivers (12 personnel) or formations with one running back, three tight ends and one wide receiver (13 personnel). "We're starting to see what Stanford is doing, UCLA with three or even four tight ends, Washington with a couple tight ends and a fullback, so those things that are a little more challenging."

Utah in particular had success running the ball with power sets against Cal. 

Having to deal with two very different types of offensive formations might be the reason the Bears have added a hybrid safety/outside linebacker position it is calling the Star position. Trey Paster, a 6-foot-2, 205-pound defensive back who will be a freshman at Cal in the fall, seems to be the prototype for this position, which provides some flexibility against the various offensive alignments Cal will see in conference play. Who will man the Star position this season and how often it will be used remain to be seen, though.

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Conclusion

Cal will continue to have one of the Pac-12's best run defenses, and it will advance to the top two or three in the conference if Brett Johnson makes signficant improvement. Kuony Deng might lead the Pac-12 in tackles in 2020, and Cameron Goode might lead the Pac-12 in tackles for loss. The one concern is that the Bears may yield more big-play runs because the back line may not be the reliable tacklers Cal had last season.

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Click here for Part 1, Rushing Offense

Click here for Part 3, Passing Offense

Click here for Part 4, Passing Defense

Click here for Part 5, Big-Play Potential

Click here for Part 6, Special Teams

Click here for Part 7, Momentum, Expectations, Schedule, Depth

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Follow Jake Curtis of Cal Sports Report on Twitter: @jakecurtis53

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