Cal Football: Where the Offense Stands Entering Saturday's Spring Game

The Cal football team will be on public display Saturday afternoon for the last time until its season-opening game Sept. 2 at North Texas when the Bears stage their Spring Showcase at Memorial Stadium.

The traditional spring game, which closes the Bears’ run of 15 offseason practice sessions, gets started at 2 p.m. The Pac-12 Network will air the event for about 90 minutes and admission is free for fans.

Cal held a scaled-down workout Friday, practicing for about 75 minutes in preparation for Saturday.

First-year offensive coordinator Jake Spavital, who has installed an entirely new scheme, said his goals for Saturday start with keeping everyone healthy.

“I just want ‘em to go play. . . . “I just want to see them fly around, make plays,” he says in the video at the top of this story. “New scheme, it’s a televised game. We’re not going to go out there and show all the things we’ve been working on. You’re going to see a lot of our base offense and have them go execute.

"I’m not going to show things maybe an opponent can look at in the future. Because there’ll be a lot of eyes on this game from a coaching standpoint.”

Fans shouldn’t expect to see star running back Jaydn Ott. He’s healthy and Spavital wants to keep it that way. “I may not even play him,” he said. “We all know what J-Ott’s capable of doing.”

Spavital said he’s installed about 50 percent of the offense — most of the base, less of the spin-off options — and that he’s encouraged by what he’s seen from quarterbacks Sam Jackson V and Fernando Mendoza, neither of whom has much, if any, college experience.

“Sam and Fernando, I think they’ve all gotten better. I think I’ve figured them both out — I call two different games with those guys. I’ve figured out their strengths and their weaknesses,” he said. "When you go out there and play you put them in position to have success. In the meantime, you’ve got to keep working on the deficiencies and what they’ve got to improve on.”

In the video above he talks about the progression of the offense in general, plus more of what he’s seeing from the quarterbacks.

"They’re improving and they’re adjusting. It gets down to situational football and it gets down to a lot of the conversations that need to be had through the summer time and fall camp,” Spavital said.

There is really no way to develop quarterbacks without simply putting them in game settings, so Cal’s approach this spring has been simulate those situations.

“What we’ve done this entire spring is we haven’t been scripting practice, we’ve just been playing. That’s the only way you can truly develop QBs and accelerate their development,” Spavital said. “Just throwing them into positions and understanding down and distance and matchups and leverage and technique. Also, are you in four-down territory and what is your thought process. As many of those situations I can put him in, the better he’s going to be.

In addition to showing themselves to TV and live audiences, the Bears will try to make an impression on recruits attending on both official and unofficial campus visits.

Among those who will be in Berkeley is quarterback Akili Smith Jr., a sophomore at Lincoln High in San Diego, who is rated a four-star prospect in the class of 2025.

Smith reportedly has offers from Oregon, Michigan, Miami, San Diego State, Arizona and Fresno State, in addition to Cal.

Referring back to his suggestion that Ott may be held out, Spavital also said, “I just want to see these other guys have success so recruits can see a lot of people can have success in this offense and there’s a lot of opportunities to get touches.”

NOTE: Fans will be admitted to Memorial Stadium at gates 1, 2 and 5 on the facility’s west side. Gates open at 12:30 p.m. Food and drinks will be available, there will be activities for kids and Cal players and coaches will sign autographs after the scrimmage.

Cover photo of Cal offensive coordinator Jake Spavital

Follow Jeff Faraudo of Cal Sports Report on Twitter: @jefffaraudo