The post-spring practice depth chart for the Cal Bears has been released.  You can find it here.  This is always interesting to look at because it is the only real quantitative data one gets from spring practice.  One can only trust all the quotes one gets from the coaches so much.  They’re playing a delicate game of cat and mouse with the other coaches of the Pac-10, the media and their players.  Everything is a bit too veiled to take too much away.

But the depth chart has cold hard facts.  It has who would start and who would be the backup if the season started tomorrow.  Here are my thoughts on it:

Offense:

No surprises here.  Even the offensive line, the one area in flux, turned out just about as everyone expected.  Probably the most noteworthy thing is that, again as expected, Montgomery is indeed Forsett’s backup at tailback.  Considering just how much talent there is at RB, it would not have been surprising for there to have been a surprise here… er… you know what I mean.

Defense:

The biggest surprises here at cornerback and linebacker.  Robert Peele, a guy who got a fair amount of playing time last year in a backup role in the defensive backfield but didn’t get that much attention during spring ball, locked up the spot across from Syd’Quan Thompson.  Charles Amadi takes the backup role along with Darian Hagan the backup behind Syd’Quan.  The backups were frequently mentioned as the likely candidates for the starting role, so the Peele decision is, at least to me, somewhat of a surprise.

The other surprise is that Zack Follett didn’t get a starting role at linebacker.  He’s still fighting it out at strong-side linebacker with Justin Moye and is consider the backup to Anthony Felder on the weak-side.  I would have expected him to get one of the two jobs to himself with how strong of a spring he had. 

Outside of that, the fairly wide-open situation on the defensive line now is a little clearer with Cody Jones, Matt Melele, Mika Kane and Tyson Alualu getting the starting nods across the front.  The only one of the 4 that may have pulled a little bit of a coup is the sophmore Alualu who got an defensive end nod over senior John Allen.  Rulon Davis may feel a little snubbed as well on the other end.

Special teams:

No surprises at all here.  The only noteworthy thing is that Justin Forsett, Lavelle Hawkins and James Montgomery will be fighting it out to return kickoffs next year.  Since the ball will be moved back 5 yards next year, there will be a lot more return opportunities meaning a good return man will be very important.

That’s it!  I’d like to welcome you to the slowest part of the football calendar.  No recruiting news.  No practices.  No calendars to be announced.  No TV info.  Nothing besides the potential sounds of precisely thrown beer glasses from frustrated backup quarterbacks to hold us over until early August when fall ball starts.

This entry was posted on Thursday, April 19th, 2007 at 4:09 pm and is filed under Sports, Sports - Cal Football. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.