Spring Depth Chart
Here’s a look at the depth chart at the end of spring ball. This needs to be taken with a large grain of salt because of the number of notable players (Best and Nasty Nate, for starters) out with injuries. There is also room for some fall arrivals to make the two deep, particularly at wideout. That said, here’s where things stand now:
| CB | Free Safety | Rover | CB |
| (5) Syd’Quan Thompson | (2) Bernard Hicks | (20) Jesse Brooks* | (17) Chris Conte |
| (26) Darian Hagan | (25) Brett Johnson | (29) Marcus Ezeff | (27) Charles Amadi |
| Strong OLB | Strong ILB | Weak ILB | Weak OLB |
| (9) Eddie Young | (1) Worrell Williams | (7) Anthony Felder | (56) Zack Follett |
| (10) Devin Bishop | (18) Mike Mohamed | (3) D.J. Holt | (43) Charles Johnson |
| Strong DE | Nose Tackle | Weak DE |
| (44) Tyson Alualu | (98) Mika Kane | (95) Rulon Davis |
| (95) Ernest Owusu | (76) Derrick Hill | (97) Cameron Jordan |
Owusu and Jordan were two of the most impressive guys on the entire team this spring. They will definitely play notable minutes.
Offensive Line
| Tight End | Left Tackle | Left Guard | Center | Right Guard | Right Tackle |
| (5) Cameron Morrah* | (79) Mike Tepper | (70) Mark Boskovich* | (51) Alex Mack | (55) Noris Malele | (58) Chet Teofilo |
| (83) Skylar Curran* | (71) Sam DeMartinis | (75) Matt Summers-Gavin | (57) Todd Huber | (74) T.J. Emery | (78) Justin Prueitt |
The offensive line, particularly the second string, is pretty muddled right now. I couldn’t find #54 Chris Guarnero, but it’s safe to assume he’ll be somewhere in the two deep. Tedford and Offensive Line Coach Michalczik have always emphasized that they’re looking for the top 8 guys, so looking at the second string as a whole is almost irrelevant. We’ll have to wait until fall to see who becomes the 7th and 8th guys.
*Cameron Morrah was sick for the last week for practice so Skylar Curran and Tad Smith shared first team reps in his place.
*Mark Boskovich and #73 Richard Fisher Split first team reps at Left Guard, so it’s unfair to call either of them second string. Matt Summers-Gavin ran with the second team at this position.
Skill Positions
| Wide Receiver | Fullback | Quarterback | Tailback | Wide Receiver | Wide Receiver |
| (8) Nyan Boateng | (23) Will Ta’ufo’ou | (13) Kevin Riley* | (22) Tracy Slocum* | (3) Jeremy Ross | (84) Mike Calvin |
| (85) LaReylle Cunningham | (31) John Tyndall* | (10) Brock Mansion | (28) Covaughn DeBoskie | (88) Drew Glover | (40) Ian Albrecht |
*First, the elephant in the room: the starting quarterback has not been determined. Nate missed most of spring practice with an injury, but he was taking first team reps before he went down. This battle will (hopefully) be decided in the fall, and Mansion will be third string.
*Likewise, the starting (and backup) tailbacks have not been determined due to injury. Best participated in practice wearing the red (no contact jersey) and # 34 Shane Vereen missed a lot of time with a hamstring injury. Slocum had a strong spring, but with Best and Vereen healthy in the fall, it will be a tough competition. I would expect all three of them to get carries, and DeBoskie might see the field as well.
*The second string fullback appears to be up for grabs as well. Your guess is as good as mine.
Calvin, Boateng, and Ross are clearly the top 3 receivers, but it is wide open after them and I would expect some of the new recruits to make the two deep this fall. Drew Glover stepped in as the third receiver for Ross after Ross went down with an injury late in the spring.
Go Bears!
jesse brooks over ezeff? kid must be amazing b/c ezeff is the best tackler in the secondary and he’s like a laser to the ball. i’ll be surprised if this holds through fall.
Comment by danzig — May 8, 2008 @ 11:24 am
I actually commented on Ezeff’s spring in an earlier post:
“Ezeff didn’t stand out to me this spring, and I was looking for him because I felt he was our best DB in the early part of last season before he got hurt. Even if you took away his miraculous hit/forced fumble on Colvin (and overlook the late hit earlier that game), he was having a great season before he went down.
One reason he may not have stood out in the spring was because most of the emphasis for the DBs was on pass defense, and he is a better tackler than a coverage guy. The DBs who DID stand out to me were Syd, Amadi, and Jesse Brooks, in that order.”
I completely agree with you on Ezeff. I am a big fan of his and I fully expect to see him on the field a lot in the fall. Brooks stood out more on the passing downs, but Ezeff’s specialty isn’t coverage, so it makes sense that he is flying under the radar right now.
There isn’t really a clear first and second string for the safeties; they’ve been rotating and receiving both first and second string reps. Bet on all 4 of these safeties playing next season.
Comment by CBKWit — May 8, 2008 @ 12:33 pm
Ezeff is a monster out there … hits harder than DeCoud and looks meaner than most of the guys on $C. The defense will need an enforcer out there to frighten receivers and make them think twice about going across the middle.
Plus he has a cool name. Say it with me a few times: Ezeff … Ezeff … Ezeff.
Rad.
Go Bears!
Comment by SoCal Oski — May 8, 2008 @ 3:05 pm
Ezeff….Ezeff…..Ezeff….
Comment by TwistNHook — May 8, 2008 @ 3:13 pm
Hate to interrupt the Ezeff lovefest, but did y’all catch that Nike camp co-MVP Allan Bridgford (’09 Mission Viejo, CA) committed today? Tedford is a QB recruiting machine. He’s also a coaching machine.
Comment by CalBandGreat — May 8, 2008 @ 4:06 pm
Bridgford….Bridgford….Bridgford….
Comment by TwistNHook — May 8, 2008 @ 4:08 pm
CalBandGreat, yes, we did catch that Cal got a new QB commit. We’ll be covering that sometime tomorrow. Good lookin’ though.
Comment by HydroTech — May 8, 2008 @ 4:20 pm
Haha!
Ezford…Bridgeff…
Comment by CalBandGreat — May 8, 2008 @ 4:23 pm
I’m kind of surprised to not see Tad Smith at TE based off of the reports we heard from Spring Ball. I assume that’s due to his inexperience at the position and we’ll really find out of the experiment works two years on from now.
Comment by turkey — May 8, 2008 @ 4:56 pm
Turkey,
If Tad Smith can stay healthy, he will see plenty of playing time. He showed better hands than Curran and several of our true wide receivers, and is more physical than our other TEs. It was difficult to get an accurate read on the blocking skills of any of our TEs this spring, but nobody is close to Stevens in that dept.
Comment by dmgobears — May 8, 2008 @ 10:08 pm
Look at those HTML charts! Brilliant. =)
Comment by JayKay — May 8, 2008 @ 11:03 pm
Turkey and DM, to quote myself:
“*Cameron Morrah was sick for the last week for practice so Skylar Curran and Tad Smith shared first team reps in his place.”
Cameron Morrah is clearly first team at this point - he’s going into his 4th year at tight end for Cal, whereas Smith has played the position for about 3 months. I put Curran as the second string because he took the first snap, but he and Smith shared first team reps equally, much like Boskovich and Fisher. I think Smith was more impressive than Curran this spring, and I wouldn’t be surprised to see him as second string next season.
And DM, you’re absolutely right about Stevens’ blocking. This is definitely an area of concern
Comment by CBKWit — May 9, 2008 @ 9:16 am
TE blocking is one of those things you won’t miss until it’s gone, hopefully we won’t gain a new appreciation for Stevens’ blocking abilities while watching the QB take hits.
Comment by turkey — May 9, 2008 @ 9:57 am
Hahha SoCal, we definitely need to use the word ‘rad’ more often around here.
Ezeff!…Ezeff!…Ezeff!
Comment by danzig — May 9, 2008 @ 1:34 pm
GIVE ME AN E
GIVE ME A ZEFF!
Comment by TwistNHook — May 9, 2008 @ 1:44 pm
WHat about the special teams two-deep?
Comment by WorkerB — May 12, 2008 @ 12:01 pm