... POTENTIAL
Cal: Is this the season Bears’ defense finally turns corner?
Cal’s scoring defense has been the worst in the Pac-12 three times since it last finished in the top half of the conference in 2011.
But with 10 of its top 14 tacklers returning for a second year under head coach Justin Wilcox and defensive coordinator Tim DeRuyter, this season’s iteration of the Bears should return to the conference’s top six, and it has even greater expectations for itself.
“We have a bunch of young dudes who are hungry and are working for the bigger picture. It’s been a complete change,” 335-pound senior nose guard Chris Palmer said. “I feel like we could be the best in the Pac-12. That’s the goal.”
Palmer isn’t just shouting nonsense on Telegraph Avenue, despite Cal’s recent run of
historically awful defenses.
The Bears have yielded at least 39.8 points per game in three of the past five seasons, including 2016, when they gave up 518 yards per game and allowed opposing runners 6.2 yards per carry.
But in the first year of Wilcox and DeRuyter preaching the importance of playing a smart, tough style and driving home the fundamentals, Cal trimmed 14.2 points and 88 yards per game off opponents’ production from the year before.
“You can feel and see a shift in our identity,” said senior safety Quentin Tartabull, who committed to Cal in 2013, when its defense was being rolled for 530 yards and 45.9 points per game. “There’s been a shift in the energy, the tempo, the aggression and the physicality. It’s a total 180 from prior years. We’re practicing dominating. It’s something we need every day.”
The program was overhauled from a pass-happy offense combined with a tissuesoft defense to a fundamentally sound team when Wilcox and DeRuyter introduced the players to rugby-style tackling in the spring of 2017.
A year and a half later, the Bears have installed complex schemes, coverages and blitzes, but they still devote portions of every practice to tackling, individual drills, hitting the sled and fundamentals — consistently demanding players sprint to the ball, play with leverage and complete tackles.
“With as many guys as we have back and having had our coaches go back over the tape to make sure our guys understand where the issues were and how to correct those, we should make a quantum leap this year, and I’m fully confident we will,” DeRuyter said. “… We take pride in how far we’ve come, but we’re realistic enough to know we’re not near where the standard needs to be. We’ve got to dramatically improve.”
Cal’s improvement starts in the secondary. Sophomore Camryn Bynum might be the best unknown cornerback in the conference, and sophomore Elijah Hicks should stat-pad on the other side as quarterbacks begin to realize it’s unwise to challenge Bynum. The Bears have four safeties in Ashtyn Davis, Jaylinn Hawkins, Evan Rambo and Tartabull who could play in any secondary in the Pac-12.
The linebacker corps, led by Jordan Kunaszyk, is solid in terms of starters but lacks proven depth. Cameron Goode could be a game-changer with his pass-rush abilities, but the three-deep chart includes only one backup (Malik Psalms) with experience among the four linebacker positions.
The defensive line was the unit’s biggest question coming into training camp, but steady end Luc Bequette, Palmer and Zeandae Johnson (6-foot-4, 295 pounds) appear to have solidified the group. There are 10 or 11 players competing to be among the five or six who will play every game.
“It was night and day from last spring to this spring and from last camp to this camp. We’re lightyears ahead of where we were,” Kunaszyk said. “Everyone is more comfortable with the scheme. The communication is better on the back end. Overall, we’ve really grown, and I’m really excited for that to be put on display.
“We definitely took a step forward last year, but we’re nowhere near where we want to be and where we insist on being.”