Sunday’s third day of Cal’s preseason football camp was the first day of work on the shoulder pads.
The highlight play of the session was a surprising catch by Tommy Chistakos. He leveled out, extended his arms as far as he could, and grabbed Jack’s Plummer pass with his fingertips.
Nonetheless, much of the focus early on in camp is centered around the transfer of three players to play the outside linebacker position.
The outside linebacker is perfectly positioned to make a big play in Cal’s defensive scheme. California state defensive his coordinator and inside his linebacker coach Peter Salmon explained the outside linebacker’s penchant for playing Big He with a baseball analogy.
“They hit a triple and a home run,” Salmon said in the video opening the story. “Among the linebackers, we are singles and doubles.”
Cameron Goode has lost 36 tackles as an outside linebacker in Cal’s career, and Marquez Vimage has lost 7.5 tackles in one season as the outside linebacker for the Bears in 2021. did.
But the absence of these two players leaves a huge gap in key positions and raises the biggest questions about what would otherwise be a solid defense.
Brakten Kroto started six games last season and is expected to start for one of the outside linebacker spots, but Cal has grabbed over 1.5 tackles for his Cal career defeat so far. I hope to
But the three transfers who could get playing time and possibly start in the other outside linebacker spot are Xavier Carlton from Utah, Odua Isobor from UCLA and college life at the University of Nevada. This is Henry Ikahihifo, who was enrolled in College of the College. Canyons last season.
For each, Salmon said:
Xavier Carlton
“He’s been really impressing us. He’s all 6-6, 6-7, but he’s doing a great job of setting the edge. A player.He could play to the end.Playing a little 4 technique (defensive end in 3-4 defense) or playing standup outside the linebacker.He like that Very versatile in the situation.”
Notes: Carlton appeared in 11 games for Utah last season, including two starts, contributing 4.0 tackles in the loss.
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Odua Isibor
“Very strong on offense. He has a broad background in the conference but will bring pass rushing ability and ability to be very effective in the run game.”
Note: Isibor is a UCLA sixth grade player who has appeared in 42 games and played in 14 games. He appeared in all 12 contests in 2021 with two starts and recorded 4.5 tackles.
Henry Ikahihifo
“Henry is very explosive and very strong. He will be very similar to how Brakten plays.”
Note: Ikahihifo is still a new position. He played at the tight end at the University of Nevada for two of his seasons before being switched to defensive end at the College of the Canyons where he earned 5.5 his sacks in 10 games.
Salmon said of Kroto:
“He can do anything. He plays with unbelievable effort. He’s a tight end single block and very hard out. A lot of people in the conference aren’t going to treat him consistently.”
Salmon about a potential pass rusher:
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Odua Isibor’s cover photo is by Joe Nicholson of USA TODAY Sports.
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