by Morris Phillips

BERKELEY–The Cal Bears have the talent to compete for this upcoming 2015 season the talent is there to finish better than .500 the variable is that the Pac 12 couldn’t see anymore balance and with more parallel than this year. There are a lot of teams that are expected to be good to better, then you have teams like USC and Oregon that could be top ten teams. Cal is just better this year like for sure their going to get better but will they get better in terms of in terms of their win- loss record there that would have to be the question there.

The defense was really bad last season and remember were talking about college athletes were not going to pick out individuals with this that and the other they need to get better at corner and they need to get better at safety. They have a nice returning group at linebacker that need to improve. They might not be as good as they like it to be, it is an experienced group and they have shown the ability to tackle and run and do the they have enough speed to deal with Pac 12 offenses which was a real issue for them last year.

In terms of the defensive line their adding this young player defensive end Kyle Kragen the son of an NFL player Greg Kragen played for the Broncos and those guys with James Looney who transferred from Lake Forrest who was supposed to give them a nice push up front and some depth along the defensive line. It was a real issue in terms of their depth at that position last year.

This team has as much success as any program in the country in terms of drafting and forging careers in the NFL with Aaron Rogers and Marshawn Lynch right at the top of the list, DeSean Jackson and there is no doubt that players from Cal that are on the radar of NFL scouts but there is obviously no first round pick at this point.

Part of the Cal program is the defense will always play up to 100 plays a game and put pressure on the opposing defense.
The other issue is they have to put pressure on the opposition on the scoreboard, that means scoring early and taking the lead and making it tough for the opposition to get back into the game. That means having the pass rush and the ability to have some playmakers in the secondary come into play when you get a team on their heels. They got throw the football and they got to do anything based on what their facing in terms of the adversity their facing on the scoreboard.

You got to have a defense who can take advantage of that and physically what we’ve seen with Cal they’ve traded points with their opposition into the 50s as we saw they visited Washington State last year. So they’re going to need to have some kind of shutdown on their defense it’s a part of their offense to be able to score quite easily and quite productively throughout the season.

Morris Phillips does the Cal Bears podcast each week at http://www.sportsradioservice.com