[standfan]

Looks like there was some sort of season ticket/donor event at the stadium tonight -- anyone go?: https://twitter.com/CalJoySeid/status/88...7951662080

It was a nice event. Many members of the team were there for the reception, including the food. The program began with Husak interviewing Kalambayi, Phillips, Love and Chryst. There were jokes about Husak losing his job to the Barry White- like voiced PK. PK talked about all the experience among the LBs/DBs. Harrison is built like a brick house and is clearly looking to follow Solly into the NFL. (I had a long chat with Coach Reynolds before the formalities, and he expects HP to have a great season.) Love talked about trying to fill Christian's shoes as a team leader being important, with everyone acknowledging the need for a collective improvement to fill CM's and Thomas' shoes on the field. Chryst (and coach Bloomgren) talked about how hard he is working on the mental aspects of the game. The rehab is going well, but not much in details. When each was asked to name a break out player or two, they mentioned Williams, Swann, Stewart, Malik and Robinson (and probably  a few others I am forgetting.)

Coaches Anderson and Bloomgren were interviewed next. Lance talked about the experience in the backfield allowing him to try some more sophisticated defenses. He didn't talk much about specific players but expects some of the younger DL to step up. Mike praised Chryst who is unequivocally the designated starter (well maybe not for the Rice game), and there seemed to be genuine and wide-spread enthusiasm about their expectations for him this year. Burns/ Costello are the back-ups with no order clearly indicated. Bright got a shout out for leadership. He joked about how small he and Drew Dalman looked next to the true FR 6'8" OTs but did not indicate if they would play. He did defend the team's philosophy of "bringing tonnage" to the short yardage situations as being successful and simple physics.

Shaw spoke last. In general he thinks there are a lot of players that will contribute towards filling the CMac void: Love, Irwin, A-W, and the TEs. (No mention of Marx and I didn't see him there but I certainly didn't see all the players who were there.) He's expecting a solid defense. Interestingly, he said he never knows how good a team will be but that a lot of light is shed on it by the end of the first week of real practice and then after 3 games or so. He does feel like this team has a lot of good leadership. Another interesting response to a question discussed the staff debating, when a game plan or philosophy  is not working as well as hoped, whether the response should be tweaking the strategy and trying to improve  execution versus scrapping it and trying something different. So they do talk about but it's clear they have a philosophy they believe in strongly so the burden of proof to justify a major change is large indeed.

[standfan]

Looks like there was some sort of season ticket/donor event at the stadium tonight -- anyone go?: https://twitter.com/CalJoySeid/status/88...7951662080

It was a nice event. Many members of the team were there for the reception, including the food. The program began with Husak interviewing Kalambayi, Phillips, Love and Chryst. There were jokes about Husak losing his job to the Barry White- like voiced PK. PK talked about all the experience among the LBs/DBs. Harrison is built like a brick house and is clearly looking to follow Solly into the NFL. (I had a long chat with Coach Reynolds before the formalities, and he expects HP to have a great season.) Love talked about trying to fill Christian's shoes as a team leader being important, with everyone acknowledging the need for a collective improvement to fill CM's and Thomas' shoes on the field. Chryst (and coach Bloomgren) talked about how hard he is working on the mental aspects of the game. The rehab is going well, but not much in details. When each was asked to name a break out player or two, they mentioned Williams, Swann, Stewart, Malik and Robinson (and probably  a few others I am forgetting.)

Coaches Anderson and Bloomgren were interviewed next. Lance talked about the experience in the backfield allowing him to try some more sophisticated defenses. He didn't talk much about specific players but expects some of the younger DL to step up. Mike praised Chryst who is unequivocally the designated starter (well maybe not for the Rice game), and there seemed to be genuine and wide-spread enthusiasm about their expectations for him this year. Burns/ Costello are the back-ups with no order clearly indicated. Bright got a shout out for leadership. He joked about how small he and Drew Dalman looked next to the true FR 6'8" OTs but did not indicate if they would play. He did defend the team's philosophy of "bringing tonnage" to the short yardage situations as being successful and simple physics.

Shaw spoke last. In general he thinks there are a lot of players that will contribute towards filling the CMac void: Love, Irwin, A-W, and the TEs. (No mention of Marx and I didn't see him there but I certainly didn't see all the players who were there.) He's expecting a solid defense. Interestingly, he said he never knows how good a team will be but that a lot of light is shed on it by the end of the first week of real practice and then after 3 games or so. He does feel like this team has a lot of good leadership. Another interesting response to a question discussed the staff debating, when a game plan or philosophy  is not working as well as hoped, whether the response should be tweaking the strategy and trying to improve  execution versus scrapping it and trying something different. So they do talk about but it's clear they have a philosophy they believe in strongly so the burden of proof to justify a major change is large indeed.