SOME CAL PLAYERS MISS FIRST WORKOUT WHILE THEY'RE IN CLASS
By Jay Heater
As the Cal football team hustled off to a barbecue Monday after the first workout of summer camp, Coach Jeff Tedford said the group was short about 20 players. Fortunately for the Golden Bears, Tedford knew exactly where they were -- in class. With summer school running through Friday, Tedford said many players were going to have some conflicts between practices and classes. Cal will hold its first twice-daily drills Saturday. The Bears open the season Sept. 2 at Tennessee. ``Our guys have done a nice job academically this summer,'' the coach said. ``And our incoming freshmen took care of business.'' Perhaps the highlight at Memorial Stadium was senior left tackle Andrew Cameron taking snaps with the first team. Cameron decided to retire from football last spring because of injuries, including a torn anterior cruciate ligament in his right knee that required surgery and forced him to miss most of the 2005 season. He changed his mind in June, following a quick recovery.
Sophomore Mike Tepper, listed at starting left tackle after spring drills, took snaps with the second team. With sophomore center Alex Mack, senior guard Erik Robertson and Cameron all having a firm hold on those positions, Tepper may get a look on the right side, where senior Scott Smith came out of spring as the starter at tackle.
• The quarterback competition, featuring seniors Steve Levy and Joe Ayoob and sophomore Nate Longshore, will get most of the attention during camp. On the first day, Tedford spread the snaps fairly evenly among the three and redshirt freshman Kyle Reed. None was going to win any awards for accuracy, although Levy might have been the best of the lot. Levy is suspended for the Tennessee game after his role in a bar fight in San Francisco, but he has been cleared to practice. ``Steve was throwing fine today, but we will see when we get the pads on,'' Tedford said. Tedford said he wasn't concerned so much with throwing form Monday as he was with procedure. ``We just wanted to get the process of practice down, run some basic plays and install the huddle procedures,'' he said.
• Although Tennessee started its drills Friday, Tedford said the Volunteers are allowed only the same 29 practice sessions Cal gets.
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