Daily Cal: Fall Camp, Day Eight

By Matt Kawahara

Bears Deal With Some Nagging Injuries With First Two-a-Day Scheduled for Tomorrow

The red jerseys were out in numbers Friday afternoon as the Cal football team began week two of fall camp with a few starters battling injuries.

Cornerback Darian Hagan, linebacker Mychal Kendricks and receiver Nyan Boateng all sat out their second consecutive practice. Hagan has a sore knee, while Kendricks and Boateng are both recovering from concussions. They were joined on the sideline Friday by Chris Conte, who coach Jeff Tedford said has a "little pulled muscle," and safety Sean Cattouse, who has a pulled hamstring.

After not participating in most of the team and group drills yesterday, Jahvid Best ran through a normal first half of practice and sat out the majority of the second half, including a red-zone team drill and a kickoff return session.Tedford said that Best is "a little sore," and the rest is to "let his aches calm down a little bit," although Best looked as explosive as ever on one play during early team sessions, taking ahandoff right and slipping into the second level of defenders through a virtually nonexistent gap.

Receiver Michael Calvin, who appeared to tweak something at the end of a route during one-on-one's Friday and immediately walked over to a trainer, has a pulled muscle as well.

But so it goes as fall camp progresses, Tedford said, and as of right now, nobody is expected to be out for a significant amount of time.  "It's been physical," he said. "We practice at a high tempo all the time, we have full gear on and shoulder pads on and so it's that time of camp right now. We start getting some tired legs and some tweaked muscles. It's to be expected."   The absence of several veterans cleared the way for some younger guys to take reps with the first team. Redshirt freshman Josh Hill filled in for Hagan across from Syd'Quan Thompson, and during nickel packages -- when Thompson becomes the nickel back and shifts over to cover the slot receiver -- Hill and junior Bryant Nnabuife covered the wideouts. D.J. Holt replaced Kendricks at inside linebacker alongside Mike Mohamed.

On the other side of the ball, with Best taking it easy, Shane Vereen played the majority of the first-team downs with freshman Dasarte Yarnway also getting some work with the ones, particularly in goal-line situations. Tedford said that he wanted Yarnway -- who has played mostly behind the third-team O-line during the first week -- to see some better running holes, and that the freshman "has done a nice job" so far in camp.  "He's got a bright future," Tedford said.

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