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Five Husky Takeaways: Cal

The offensive playcalling, dealing with the loss of Kasen Williams, Cory Littleton's career path, Travis Coons as an All-Conference player, and takin' care of business.

Otto Greule Jr

1. The Huskies moved back to more of an offense that we've been clamoring for in the past weeks. They pounded the run game and used the short quick-strikes in the passing game to set up big plays through the air and on the ground. While it was nice to see Steve Sarkisian get back to that, you have to wonder if it will stick. We've seen already this season that even though something will work for the Huskies he tends to drift back to old playcalling patterns.

2. The injury to Kasen Williams hurts, but if you're the Huskies and you're going to lose a key player at any position, you'd choose WR. It's the position that they've recruited best under Sark, and can most easily withstand a major injury. With Jaydon Mickens improving his hands, John Ross continuing to improve as a pass catcher, Kevin Smith playing at an All Conference level at times, and the potential of a guy like Damore'ea Stringfellow the Huskies should be able to withstand the loss of Williams.

3. Cory Littleton is improving, and very quickly. It has become clear why the staff burned his redshirt a year ago and why he has overtaken Josh Shirley. He simply does more things better than Shirley, making his presence felt in all phases of the defense. People love to talk about "recruiting gems" and the staff has a couple of young guys that will be talked about with that fondness in Littleton and Travis Feeney.

4. We haven't talked about Travis Coons as a kicker much this year, but it's about time he got his due there. He's a perfect 8 of 8 on the year, including 3 of 3 beyond 40 yards. He hasn't been called upon to do a ton in the kicking game this year, but when he has he's been as good as anyone in the country. It's a great asset to have, and may be something that is the deciding factor for the Dawgs at some point this year.

5. This was very much a TCOB game. The Huskies beat Cal in the exact fashion in which they were supposed to beat Cal, so there's not a whole lot to learn. It wasn't really any different than beating a non-AQ opponent in the nonconference schedule. The biggest positive was that there weren't glaring negatives.

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