Goff focused on ASU, not NFL decision
Saturday’s game could be his last at Memorial Stadium
BERKELEY — Many Cal fans will be asking themselves the same question when the Bears host Arizona State on Saturday night in their regularseason finale: Will this be junior quarterback Jared Goff’s last game at Memorial Stadium?
“I don’t think even Jared knows,” senior offensive guard Jordan Rigsbee said. “We’re pretty good friends, and we’ve asked him, trust me.”
Goff has said he will not wrestle with the question of whether to enter the 2016 NFL draft until the Bears’ season is over. Cal (6-5, 3-5 Pac-12) will play one more game after facing the Sun Devils (65, 4-4) because it already has qualified for a bowl.
“Right now I’m just trying to beat Arizona State and go to 7-5 and go to a bowl game and win that,” he said this week. “I owe it to myself and my teammates to do that.”
Mike Pawlawski, Cal’s longtime radio analyst and a first-team All-Pac12 quarterback in 1991, won’t offer his thoughts on whether Goff should or will leave after this season. But he isn’t shy about providing an opinion on Goff’s qualifications.
“I watch a ton of college football, and he is by far the top professional prototype quarterback in the country,” Pawlawski said. “There’s nobody that has his tools to play at the next level.”
Whenever he lands in the NFL, Goff will have to make adjustments to his game after operating almost exclusively out of the shotgun in Cal’s pass-heavy “Bear Raid” offense, in which he has amassed 11,191 passing yards and 85 touchdowns.
He’ll easily make that transition, Pawlawski said, because he’s “super smart” and his “arm talent” ranks him with the likes of former fastball artists John Elway and Jeff George.
He has the strongest arm of any Cal quarterback since Steve Bartkowski in the mid-1970s, Pawlawski said, “including Aaron Rodgers.”
Rodgers, who went pro after his junior season, actually benefited when he dropped all the way to 24th in the first round of the 2005 draft. The Green Bay Packers took him, and Rodgers has won a Super Bowl and two MVPs.
Cal offensive coordinator Tony Franklin, who works daily with Goff on the field and in the video room, said landing with the right team is critical to any quarterback’s success.
“I think he’ll be as good as anybody that’s played if he’s with the right people,” Franklin said. “In the NFL, it’s all about who you go with, how they develop you. Are they going to blame you or are they going to teach you?”
Craig Rigsbee, Jordan’s father, was Rodgers’ coach at Butte College and believes Goff will be “a great NFL player.”
Goff and Rodgers differ in style, Craig Rigsbee said, with the taller Goff built more along the lines of Peyton Manning and Tom Brady.
“But the parallels are there,” he said of Goff and Rodgers. “They’re great kids and very intelligent. They’re quiet but have a burning desire to win. And they’re both grounded because of the way they were raised.
“Aaron is so down to earth, such an everyman. Like Jared,” Rigsbee said. “And both of them can really play.”
Craig Rigsbee is convinced when Goff sits down to make his decision he will know he must leave for the NFL. He’s ready, Rigsbee said, and teams will embrace a player with no baggage.
“The way the NFL’s structured now, he needs to go,” Rigsbee said. “The key now in the NFL is to try to get your second contract as quick as you can. That’s life-changing money.”
Redshirt freshman Chase Forrest, who will be in line to compete for the Cal quarterback job when it becomes vacant, said Goff has been a terrific mentor, primarily through the example of his work ethic and poise under pressure.
He said he hopes Goff stays one more year at Cal but has no idea what will happen.
Cal coach Sonny Dykes doesn’t know the future, either, but he sees the same thing from his quarterback that pro scouts see.
“Jared continues to make plays every week where you just go, ‘Wow.’ You’re not sure anyone else can make that play except him.”