2 remain in starting QB hunt
Cal head coach Justin Wilcox said he gets more emails about the team’s quarterback competition than any other subject, but he’s not necessarily in a hurry to hit the reply button.
Sophomore Ross Bowers and junior Chase Forrest have separated themselves from the other three quarterbacks in camp during the past month, but the starter won’t be fully established until well after Saturday’s spring game.
“They’re doing a really good job of competing, and really, it’s about learning and practicing,” Wilcox said. “There’s just so much time. I wouldn’t say anything has been settled by any means yet.”
Bowers and Forrest are expected to take the majority of the snaps Saturday, the public’s first extended look this spring at the quarterbacks who have emerged from a competition that included Max Gilliam, Collin Moore and Victor Viramontes when drills opened March 15.
Though Bowers and Forrest shared the No. 2 spot behind Davis Webb on the depth chart last season, Bowers was the one who warmed up the few times a backup could have been used.
They appear to be deadlocked again, this time competing for the top spot under a new coaching staff.
“They’re pretty similar in a lot of ways,” offensive coordinator Beau Baldwin said. “I don’t have great differences between the two. … They’re fairly similar in size, in certain things they do well, and in certain things they need to work on.”
Bowers, a 6-foot-2, 190pounder from Washington, and Forrest, a 6-2, 205-pounder from Southern California, have jockeyed back and forth in “out-practicing” each other during the spring, according to Baldwin.
Cal is expected to utilize tight-end sets and run the ball more than it did during the Sonny Dykes’ “Bear Raid” era, and Baldwin said he’s looking for the best game manager — though, he was careful not to use that term.
“More than anything, they’re developing their ability to truly operate,” he said. “That takes time with a new system, new terminology … and understanding what to do in going from Plan A to Plan B to Plan C. At the end of the day, the best quarterbacks understand how to get the ball to athletes in space, how to move the offense and how to get the O-line in the right protection.
“I don’t like using the phrase ‘game manager,’ but the guys who do it at a high level” are successful.
Baldwin has seen the quarterbacks make huge strides in “operating” the system, and quarterbacks coach Marques Tuiasosopo is now looking for that operation to become consistent.
“I’ve really been forced to put in the work necessary to be a great quarterback at this level,” Bowers said. “I’m nowhere near that yet, but I’m striving to be there, and I’m trying to earn that label by putting in the work every day.”
Instead of going home during spring break, Bowers spent the week in Scottsdale, Ariz., training with Dennis Gile at the Quarterback Academy. Each day included a throwing practice, a weightlifting session and a surprise workout — something like yoga or boxing.
Forrest didn’t get outworked. Having learned from Jared Goff and Webb, Forrest is a video junkie and has been discovered watching practice video as late as 11 p.m. in search for an edge over the competition.
“It’s fun. It brings out the best in you,” Forrest said. “This is my second year in a row competing with Ross, and we’re battling. …
“We’ll take it into the offseason and into fall camp.”