Cal back in a familiar spot: looking for its starting QB
Cal started its spring football practices Monday, the first of 15 sessions scheduled through March 22, with another quarterback competition brewing.
Incumbent Chase Garbers took the first-team snaps on a chilly morning at Memorial Stadium, but former UCLA backup Devon Modster and City College of San Francisco transfer Jack Newman got a similar number of repetitions.
“It’ll resolve when it resolves. Whether that’s in a week or 10 days or two months or six months, I don’t know the answer to that,” said head coach Justin Wilcox, who prefers letting the competition unfold organically as opposed to setting a deadline to name a starter. “… When you know the answer, you know the answer, and then, we’ll talk about it. But, if we don’t, and it’s still competitive, then that’s just what it is.
“Right now, the focus is just on improvement.”
Garbers completed 61.2 percent of his passes for 1,506 yards, with 14 touchdowns and 10 interceptions after winning a game of musical chairs for the starting job as a redshirt freshman. However, he was yanked in last season’s final game after throwing three interceptions in the Cheez-It Bowl.
“I know Chase Garbers is going to improve and has improved his body, and he’ll be better,” Wilcox said. “I mean, he was a freshman quarterback last year and had some good moments and had some that he’s going to learn from. Then, we’ve got some new guys in the mix.
“The rush, the urgency is improvement. That’s where the urgency comes in. But in terms of giving you a depth chart, that’s not on the list of what’s urgent right now.”
Cal finished last in the Pac-12 in scoring (21.5 points per game), total offense (343.5 yards per game) and thirddown conversions (35 percent). The Bears were also the worst in the red zone, converting that field position into points 72 percent of the time and into touchdowns 49 percent of the time.
The passing game ranked last in yards (186.2), yards per completion (5.7) and yards per attempt (9.5). Playing four quarterbacks, the Bears threw 20 interceptions — eight more than any other Pac-12 team.
Eight of the picks were thrown by Brandon McIlwain, who is doing double duty this spring shuttling between the baseball and football teams. The junior worked in the running-back group Monday and is listed on the roster as an “athlete.”
McIlwain prefers to call it a “slash” role as Cal plans to use the speedster as a receiver and possibly in wildcat-type packages.
“I like to do anything I can to help a team win,” he said, “so if I have a plethora of roles, it’s going to be even more exciting for me.”
Cal’s offensive woes weren’t tied solely to quarterbacks. All of the position groups know it.
“You can’t pretend it didn’t happen,” tackle Jake Curhan said. “We all watched the defense do a great job last year. It’s more like: You feel for those guys. They were amazing the whole season, probably one of the top defenses in the country. We know that it’s on us. A lot of those (defensive) guys are back, so as an offense, it’s our turn to step it up.
“If we can do that, we’re really going to start winning a lot of games.”