Chase Garbers has been a relative constant under center for the Bears since the beginning of the 2018 season. Now, the Bears will have a new quarterback under center in 2022, as Garbers has officially declared for the NFL draft. Garbers did have a final year of eligibility left due to COVID, but has chosen to head to the pros instead of returning to Cal or elsewhere.

Garbers, who got his first start as a redshirt freshman against BYU, started 34 games over his Cal career, appearing in 36 games. Over those games, Garbers threw for 6582 yards (7th in Cal history) on 62.4% completion, 50 touchdown passes (tied for 6th in Cal history), and 24 interceptions. Garbers is also Cal's career leader in rushing by a quarterback with 1174 yards and 11 touchdowns on 331 carries. Cal posted a 19-15 record in games that he started.

Garbers, Cal's first quarterback to start games in four straight years since Kevin Riley (2007-2010), recorded career highs in every passing category except interceptions in 2021, with 2533 yards on 64.1% completion, 16 touchdowns, and 8 interceptions. He ranked second among Pac-12 players in total offense per game (271.7 yards per game).

Garbers is also the first Cal QB with wins over all three California schools since Aaron Rodgers, and the first Cal QB with two wins over USC and Stanford since Joe Kapp. His 16 yard touchdown run in the 2019 Big Game gave Cal their first win over Stanford since 2009. In this respect, it's difficult to understate how much Garbers has meant to the Cal fanbase, coming up big in the biggest rivalry game, while also being the first Cal QB to take down USC in 15 years. A lot of streaks were broken with Garbers under center, as the Corona del Mar quarterback remained loyal to Justin Wilcox even after a coaching change while committed.

Cal has been recruiting the transfer portal in preparation for this decision the past couple of weeks. Cal hosted QBs Jack Plummer (Purdue), Adrian Martinez (Nebraska), and Taisun Phommachanh (Clemson) on visits, and have reached out to new portal entry Kedon Slovis (USC). They'll look for more portal QBs to supplement their QB room, which only holds Zach Johnson and Kai Millner on scholarship at this point.