Media Day: Cal quarterback makes move to WR
Call it the surprise of the media guide.
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Page 83, at the top of the right column, Kyle Boehm's name listed next to the letters W & R.
Boehm, who hadn't caught a ball since "Pop Warner on a quarterback wheel" prior to this Spring, will now be catching them exclusively.
"He's going to play a little bit of that inside receiver/fullback guy for us, and could potentially do some things at quarterback," Cal head coach Sonny Dykes told GoldenBearReport Friday at Pac-12 Media Day. "I liked his toughness. I liked the way he responded to the move just as far as putting the team first. That's a hard thing to do, to say we're going to play you some place you've never played before and he's physical and tough and competitive and mean. Guys that can do those things -- and he catches the ball extremely well -- if you're that guy, a tough mean guy with a big body and those kind of hands, this is a good offense for you to play in."
A 3-star quarterback out of Archbishop Mitty in San Jose, Boehm was the 7th ranked pro-style quarterback in his class coming out of high school in 2011.
Now he'll be in the mix with Jacob Wark, Jake Davis, and Lucas Gingold for time at the Bone position -- utilized in the team's "diamond" formation.
"The thing is, you know, he's a big tough kid. We had watched his high school tape. We knew he was a good athlete. We knew he was pretty physical. How well does he catch the ball? That's one of the things you don't know that until you stick him in there. We saw him do those things," Dykes said. "Instead of just making him the 5th team quarterback who stands there pissed off all the time. Let's let him try to help us win. So we said, 'hey look, we're gonna move you here, and give it a shot, see if you like it'. He got in there, knocked the hell out of some people and said, 'you know, I kinda like this'. He caught a ball here and there and said yeah I like this."
Dykes said Boehm will have a very real shot at cracking the depth chart.
"Definitely... There's four of those guys that give us some options. Who ends up doing what we'll let that play out. There are four big body types there who give us a chance to be more diverse than we've been in the past. We'll see how all the pieces come together."
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