After a long, long search for an offensive coordinator that is rumored to have milled through a variety of different candidates, Cal landed on a familar name, bringing Jake Spavital back to Berkeley.

Spavital was an early consideration following his termination at Texas State after going 13-35 as head coach there, but it seemed like timing and getting his staff settled might have held off negotiations given that Cal was trying to operate on a faster timeline.

Ultimately, that faster timeline did not pan out and led the Bears right back to Spavital, and it led Spavital right back to the Bears.

Here’s a few things you need to know about Cal’s new play-caller:

Look, that’s hard to do. A 13-35 head coaching record coming back into the hiring pool screams ‘retread hire’ to anyone just giving it a cursory look at the situation. But Texas State is sort of a get out of jail free card when it comes to a head coaching record. The issue with the Bobcats, and there are several, is that there is just no money being provided to support that program. Approximately $4 million was allocated to Texas State football in 2021; the same year that Cal spent $32 million (for reference: USC spent $36 million in 2021). That is just not enough money to do much of anything particularly well in FBS football. In addition to this, the program occasionally resorted to using local high school facilities when the football facilities at the university weren’t cutting it. All in all, Spavital’s tenure at Texas State was too much, too fast for someone taking his first head coaching job in his early 30s.

Note the use of the word ‘management’ in place of where you’d typically find ‘development.’ That is not to say that Spavital is incapable or unable to develop quarterbacks (I personally do not think this is the case). But it is a credit to Spavital’s ability to get the most out of whoever's taking snaps for him. Players like Johnny Manziel, Davis Webb and Will Grier all had outstanding seasons under Spavital despite not going on to be outstanding NFL players.

These, of course, are two totally different skill sets, but it is tremendously important that Spavital was all of their offensive coordinators when they were drafted. The traits, production and intangibles were all good enough in the Spavital system to get these quarterbacks drafted on the first or second day of the draft.

Webb may be the most relevant example, of course, as they had their big season together at Cal in 2016 -- Spavital's lone year with the program in his first go-round. Webb had spent his first three seasons at Texas Tech, throwing for at least 2,500 yards and 20 touchdowns twice, but he was a different QB as a senior transfer at Cal. With the Bears, Webb passed for 4,295 yards, 37 touchdowns and 12 interceptions.

It is more than fair to say that Spavital’s proven ability as a coordinator and quarterback coach significantly raises the floor for quarterback play -- at the very least.