Roster Review: Quarterback

2019 ended in victory for Cal, with a Bowl Win for the first time in four years, as the Bears finished 8-5, tied for their best record of the decade. Now, with Bill Musgrave coming in as the Bears' next offensive coordinator, the offense will see some changes with it, while the defensive staff seems slated to remain the same moving forward.

Now that the calendar has turned over and the Bears have hired an offensive coordinator, it's time to break down Cal's roster composition, position by position. Today starts with the quarterback spot.

The quarterback position defined the fortunes of the 2019 season, as Chase Garbers health determined games for the Bears during the year. In games that Garbers started and finished, the Bears were 7-0. They were 1-5 in all other contests. Garbers made the leap after week three, having a breakout game at Ole Miss, bringing the Axe back to Berkeley, and finishing it with a sterling performance against Illinois:

Pre-"Getting it": 36-68 (52.9% completion), 478 yards, 3 TDs, 1 INT in 3 games

Post- "Getting it" 95-147 (64.6% completion), 1294 yards, 11 TDs, 2 INTs, 3 rushing touchdowns in 6 games (two not finished)

When Garbers didn't start, Devon Modster and Spencer Brasch started, though both had to deal with other issues. Modster had to deal with the loss of Mike Saffell and Valentino Daltoso on the offensive line, while Brasch was thrown into about as difficult of a situation as you can get, with multiple linemen and wideouts injured for his first career start, on the road, against Utah. Robby Rowell came in for a drive at the end of that game, getting a drive of his own.

Garbers reclaimed his spot, recovering from a mid-season shoulder injury to start against USC. He left that game with an injury, but returned the next week to lead a final touchdown drive against Stanford, which led Cal to finish on a three game win streak (which is tied for the 5th best active streak in the nation).

Departing: None

Returning: Chase Garbers, Devon Modster, Spencer Brasch, Robby Rowell*

* - denotes walk-on

This is a group that now has experience, thanks to injury, but a clear top guy in Garbers. There's some confidence in the junior from Newport Beach, and he's earned it with his play so far.

^ - denotes early enrollee

Casey has already been in bowl practices for the Bears, so he'll be that much more prepared when he gets in during spring ball. The former Calabasas standout has a ton of confidence in his game, and although Garbers is the entrenched starter moving forward, Casey's a competitor and throws on the run as well as anyone.

Johnson will come in over the summer, and this is what Beau Baldwin had to say about him before leaving for the Cal Poly job:

"I went to watch Zach throw in the spring, I hadn’t offered him yet. That’s something I like to do with every QB, see them in person, and just the way it came out of his hand, the accuracy, the timing, the anticipation, all those things jumped at me. Then I started watching him throw from hash to sideline, and I thought that there aren’t any routes in our tree that he can’t throw. The reason I felt he was underrecruited, maybe he didn’t have some of the juice early as a young player, sometimes it takes that early (impression) to get on some people’s radar. Then sometimes people get caught up in size and I don’t with him. I think both of those guys, when we talk about Zach and Jaden, have all the tools to be very good at this level. It took me seeing him in person, where it went from somewhere in here (holds hand level at chest height) to up here (raises hand to head height). He’s proven that as a senior as well."

Garbers will be the longest tenured starter in the Pac-12 North (18 total starts to his name), tied for the most starts in the conference as a whole with Dorian Thompson-Robinson. His final stretch to close the year essentially cemented his spot as the starter going forward.

The biggest storyline for this group is how new offensive coordinator Bill Musgrave uses the quarterbacks in the offense. Justin Wilcox has said several times that they'll have a consistent offensive philosophy, and it'll be worth watching to see how Musgrave goes about accomplishing that and teaching the quarterbacks in that. He helped revitalize an Oakland offense to its best numbers since the Super Bowl teams of the early 2000s, and Cal fans familiar with that work are hoping he can do something similar in Berkeley.