Spring Gradeout: Quarterback

With the spring done, coaches out on the road recruiting, and a couple re-watches of the spring game in the books, it's time for a final take on how the spring looked for each position group, starting with the quarterbacks.

What We Learned: It's difficult to replace back to back NFL quarterbacks

Jared Goff is gone. Davis Webb is gone, though he was a consistent presence at practices. What's left is two guys set to continue the battle for the starting job in the fall with a combined 19 pass attempts between them.

That being said, Chase Forrest and Ross Bowers showed significant improvement throughout the spring, both of them adjusting to their third different playbook on offense. It's a playbook with a bit more difficulty involved than the previous two iterations, but both have jumped into it feet-first.

"Neither of them had played a whole lot," head coach Justin Wilcox said about the duo, "and so the amount of reps they got really helped them. Their understanding of what’s going on on offense obviously grew, but it’s really too close to call."

The biggest part about the two that the coaches noted frequently throughout the final two weeks of the spring were their similarities. Either one can run the full playbook.

Something that Beau Baldwin noted during the spring game broadcast was that they wanted a competition where it'd be difficult to choose one over the other due to the strength of their play. While they aren't at that point, the progression from the first open practice to the spring game was noticeable, and both are proficient, but not quite at the same level of Goff or Webb.

Biggest Spring Concern: That the QB Spot is still undecided and both are unproven

The old adage goes if you have two quarterbacks, you don't have one. While it isn't as big of a deal now; the coaches appear to be confident in both guys, but as the coaching staff has said throughout, the team reps that the two are getting are gold.

Forrest has all of the in-game reps between the two, but again with a new system and solely playing against their own team, the two are still on that same level going forward.

Something suggested during the Spring Game broadcast was taking the QB battle into the season, which may be one of the better ways to come to a decision on that (though not necessarily the best for team performance). Considering how deadlocked the two have been, that could be the case.

Spring Surprise: How quickly the two pulled ahead

Within the first two weeks of the spring, Forrest and Bowers had pulled ahead of their backups Max Gilliam and Vic Viramontes. The assumption had been with the use of a running quarterback at Eastern Washington by Baldwin, that the same would be done in Berkeley, with Gilliam and Viramontes being the better runners. That was not the case.

Both Bowers and Forrest can run, with Bowers having a slight edge with making plays on his feet, but not to the extent of the other two. Both grasped the playbook quickly enough to move ahead.

The big thing with them both was the improvement in places that they'd struggled with. Forrest hadn't been known for throwing the deep ball, but uncorked a perfect over the shoulder throw the Vic Wharton in the spring game. Bowers' improved his decision making, throwing three touchdown passes, including a bullet to Ray Hudson on the second to last drive of the spring game.

Looking Ahead: The Competition Will Go On

Though Chase Garbers was bandied about as a guy who could come in and compete immediately, he'll probably need a redshirt year in 2017. If the race isn't definitively solved, then Garbers could become a player in the competition. There could even be a transfer coming in, as South Carolina transfer QB Brandon McIlwain visited in mid-March.

That being said, it'll be Bowers or Forrest in the fall barring massive injury to both, and while they've both had flashes, now one or both needs to put it all together.