The Golden Bears are entering a new era with a new offense and a bunch of unknowns at the quarterback spot.
Starting a new era of football is always an exciting time for a football program. California signified the beginning of the next phase when they hired defensive coordinator extraordinaire Justin Wilcox as head coach. The accomplished coordinator has long been waiting for his term to take over a program and Cal ended up being the landing spot for him.
He enters the 2017 season with a tough decision on his hands and that’s selecting a quarterback to take over a new offense. With Wilcox being the defensive savant of the Golden Bears, he has brought on the acclaimed Beau Baldwin as his offensive coordinator.
Baldwin had massive success as head coach of Eastern Washington and even defeated Pac-12 schools twice in his career with the FCS champion. Wilcox will be leaning on him to help the program make the right decision at the quarterback spot.
With Davis Webb leaving for the NFL Draft, the Golden Bears currently have five options for the quarterback spot. It’s tough to imagine who it will end up being considering the lack of experience on the roster.
Only Chase Forrest has game experience in his career and it is limited. The quarterbacks on the roster entering the spring are Forrest, Chase Garbers, Max Gilliam, Victor Viramontes and Ross Bowers. Forrest seems like the natural transition as a redshirt junior but the offense is expected to change drastically.
The air-raid system that the Golden Bears are used to is going to be modified and become more diverse as the team continues to bring in new recruits. That means that this is going to be an open competition among the quarterbacks and anyone could come out on top after spring.
It’s a scary spot to be in for Cal. With Willie Taggart taking over in Oregon, the strength of Stanford every year and Washington one of the top programs in the nation, not having a clear direction quite yet at the quarterback spot is an uphill climb.
In fairness to Wilcox and his staff, it would be foolish anything else in the first year of the new regime. Baldwin excelled creating dynamic offenses with Eastern Washington so it shouldn’t be hard having better talent to eventually work with adapt to his system.
What helps the crop of quarterbacks is that the Golden Bears have plenty of options at receiver. Demetris Robertson is an absolute stud at the position and is one of the most reliable receivers in the conference. He’s going to play a big role in helping the young quarterbacks get comfortable.
Spring football will ultimately decide who’s going to take the lead at taking over heading into the summer. When it comes to quarterback situations in the conference, there really isn’t a bigger unknown than Cal.
This is going to be the group everyone asks about and it’s going to be the one that ultimately determines whether the first year under Wilcox and Baldwin is a successful one. There will likely be rough patches along the way, but seeing the growth and development will be the key here.
The program will keep attacking the recruiting trails to get the right guys in the pipeline. This transition might mean the record gets a little worse before it gets better too. Last season, the Golden Bears finished with a 5-7 record.
While Wilcox should do big things with the defense that helps keep them in games, it wouldn’t be surprising if they hover around the record or take a bit of a step back. There are plenty of times when a new quarterback lights up college football, but expectations have to be kept in check with the program.
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The future is bright for the Golden Bears and they have the right staff in place for the team to be successful. Like most programs starting anew, things will take time and development will need to occur. The quicker a quarterback can emerge in the spring, the sooner they can begin to work on building the offense for the future and turning their weakest position group into their strongest one.