Cal Football: No. 1 QB Sam Jackson V Welcomes Competition From Ben Finley
Sam Jackson V, who emerged from spring practice as Cal’s starting quarterback, said he welcomed the arrival this summer of Ben Finley, a transfer from North Carolina State.
“I definitely look at it as competition. I’m a competitive person, so honestly when he came in it just motivated me. He’s a good person, too,” said Jackson, who landed in Berkeley as a transfer from TCU in January.
Finley spent three seasons at NC State, earning a degree in business administration last December but bringing three years of eligibility to Cal. He began last season as the Wolfpack’s scout-team quarterback then made the unlikely climb to starter for the team’s final two games.
Still, he was penciled in to begin fall camp as the third-stringer, so the Phoenix, Arizona native trekked back across the country to give Cal a try.
Asked what he has to do to possibly dislodge Jackson atop the depth chart, Finley calmly said he needs to know the playbook and be consistent while creating relationships with his teammates.
“I’ve only been here for a month-and-a-half . . . slowly getting there. With that comes respect and hope to be in that position,” he said.
“The weather here is beautiful — I got out of the (North Carolina) humidity, which is great. It’s a great fit for me and a great opportunity to compete.”
After just a day or two, obviously, no decision about a starter for the Sept. 2 opener at North Texas is imminent. The view from the outside is that Jackson is No. 1 and Finley was brought on board to provide depth and to make sure Jackson feels a push from behind.
But coach Justin Wilcox was sounding very democratic after Wednesday’s workout.
“I think it’s going to be competitive everywhere. There’s guys who did a great job in spring — Sam came a long ways in spring — but everybody out here is competing. That’s the nature of our game,” he said.
“That’s what you want. You want to recruit and develop as much talent as you possibly can and create competition within the position groups. If there’s not competition, I don’t know if you get the best out of anybody.”
Jackson, a 5-foot-11, 195-pound redshirt sophomore, played sparingly in his two seasons at TCU, completing all six of his pass attempts for 140 yards while adding 79 rushing yards and two touchdowns.
He showed impressive bursts of explosiveness during spring practice but is hardly a finished product.
Finley, at 6-3, 195 pounds, was the hero of NC State’s double-overtime win over rival North Carolina last fall. In his first career start, he passed for 271 yards and two touchdowns. Over three seasons, he completed 54.6 percent of his passes for 912 yards with four TDs and five interceptions.
“A very experienced QB,” new offensive coordinator Jake Spavital said of Finley. “He’s very comfortable when he’s out there.”
Sam Jackson V shows off his mobility.
Photo by Al Sermeno, KLC fotos
But there is no mistaking the biggest difference in the skillsets of the two players.
“I’ve never seen a more athletic quarterback than Sam,” Finley said. “I’m going to sling the ball around. I’m not scored to throw it. Hopefully, Sam Jackson’s athleticism rubs off on me a little bit and I can scramble around a little bit.”
Spavital talked up Jackson’s ability to extend plays during spring ball and it would seem the playbook might be somewhat different, depending on which quarterback is on the field.
After two days, he’s happy with what he’s seen. “They’ve been doing a really good job of competing. I’m really pleased with the quarterback play right now,” Spavital said.
Ben Finley drops back to pass.
Photo by Al Sermeno, KLC fotos
Sophomore Fernando Mendoza and redshirt junior Luke Bottari — who led College of San Mateo to a 22-3 record in 2019 and ’21 and did not play in his one season at Utah last fall — also are getting reps.
On Mendoza, Spavital said, “I couldn’t speak more highly of the guy. The strides that he has made from the spring throughout the course of the summer til now, he’s light years ahead of where we was.”
Referring to newcomers Finley and Bottari, Spavital added, “What I see with those two is they don’t get rattled, they communicate, very calm and smooth.”
Jackson, who talks in the video above about taking cues from NFL star Patrick Mahomes, acknowledges he needs to learn when to rely on his athletic ability and when to get rid of the football.
“My first two years at TCU I was running around everywhere. I never threw the ball away. Here, (defensive coordinator Peter) Sirmon kind of forces me to throw the ball away,” he said.
“Just knowing I’m so elusive I can make a play almost every time is definitely something I have to work on,” he said. “A lot of times in practice I’m rolling out and I should run out of bounds or throw it away, but I don’t. That’s kind of a bad habit I have to break before this upcoming season so I don’t take those kind of hits.”
The two QB rivals are developing a healthy competitive attitude about fall camp.
“He had a really good practice today,” Jackson said after Wednesday’s session. “He adds some decent depth to the quarterback room, for sure. Great guy . . . I have no problems with him at all. So I feel like it’s honestly just competition.”
“Off the field you’re there to help each other,” Finley said. “When you’re on the field it’s still like that but it’s competitive. At the end of the day we’re just kids playing football.”
Cover photo of Cal quarterback Sam Jackson V
Follow Jeff Faraudo of Cal Sports Report on Twitter: @jefffaraudo
