Cal Football Video: Bears' Offensive Coordinator on Devon Modster

I remember something former Cal head coach Jeff Tedford once told me. I asked him what are the most important qualities needed to play quarterback. He mentioned arm strength, but that was down the line. He mentioned accuracy, but that was far from the top, and he mentioned mobility, but that was not high on the list either.

No, the No. 1 thing he looks for in a quarterback is toughness. When you think about it, it makes sense. All the natural talent in the world is not going to transalte into production if the quarterback wilts in the face of pressure or gets gun shy after taking a couple hits.

So it is noteworthy that offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach Beau Baldwin began his assessment lof Devon Modster's performance against Oregon by saying Modster "played tough as nails."

"He stood in there and took a lot of shots," Baldwin said. "and he took off and ran for first downs. I mean he played tough. Stood in there with his eyes downfield. I got tons of respect for that."

Although Modster is not the runner that Chase Garbers is, Modster still managed to gain 59 yards on runs against the Ducks. He was sacked four times, so his net rushing yardage was just 30 yards, but he showed an ability get out of trouble and extend a play. His touchdown pass to Chris Brown Jr. was an excellent example of that as you can see on this video.

"It's a defensive coordinator's nightmare," Baldwin said.

Modster did not run any option pays or run-pass options against Oregon, and Cal will not call as many of those for Modster as it would for Garbers, but Baldwin insits Modster can run those effectively.