Cal Has Produced the Most Super Bowl Starting Quarterbacks
A Cal alumnus will not be a starting quarterback in Sunday’s Super Bowl, much to the disappointment of the New York Jets, who had hoped Aaron Rodgers would take them to the promised land, and much to the chagrin of the Detroit Lions, who got within one win of the Super Bowl behind the work of Jared Goff.
Nonetheless, no college has produced more quarterbacks who have been starters in the Super Bowl than Cal.
You read that correctly.
So while Texas Tech alumnus Patrick Mahomes and former Iowa State standout Brock Purdy lead their teams on Sunday, you can inform anyone who cares to listen that when comes to the number of quarterbacks who have started Super Bowl games, Cal alumni lead the pack.
Now, to be clear, this does mean quarterbacks from Cal have started the most Super Bowls. That honor belongs to Michigan, which claims 10 Super Bowls in which one of its former quarterbacks started the big game. However, only one player – Tom Brady – was the Michigan representative in all 10 of those games.
On the other hand, five different quarterbacks who qualify as Cal alumni have started Super Bowl games.
Alabama is second with four Crimson Tide alumni becoming starting quarterbacks in Super Bowls, but the Tide is the only school within one of Cal.
Interestingly big-name football schools such as USC, Clemson, Oregon, Nebraska and Texas have never had an alumnus become a starting quarterback in a Super Bowl. And Ohio State barely gets credit for one as Joe Burrow spent time with the Buckeyes before gaining stardom at LSU.
(Personally, I take pleasure in the fact that Delaware has had two alumni – Joe Flacco and Rich Gannon -- that became starting quarterbacks in the Super Bowl, while USC and Texas have had none.)
So who are the five former Cal quarterbacks who have started Super Bowls?
Joe Kapp, Craig Morton, Vince Ferragamo, Aaron Rodgers and Jared Goff.
Rodgers is the only one who won his Super Bowl game, and Morton is the only one who started in two Super Bowls. Ferragamo is the only one who did not spend his entire career at Cal. He played his first two college seasons at Cal, then played his final two seasons at Nebraska. So he is an alumnus of Cal and Nebraska. (Like Troy Aikman is an alumnus of both Oklahoma and UCLA, Jalen Hurts is an alumnus of both Alabama and Oklahoma, and Cam Newton is an alum of both Auburn and Florida.)
If we considered only the final college that Super Bowl starting quarterbacks attended, Cal would still have the most with four. Alabama would be tied for second with three, since Jalen Hurts did not finish his college career at Alabama.
We will break down the Super Bowl games of the five Cal quarterbacks later in this article, but first we present the two categories regarding starting quarterbacks in the Super Bowl.
Category I: Most alumni of a given school who were starting quarterbacks in Super Bowls.
Cal – 5 (Joe Kapp, Craig Morton, Vince Ferragamo, Aaron Rodgers, Jared Goff)
Alabama – 4 (Bart Starr, Joe Namath, Ken Stabler, Jalen Hurts)
Notre Dame – 3 (Daryle Lamonica, Joe Theismann, Joe Montana)
Purdue – 3 (Len Dawson, Bob Griese, Drew Brees)
LSU – 3 (David Woodley, Stan Humphries, Joe Burrow)
UCLA – 2 (Billy Kilmer, Troy Aikman)
Georgia – 2 (Fran Tarkenton, Matthew Stafford)
Pittsburgh – 2 (Dan Marino, Joe Flacco)
BYU – 2 (Jim McMahon, Steve Young)
Maryland – 2 (Boomer Esiason, Neil O’Donnell)
Penn State – 2 (Jeff Hostetler, Kerry Collins)
Washington State – 2 (Mark Rypien, Drew Bledsoe)
Oklahoma – 2 (Troy Aikman, Jalen Hurts)
Delaware – 2 (Rich Gannon, Joe Flacco)
Boston College – 2 (Matt Hasselbeck, Matt Ryan)
Florida – 2 (Rex Grossman, Cam Newton)
18 other colleges had one alumnus who started a Super Bowl game at quarterback.
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Category II: Most Super Bowl games started by a quarterback who was an alumnus of a given school.
Michigan – 10 (Tom Brady 10)
Stanford – 7 (John Elway 5, Jim Plunkett 2)
Notre Dame – 7 (Joe Montana 4, Joe Theisman 2, Daryle Lamonica 1)
Cal – 6 (Craig Morton 2, Joe Kapp 1, Vince Ferragamo 1, Aaron Rodgers 1, Jared Goff 1)
Purdue – 6 (Bob Griese 3, Len Dawson 2, Drew Brees 1)
Alabama – 5 (Bart Starr 2, Ken Stabler 1, Joe Namath 1, Jalen Hurts 1)
Navy – 4 (Roger Staubach 4)
UCLA – 4 (Troy Aikman 3, Billy Kilmer 1)
Georgia – 4 (Fran Tarkenton 3, Matthew Stafford 1)
Louisiana Tech – 4 (Terry Bradshaw 4)
Miami-Fla. – 4 (Jim Kelly 4)
Oklahoma – 4 (Troy Aikman 3, Jalen Hurts 1)
Tennessee – 4 (Peyton Manning 4)
Texas Tech – 4 (Patrick Mahomes 4, including this Sunday’s game)
LSU – 3 (David Woodley 1, Stan Humphries 1, Joe Burrow 1)
Southern Miss – 3 (Bett Favre 3)
Northern Iowa – 3 (Kurt Warner 3)
Miami-Ohio – 3 (Ben Roethlisberger 3)
11 other colleges were represented with starting quarterbacks in two Super Bowls.
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Let’s take a look at the six Super Bowl games started by Cal alumni quarterbacks:
Joe Kapp, Minnesota Vikings, Super Bowl IV, January 11, 1970.
Final score: Chiefs 23, Vikings 7
Kapp was the runnerup in the NFL MVP voting that season, and his Vikings were 13.5-point favorites in this final Super Bowl between the NFL and the AFL before they merged. Kapp was 16-for-25 for 183 yards, no touchdowns and two interceptions and was outplayed by Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Len Dawson, who was 12-for-17 for 142 yards, one touchdown and one interception.
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Craig Morton, Dallas Cowboys, Super V, January 17, 1971
Final score: Colts 16, Cowboys 13
Morton alternated with Roger Staubach under coach Tom Landry for much of the season, but Morton was the only Cowboys quarterback who threw a pass against the Colts. Unfortunately, he did not throw them very accurately, completing 12-of-26 passes for 127 yards, one touchdown and three interceptions. Johnny Unitas and Earl Morrall both got playing time for the Colts, who won on a Jim O’Brien field goal with five seconds left.
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Craig Morton, Denver Broncos, Super Bowl XII, January 15, 1978
Final score: Cowboys 27, Broncos 10
Morton finished tied for second in the 1977 NFL MVP voting and became the first quarterback to start Super Bowl games for two different teams. (Since then three other quarterbacks have done it -- Tom Brady, Kurt Warner and Peyton Manning.) Morton had his worst game of the season against his former team in the 1978 big game, going 4-for-15 for 39 yards, no touchdowns and four interceptions for a passer rating of 0.0. He was replaced by some guy named Norman Weese.
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Vince Ferragamo, Los Angeles Rams, Super Bowl XIV, January 20, 1980
Final score: Steelers 31, Rams 19
Ferragamo talks in advance of Jared Goff's Super Bowl game for the Rams
Ferragamo had shared the starting quarterback job with Steve Bartkowski at Cal for two seasons before moving on the Nebraska. In Super Bowl XIV, Ferragamo was 15-for-25 for 212 yards, no touchdowns and one interception and led the underdog Rams to a 13-10 halftime lead. But the Steelers rallied to win their fourth Super Bowl despite three interceptions thrown by Terry Bradshaw.
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Aaron Rodgers, Green Bay Packers, Super Bowl XLV, February 6, 2011
Final score: Packers 31, Steelers 25
In his third season as the Packers’ starting quarterback, Rodgers took the Packers to the Super Bowl as a No. 6 seed in the NFC. And Green Bay became the second sixth seed to win a Super Bowl as Rodgers outplayed Steelers QB Ben Roethlisberger. Rodgers threw three touchdown passes and no interceptions, while Roethlisberger recorded two touchdown passes and two interceptions, one of which was returned for a touchdown. Rodgers is still the only Cal alum who won a Super Bowl game as a starting quarterback.
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Jared Goff, Los Angeles Rams, Super Bowl LIII, February 3, 2019
Final score: Patriots 13, Rams 3
Tom Brady did not have a great game, but it was better than Goff’s showing. Goff was 19-for-38 for 229 yards, no touchdowns and an interception and was sacked four times. The Rams’ only scored was a 53-yard Greg Zuerlein field goal, and the three points were the fewest scored in a Super Bowl. This game is when the Rams’ trust in Goff began to erode, and the slide continued until Goff was traded to the Lions in January 2021. (Another former Cal player, running back C.J. Anderson, rushed for 22 yards for the Rams.)
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Cover photo of Aaron Rodgers by Vincent Carchietta, USA TODAY Sports
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