Cal Football: How Long Will It Take Chase Garbers to Grasp New Offense?

Just three practices in it's too early to judge the progress

Every Cal offensive player needs to learn the new system being installed by offensive coordinator Bill Musgrave, but it is partcularly important that the quarterback be familiar with every aspect of the offense.

That means Chase Garbers must know the offense inside and out, to the point where he doesn't have to think about the sytem and can just read and react. Garbers and Musgrave are figuratively tied at the hip and must become one offensive mind. This takes time.

The 2019 season was his third in the offense installed by Beau Baldwin, and the turning point came in the fourth game of that season, a 28-20 road victory over Mississippi. He was impressive the rest of the season.

Now he must learn another offense. How long will it take Garbers to feel comfortable in Musgrave's system? He is saying all the right things, studying film of teams Musgrave previously coached and noting that he is not having trouble learning the new system, although only a small portion has been installed so far.

But there are obvious adjustments. The most noticeable is working from under center, which is part of the Musgrave package. Garbers admits he has not been under center for any appreciable about of time in his football career.

"No," he said. "High school I was all shotgun, and then we were under center about 15, 20 percent with coach [Beau] Baldwin [last year's Cal offensive coordinator], primarily run plays and play-action, but it's a little different taking a five- or seven-step drop from under center. I haven't done it since youth football training."

And that is just the most obvious aspect Garbers must get used to. It seems unreasonable that he feel completely in command of the new offense by the time the 2020 opener against UNLV rolls around. It would be optimistic to think he would have it by the Pac-12 opener against Utah, which is the fourth game.

Garbers is not starting from scratch, though. He is a sharp guy, and he has two seasons as a starting quarterbak under his belt. Maybe he can internalize the new offense faster than we expect. 

But it is going to take time. It might not even be until 2021 that he has total command of the offense. If Garbers is still around, that is.

Garbers has the physical attributes of an NFL quarterback. Of course, if he is effective enough in 2020 to enter the 2021 NFL Draft it would mean he has learned the Musgrave offense quickly.