Cal Football: Chase Garbers Studies Film of NFL Teams That Used Bill Musgrave's System
Certainly the offensive line, the running backs and wide receivers will play a vital role in Cal's offensive success in 2020, but without question the central figures in the Bears' new offense are offensive coordinator Bill Musgrave and quarterback Chase Garbers.
The 2020 season will be Garbers' third as the Bears' starting quarterback, and Cal had great success when Garbers was healthy last season, going 7-0 when Garbers play more than one half.
But that was under offensive coordinator Beau Baldwin, who left Cal to become head coach at Cal Poly. Baldwin was replaced by Bill Musgrave, who has a glitzy resume as the offensive coordinator for six NFL teams.
Musgrave is bringing his pro-style offense to Cal, complete with more use of a fullback and putting the quarterback under center more often.
"Coach Musgrave brings an NFL playbook here to Berkeley, so obviously that involves a lot of play action, and you got to need the run game to set that up," Garbers said Friday.
So Garbers is studying the NFL teams where Musgrave was the offensive coordinator to get in step with what he wants.
"We've watched a ton of film," Garbers said. "We watched the Raiders with Derek Carr, the Broncos with Case Keenum, even all the way back to the Vikings when Christian Ponder was the quarterback.
"We've watched quite a few years. Statistically the Raiders and Derek Carr had a great year."
That would have been 2015 and 2016, when Musgrave was the Raiders' offensive coordinator. Carr was named to the Pro Bowl both years, and the Raiders went 12-4 in 2016.
Whether Garbers will resemble Carr's 2016 version remains to be seen.
