Cal's New Offensive Coordinator Knows How to Handle a Short Quarterback
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New Cal offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach Jake Spavital has worked with short quarterbacks before – with considerable success – and his task for the Bears is to get the most out of 5-foot-11 quarterback Sam Jackson V.
“He’s like a Kyler Murray, Johnny Manziel skill set,” Spavital said of Jackson.
Spavital worked with both the 5-foot-10 Murray and the 6-foot Manziel while he was the quarterbacks coach at Texas A&M, and, like Jackson, both were short college quarterbacks who used their speed and arm to frustrate defenses. Both also won Heisman Trophies, and Cal is hoping Jackson can resemble that kind of success in Berkeley.
Jackson, a sophomore transfer from TCU, and Spavital are the two most significant additions to Cal football program. Each is dependent on the other for individual success, and it’s not an overstatement to say that Cal is dependent on those two for team success over the next three seasons.
Spavital said he won’t mess with Jackson’s throwing mechanics, partly because short quarterbacks have developed their own styles for getting passes off among the defensive trees.
“With throwing mechanics with shorter quarterbacks, they’ve been figuring it out their whole life,” Spavital said. “They’ve been short their whole life, so they know how to throw it in certain gaps and use different arm angles and try to find a way to create a vision, so he knows what he’s doing.”
He says Jackson can use those various arm angels to get off throws, so perhaps you’ll see Jackson attempt some of those odd-looking throws that have helped make Patrick Mahomes famous.
“That’s the name of the game now,” he said. “Defensive coordinators are always going to put guys in the launch point of the quarterback. So if you’re a team where the launch point is coming out of the B gap a lot, they’re typically going to put a defender in the B gap, so now you’ve got to work your arm angles to get to the sides.”
All this is particularly important for shorter quarterbacks.
“Extremely important,” Spavital said.
Monday was only the third spring practice Spavital has had with Jackson, and he’s still evaluating everything Jackson can do so he can design the offense to fit his skills.
“Everything has to go around what the quarterback is capable of doing,” Spavital said.
When Spavital was the Cal offensive coordinator for one season in 2016, the Bears quarterback was Davis Webb, a straight drop-back quarterback. Things will be different for Jackson, who often throws on the run and will be a key element in the Bears’ run game and run-pass options.
Spavital did not have much to go on based on Jackson’s limited playing time at TCU, where he only threw six passes in two seasons of backup duty with the Horned Frogs. So when Jackson entered the transfer portal, Spavital had to refer to Jackson’s high school work and talk to a lot people familiar with Jackson to determine whether he could make an impact at Cal.
“I’ve known about him for a long time,” Spvital said. “I always watch every single quarterback in the country. With the transfer portal there might be an opportunity to get him down the line.”
He also contacted people who knew Jackson, including the staff at TCU.
“Sometimes when you get to this transfer portal, you’ve got to call a lot of people to make sure you’re checking all the boxes,” Spavital said. “He checked a lot of boxes for us.”
One of the boxes Jackson checked was his experience in a spread offense similar to what Spavital runs. Plus he has the speed to be a factor in that kind of attack.
“He claims he can run a 4.3,” Spavital said.
In practice, Jackson has demonstrated he can throw the deep ball, and Spavital insists that will be part of his offense.
“I’d get bored with myself if I wasn’t throwing the ball downfield,” he said. “Got to keep it entertaining.”
Cal fans would relish some offensive entertainment from the Bears.
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