Cal Football: Spring Camp Opens with Day 1 of Competition for Starting QB Job

There is opportunity to earn big roles across the board as Bears transition in 2022.

The start of spring football typically brings a fresh excitement, but there was a genuine newness to the proceedings with Cal on Wednesday morning at Memorial Stadium.

Coach Justin Wilcox talks in the video above about the energy he felt on Day 1 of 15 that will culminate with Cal’s spring game on April 30.

The reality is the Bears haven’t experienced this much change in several years. There are open positions up and down the lineup on both offense and defense.

From his vantage point, offensive coordinator Bill Musgrave, talking in the video above, noted, “A lot of new faces on the offense in 2022 so today was an exciting day.”

It starts at quarterback, where Chase Garbers was a fixture for most of the past four seasons but finally has moved on, chasing a possible career in the NFL.

The Bears have six quarterbacks in spring camp, but three of them likely have the best chance to eventually secure the No. 1 job. Redshirt senior Jack Plummer, a transfer from Purdue who arrived at Cal with two years of football eligibility, was the first QB to run 7-on-7 drills as the Bears practiced in shorts without pads.

But redshirt freshman Kai Miller and redshirt sophomore Zach Johnson will get plenty of opportunity to show what they can do. Neither has ever thrown a pass in a college game.

“We’re looking for guys to know what to do, of course, then do it at a fast rate,” Musgrave said. “Today was the initial day without a lot of volume in terms of plays. Get everybody’s rust knocked off a little bit and be even better on Friday.”

For Plummer, who enrolled at Cal mid-year, Wednesday was his first chance to experience a practice at Memorial Stadium.

“It was just good to get rolling through the system, see how it all operates here, see how they run practice,” he says in the video above.

Plummer played in 21 games with 13 starts for the Boilermakers, passing for 3,405 yards and 26 touchdowns with 10 interceptions.

Asked what he wants to demonstrate to the coaching staff this month, Plummer said, “Just that I can learn the system, lead the guys and throw the football down the field where it needs to go.”

Center Matthew Cindric, interviewed on Tuesday, said his first impression of Plummer during offseason workouts was his forceful command of the huddle.

“Chase was a loud guy,” Cindric said. “But Plummer, when he was saying the snap count, that was the loudest snap count I’d ever heard.”

Millner said he wants to show daily improvement and convince the coaches he can lead the team and run the offense. “Show that I’m a great quarterback,” he says in this video.

Asked how he’s approaching the battle for the starting assignment, Millner sounded like he’s embracing the moment.

“I love competition — I think all of us quarterbacks do,” he said. “We have a great quarterback room, which is really important. All the guys get along. We’re working together. And when we come out here we compete.

“All of us believe we can be the starter so it just rises the competition even more.”

Johnson, approaching his third season on the team, said he’s putting an emphasis on not making the same mistake twice. “That comes with a lot of reps. That’s what spring practice is for,” he says in the video below. Each day you want to progress, you want to ascend, you want to get a little bit better.”

Johnson said he doesn’t have an expectation beyond putting his best foot forward each practice.

“I want to leave the field knowing that I did everything I could to help the team, make the team better and overall just keep getting better myself,” Johnson said. "I think if I can keep doing that the chips are going to fall where they should.”

There is no real timetable for when the Bears expect to settle on a starting quarterback. But Musgrave expects to see significant progress from a year ago when Cal averaged 23.75 points per game during a 5-7 campaign.

“Our whole offense is looking to be much better,” he said. “We’re looking to be more potent. Better in the pass game . . . better in the run game, too, but we’re looking to take our pass game to the next level.”

Cover photo of quarterback Jack Plummer by Andrew Madsen, KLC fotos

Follow Jeff Faraudo of Cal Sports Report on Twitter: @jefffaraudo