Cal Football gets Penn/Western Carolina QB Ryan Glover as grad transfer
Wharton -> Haas
Ryan Glover, the former QB at Penn and Western Carolina, announced Friday on social media that he will grad transfer to Cal for his final year of eligibility.
The dual-threat product out of Woodward Academy in Atlanta, Georgia will compete for the Bears’ backup QB role in fall camp, barring any surprise challenge to Chase Garbers. While sophomore Zach Johnson appeared to beat out walk-on senior Robby Rowell for the role in spring, Johnson has never appeared at the collegiate level. True freshman Kai Millner will also enter the mix in the fall but is not expected to play this year. Therefore, Glover’s addition provides additional experienced security for the QB position this year.
Glover has played a solid amount of games nearly every year while at the collegiate level. At Penn his sophomore year in 2018, Glover kept a steady hand as he led the Quakers to a 6-4 record, going 122-205 for 1,482 yards, seven passing touchdowns, and six interceptions. He also ran for 300 yards and two touchdowns that year. In 2019, Glover split time with a senior as a gadget player. Famously for Penn, he entered the homecoming game against Cornell after an injury and immediately led two touchdown drives to give Penn the lead and a 21-20 victory. In 2021, after the Ivy League cancelled fall sports, Glover transferred to Western Carolina and started at QB in all six games for the Catamounts. His statline for 2021 ended at 86-147 for 832 yards, three passing touchdowns, and four interceptions. He also rushed for 88 yards and two touchdowns.
Glover was at The Wharton School while at Penn and will continue his education at Cal at the Haas School of Business.
Glover also has in-roads with some famous faces:
Glover’s mother is Tameka Foster, the Oakland-based celebrity fashion stylist who’s worked with Jay-Z, Lauryn Hill, and Patti LaBelle. His mother previously had a relationship with Usher and married the singer from 2007-2009.
Glover’s commitment should not have any negative impact on Justyn Martin or any future QB recruiting as this is Glover’s final year playing college football.
Cal fans, what do you think about Glover’s role on the team this year?
Welcome to Berkeley, Ryan! GO BEARS!
Prior to this weekend, Cal had five QBs for the 2021 season - Garbers, Johnson, Rowell, Milner, and Blake DeBisschop. Glover makes six.
There's a common perception that five QBs is too few to run a program and that six is better. One QB will be dedicated to the Scout team to study and run opposing offenses - a job held by Rowell last season. To avoid giving your starting QB a dead arm, you need an extra arm to throw to receivers.
Very few freshmen that don't enroll in Spring can come up the learning curve fast enough to compete, so Milner and DeBisschop are not likely to be competitive for playtime or contribute to developing receivers. Glover can help develop receivers since he's been there and done that already. So we are another hard tackle away from leaving the team either to a guy who had a good spring and a walk-on who got to play because everyone else got hurt to be Garbers back-up.
Ryan Glover is a known quantity. He is mobile, but not quite a true dual-threat QB. He has a history of positive yards rushing. He doesn't have a lot of tape, but what I could find has him throwing a lot on the run - either by design or scrambling. So there's a lot of athletic highlights of him making backfoot, cross-body, and ad-hoc throws. And perhaps because of all that passing on the run, he is a career sub-60% completion rate guy who throws about as many interceptions as TDs while getting 7-something YPA (downfield passer, not an air raid passer). These numbers - and style - remind me of Zach Maynard. Maynard may not have been a great starting QB, but I would certainly take his second-coming as a back-up over having another 2019 Utah-like game.
He can easily top all the photos above this Fall by getting his picture taken with Oski. Welcome to Cal, Ryan!