In comparison, Austin Hinder, who chose Cal while holding an offer from Alabama, spent the entire time as a backup but never transferred. I think it just depends on the individual. Hinder seemed to be enjoying spending time with his Cal friends out here. His highlight was the Klindergoff competition in 2013.
I love how peeps are so flip about 4* QBs. "No worries we have a 4* coming in this year and next." Ratings, especially at QB, don't mean anything.
Modster transfer was "expected".
Casey transfer I expected as well only because I am friends with a friend of the family. That was no surprise.
Brasch leaving puts the QB group as the least experienced group on the entire team. Brasch was, until he left, the only QB with "some" PT (1 game and a few series). How his departure is spun into "good news" or "we are OK" is one play and one knee injury away should Chase go down. Rowell does have a few mop up series that hardly counts as experience.
It is an entirely different scenario if your #2 has experience or has been in the system for multiple years ~ especially at the QB position. In this instant case Cal does not have that.
As the spring sessions went on with Casey leaving just a few days in and then Brasch leaving one day after Musgrave announces his #1 and #2, it is not a stretch to surmise that Musgrave made a decision prior to spring even starting. QBs are Alphas by nature. They want to compete and sans an opportunity to do so, they will move on.
Modster and Casey's departure could be absorbed, losing Brasch hurts the team. Here is one simple aspect where it hurts: with only 3 QB's that's a lot of less "turns" for WRs & TEs. You can't have your QBs throwing 100's of passes per practice and burning their arms out. And that goes for both the #1 and #2. WRs and TEs will get less reps, not good for development or depth. This issue is now exasperated during the summer months of PLP where there is potential for a lot of reps.
So to sum up, you can't convince me that having 3 QBs (4th coming in June/August, which will help) is overall good for the team heading into the Fall. Best case scenario is that Millner comes in and completely absorbs the playbook and wows the staff. At that point, I would feel a lot more comfortable going into this campaign that is critical for Musgrave and Cal's doormat offense.
Hopefully the OL is much improved this year that would alleviate a lot of pressure on the QBs.
This was not unexpected. With Chase Garbers and Zach Johnson nailing down the #1 & #2 spots and with Zach being younger than Spencer, the writing was on the wall. And with a new 4* QB arriving in the fall and another 4* QB committed for next year, the competition for the starting slot was only going to get more intense. It's the way of the world today; kids who don't make the top two rotation don't really care about the school, they want to play and so transfer to a place where they believe they have a better shot at playing. And for all we know Musgrave may have had a private conversation with Spencer telling him that Robby Rowell would play ahead of him. When I coached at JC level we rarely had more than 2 deep at any position because if you weren't top 2 then you weren't playing. I specifically remember we had a kid who played D-Line that couldn't crack our top 2 rotation so he went to a another JC where he ended up starting. He actually played well int the game against us, but he still wasn't good enough to crack our rotation. So, to respond to another comment, there is nothing wrong in the QB room, this is a result of a competition for playing time and a desire to get playing time over sitting on the bench. I wish Spencer well. I met his parents at the 'Lightning Game' at UW in 2019 and they were real nice people. I'm sure it was not an easy decision.
Like others here, I see this as a credit to the coaches and QB room and team culture. We've got good depth, still, and will hit fall with better. Garbers will certainly miss a game or two, and we will see some drop off with any of them, as most teams would. As Cal recruits better and better skill players, we are going to get more guys who feel strongly they are good enough to play D1 at a high level. They will understandably leave when the Jermaine Terry's or Kai Milner's of the world show up and promise to get all the snaps for a few years.
In comparison, Austin Hinder, who chose Cal while holding an offer from Alabama, spent the entire time as a backup but never transferred. I think it just depends on the individual. Hinder seemed to be enjoying spending time with his Cal friends out here. His highlight was the Klindergoff competition in 2013.
I love how peeps are so flip about 4* QBs. "No worries we have a 4* coming in this year and next." Ratings, especially at QB, don't mean anything.
Modster transfer was "expected".
Casey transfer I expected as well only because I am friends with a friend of the family. That was no surprise.
Brasch leaving puts the QB group as the least experienced group on the entire team. Brasch was, until he left, the only QB with "some" PT (1 game and a few series). How his departure is spun into "good news" or "we are OK" is one play and one knee injury away should Chase go down. Rowell does have a few mop up series that hardly counts as experience.
It is an entirely different scenario if your #2 has experience or has been in the system for multiple years ~ especially at the QB position. In this instant case Cal does not have that.
As the spring sessions went on with Casey leaving just a few days in and then Brasch leaving one day after Musgrave announces his #1 and #2, it is not a stretch to surmise that Musgrave made a decision prior to spring even starting. QBs are Alphas by nature. They want to compete and sans an opportunity to do so, they will move on.
Modster and Casey's departure could be absorbed, losing Brasch hurts the team. Here is one simple aspect where it hurts: with only 3 QB's that's a lot of less "turns" for WRs & TEs. You can't have your QBs throwing 100's of passes per practice and burning their arms out. And that goes for both the #1 and #2. WRs and TEs will get less reps, not good for development or depth. This issue is now exasperated during the summer months of PLP where there is potential for a lot of reps.
So to sum up, you can't convince me that having 3 QBs (4th coming in June/August, which will help) is overall good for the team heading into the Fall. Best case scenario is that Millner comes in and completely absorbs the playbook and wows the staff. At that point, I would feel a lot more comfortable going into this campaign that is critical for Musgrave and Cal's doormat offense.
Hopefully the OL is much improved this year that would alleviate a lot of pressure on the QBs.
2 QBs in a couple of weeks. Yeah sumtin probably ain't right in that room.
This was not unexpected. With Chase Garbers and Zach Johnson nailing down the #1 & #2 spots and with Zach being younger than Spencer, the writing was on the wall. And with a new 4* QB arriving in the fall and another 4* QB committed for next year, the competition for the starting slot was only going to get more intense. It's the way of the world today; kids who don't make the top two rotation don't really care about the school, they want to play and so transfer to a place where they believe they have a better shot at playing. And for all we know Musgrave may have had a private conversation with Spencer telling him that Robby Rowell would play ahead of him. When I coached at JC level we rarely had more than 2 deep at any position because if you weren't top 2 then you weren't playing. I specifically remember we had a kid who played D-Line that couldn't crack our top 2 rotation so he went to a another JC where he ended up starting. He actually played well int the game against us, but he still wasn't good enough to crack our rotation. So, to respond to another comment, there is nothing wrong in the QB room, this is a result of a competition for playing time and a desire to get playing time over sitting on the bench. I wish Spencer well. I met his parents at the 'Lightning Game' at UW in 2019 and they were real nice people. I'm sure it was not an easy decision.
Like others here, I see this as a credit to the coaches and QB room and team culture. We've got good depth, still, and will hit fall with better. Garbers will certainly miss a game or two, and we will see some drop off with any of them, as most teams would. As Cal recruits better and better skill players, we are going to get more guys who feel strongly they are good enough to play D1 at a high level. They will understandably leave when the Jermaine Terry's or Kai Milner's of the world show up and promise to get all the snaps for a few years.