The California Golden Bears will have an open competition at quarterback come the 2022 season. One promising name on that list was dual-threat Calabasas slinger Jaden Casey, who had one of the most promising arms in Cal quarterback recruiting history.
But only a week into spring practice, Casey has decided to transfer.
It’s hard to figure out why Casey decided to make the call this quickly. He is being coached in an entirely new system from the one he was recruited for—Beau Baldwin recruited him to Cal likely to execute a more spread-type attack, and now he’s working in Bill Musgrave’s pro-style system. You’d have to guess Casey is going to find a place that is better suited for his talents—he held offers from schools like Alabama, Arizona State, Arkansas, Iowa State, Kansas State, Oregon State, Purdue and Utah.
With Casey out, the Cal quarterback competition for 2022 now seems to be a battle between Spencer Brasch, Zach Johnson, and Kai Milner.
Brasch played a few games in relief of the injured Chase Garbers and Devon Modster in 2019 as a true freshmen. His one start was on the road against Pac-12 South Champion Utah. It’s tough to evaluate him off that one game, but now Brasch will certainly be in the mix as a redshirt junior.
Also likely to compete will be redshirt sophomore Zach Johnson. Johnson came in as the second quarterback along with Casey in the 2019 recruiting class, and now suddenly looks like he’s in a great place to win a starting position. Although not likely to wow in his high school tape.
Also in the mix will be incoming freshman Kai Millner. Millner is Musgrave’s first recruit and commit, one of the highest rated quarterback commits in Cal history, and definitely likely to be in the mix. Millner was Brasch’s former backup at Higley, but his ability to throw accurately and improvise outside the pocket make his upside as a passer all the more tantalizing.
Cal true freshman Justyn Martin also is a dark horse, but true freshman rarely start at the Power 5 level if their name isn’t Jared Goff.
BTW, it's too bad Jaden Casey is leaving. If he were a lot more patient he would have had an opportunity to play three years for Cal as its starters after Garbers left even if Casey didn't ever beat him out for the starting job.
Casey was a freshman last year but I'm almost positive he didn't use up his redshirt year then because, under NCAA rules, last season doesn't count for football eligibility purposes. So Casey would have still would have had a redshirt year available plus four additional non-redshirt years. Garbers has two years remaining because last season, when Garbers was a junior for normal football eligibility purposes, also doesn't count for football eligibility purposes. Five minus two equals three.
An article I read about Casey's impending transfer indicated, before his recent announcement and before he enrolled at Cal, that he liked Baldwin's shotgun offense with many pro concepts. So it may be decided to transfer because Cal now lines up in a T formation a lot (wish I knew the percentage). On the other hand, at Cal he would have been learning from a former pro QB who had spent most of his career coaching in qB's the NFL. So it would seem Casey would have learned a lot at Cal as to how to be a pro QB from Musgrave.
Also read he may have wanted to start fairly immediately, which probably would not have occurred at Cal, as Garbers has two years of eligibility left unless he beat him out. We will never know if that would have occurred.