Cal spring practice offensive questions led by Fernando Mendoza & Chandler Rogers QB battle
The California Golden Bears have one last month of prep ahead of them before proceeding to ACC play.
As spring practice lingers on the horizon, the California Golden Bears will have a host of questions looming over next season. This week we focus on the big offensive inquiries that most fans probably are concerned about.
Who will perform the best between Fernando Mendoza and Chandler Rogers?
The quarterback battle is as usual the top priority. Mendoza had a promising finish to last season, managing three solid wins in a row to get Cal to bowl eligibility. It wasn’t always clean, as Mendoza did struggle with his decision-making from game-to-game. A tough finish against Texas Tech definitely left a sour note. Still, it was a resilient finish to a quarterback who was thrown into the fire midseason. He is well liked by the players and coaches and fans. Sentiment is on his side.
On the other side is North Texas transfer Chandler Rogers. Rogers was a Mike Bloesch target at UNT before he left to take the Cal offensive line coaching job. Rogers put up very good numbers last year (62% completion rate, 3382 yards, 29 touchdowns, 5 interceptions) with the Mean Green. Rogers came to Cal to win this job, and he has a host of FBS experience under his name.
Still, this is a good problem. It’s a better place for Cal to be at in the quarterback spot than last season. The Bears will have two seasoned signal-callers battling it out for reps.
What will Mike Bloesch’s offense look like at first looks?
Bloesch takes over as Cal’s offensive coordinator and will be the primary playcaller. Both Jake Spavital and Tim Plough have taken jobs elsewhere, leaving likely new quarterback coach Sterlin Gilbert as the only other coach on staff with coordinating experience. There is a lot more responsibility falling on Bloesch to deliver more of the same offensive results we saw last season.
It’s spring, so we can’t expect huge adjustments in scheme in practice as a whole set of new players gets introduced to Bear Territory. But it’d be interesting to examine if Cal will change its tempo up, what type of concepts the Bears run, or if the team seems to be responding well to his own philosophy.
Bloesch was very active during the final month in playcalling when Cal went on its three game winning streak. Here’s to hoping it was a sign of things to come.
Who becomes Cal’s new wide receiver #1?
Losing Jeremiah Hunter was a huge drag for Cal. It was a solid year for Hunter production-wise, racking up the numbers against the LA programs and had 65 catches in all. While the Bears stacked up depth this offseason, they will be hard-pressed to capture all that production in one guy.
The best outside candidates are Notre Dame transfer Tobias Merriweather and Utah transfer Mikey Matthews, although both would have to double/triple their production to meet the standard that Hunter set. Internally, it could be Trond Grizzell stepping into this role, building on top of his special connection with Mendoza. Perhaps Mavin Anderson could bounce back from an injury-ridden year, Jonathan Brady makes some noise, or youngsters like Jaiven Plummer and Nyziah Hunter step up.
But there is no certain answer to replace Hunter. The answer might be in depth, but it’d sure be nice to have that X option ready to go.
What is your biggest offensive question going into spring camp?
Interesting that the O Line and Tackle Play are not on the list anymore
Mendoza deserves the benefit of the doubt, given how much he did to rescue the 2023 season. He provided hope when Cal had almost lost all of it. If it's about a tie in the QB competition, I hope that he's the starter to begin the season.