Chase Garbers, Elijah Hicks, Cameron Goode make College All-Star Game rosters
Chase Garbers, Elijah Hicks, Cameron Goode make College All-Star Game rosters
Elijah Hicks in Shrine Bowl, Chase Garbers & Cameron Goode in NFLPA Bowl.
There are several Golden Bears who will be vying to get picked in the 2022 NFL Draft, and they will showcase their talents in many of the college all-star games in the coming weeks.
There are three fairly high-level prospects, and other Bears who showcased their talents in earlier events.
East-West Shrine Bowl, Thursday, February 3, 5 PM Pacific (Allegiant Stadium)
Safety Elijah Hicks
Hicks is looking to be the fourth Taker in three years to make an NFL roster. Once Hicks clicked into his role as free safety, Cal’s defense seemed to lock back in as a top-tier unit in the conference for the remainder of 2021. Hicks was second on the team in tackles with 72 behind fellow safety Daniel Scott, with 5.5 being tackles for loss. Hicks also had three interceptions, forced four fumbles, broke up two more passes, and had one sack.
Hicks isn’t just working on making the leap to the NFL. He’s making that extra effort off of it.
He was a semifinalist for Jason Witten Collegiate Man Of The Year and Wuerffel Trophy Semifinalist. He started the nonprofit organization Intercept Poverty, raising nearly $70,000 to help families feed their school-aged children during the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic. He also partners with Scholarship America to award grants of $500-700 to provide emergency relief funds to deserving students at UC Berkeley for expenses such as bills, rent and food.
Check out the feature on Hicks from the Pac-12 Network below.
NFLPA Bowl, Saturday, January 29, NFL Network (Rose Bowl Stadium)
Quarterback Chase Garbers
After 34 starts at the University of California, Garbers will look to prove he’s capable of making it at the next level. Garbers completed 64% of his passes and threw 16 touchdowns in his senior season, while rushing for four touchdowns and becoming Cal’s all-time quarterback rusher.
Garbers will have a lot to prove—at the moment he’s not making many of the lists for top quarterbacks available in the NFL Draft, trailing Kenny Pickett, and familiar names like Matt Corral and Carson Strong.
Hopefully Garbers gets a chances to show what he’s capable of. He’s been counted out many times during his Cal career but has found ways to bounce back.
Garbers’s biggest strength is his playmaking, which helped Cal’s otherwise lethargic offense create something out of nothing and pull out some very important wins. We’ll probably learn a lot more about what he’s showing the scouts in the months to come!
Linebacker Cameron Goode
Goode looks to be the third Cal linebacker in the Justin Wilcox era to get drafted, joining Jordan Kunaszyk and Evan Weaver. Goode was Cal’s biggest defensive playmaker in the front seven, leading the Bears for the third straight season in sacks. Goode has also been top-six in the team in tackles three straight years.
There’s a lot to like about Goode, namely the playmaking ability that allowed him to wreck numerous Pac-12 quarterbacks, particularly by end of year as Cal’s defense turned it up. In every Pac-12 game Goode registered a sack, Cal’s defense held their opponents to 14 points or less.
Several other Cal Bears participated in the Collegiate Gridiron Showcase this past week, including Trevon Clark, Kekoa Crawford, Luc Bequette and Josh Drayden.
Congrats guys. Hopefully this will open up paths for them to make it to the League.