Weekly Roundtable Discussion: Storylines

We are bringing back a weekly roundtable discussion among the Writers for California, featuring some of your favorite characters. We spend hours discussing Cal football (well, anything Cal-related). I can’t guarantee that our Writers always have the best takes, but they sure are passionate.

Our discussion this week was around the quarterback room. We have a full series of previews and positional breakdowns already in progress, but here is this week’s discussion. Note that this was slightly edited for clarity, as the discussion occurred entirely on Discord.

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Christopher Zheng: Hey Writers for California, here’s this week’s discussion topic: What do you think will be the most interesting (e.g., any merit to Kyion Grayes and Devin Brown's previous connections leading to better on-field chemistry), most fun (e.g., national exposure to Calgorithm), and most disappointing (e.g., Cal gives yet another team their 1 win FBS win of the season) storylines for the season?

Rob Hwang: Just to kick us off, since these are all hypotheticals: The most interesting for me is JKS and his freshman year passing stats. The most fun is one of our skill position players exploding onto the scene (not named Trond or De Jesus). And, of course, the most disappointing will undoubtedly be losing a game we should’ve won for like 50 minutes (and why is that going to be Virginia Tech).

Ben: The most interesting thing for me is going to be the whole new experiment that Cal is running. This past offseason is as close as you can get to firing and hiring a new coach without actually firing Wilcox.New OC, new DC, a turned-over roster, you could probably argue a new coach, given that Wilcox has passed a lot of admin responsibility up to Ron that's opening up new brain space for Wilcox to get back to his strengths. Interested to see how it all works. Most fun, kinda same answer as before but also now just to see how the conversation around Cal changes? The fanbase feels revived in a way, so I’m looking forward to seeing what that looks like from the onset of the season. Most disappointing… I mean it's the sword of Damocles of “giving someone their first win of the year.” I really hope that doesn't happen, but….

Piotr Le: Most interesting for me: how, by the time we play Minnesota, will the defenses play us? Two years ago, I noted how teams would just stack the box against SJV and Finley, and only when Mendonza came on the field did they begin respecting the passing game. The way opposing safeties align will tell us all we need to know about whether they respect the passing game or not.Most fun: UNC coming to town and how the Calgorithm will tackle the Jordan-Bill relationship. I have a feeling some memes may break containment and become massive.Most disappointing: the potential last 3-4 games of the season where we have Harsin as a caretaker HC and are just running out the clock to find the next HC...

Piotr Le: I am hoping for a Chad Hansen moment from one of our guys, basically a dude who came from nowhere and becomes a monster. I recall his sideline catches, etc. One season earned him a 2nd round draft pick; sad he never lived up to that. I am thinking Hamper might be that dude since he fits all the physical check boxes.

Ben: Man, if we're in your disappointed scenario, that means we went like, 2-6 or 3-5 woooof.

Piotr Le: Yup, It'll be so crushing because we know ourselves well enough, we'd get the presser from Ron, some noise, a lot of national media calling this a "dead-end job" or something. Getting our hopes up, but having a chance of ending up with some retread.

Ben: See, this is where I’m trying to break that mindset a bit. Everything I’ve seen thus far from Cal Football and Athletics is "we're doing things differently now." Hopefully, that continues. And I just have so much more hope with Ron leading that search. And in that case, where we're 2-6 or whatever, that sends a message to folks. We ain't f*cking around anymore lol.

Piotr Le: That's the hope, but man, actions over words and vibes. Imagine if he gets an amazing coach, like a "how did he go here" type. Not even dreaming of Lincoln Riley, but man, Jon Sumrall from Tulane would be amazing.Alex Golesh, Jason Candle, or, if SJSU has a great year, Ken Niumatalolo. He'd be an amazing hire, used to academic rigor, flexible: man went from the triple at Navy to a spread offense at SJSU.

Ben: Alright, well, now I'm looking at this question in a new light, and I guess the most interesting is going to be what path Jaron leads us on.

[EDITOR’S NOTE: We started this discussion before JKS was officially named QB1. The discussion deviates a bit.]

Ben: Nam did some scouting on True Freshman in the last decade. His basic thesis was, dudes mostly need a year before they can fully bloom. On a whole season, his contemporaries would be Caleb Williams and Dylan Raiola. I really don't know what to make of that beyond it’ll be hard to project. I’m not sure what their weapons around them looked like, but I’d imagine USC has the edge over Nebraska and likely us there. Of the two, I’d guess he has a year closer to Raiola than Williams? But I know nothing of the systems, pass mechanics, etc.

BentPawn(Don): As an NU fan, Raiola was a solid B+, with more flashes of A than of D/F. He never looked overmatched but did make mistakes in reading coverages. He had 1 very good WR and a better TE to work with. I'll take the comparison any day of the week.

TD_24: The man can absolutely SLING the rock, the zip, arm strength, and other physical tools are the easiest things to get excited about, and I join people in that excitement. The easiest comp to make is Dillon Gabriel on the 2019 UCF team, where he had to step in as a freshman himself after McKenzie Milton went down the year prior. Now, Gabriel was flat out absurd and had a top 25 team around him at the time, and it showed early as he threw for 29 TDs and only 7 INTs that year. It's unfair to expect JKS to do that for a multitude of reasons.JKS doesn't have the horses next to him to necessarily replicate that, and what I'll be looking for is how he responds to mental adversity. Coaches have raved about it. Others in the thread referenced the lows not being too low elsewhere, and that's what I want to see him navigate because the talent is undeniable.

Piotr Le: JKS has the potential to make throws and plays we haven't seen since the Goff/Webb era. That's the level of arm talent (ability to layer throws, know when to give touch and when to yeet it for every route) and strength (ability to access the entire field with pace on the ball) we're talking about. I have a feeling we'll win a game because of him that we would've lost with a Bowers-type QB because the other team just knew the QB couldn't hit the hole shot in Cover 2 between the deep safety and the flat defender.

Christopher Zheng: Any final thoughts on JKS?

Callie Wake: Jaron has the arm. We’ve seen it throughout his recruiting process and in the offseason. The guy can sling it. I’m concerned about him being named a starter despite his lack of game experience, but I suppose there’s only one way to get that.

ShadowSandrock:

Jesse Miller-Gordon: Jaron-Keawe's physical talents are apparent. I'm excited to see the plan they've set for those talents. I feel like it's worth just letting ourselves be excited until there's reason not to be; we're all along for the ride anyhow.