Cal Football Season Preview, Part 3: Stars and Potential Breakout Stars

Bears need their elite players to deliver and the next tier to blossom

Photo by Darren Yamashita, USA Today

Teams that aspire to be among the elite need good depth, good coaching and good luck.

They also need star quality. The best teams have difference-makers in their lineups, players who rise above in the moments that matter.

In Part 3 of our season preview series, we examine the players in Cal’s locker room who can fill these roles. I will look at five players who must live up to their star billing and Jake Curtis presents five who are potential breakout stars.

The stars

Quarterback Chase Garbers

Fair or not, teams cannot win in modern football without a top-level quarterback. As the old saying goes, if you can’t stand the heat get out of the kitchen.

Garbers has demonstrated he can handle the heat. He has improved each season and he put together his best three-game stretch to close out the 2019 campaign. Cal won all three games — the ultimate QB measuring stick.

Coach Justin Wilcox believes Garbers’ best football is ahead of him, and the Bears need that potential to further blossom beginning Saturday against Washington.

Garbers has embraced new offensive coordinator Bill Musgrave’s scheme, and he benefits from experienced pieces around him at every position. If Garbers evolves into a star-level quarterback, the Bears’ prospects are enhanced.

Cornerback Camryn Bynum

Bynum put it out there for everyone to hear when he made his return to the Bears after initially opting out to prepare for the NFL draft. He said the Bears should win every game on their schedule.

That’s a lot of pressure, but that’s what a star player does. He sets the bar high and challenges those around him to clear it.

Bynum is a critical piece to the Cal defense because he has started 38 consecutive games and was good enough to secure second-team All-Pac-12 honors a year ago.

Now he must lead a secondary that otherwise has all new starters or, in the case of cornerback-turned-safety Elijah Hicks, a veteran playing a new role.

Cal’s secondary was touted a year ago as perhaps the best in the nation. It was not. It’s Bynum’s assignment to try lifting his group toward that lofty aspiration this fall.

Inside linebacker Kuony Deng

Deng may be the best positioned of all of Cal’s players to truly emerge as a star. In his first year with the program last fall he totaled 119 tackles while playing alongside Evan Weaver, who led the nation with 182.

Deng is 6-foot-6, nearly 250 pounds, runs like a smaller player and is driven to play at next level. It seems inevitable that he will enjoy a productive season.

Wilcox may have put it best when asked to describe Deng’s approach to pursuing excellence. “He lives a really lean life,” he said, “and there’s not a lot that really distracts him from what he’s focused on.”

Offensive coordinator Bill Musgrave talks about the Bears' running backs: 

.

Running back Christopher Brown

In evaluating the Bears’ 6-foot-1, 235-pound junior we will discard the eye-opening 197-yard performance he delivered in the 2019 season opener. The opponent was UC Davis, an FCS-level team that doesn’t compare to anyone in the Pac-12.

Slowed by various injury nicks much of the season, Brown got healthy late and the difference for the Bears was significant. In season-ending wins over UCLA and Illinois, Brown totaled 231 yards and averaged 6.1 yards per attempt.

How does that potentially translate to Cal’s abridged 2020 schedule?

If the offensive line can help Brown maintain a 6.1 yards-per-clip rate and he gets 20 carries per game, he would reach 976 yards over eight games, assuming a bowl appearance.

That’s remarkably close to 1,000 in a short season where that would seem off the table.

Outside linebacker Cameron Goode

It’s been easy to overlook Cam Goode the past several seasons. Injuries had something to do with it, and so did the presence of Evan Weaver, whose production drew away much of the spotlight.

But Goode is good. At times, very good.

He delivered pick sixes in 2017 and ’18, when he was on the shelf for all but 10 games. And last year, available to play in 12 of 13 games, he assembled 14 tackles for losses, 9.5 of them on sacks, to rank among the top three in the Pac-12 in both categories.

If Goode can again sidestep the injury bug this fall, there is every reason to believe he will have a star’s impact on the Golden Bears defense.

.

Now I hand things off to Jake . . .

Potential breakout stars

.

Tight end Collin Moore

Cal has several talented tight ends, and Moore received high marks from Musgrave in this video:

Moore made just one start last season and recorded only two catches for 11 yards and one touchdown. Moore even entered the transfer portal last spring before deciding to stay at Cal.

He is an interesting story. Moore arrived at Cal as a walk-on quarterback, and coach Justin Wilcox even suggested he give up football after he sustained some serious injuries. But Moore declared he wanted to give it another shot at tight end.

Musgrave is expected to use tight ends extensively in his offense, as he did when he was an offensive coordinator in the NFL. The last two tight ends he coached in the NFL, Jeff Heuerman of the Denver Broncos and Clive Walford of the Oakland Raiders, caught 31 and 33 catches, respectively. And those two guys are not exactly household names.

Musgrave coaches tight ends when he was offensive coordinator at Virginia.

If Moore does not have a breakout season, then fellow tight end Jake Tonges will.

Wide receiver Makai Polk

Polk was one of the few Cal players who received significant playing time as a freshman in 2019. His numbers were not spectacular (19 catches, 295 yards), but his best games came late in the season: He had four catches for 78 yards and touchdown in the final regular-season game against UCLA and five receptions for 105 yards in the Redbox Bowl win over Illinois.

The 6-foot-3, 200-pound Polk does not have blinding speed but he has a knack for getting open and getting down field in a hurry.

Outside linebacker Braxten Croteau

Braxten Croteau played all 13 games, including one start, last season as a freshman, and moved into the starting lineup at outside linebacker this season when 2019 starter Tevin Paul opted out of the 2020 season. Croteau did not have impressive stats last year (7 tackles. 0.5 tackles for loss), but he is a player likely to prosper in Cal’s defense and may show continued improvement over the course of the short 2020 season.

Outside linebackers coach Tim DeRuyter talked about Croteau in this video:

Wide receiver Kekoa Crawford

Crawford, who began his college career at Michigan, played just six games last season for Cal because of injury problems, but he was still fourth on the team in receiving yards (272) and led the team in yards per reception (17.0). His 27-yard reception with less than two minutes left against Washington may have been the most important catch of the season.

If Crawford can stay healthy he might put up some big numbers.

Safety Craig Woodson

Craig Woodson, a redshirt freshman, is not listed as a starter at safety, but teammates have been raving about his play-making ability. Every practice he seems to come up with an interception or some sort of big play. For Woodson it may be a matter of how much playing time he gets.

.

*** Cal preview series, Part 1: Strengths and Weaknesses

*** Cal preview series, Part 2: Questions

.

Follow Jeff Faraudo of Cal Sports Report on Twitter: @jefffaraudo

Click the "follow" button in the top right corner to join the conversation on Cal Sports Report on SI. Access and comment on featured stories and start your own conversations and post external links on our community page