Cal Football: A Look at the Five Who Will Compete for the No. 2 QB Job

Chase Garbers will start for a third straight season, but there is inexperience behind him

By the time Cal begins training camp next August, as many as five quarterbacks will be dueling for the No. 2 job behind starter Chase Garbers.

Those five players will have a combined total of 84 passing yards and no touchdowns at the college level.

Garbers is firmly entrenched as the Bears’ third year starter, but the backup spot unclear after the exit of Devon Modster, who entered the transfer portal last month.

Instead, those competing for the job will be a walk-on junior, a sophomore and three freshmen. The combined experience came in two games during the 2019 campaign.

“There’s some inexperience at the quarterback position beyond Chase now,” Cal coach Justin Wilcox said this week.

It will be up to Wilcox and offensive coordinator Bill Musgrave to figure out this spring and through fall camp who is best suited to replace Modster as Garbers’ understudy.

“We really enjoyed having Devon here and wish him nothing but the best,” Wilcox said. “He was a really good teammate. I really like Devon, and so does coach Musgrave and the guys on the team.”

The backup quarterback on a football team is not like a second-string offensive linemen or defensive back. Those guys are routinely part of a rotation in every game. The No. 2 QB often doesn't play at all, other than perhaps in mop duty. But if the starting quarterback is injured, he becomes the most important player on the roster.

Incoming Cal freshman Kai Millner / Photo by Nicole Neri, USA TODAY via Imagn Content Services

Those who will vie for the position are junior walk-on Robby Rowell, redshirt sophomore Spencer Brasch, second-year freshmen Jaden Casey and Zach Johnson and incoming freshman Kai Millner.

“Some guys like Robby and Spence, they have a little bit more seasoning,” Wilcox said of the only two among the quintet who have seen game action with the Bears. “Kai Millner’s going to get an opportunity when he gets here — he’s a very talented young man.

“So we will let that present itself when it does. We don’t really have a timeline for naming the backup quarterback. What we’re really more interested in is just their improvement throughout the offseason spring ball, summer and fall camp.”

Musgrave takes a closer look at the Bears' No. 2 QB options in the video below:

Here’s a look at each of the five (presented in order of experience):

— No. 15 Robby Rowell: A 6-foot-2, 210-pound redshirt junior, Rowell is a walk-on from Acalanes High in nearby Lafayette. He made his only game appearance at Utah in 2019 when he came off the bench in relief of Brasch, and was 2 for 3 for 8 yards in the Bears’ 35-0 loss.

Rowell saw no action during the Bears’ four-game 2020 campaign.

Junior quarterback Robby Rowell / Photo by Darren Yamashita, USA Today

— No. 13 Spencer Brasch: A 6-4, 200-pound redshirt sophomore, Brasch came to Cal as part of the 2019 recruiting class. At Higley High in Gilbert, Ariz., Brasch passed for 5,522 yards with 78 touchdowns and 13 interceptions in two seasons for teams that had a combined record of 21-6 and both years reached the semifinals of the state playoffs.

Brasch may have the early edge in the battle for the No. 2 spot, based on drawing the starting assignment at Utah in 2019 when Garbers and Monster both were injured and unavailable. The first freshman to start at quarterback for Cal since Jared Goff in 2013, Brasch was 9 for 25 for 71 yards and an interception against the Utes.

He did not make an appearance on game days in 2020.

— No. 18 Jaden Casey: A freshman this past season, Casey is 6-1, 190 pounds and was a three-year starter at Calabasas High from Westlake Village in southern California.

A consensus top-25 quarterback prospect as a senior, Casey passed for 9,006 yards with 101 touchdowns and 27 picks during his prep career. He saw no action last fall for the Bears.

— No. 19 Zach Johnson: A fellow member of the Bears’ 2020 recruiting class with Casey, Johnson is a 6-1,190-pounder who played at Hart High in Valencia, the same school that produced former Cal stars Joe Kapp and Kyle Boller.

Johnson was a two-year starter at Hart, earning All-Southern Section honors both seasons after combining for 5,680 passing yards with 57 TDs and 26 picks, along with 593 rushing yards and eight more scores.

Musgrave talks about incoming freshman Kai Miller in the video below: 

— Kai Millner: The lone quarterback in Cal’s class of 2021, Millner is a 6-2, 195-pounder who followed Brasch as a two-year starter at Higley High in Gilbert, Ariz. He is a consensus top-25 pro-style quarterback prospect, earning a No. 16 national ranking by 247Sports.

Millner completed 64 percent of his passes over two seasons for 4,564 yards with 46 touchdowns and 11 interceptions, while adding 829 rushing yards and 13 scores on the ground. Millner won't arrive on campus until June, meaning he will not be around for whenever the Bears hold spring ball.

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