Cal Football: Briefly a Bear, Jack Newman Could Be QB for UC Davis on Sept. 3

Three years after his stop in Berkeley, the two-time CCSF star vying for Aggies' No. 1 job.

Quarterback Jack Newman arrived at Cal as a preferred walk-on from City College of San Francisco in time the Bears’ 2019 spring workouts, hoping to eventually find his way into a game at Memorial Stadium.

Three years later, that might finally happen this Sept. 3.

Newman will be wearing a UC Davis uniform this time.

Newman, one of six quarterbacks on the roster, is in the mix to possibly become the starter for Davis, which opens its 2022 schedule at Cal.

Things didn’t work out for Newman at Berkeley. He was on the roster for the 2019 opener, but Chase Garbers was the established starter. Newman never took a snap in a game and by midseason left the program.

He didn’t play football during the pandemic-riddled fall of 2020 and last season was back at CCSF — three years after his first go-round. Newman led the Rams to a 13-0 record and the California state JC title.

A 6-foot junior from Sebastopol in Sonoma County (where he threw 53 touchdowns as a senior at Analy High), Newman passed for 3,583 yards with 38 touchdowns and only six interceptions at City College in 2021. Added to his 2018 stats, Newman totaled 7,051 passing yards with 69 TDs and 18 interceptions on CCSF teams that were 20-4.

So yes, it’s been a strange trip for Newman: Sebastopol to San Francisco to Berkeley to San Francisco to Davis. With a year off in the middle.

Former Cal linebacker Evan Tattersall also has transferred to Davis after spending four years at Berkeley and earning his degree.

Newman will have a fall-camp battle on his hands with five other Davis quarterbacks, most notably Miles Hastings, a 6-1 sophomore from San Marcos, who took over as starter in place of Hunter Rodrigues in late October last season.

Hastings passed for 1,173 yards with eight touchdowns and seven interceptions, but struggled in the Aggies’ final two games, throwing four picks in losses to Sacramento State and South Dakota State. He was pulled from the latter, an FCS playoff game, after two quarters.

Mitchell Dixon, a 6-4 redshirt freshman from Sacramento, reportedly had a good spring camp, and others competing are sophomore Trent Thompson, who played sparingly off the bench last season, Gunnor Faulk, a junior who has thrown five passes in three seasons, and Grant Harper, a redshirt freshman from Moraga, who passed for 5,170 pass yards with 54 touchdowns in his final two seasons at Campolindo High School but did not get into a game for the Aggies last season.

Cal is 10-0 all-time against Davis, which plays at the Football Championship Subdivision level. The Bears have outscored the Aggies 372-36, but Davis put up a good fight in 2019 before losing 27-13.

Coach Dan Hawkins, whose squad was 8-4 last season and earned a tie for No. 25 in Hero Sports’ preseason 2022 FCS national rankings, likes his options at quarterback. But it’s unclear who will be the starter when the Aggies visit Berkeley.

“We gotta figure this thing out but we got a good crew there,” Hawkins told The California Aggie student newspaper after spring workouts ended a month ago. “They’re learning. It’s still an uphill learning curve for them, but they’re coming along. You look at Jack (Newman) —every practice, he’s just gotten a little bit better. It’s been good.”

The ability to minimize turnovers will be a key factor in his decision, Hawkins suggested.

“I don’t care if it’s lacrosse, basketball, you have turnovers you’re going to lose the game,” he said, “so that’s a big deal."

Cover photo of Jack Newman during 2019 Cal spring practice

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