Cal Football: Kai Millner Still Isn't Sure Where the Transfer Portal Will Lead Him

The redshirt freshman QB says he still is in a `little bit' of conversation with Cal.

Kai Millner, who entered the transfer portal late last week, still isn’t sure where he will land to continue his college football career.

"I haven’t really made a full decision yet where I’m going to be headed. I’m just weighing my options,” the former Cal backup quarterback said in a phone interview on Thursday his family’s home in Arizona. “Obviously, I’m trying not to drag it out too long. I want to find a place and get there.”

Could his future potentially still include Berkeley?

Millner didn’t answer yes or no to that question.

“Maybe,” he said. “I couldn’t answer that question, to be honest with you.”

Has it occurred to him that might have been the front-runner for the 2023 starting assignment had he never entered the portal? With starter Jack Plummer on his way to Louisville, it seems there would be an open pathway to the No. 1 spot.

“That’s run through my head and something I’ve looked at,” he said. “I have to keep having the conversations and figure that out."

The circumstances of Millner’s decision to exit Cal were complicated by Plummer’s decision to do the same thing just hours earlier.

“It’s kind of a weird situation with Jack leaving as well, almost at the same time,” Millner said. “It’s strange how it worked out. We both hit the portal unknowingly at the same time. It’s honestly all up in the air.”

Asked if news of Plummer’s decision impacted his thought process, Millner said, “Seeing that I didn’t necessarily feel one way or the way.”

Millner said he has talked with coaches from several schools, but indicated there is still some dialogue with coaches at Cal.

“It was definitely a tough decision. I felt like I had to make a decision of what’s best for myself,” he said. “I’m still a little bit in conversation with the guys there.”

Moments later, when asked if he has any indications he’d be welcomed back, Millner said, “I haven’t spoken directly to them in a little bit, so I don’t know if I was to go back for whatever reason what their answer would be.”

The reality is we don't know if new offensive coordinator Jake Spavital had conversations with Plummer and/or Millner about their place in the program, perhaps suggesting both look elsewhere. And Cal apparently is close to signing quarterback Chandler Rogers, a transfer from Louisiana Monroe and more the dual-threat style quarterback Spavital is believed to prefer.

Without Plummer and Millner, the Bears have just two scholarship quarterbacks on the roster. Neither redshirt sophomore Zach Johnson nor freshman Fernando Mendoza has ever taken a quarterback snap in a college game.

The Bears did not add a quarterback during the recent early signing period.

Millner, a 6-foot-2, 215-pounder, saw limited action as Plummer’s understudy during his redshirt freshman season in 2022.

His most extensive playing time came late in the the Bears’ 42-24 loss to Oregon on Oct. 29, when he was 8-for-11 for 111 yards and two touchdowns.

Millner said uncertainty about his place in the quarterback room with Spavital was a big factor in his decision to transfer.

Wilcox fired Bill Musgrave the day after a 38-10 loss at Oregon State, with two games left on the schedule.

“Musgrave leaving . . . he the one who recruited me, brought me in, the one I had the relationship with,” Millner said. “There was a little bit of the uncertainty of who’s going to be brought in. I didn’t have a relationship with whoever they were going to bring in.”

Wilcox hired Spavital a couple weeks after the season ended and Millner characterized his conversations with the new OC as “limited.”

“He had just been brought in. He was still figuring out things, like where to live,” Millner said. “He seems like a great guy. Shortly after he was hired, he reached out to all the quarterbacks. He wanted to build a relation with us.”

Millner, 20, clearly is still sorting things out.

“This whole process is just finding what’s best for me,” he said. “I’m trying to get on the field and play the game that I love. That’s what this is about, finding where that situation is.”

Cover photo of Kai Millner by Darren Yamashita, USA Today

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