Cal Football: Bears' QB for Saturday's Game Will Be Announced Friday

Justin Wilcox will wait until the day before the game to make the choice public

It seems Cal coach Justin Wilcox has decided which quarterback will start in Saturday’s game against Washington State, but he just isn’t telling anybody. Yet.

Wilcox said Wednesday evening that he will announce his starting quarterback “probably Friday.”

He also admitted that the decision has already been made.

“We have plan," he said.

At this point, Cal is maintaining the mystery so as not to give the Cougars on any head start in preparing for either freshman Spencer Brasch or junior Devon Modster. One of those two will be Cal’s starting quarterback for Saturday’s 4 p.m. game against Washington State (4-4, 1-4 Pac-12).

You can see in the video that Wilcox wants to say as little as possible about the Bears' quarterback situation.

Earlier in the week, Wilcox dismissed the notion that Chase Garbers might return for Saturday’s game, saying, “I don’t anticipate that.”

There were also questions earlier this week as to whether Modster would be cleared medically after missing the Oct. 26 game against Utah. Brasch made his first college start in that game against the Utes and it resulted in a 35-0 Utah victory, Cal’s first shutout loss in 20 years.

But on Wednesday, Wilcox said Modster has been cleared to play, so it is a just a matter of which quarterback the Bears want to use against WSU.

Since Brasch has so little game experience, his potential to improve in a hurry is probably greater than Modster’s. However, Modster’s experience may give the Bears a better chance to win games now.

Cal (4-4, 1-4 Pac-12) has lost four in a row and is 0-3 in games Modster and Brasch have started this season. Modster has completed 46.05 percent of his passes with two touchdown passes and three interceptions, while Brasch has a completion rate of 36 percent with no touchdown tosses and one pick.

Both have a passer rating under 90, which would place them well outside the top 10 in the Pac-12 if they had enough attempts to qualify. The nation’s top 100 quarterbacks in that category all have a passer rating better than 114, and Garbers has a passer rating of 148.15.