Issues to Resolve in Fall Camp – Quarterback

Without question, most of Cal’s fall camps in recent years have been highlighted by varying QB battles since the Aaron Rodgers era.

In 2005, QB Nate Longshore battled highly touted JC transfer Joe Ayoob before suffering a season-ending injury in the first game of the season.

In 2006, Longshore again won the starting job over Ayoob and incumbent starter Steve Levy and went on to have one of the more successful QB seasons in school history.

With Longshore firmly established as the starter in 2007, the battle fell to RS frosh Kevin Riley and RS soph Kyle Reed for the backup QB position. Riley went on to win the job, and Reed would soon transfer San Jose State.

After the debacle that was the second half of the 2007 season, senior Nate Longshore battled the fan-favorite QB Kevin Riley who came off a spectacular bowl game performance for the starting job. In one of the more publicized QB battles in the conference, Riley earned the starting nod, only to take a ride on a QB carousel for the rest of the season due to inconsistent play by both QBs.

Coming off the weakest passing production season since 2005, Cal again finds itself with a QB competition of sorts, as the now-veteran Riley must fend off challenges from RS soph Brock Mansion and RS frosh Beau Sweeney.


Most signs point to this being Riley’s job to lose. Tedford has admitted that Riley’s experience gives him a bit of a heads up over his competition. The RS junior has also tinkered with his mechanics during the offseason with new OC Andy Ludwig in an effort to shorten his release and improve his accuracy. Teammates have recognized Riley as one of the team leaders, and Riley himself has continued to provide a more visible leadership presence, even leading the opening fall practice team chant. While Riley hasn’t wowed anyone yet in practice, he has continued to exhibit confidence and leadership both on and off the field.

Brock Mansion doesn’t appear to be going down without a fight however. The athletic 6’5 Texas native came on very strong towards the spring practice after initially struggling with his accuracy. Mansion has continued his strong play in the first few days of camp and will likely continue to get a fair number of first team snaps. Mansion provides too much athleticism, intelligence and skills to be not be seriously considered as the starter.

Beau Sweeney isn’t a likely candidate to win the starting job, but this is one of the few rare occasions that the third string candidate has received as many snaps as Sweeney has (roughly 20 percent). Tedford obviously thinks very highly of Sweeney, and despite not being the bettor’s choice for the starting job, it can only help to have the likely 3rd string QB notch a fair amount of practice headed into the season.

And despite receiving a few snaps with the 3rd and 4th team units, true frosh Allan Bridgford is simply getting his feet wet at Memorial Stadium before putting on a blueshirt (RS) for the year.

At this venture, Riley would have to seriously falter, or either Mansion or Sweeney would have to have a dominating performance in camp to overtake Riley for the rights to lead the offense on opening day.

It’s highly doubtful in my mind that Riley doesn’t take the field as the starter against Maryland. Also, don’t be surprised if Tedford makes the announcement a lot sooner than he has in the past. My guess is that the starter is announced no later than a week before the opener.

And to answer the post’s opening question, it may not even be necessary for the team to have the second coming of Aaron Rodgers at the QB helm. The team may just need an offensive leader to step up and show a fair amount of consistency, accuracy, and mental toughness for the Bears to be Rose Bowl bound this season.