Allan Bridgford Leaves Team

According to Sonny Dykes, fifth year senior quarterback has asked for a break from the team after receiving news that he would receive diminished reps during practice.

“Basically, he kind of got some news from us that he was going to get some reduced reps, and then decided that he wanted to take a day or two to kind of assess some things,” Dykes said. “We told him that we’d love for him to do that, so he’s probably going to think some things over with his family and talk about some things, and I would expect to have a conversation with him again at the end of the week, over the weekend, probably.”

So the door is certainly open for Bridgford to return to the team, but at this point, it seems like everyone has seen the writing on the wall: whatever chance there was of Allan Bridgford being the starting quarterback seems all but closed.

If Bridgford does decide to pursue football opportunities at another school, the options are pretty limited. As a redshirt senior, Bridgford wouldn't be able to play at a Division I school. Of course, he could transfer to an FCS school and compete for immediate playing time, much like Beau Sweeney did a few years ago. If Bridgford is all but set to receive his Cal degree and play as a graduate student, that'd seem like a logical choice if he wanted to get some shot as a starting QB for a season.

All in all, you gotta feel for Bridgford a bit. He was a highly acclaimed quarterback coming out of high school, tearing up all sorts of records out Mission Viejo HS. And though I had some questions about his ability to put enough zip on the ball at the collegiate level, I was pretty high on his potential.

However, a serious shoulder injury pushed him back in the depth chart, and he never seemed to get enough of practice reps to really develop as a Division I starting quarterback.

After filling in for an injured Zach Maynard last season, Bridgford completed just 45.6% of his passes for just 1 TD and 3 interceptions. In his short playing career, he has completed just 44% of his passes.

Unless he progressed dramatically as a passer during the offseason, it would have been hard pressed to imagine Bridgford holding off Austin Hinder, Zach Kline, and incoming Jared Goff, all of whom seem to be the favorites for the starting job at this point.

In any event, I for one wish the very best to Bridgford. He's been a upstanding representative for Cal and has been all class in what has understandably been a frustrating situation.