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QB depth at Cal

buffaholic

buffaholic

Club Member
Club Member
This is what a QB depth chart is supposed to look like. Can't wait to get to this point.

They started the spring with 6 QB's. All highly recruited except Maynard, who will start.

SR - Brock Mansion, a TX recruit from the '07 class has been beaten out by a transfer, from Buffalo, Zach Maynard. Many onlookers believe he won the job in the spring, but has just 1 year left where Maynard has 2 and has a little higher ceiling.

Jr - Maynard has 2 to play 2 after sitting out 2010.

Jr - Beau Sweeney opted early in the spring to transfer to a FCS school so that he wouldn't have to sit out a year. He has 2 to play in that scenario, originally from the 2008 class.

SO -Allan Bridgford signed in 2009. He has to be steamed he will possibly sit the next two years due to Maynard's transfer. Another kid we went after hard.

RS-F -Austin Hinder signed in 2010. We all know him.

Kyle Boehm signed in 2011 and will redshirt.

Zach Kline is committed for 2012 and some think he could zoom up this depth chart quickly when he gets to Cal in January.
 
i wonder what our chances might have been with Hinder if we make the coaching change a year earlier. not like Cal is selling playing time with that kind of enviable depth.
 
Yeah, problem is Cal fans don't seem to like any of the three competing for the job this year. Some have already knocked Hinder based on early practice reports, despite the fact that he clearly needed some coaching and S&C coming out of high school.
:rolling_eyes:
 
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I think they will like Maynard a lot for 2 years come fall practices.

After that, I expect Zach Kline to win the job, after coming in early and having 2 springs and a fall to ready himself. He seems to have the confidence to go with the skillset that are off the charts. Hinder did not impress me and I honestly don't know if he is tough enough to play at CU. That's a bit of a reckless opinion (take it with a grain of salt because I don't know him and I only saw him play once) but I wasn't impressed with either raw Athletic ability or his guts. It seemed like he was playing not to get hurt, rather than playing for his team's chances to advance....
 
It would be great to be in a situation where we have experience competing for the starting job and a logical progression of youth behind.

It is hard to be critical of what Cal has at QB since although we like Hansen he hasn't done anything here that says he would automatically be in the mix at Cal or at a lot of other schools. At the same time as highly though of as some of the Cal guys are the old saying if you have two starting QBs you don't have any holds true. The fact that Maynard who is limited enough in ability that he wasn't highly recruited out of HS and still has some of those limitation is likely to start says less about his development than the lack of development of the other guys, especially the upperclassmen. The have a nice depth chart but they certainly don't have an Aaron Rodgers in the bunch.

Dillon with a year or two of development "may" turn out to make the whole issue a lot easier to deal with but CU isn't that far from regaining footing at QB. We have Hansen who has earned his spot this year. I wish that Hawk hadn't burned his RS stupidly or we would have him for two years solving a lot of questions. We have nothing in the jr. class other than Burnette who will be a backup at best but for young guys Hirschman has a load of physical talent and could become a quality BCS level QB, Doorman comes out of the Detmer QB machine and has potential as well.

The real problem for the Buffs that Cal doesn't have to deal with is the question of 2012. Hansen will be gone, will one of the young guys be ready to step in? Hirschman will have had two years in the system but unless Hansen is hurt this year and Burnette isn't up to being the back-up, little actual playing time. Nick has the physical tools but came in behind on his development, will he be ready. If not will Doorman as a RS Fr be physically developed enough, he has the advantage of being mentaly ahead coming from a proven HS developer of QBs but will still be a Fr. As excited as I am about Dillon I don't see a skinny true Fr. being the answer and I don't think Embree or EB would risk him when they can RS him and give him a solid year to develop.
 
Boulder Buff said:
The more I saw of Hinder, the less I liked him as a prospect.
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I think you are right on this one. He lit it up in HS but against small school competition and didn't seem to take a step forward his sr. year like you would expect. He may prove us wrong but I don't think he is going to end up making a mark at Cal. If he had come to CU we probably wouldn't have gotten Hirschmann and I would rather have Nick.
 
Boulder Buff said:
The more I saw of Hinder, the less I liked him as a prospect.
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:yeahthat:

And I would be a little more excited/scared by all the QBs on Cal's roster if Kevin Riley and Nate Longshore hadn't been the best they could do for the last 3 years....
 
Creebuzz said:
Yeah, problem is Cal fans don't seem to like any of the three competing for the job this year. Some have already knocked Hinder based on early practice reports, despite the fact that he clearly needed some coaching and S&C coming out of high school.
:rolling_eyes:
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Cal fans would complain about Andrew Luck if we had gotten him. The "serious" fanbase as a whole had got to be way up there as far as complaining about everything goes.

That said, Maynard is interesting because he can run, which is not something we've had at Cal during the Tedford era. It's exciting b/c Tedford is coaching the quarterbacks again (after 3-4 years of not doing it) and I think Maynard has raw skill that he can mold. Also, our best receiver Keenan Allen (5 star out of North Carolina)is Maynard's half brother, and they grew up playing together.

Hinder is too small and doesn't seem to be getting bigger at the rate he should. There is a new strength and conditioning coach that everyone is raving about, so it will be interesting to see if that changes now.

Bridgford is the one to watch for -- if Maynard stumbles he's right there -- he has a great arm, works hard, knows the offense, but can't move. At all. There is scuttlebutt that since he seems to not have gotten the starting job that he may transfer. We'll see.

Mansion has all the tools but he started a number of games after Kevin Riley was injured last season and didn't show much. I think he's a backup for the rest of his career.
 
MtnBuff said:
....The fact that Maynard who is limited enough in ability that he wasn't highly recruited out of HS and still has some of those limitation is likely to start says less about his development than the lack of development of the other guys, especially the upperclassmen.
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Do you really believe that statement above? That a guy who was not highly recruited out of HS, by definition, has limitations? Ben Roethlisberger? I can name 10 other guys in the NFL at any given time that weren't highly recruited QBs.
 
buffaholic said:
Do you really believe that statement above? That a guy who was not highly recruited out of HS, by definition, has limitations? Ben Roethlisberger? I can name 10 other guys in the NFL at any given time that weren't highly recruited QBs.
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I know that there are some exceptions who get overlooked in HS who become very good college QBs and Maynard is good enough to be the probable starter at a BCS conference school. At the same time he has limitations. In his last season at Buffalo he threw for 18TDs and 15 Ints, not a great ratio against less than stellar competition. He completed less than 58% of his passes for the season in an offense that was designed for passing efficiency and his completion percentage was declining over the course of the season. He has probably the best mobility of the Cal QBs but he doesn't have a gun for an arm and is limited in his passing accuracy.

The QB situation at Cal is certainly deeper and more logically spaced than we have at CU but I'm certainly not sure that their starting situation is any better than we have. I think that the fact that Maynard is starting is less indicative that he is a great talent that got missed than the probability that the more highly rated QB prospects haven't lived up to expectations. Cal beat the Buffs badly last year, Hawk brought in a team that was beaten in every element of the game, especially preparation but Cal was still a 5-7 team at the end of it all.
 
I don't think our QB situation is quite as dire as it's being made out to be. We have a one year gap between Burnette (who will probably never see the field anyway) and Hirschman. After that, there's Dorman and Dillon with no class gaps inbetween. We'll have three non-redshirted quarterbacks available for the next three years, and who knows what the situation will be after that. I don't think you can realistically expect anything better. Much like Cal, depth isn't an issue for us, it's quality. Burnette has been nothing special through the Spring. But from what I could see of him during the Spring game, Hirschman was pretty solid.
 
sackman said:
I don't think our QB situation is quite as dire as it's being made out to be. We have a one year gap between Burnette (who will probably never see the field anyway) and Hirschman. After that, there's Dorman and Dillon with no class gaps inbetween. We'll have three non-redshirted quarterbacks available for the next three years, and who knows what the situation will be after that. I don't think you can realistically expect anything better. Much like Cal, depth isn't an issue for us, it's quality. Burnette has been nothing special through the Spring. But from what I could see of him during the Spring game, Hirschman was pretty solid.
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I think the problem I have with the current group of QBs is that "solid" is about the best way to describe them. If we want to get back to being really good, solid QB play is probably not going to cut it. Hopefully that changes going forward with Dillon and beyond, but the QB position looks like a giant question mark to me going into the 2012 season.
 
Those Cal QBs have been either 3* or 4* recruits coming out of high school and they get beaten out by a QB from Buffalo whom I can't find on the recruiting pages which suggests to me that Maynard is a former walk-on player. So much for those recruiting services.
 
Boulder Buff said:
I think the problem I have with the current group of QBs is that "solid" is about the best way to describe them. If we want to get back to being really good, solid QB play is probably not going to cut it. Hopefully that changes going forward with Dillon and beyond, but the QB position looks like a giant question mark to me going into the 2012 season.
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Hopefully a few of those questions get answered over the ensuing 14-15 months. Point being, it would be helpful if Hirschman could see the field under meaningful but still not desperation circumstances in 2011.

And back to the topic, seems as if Cal's situation can be qualified as deep, solid-but-not -really-good.
 
Boulder Buff said:
I think the problem I have with the current group of QBs is that "solid" is about the best way to describe them. If we want to get back to being really good, solid QB play is probably not going to cut it. Hopefully that changes going forward with Dillon and beyond, but the QB position looks like a giant question mark to me going into the 2012 season.
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I agree completely. The question mark going into 2012 will be if they like Dillon enough to start him as a Freshman, if Dorman is good enough to start, or whether they're 'stuck' with Hirschman. Right now, after seeing Hirschman play in the Spring game, I think he's good enough to play once Hansen graduates. For Dillon to start as a Freshman, that would mean that both Hirschman and Dorman haven't progressed. I really hope that's not the case. Ideally, Dillon redshirts and spends a year as a RS freshman before moving into the starting role his Sophmore year.

I am of the opinion that we're better off having a series of 2-3 year starters than breaking in a new starter ever year, even if that guy happens to be a Senior.
 
NashBuff said:
Those Cal QBs have been either 3* or 4* recruits coming out of high school and they get beaten out by a QB from Buffalo whom I can't find on the recruiting pages which suggests to me that Maynard is a former walk-on player. So much for those recruiting services.
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That is not correct. Maynard was recruited out of high school buy a bunch of BCS schools but by the time he met minimum academic qualifications it was June and he had to enroll at Buffalo.
 
If he was a late qualifier then there is a difference between "recruited" and "offered". Not to put words in Maxer's mouth, but I think he is saying that there were lots of interested BCS schools, but offers didn't come because of his iffy eligibility status. In any case, our best QB over the last ~10 years (Klatt) was a walk on.

Edit...beat me by 2 minutes.
 
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Creebuzz said:
If he was a late qualifier then there is a difference between "recruited" and "offered". Not to put words in Maxer's mouth, but I think he is saying that there were lots of interested BCS schools, but offers didn't come because of his iffy eligibility status. In any case, our best QB over the last ~10 years (Klatt) was a walk on.
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Nobody is saying that Maynard is a bad QB, just that he is also not a great QB. Had he been a highly thought of guy out of HS he would have had higher profile schools willing to at least take a risk on him if he had a chance to qualify. Buffalo, Western Kentucky, and Temple don't exactly bring out the image of highly successful programs zoned in on top talent.

Klatt was a walk-on as well but had he not been a baseball player who made it clear in HS that he was not going to go to a football program he got skipped over. Also, similar to Maynard he was not a superstar QB, he was a competent guy who earned a starting spot but he didn't make a lot of top programs wish they had him instead of their guys.

Saying that a guy is not a star quality QB doesn't mean that he sucks, it just means that he isn't great. That is the whole point here.
 
Maxer said:
Fair enough. Let me rephrase. A lot of BCS schools were interested and in my opinion would have offered, had he qualified academically. The fact remains that he was not a walk-on at Buffalo, or anywhere else as NashBuff stated.
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Fair enough and that could be the case. I just started actually paying attention to recruiting this past year so I'm not sure what all went into it. He could be a good QB at Cal but I wasn't exactly impressed with his stats at Cal, especially the amount of interceptions he threw.

Creebuzz said:
If he was a late qualifier then there is a difference between "recruited" and "offered". Not to put words in Maxer's mouth, but I think he is saying that there were lots of interested BCS schools, but offers didn't come because of his iffy eligibility status. In any case, our best QB over the last ~10 years (Klatt) was a walk on.

Edit...beat me by 2 minutes.
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Yup you can be a great QB even if you don't have BCS offers (Aaron Rogers, Ben Roethlisberger), but usually BCS offers will indicate a better QB IMO.
 
Really don't disagree with either of you and if you go back to my original post, you'll see that I say Cal fans weren't sold on any of their QBs, including Maynard.

Anyway, ESPN reported that Maynard was named the starter today. In the comments, a Cal fan took the opportunity to dog CU and who was there to defend the Buffs, but Creatini aka TG. :thumbsup:
 
Creebuzz said:
Really don't disagree with either of you and if you go back to my original post, you'll see that I say Cal fans weren't sold on any of their QBs, including Maynard.

Anyway, ESPN reported that Maynard was named the starter today. In the comments, a Cal fan took the opportunity to dog CU and who was there to defend the Buffs, but Creatini aka TG. :thumbsup:
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Always gotta defend CU, no matter what. It's tough on ESPN though, especially the Cal v CU board because their's a bunch of 14 year olds there.

Cal v CU - ESPN
 
Creebuzz said:
Really don't disagree with either of you and if you go back to my original post, you'll see that I say Cal fans weren't sold on any of their QBs, including Maynard.

Anyway, ESPN reported that Maynard was named the starter today. In the comments, a Cal fan took the opportunity to dog CU and who was there to defend the Buffs, but Creatini aka TG. :thumbsup:
Click to expand...

Any Cal fan on the ESPN boards is no friend of mine. That place is the worst.

As for our quarterbacks, hope springs eternal I suppose. This commit Zach Kline seems to be blowing the doors off at all the camps (http://sports.espn.go.com/ncaa/recruiting/football/news/story?id=6547312), but considering the fact that he just finished his junior year of high school I hope we don't have to wait that long to get some solid qb play.
 
I read a bit but the site kept freezing up on me. The one thing I got out of it was......for many Cal fans, thier first impression of CU will be .....Creatini. So we should be able to start a rivalry / hate relationship with them pretty quick. At least until they figure out all CU fans are not like Creatini. Most of us have figured out the fruitless endeavour that battleing opposing fans on message boards is. If you are a democrat, why sit and scream and yell and shout stats at a republican? (and vice versa). It is what it is-- you two beleive diffferent things and nobody is going to change their mind. Same with differing religons, and same thing with teams people support. It is an exercise in futility.

But you go boy. Knock yourself out.
 
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