Cal Football: Bowers Back for Seconds Against UNC

When the Cal football season opens on Saturday, they will have a familiar face under center as Bowers faces the Tar Heels again.

On Saturday, when the Cal Bears open their 2018 season against the North Carolina Tar Heels, Ross Bowers will again be under center. Cal football head coach Justin Wilcox released the team’s depth chart on Monday, and for the second straight season, Bowers opens the year against UNC as QB1.

Now entering his redshirt junior season, Bowers hopes to build off a season that was up and down in 2017. Overall on the year, he completed 272 of his 461 pass attempts, good for 59%, and he threw 18 touchdowns to 12 interceptions. He racked up 3,039 passing yards, marking the fifth straight season a Cal quarterback went over the 3,000-yard mark (Jared Goff did it from 2013 to 2015, and David Webb did it in 2016).

Bowers’ first career start came last year when the Bears opened at North Carolina, and despite a shaky first half complete with overthrows and questionable decisions, he seemed to get more comfortable as the game went on. He helped lead the Bears to an upset win, the first of three straight wins to open the season.

At times, Bower showed the arm strength of a big-time quarterback, while at others time, it looked as if he lost the feel for the offense and struggled to make plays. As a result, the Bears’ offense grew stagnant on more than one occasion, and brought about a quarterback competition this past year.

The main competitor against Bowers was Brandon McIlwain, a redshirt sophomore who sat out the 2017 season after transferring from South Carolina. McIlwain is a dual-threat quarterback, giving that extra dimension with his legs, but Wilcox is sticking with his incumbent, Bowers.

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Even with Bowers listed as the number one, there can still be plenty of opportunity for McIlwain in different packages. With his ability to run the ball, he can change the look of an offense and force the defense into changes.

Bowers will be throwing to a few familiar faces when the season opens. Number-one X wide receiver is Vic Wharton III, while Jordan Duncan is listed as the starter on the other side as the Z. Kanawai Noa is the top man in the slot.

Bowers and Wharton hooked up for 67 receptions last year for 871 yards and five touchdowns. Noa caught 56 balls for 788 yards and four touchdowns. Duncan’s playing time was more limited, grabbing 10 passes for 120 yards and a score.

The familiarity should help Bowers, even with the receiving group losing a glut of players over the past year. Demetris Robertson, who missed all but two games last year, transferred to Georgia. Melquise Stovall, who missed all of 2017, transferred to a junior college in Arizona. Taariq Johnson, a breakout candidate with the two other departures, is no longer with the program either.

Of course, Patrick Laird is back as the starting running back, the leader of a rather inexperienced group. Laird, who was named a captain along with linebacker Jordan Kunaszyk on Monday, broke out for 1,127 yards on 191 carries last season and scored eight times. But behind him, there just aren’t many previous carries. Marcel Dancy (a junior college walk-on) and Derrick Clark are listed behind him, with Alex Netherda (who is football’s version of a baseball utility man) and Christopher Brown, Jr. bringing up the bottom of the depth chart. Those four players have combined for 14 carries, and all 14 have come from Clark.

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There are a lot of question marks on the Cal offense, but Ross Bowers will hope to be the leader that the team needs.

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