With right around 70 days until the college football season starts speculation about anything and everything is starting to pick up. You see it on television, hear it on radio, and read about it in sports magazines. When in Rome...right? Looking over the Pac-12 and the good number of quality quarterbacks in the conference, one of them, Jared Goff has stood out for a while now.
Jared Goff will be entering the 2015 season as a possible Heisman Finalist, an All-Pac 12 selection, a Johnny Unitas finalist, and a possible Pac 12 P.O.Y. choice. What has brought this young man to this level of popularity? The film doesn't lie football fans. He has the measurable stats that many coaches like. He's 6'4", 210lbs, and can move around in the pocket. The other aspect of Goff and his statistics that stand out is that he has improved his own game since he has taken over for the California Golden Bears. In 2013 he had 18 touchdowns, 10 interceptions, passed for 3,508, had a completion percentage of 60.3%, and a quarterback rating of 123.18. Pretty good stats for a freshman quarterback. However, 2014 was even better as Goff understood more of the offense and just felt more comfortable in Sonny Dykes high octane, spread offense. In 2014, Goff threw for 35 touchdowns, only 7 interceptions, passed for 3,973 yards, a completion percentage of 62.3%, and a quarterback rating of 147.59. In two years Goff has thrown 53 touchdowns, 17 interceptions, and 7,481 total yards. Based off of these last two seasons, there is no reason, other than some huge injury, that one can't believe that Goff won't be successful.
His arm is average. By NFL standards, it's average, but when you look at the different throws that quarterbacks are asked to throw, you see a couple of things. When Goff is throwing a ball over 30-35 yards he does lack the drive on the ball that you need to make the completions deep down field. When Goff is throwing the ball shallower than 30-35 he does have good velocity on the ball to fit that ball into some tight windows. When going to the next level for Goff this will be one thing that people will talk about on whether or not to draft this young man.
Jared Goff owns 16 different football records at California. That is pretty amazing considering that Aaron Rodgers, Steve Bartkowski, and Craig Morton are some of the illustrious quarterback alumni from Cal. He owns these 16 records after only two seasons of play on the field and that is pretty impressive for such a young player. One of the records that he holds is in yards thrown in a game. He has two 500 yard games, five 400 yard games, 12 300 yard games, 17 250 yard games.
With a record like that it is obvious to anybody that Jared Goff can produce on the field and he gives his team a chance to win games. To get further recognition what does he need?
To go to that "next level" Goff needs to have the players around him to produce at a high level, so he doesn't have to have all the pressure of winning the game on his shoulders. The Bears had a chance to go to a bowl game last year, however, but lost 6 of their last 7 games to miss out on the bowl game. Goff says their is a lot of confidence going into the 2015 season. "Expectations are very high." says Jared Goff.
In the end, Jared Goff has shown that he is a quarterback to be taken seriously by anybody that watches, coaches, or writes about college football. Now it's time for him to show that he is certainly worth the hype. His teammates and coaches both want that in 2015. Cal has had some down times the last few seasons and now Goff has the opportunity to correct that for the Golden Bears. Can he do it? I think he can, lets watch and see what happens in the Bay this year.
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