Golden Nuggets: Sonny Dykes Describes What He's Looking for in Cal's Starting Quarterback

On Monday the 2013 campaign begins as Sonny Dykes holds the team's first spring practice. He sat down with the other Bay Area reporters to talk about what he's looking to get out of his team this spring. He spoke at length about a position that has held the Bears back for the past six seasons: quarterback. What do Dykes and Franklin want in their QB?

"Timing, accuracy, leadership, ability to inspire confidence from others," Dykes said.

Learning the assignment and executing it are two different things.

"They’ll know what to do quickly, because it’s pretty simple," he said. "The issue will be, can they do it? There’s a lot of skills involved. Kind of getting all the moving pieces together. There is a certain skill level and refinement that it takes to get operating where you want to get operating.

"We’re kind of an execution-based offense, not really a trick offense, not really a scheme offense. When you’re pretty simplistic, you’ve got to really be able to execute at a high level. That’ll be our challenge this spring, not really to learn what to do — I hope we learn what to do very quickly — but to develop the skill level to do it."

Consistency is the key.

"That’s what makes our offense work," Dykes said. "The 3-yard completion, if the ball is thrown in the right spot at the right time, it results in a big play. If it’s not thrown in the right spot at the right time — the ball’s thrown late or slightly behind him — then you get a lot of 3-yard completions."

Dykes recognizes that choosing a younger player to start may lead to a transfer or two--he's willing to take that risk.

"A lot of that depends on who the starter is," he said. "Say Jared Goff wins the job, I would expect a lot of guys to leave. I would hope they wouldn’t, but that’s typically the way the quarterback position works.

"A lot of it has to do with how those guys fit and how much they like it. I hope they all stay. I don’t know how realistic that is."

Three more days.

Football

• Uncle Ted previews spring practice for the North Division. He says we should keep our eyes on the quarterbacks, defense, and pretty much the entire offense.
• Planning on attending a practice or two? Here's a schedule.
• Brendan Bigelow expects his knee to be at full strength when he returns to the field in August. Dykes says the RB position is one of the easiest to learn in his offense, so Bigelow should not have much trouble picking it up despite sitting out spring ball.
• Keenan Allen aggravated his knee injury and will miss the NFL Combine. Instead he will do drills for scouts sometime in April.
• Several Bears will participate in this weekend's combine. Follow along on the NFL Network.

Basketball

• Justin Cobbs may have shot the Bears into the NCAA tournament. His buzzer beater gave the Bears a crucial 48-46 win over Oregon.
• Crumpacker recaps the game. It was 40 minutes of uglyball, but we can't complain about the result.
• Despite Oregon's tough defense on Cobb, Monty knew the shot was good as soon as it left Cobbs' hand.
• Chad Ford calls Allen Crabbe a potential first-rounder if he declares for the NBA Draft.

Baseball

• The Bears suffered their first loss of the season at the hands of the Lobsterbacks.

Field Hockey

• The Bears fell 11-5 to James Madison (the school, not the former president) in the season opener.

Golf

• The no. 1 Bears have taken a commanding 16-stroke lead after day two of the John A. Burns Intercollegiate. Joel Stalter, Max Homa, and Michael Walter sit at 1-2-3 in the leader board.