Cal football spring scrimmage: Three QB race with Chase Forrest, Ross Bowers, Zach Kline

Quick notes from the Cal Saturday scrimmage, starting with quarterback thoughts, probably sandwiched with quarterback stats, and ending with people talking about quarterbacks.

Chase Forrest started strong, throwing touchdown after touchdown to Greyson Bankhead, Carlos Strickland and Brandon Singleton in the red zone, but then he bogged down the rest of the way. The defense stepped up and made things harder in subsequent drives, and Forrest only completed 50% of his total passes.

"Last year we were pretty fast," Forrest said, "but this is another level."

Forrest is the frontrunner (Dykes has called him the most consistent passer), but if he continues to be bothered by pressure, this provides an opening for Ross Bowers to sneak into the mix. Bowers had the most consistent day of any quarterback, completing 17 of 23 passes for 206 yards, a touchdown and an interception.

Bowers's thoughts?

Bowers said he started strong, then got "lackadaisical" toward the finish. "We've got to keep pushing the tempo, make sure we stay sharp."

Zach Kline had some good moments on Saturday as well, finding Austin Aaron at the goal-line and getting a 25 yard dime to Chad Hansen. Kline finished 7 for 9 for 87 yards and two touchdowns. Kline did struggle dealing with defensive pressure and scrambled a bit, which is why he has less attempts than most of the main quarterback competitors. Jeff Faraudo:

"He fits right in," Bowers said. "He's a great talent. You can probably hear the ball whistle from the stands. I'm glad he's here. He's pushed the other four guys."

What did offensive coordinator Jake Spavital say about the quarterbacking performances? Connor Letourneau:

"It was pretty interesting to see what kind of personalities these guys take on," offensive coordinator Jake Spavital said. "Overall, I think their thought process is improving a lot. From a coaching standpoint, to see improvement is always a good thing."

As for the other quarterbacks, true freshman Max Gilliam has received a few reps, but mostly with backups. His most notable plays came on throws to fellow true frosh Jordan Duncan, who is more likely to see playing time this season.

Quarterback turned safety turned back to quarterback Luke Rubenzer saw only a handful of reps and has some work to do to get back into the quarterback competition. He did find Ray Hudson for a touchdown throw.

The Cal defense had a great night, managing five sacks and only one penalty. Standouts included Derron Brown (five tackles, two sacks, a forced fumble, and two pass breakups), Khari Vanderbilt (six tackles, 1 TFL, 1 pass breakup).

Sonny was quick to single out the safeties for their performance.

"I can't say enough about Derron [Brown], Evan Rambo, Trey Turner, Damariay [Drew], all of those athletic safety type guys really showed up today," Dykes said. "They made a bunch of plays in the backfield. They're good athletes. You can see their athleticism in the way they run around. I was really pleased with a lot of the play I saw from those guys."

Here are the full counting stats.

SCORING PLAYS
Chase Forrest 10-yard TD pass to Greyson Bankhead (red zone)
Chase Forrest 12-yard TD pass to Carlos Strickland (red zone)
Vic Enwere 10-yard TD run (red zone)
Chase Forrest 11-yard TD pass to Brandon Singleton (red zone)
Zach Kline 1-yard TD pass to Aaron Austin (red zone)
Billy McCrary 2-yard TD run (red zone)
Luke Rubenzer 10-yard TD pass to Raymond Hudson (red zone)
James Looney 19-yard TD fumble recovery
Ross Bowers 27-yard TD pass to Brandon Singleton
Zach Kline 25-yard TD pass to Chad Hansen
Alex Netherda 1-yard TD run

TEAM STATS
Rushing Offense (Plays-Yards): 49-153
Passing Offense (Comp-Att-INT-TD-Yards): 42-71-1-7-478
Fumbles (Totals-Lost): 3-1
Offensive Penalties (Penalties-Yards): 6-35
Defensive Penalties (Penalties-Yards): 1-0
Sacks By: 5-41

INDIVIDUAL STATS
Passing (Comp-Att, Yds, TD, INT)
Ross Bowers (17-23, 206, TD, INT), Chase Forrest (9-18, 104, 3 TD), Zach Kline (7-9, 87, 2 TD), Max Gilliam (7-15, 59), Luke Rubenzer (2-6, 22, TD)

Rushing (Att-Yds, TD)
Vic Enwere (11-72, TD), Patrick Laird (7-41), Fabiano Hale (6-29), Billy McCrary (7-13, TD), Zach Kline (6-6), Alex Netherda (2-5, TD), Luke Rubenzer (4-0), Max Gilliam (3-0), Chase Forrest (2-(-4)), Ross Bowers (1-(-9))

Receiving (Rec, Yds, TD)
Chad Hansen (8-109, TD), Jordan Duncan (6-40), Patrick Worstell (5-47), Brandon Singleton (4-73, 2 TD), Bug Rivera (4-44), Raymond Hudson (3-37, TD), Austin Aaron (3-30), Greyson Bankhead (2-8, TD), Justin Dunn (2-4), Jordan Veasy (1-34), Vic Wharton (1-32), Carlos Strickland (1-12, TD), Bug Rivera (1-5), Jack Austin (1-1, TD)

Defense (Tackles; Big Plays)
Khari Vanderbilt (6; 1.0 TFL, -1 yard; 1 PBU), Malik Psalms (6), Derron Brown (5, 2.0 TFL, -15 yards; 2.0 SK, -15 yards; FF; 2 PBU), Marcus Manley (5; 1.5 TFL, -9 yards; 0.5 SK, -4 yards), Jonathan McDonald (5; 1.0 SK, -6 yards), Trey Turner (5; 1.0 TFL, -4 yards), Aisea Tongilava (5), Evan Rambo (4; 1.5 TFL, -12 yards; 1.5 SK, -12 yards), Quentin Tartabull (4; 1.0 TFL, -2), A.J. Greathouse (4; PBU), Damariay Drew (4), David Ortega (4), Kaodi Dike (3; 1.0 TFL, -2 yards), Chibuzo Nwokocha (3; PBU), David Garner (3; 2 PBU), Antoine Albert (3), Hunter Abel (3), Rusty Becker (3), Cameron Walker (3), DeVante Wilson (2; 1.0 TFL, -5 yards), Zeandae Johnson (2; QBH), Drew Bryant (2), Luc Bequette (2), Raymond Davison (2), Kennedy Emesibe (2), James Looney (1; 1 FR, 19-yard TD return), Jacob Anderson (1; 1 INT), Joe Castignani (1), De'Zhon Grace (1), Harrison Mayo (1), Hardy Nickerson (1), Noah Westerfield (1)

Penalties
Offense (6-35), Defense (1-0)

Fumbles (Total-Lost)
Max Gilliam (2-0), Ross Bowers (1-1)