Cal football QB recruiting: Tyler Shough the better prospect. JT Shrout the likelier Bear?

After Adrian Martinez flipped his commitment from Cal to Tennessee, it’s been a wide open race to try and replace him for the 2018 cycle. Although the California Golden Bears added a transfer in South Carolina quarterback Brandon McIlwain (who essentially becomes a de facto leading contender to win the job next season), Cal would still like another quarterback.

The last two Cal quarterback offers are the only offers that have gone out to quarterbacks who are still uncommitted. Tyler Shough from Chandler (Ariz.) and JT Shrout from Newhall (Ca.) are two prospects who you can bet Cal will explore quite readily.

Shough is at this point the more college-ready prospect. A four-star prospect who stands at 6’5 and 195 pounds and will be competing in the Elite 11 this June, he holds nearly two dozen offers from blue bloods and Ivy League programs. He feels like a good fit for Cal, but the offers he holds from Michigan and the SEC and other major programs makes this feel like a hard sell. If Cal landed Shough, they’d have to declare their 2018 quarterback recruiting a resounding success, but odds are pretty remote.

So that leaves Shrout, who is at this point probably the biggest sleeper in California from the quarterback position. Shrout has probably gone unnoticed because he did not start or play much last season (in fact, Newhall’s signal-caller went onto commit to Beau Baldwin and Eastern Washington).

But at 6-3 and 190, he pops off the tape as a quarterback who could be very special given time to develop. Expect the offers to start flying once he gets under center this fall.

Cal is Shrout’s only major offer, and he’s scheduled to visit in mid-June, where a decision could come quickly. The biggest question is whether Cal can fend off Oregon for Shrout. The Ducks have shown a ton of interest since the Cal offer, and Boise State wants to offer. If Cal can land the commitment by the start of summer, they should be in a good shape to have their 2018 quarterback.