"reality is that nando is gonna be qb1 for the next 3 & a half seasons in berkeley (zero chance he's gonna transfer/flunk out), looking forward to seeing his continued exuberant development"
Nando was far from perfect today but he did a lot of good things and showed a lot of potential. I, too, am excited to see him develop and improve and I'd love it if he can be our guy going forward.
I'm not so sure as Shocky that he'll be QB1 the next 3 years...I think the coaching staff needs to spend NIL $ to bring in another good portal QB next year (I would let Ben exercise his right as a grad to transfer. Sam probably stays out of necessity, or maybe he decides to move on and sit out somewhere else next year).
A good team needs several highly promising QBs in the program at any one time, and hopefully at least one of them is nearly fully developed at any one time.
Right now we have, arguably, two promising QBS in the program (not sure how many are highly promising...maybe one?) and none of them are nearly fully developed. I know we have current high schooler EJ Caminong signed to enroll next year. That's a nice start. In my opinion we need to bring in at least one portal transfer, and I think we need to spend significant NIL to do it. And while we're planning our future, let's spend the money to have that transfer QB be highly promising, someone who can push Mendoza, or maybe even beat out Mendoza....at least someone who might be able to start if Mendoza gets banged up or doesn't develop as quickly as we need.
I love watching Mendoza but Cal needs to make QB a much higher priority....or more accurately, needs to succeed a lot more in getting effective QBs into the program and ready to contribute.
When I watched Nix vs. Penix in the OU vs. UW game today, I was just struck by how they are on such a higher level from where our QB play is. If we had either of those guys we would be a ranked team right now, IMO. So we need to keep striving to hit gold on QBs...high school recruits, portal transfers, development of Mendoza, and yes, development of Sam Jackson. We need multiple irons in the fire.
We got other issues too but we need to keep throwing resources at QB until we find The Guy, and even then we need to keep recruiting and developing to find his backup and eventual replacement. No more seasons lost because we didn't have a good QB ready to contribute!