71Bear said:
calumnus said:
71Bear said:
PtownBear1 said:
Anyone else find it funny that all off season fans were talking about Modster as our only hope, and now everyone is waiting for Garbers to return and try to salvage the season.
And some of us have been on the Garbers bandwagon for two years and were well aware that Modster was nothing more than a mop-up guy.
I think we saw today that both QBs can be very effective in the right situation against the right opponent. Hopefully we build on this with a way n next week.
Gotta disagree. Modster is an "in emergency, break glass and hope for the best" kinda guy. Garbers is someone around whom you can build an offense. Modster has had 1 1/2 decent games in his entire career. Garbers is 10-5 as a Cal starter.
And I respectfully disagree with you. At UCLA, Modster came off the bench against UW and out played Rosen, even though UCLA lost. He played decently against Utah in a loss. He came off the bench against Cal, and played well in a win. In a bowl game, he out-played both Kansas State QBs by a mile in a loss. And comparing one player's "decent games" against another player's won-loss record is comparing apples to oranges, isn't it? As a freshman, Modster was a backup to Josh Rosen. In that role, he seldom played except when Rosen got hurt, so how could he have a won-loss record of very many games? He played in only 5 of 13 games and one of those was a couple of minutes in a blowout of Hawaii. At Cal, he got in to throw one pass vs Mississippi, and then had to come in off the bench vs ASU and save the game, which he failed to do. Then he started the next 3 games, and finally got Cal a win when we had been struggling, not only passing, but with the line banged up, the running game had disappeared and the defense had not been playing well either in 4 straight losses. Finally, he has a good game at Cal, and you want to start criticizing his much shorter career?
I think you are being pretty harsh on Modster. Garbers hasn't exactly been the 2nd coming of Jared Goff, has he? He struggled in his first year, and they even benched him for McIlwain for a game or two. He played all or most of the reps in 11 games that year, and had maybe 4 good games, but he had a couple bad games against Oregon and Stanford and then a real stinker against TCU. This year he played in 5 games and looked OK in all of them, playing real well in the Mississippi game. Actually, I think this season was more impressive than last season, because this season Cal's offensive line was banged up, and his receivers are not as good as last season. I think his Mississippi game was his best, as the competition was better than for any of his 4 good games last season, just in my opinion. Maybe I'm hard to please, because it took me 15 games to finally be impressed with him. Even then, it was only one game. I'll wait and see if he can keep it up or can improve.
So Garbers has had 16 starts, and Modster has had 5 starts, 2 at UCLA, one for Jim Mora, and one for Jedd Fisch, , and 3 starts at Cal for Wilcox. That is 5 starts for three different coaches, and at least two different systems. At UCLA, Modster was Josh Rosen's backup. The first time Rosen got hurt was in the UW game, and Modster slightly outperformed Rosen, but UCAL lost. Then he started against Utah, did not perform well, and they lost. Rosen returned for the next 3 games, and got hurt in the 3rd one, against Cal, and Modster came in an played almost as well as Rosen had and UCLA won. Modster started UCLA's bowl game against Kansas State, and had 295 yards and 2 TDs and no INTs, against K-State's two quarterbacks who had 79 yards,, no TDs, and 2 INTs between them, so he outplayed them by a mile, but UCLA lost.
At Cal, he and his coaches had to face the uncertainty of whether he would ever play, as the NCAA kept jerking Cal and Modster around. He finally got his shot as a backup when Garbers got hurt vs ASU. Garbers had been playing well, but Modster did not do well and Cal lost. He started against Oregon and OSU and did not play well in either game, and got hurt and missed the Utah game. He returned to start against WSU, and had a very good game. I sure would need to see more than 3 starts for Modster before I could judge him as a starter, and if he is a backup, I'd need to see more than one or two games where he came off the bench to try and save or win a game, before I would judge him.
Both Garbers and Modster suffer from a drop in quality of receivers over their past teams' receivers. Garbers had Laird and Wharton who each caught 50 balls last season, and Laird had 9 TD catches. He had Ways (34 catches) and Noa (30). This season, so far, Remigio and Duncan have 18 each, Clark has 15, and Crawford has 14. Polk may be a star, but he is not there yet. At UCLA in 2017, Rosen and Modster had Jordan Lasley (69 catches, 9 TDs), Darren Andrews (60 catches, 10 TDs), Theo Howard (56 catches, 4 TDs), Caleb Wilson (38 catches, 1 TD), and 3 other players who had 17 or more catches.
I think it may have helped Modster to have his best game with the return of some of Cal's receivers. It also helped Modster (and Brown) to have the return of a starting offensive lineman. I also think quarterbacks, like coaches, sometimes get too much credit for wins, and too much blame for losses. This is a team game, and a quarterback is only as good as his receivers, his offensive line, and his team's running game. It is too premature to judge either of these quarterbacks until they have a consistent running game, and get their linemen and receivers healthy. Instead of criticizing Modster's brief career, how about getting behind him? He just had a good game, and until Garbers or another Jared Goff shows up, he's our quarterback at the moment.
