A Lot of Questions Surround Maynard and Cal Bears

There are a lot of questions for Golden Bear football going into the 2011 season. Who will be playing Quarterback is not one of those questions. Zach Maynard, Buffalo transfer and half-brother of WR Keenan Allen, has been named the #1 signal caller going into training camp.

This announcement has writers, such as Rob Colonge of bearterritory.net  asking questions about the motives behind Tedford’s announcement. His article seems to suggest that maybe Maynard was promised the job upon transferring here or simply named the starter because of a lack of trust in the offensive line. Regardless of the motivations behind the potentially hasty or even fishy announcement, the question of real import is what kind of product Maynard will bring to the field.

Well, what will he bring to the field?

Let’s look at his one game against a high caliber opponent. Against Pitt, a vastly more talented team than his Buffalo Bulls, he threw for 400 yards and 4 touchdowns completing 69% of his passes. Although they were playing from behind from the early moments of the game and hardly ran the ball, it shows a capability to play against the quality of opponents Maynard is going to see in the PAC-12.

Maynard also has the physical tools to succeed at this level. He is a dual-threat QB, but Tedford doesn’t want to use him that way. He will be a pass first guy, who can use his legs to get out of tough situations. As was stated earlier, this can be a very important skill to have with a shaky O-line.

Tedford has even talked about Maynard showing leadership skills, which is sometimes difficult as a transfer student.

As Cal fans, we’ve heard all this summer hype before. There is reason to believe that the transition will be tough, and he may have a tough time succeeding in Berkeley. I wish I had an answer, but it seems like we’ll have to wait until September.

What do the readers think? Leave a comment.