BERKELEY, Calif. — The college resume of the probable top pick of the upcoming NFL draft includes throwing two interceptions returned for touchdowns in his first college game; enduring a one-win freshman season; and getting sacked 84 times in three years.
For all of the attention focused on Jared Goff’s skill set — his sound footwork and pre-snap reads, his quick release and ability to move defenders with his eyes or head — those who played with and coached the quarterback at California say his most impressive attribute can be gleaned by his reaction to those setbacks.
“He has been to hell and back,” Cal quarterback Chase Forrest, a close friend of Goff's, told USA TODAY Sports. “That builds character.”
A 6-4, 215-pound native of Novato, Calif., Goff encountered significant on-field adversity in college, even as he amassed 26 school records at the same program that produced Aaron Rodgers. As one of the top two draft-eligible quarterbacks, along with North Dakota State’s Carson Wentz, the resilience that Goff demonstrated could prove beneficial considering the uneven nature of NFL seasons — something that has been a recent hallmark of the Los Angeles Rams, the team expected to pick Goff first overall next Thursday night to start the draft.
In playing an integral role in helping the Golden Bears go from one win in 2013 to eight last year, Goff said at the NFL scouting combine in February that he “learned you kind of have to start from the ground up. It starts with hard work, hard work in the offseason, and no shortcuts.
"We had to start from the floor and build everything back up.”
It started in early December 2012, when newly hired Cal coach Sonny Dykes watched film of all the prospects who had committed to playing for Jeff Tedford, the previous head coach. Dykes was not wowed by Goff’s tape, calling the then-gangly 185-pounder a “solid” prospect.
It wasn’t until Tony Franklin, Cal’s offensive coordinator at the time, traveled to watch Goff's Marin Catholic High team compete in a playoff game staged in southern California when that assessment changed. Franklin watched him on the sideline. He watched him between plays. He watched how he handled a superior team dominating his team for a stretch.
“Tony then said he has chance to be something special,” Dykes recalled.
The first Cal true freshman quarterback to start the season opener, Goff's debut included throwing three interceptions, including that pair of deflected passes returned for touchdowns, in a 44-30 loss to Northwestern.
“You throw two pick-sixes in your opening game? For a lot of guys, you are destroyed,” Franklin, who now is offensive coordinator at Middle Tennessee State, told USA TODAY Sports. “It didn’t bother him one bit. He had this thing about him, ‘OK, let’s go. Next play.’ Most guys don’t have that.”
What also impressed Dykes was the grit Goff displayed two weeks later as he kept getting pummeled yet kept throwing throughout a 52-34 defeat to Ohio State.
“He got hit a bunch — physically beat up,” Dykes told USA TODAY Sports about Goff’s entire freshman season. “He weathered all those storms just fine. Never had his head down. Never came in and said, ‘I’m getting hit too much, what the hell is going on?’ "
Goff says he is especially grateful for enduring the inaugural 1-11 season, explaining that it “toughened” him and forced him to grow up, mature and become the leader of the team as a sophomore.
He continued to improve incrementally — most notably his anticipation and a quicker release — but adversity continued. In a one-point victory against Texas this past season, Goff suffered a high ankle sprain that Franklin says lingered for a month. And yet he refused to sit out drills in practice, Franklin said, and would not make excuses. (Even recently, Goff suggested the injury was not a big deal, and that he was “good” within two weeks).
“He could barely move, could barely walk during the week,” Franklin said. “You could tell he was grimacing in pain when we’d do our Peyton Manning footwork drill. He never missed a rep. He competed his ass off, and then on Saturdays found a way to go out, suck it up, limp back in the pocket, find a throwing lane and make plays.”
Franklin used to talk to Goff about his experiences on the Kentucky staff a generation ago coaching quarterback Tim Couch, who became the top overall pick in the 1999 draft of the Cleveland Browns. What helped distinguish Couch, Franklin told Goff, was how he handled erratic performances, like when he threw four interceptions against Indiana in 1998 but still managed to lead the Wildcats to victory.
Goff had an opportunity to live out a similar script last year. After he threw the fourth of five interceptions in a highly anticipated game at Utah on Oct. 10, Goff looked at Franklin and said, “Well, I guess I’m Couch.”
“I don’t know,” Franklin answered tongue-in-cheek. “Couch came back and won.”
Goff laughed.
After Cal's 30-24 loss, he didn’t sulk. He didn’t make excuses. By the time the team arrived back on campus, Goff had moved on.
And the quarterback’s performance — he says probably the worst of his life — did nothing to diminish the opinion of Utes coach Kyle Whittingham, who told USA TODAY Sports that Goff is “the prototype quarterback. He has the whole package.”
Goff says he used that performance as an opportunity to “show I had some resiliency.” There is little doubt that on-field struggles have often been a welcomed companion for Goff, revealing his leadership and perseverance.
To that point, Goff recalled during the combine the most interesting question he fielded from league personnel during this evaluation process, a hypothetical scenario that uniquely spoke to how he handled a three-year college ride with plenty of turbulence: "If you are riding on a bus speeding down a snowy mountain, and it suddenly loses its brakes, where would you prefer to be sitting?"
Most people, Goff said, would instinctively answer the back of the bus. But for a quarterback, he noted, the answer should be different because quarterbacks should strive to be the leader who helps steward everyone else through adversity.
How did Goff answer?
“I said the front.”
Of course he did.
***
Follow Eric Prisbell on Twitter @EricPrisbell
PHOTOS: Top prospects in the 2016 NFL draft
