BERKELEY – The eyes of the football world were on Cal when the team hosted its annual Pro Day at Kabam Field at California Memorial Stadium on Friday. Former Cal quarterback Jared Goff is one of the top prospects in the 2016 NFL Draft next month and personnel from all 32 teams including Cleveland and San Francisco head coaches Hugh Jackson and Chip Kelly were on hand to watch him throw.
NFL Network telecast the event live while ESPN was on hand to provide several live SportsCenter updates. More than 80 media credentials were issued for the event.
“It's a great showcase for everybody,” Cal head coach Sonny Dykes said. “When you have that many eyes on you as a program and your players perform well it certainly speaks well for them as athletes, and it speaks well for our strength and conditioning staff.”
Goff completed 61-of-69 passes while throwing a variety of routes to some of his favorite targets in former Cal teammates Stephen Anderson, Trevor Davis, Maurice Harris, Daniel Lasco, Kenny Lawler, Darius Powe and Bryce Treggs.
When Goff finished throwing the hometown fans in attendance gave him a round of applause from fans.
“I think it's the same for everyone,” Goff said when asked about the hometown advantage of throwing at Cal. “You get back with your same receivers, back on your own field. I practiced and played there and played there for three years.”
“I see them being successful,” Goff added when asked about how his college receivers would fare in the NFL. “Those guys are obviously special but the group I have is second to none. They're all so good at different things and can bring something to the table.”
Goff was asked during his press conference following the workout what it would be like to play for the local San Francisco 49ers.
“It would be great, it would be a really cool thing,” he said. “Growing up a fan of them it would be awesome. But at the same time I'd be more than happy to play anywhere and be with a team and a coach that I want to win games with and be very successful with.”
Although the attention was focused on Goff, several other former Golden Bears had strong performances.
The consensus among NFL scouts on Bryce Treggs' 40-yard dash was a hand time of 4.39 although many scouts had him faster with one clocking him at 4.31. The 4.39 time would have tied for second among wide receivers at the 2016 NFL Combine while checking in tied for eighth overall. Treggs also had a 10' 2” broad jump, a 34” vertical, a 6.93 cone drill and a time of 11.13 in the 60-yard shuttle while putting up 16 reps of 225 pounds in the bench press.
“I was very pleased,” Treggs answered when asked about his 40-yard dash time. “At the NFLPA Game they asked what I going to run and I said 4.3 and they were like 'seriously?' And I was like, 'yeah, that's the kind of guy I am.; Hopefully I went out there and made some money today and impressed the scouts. I'd be blessed to go to whichever team has interest in me.”
“This was definitely important because if you go to the combine and you put up some bad numbers you're going to make up for it at pro day,” Treggs added. “This was sort of a one and done thing for me so I wanted to go out there, put my best efforts forward, and I think I did that today.”
Anderson posted hand times in the 40-yard dash (4.60) and 20-yard shuttle (4.13) that would have been the best marks by a tight end at the combine, while his 3 cone time (4.95) would have been fourth.
Powe had a strong 40-yard dash performance for a 220-pound wide receiver with a consensus hand time of 4.45 while he also posted a 10' 0” in the vertical jump.
Lasco made significant improvements from his combine times in both the 3-cone drill (6.80) and 20-yard shuttle (4.13) that would have been first and second among running backs at the combine, respectively.
Stefan McClure had a 38” vertical that would have been tied for second among safeties at the combine, while Jalen Jefferson (10' 2”) and Nathan Broussard (10' 1) joined Treggs at 10 feet or over in the broad jump.
Kyle Kragen also had a strong day with a time of 4.83 in the 40-yard, a 37” vertical jump and a time of 4.25 in the 20-yard shuttle.
Mustafa Jalil led the way in the weight room with 24 reps of 225 pounds.
Harris ran a competitive 4.56 40-yard dash.
“The good thing is that when all these people come out to see your quarterback they also see everybody else,” Dykes said. “I thought the guys performed very well.”
“It was a fun day,” added strength and conditioning coach Damon Harrington. “It's fun to get to watch those guys come back and compete and to see the culmination of all their hard work at Cal.come to fruition. For it come to fruition in front of that audience was a lot of fun to watch.”
