Cal QB Chase Garbers and tailback Christopher Brown uncertain for Big Game
Jake Curtis Nov. 18, 2019 Updated: Nov. 18, 2019 8:32 p.m.
Cal will try to end its nine-game Big Game losing streak Saturday at Stanford, although the Bears don’t know who their starting quarterback or starting tailback will be for the 122nd edition of the Bay Area matchup.
Neither quarterback Chase Garbers nor running back Christopher Brown Jr. practiced for Cal (5-5, 2-5 Pac-12) on Monday because of unspecified injuries, and both are questionable for Saturday’s game.
“Chase was not able to practice today, and so that’ll be day-to-day,” Cal head coach Justin Wilcox said. “It’s going to be up to the doctors if and when they clear him to participate.”
Wilcox could name a starter by midweek if Garbers is cleared, but the longer it goes unsettled, the more likely it is that Devon Modster will be the starter.
“It depends on when that (clearance) happens and what Chase is able to do,” Wilcox said.
Wilcox noted that the injury that sidelined Garbers in the second quarter of Saturday’s 41-17 loss to USC is unrelated to the Sept. 27 shoulder injury that sidelined him for four games.
Brown had two carries on Cal’s first possession of Saturday’s game, but did not have another carry because of an injury. If Brown can’t play, Marcel Dancy and DeShawn Collins will share the carries. Collins rushed for 103 yards in the loss to the Trojans, becoming the second Cal player to rush for more than 100 yards this season and the first to do it against an FBS opponent.
Cal safety Ashtyn Davis and wide receiver Kekoa Crawford are also questionable for Saturday’s game.
The most serious injury Saturday was sustained by Cal linebacker Evan Tattersall, who had to be loaded onto a stretcher, taken off the field on a cart and transported to a hospital.
“Evan was released from the hospital Saturday night,” Wilcox said Monday. “He’s been at home. We’ve talked to him. He’s doing much better. It’s been all positive since then. Obviously, a scary moment for everybody. He’ll be back (Tuesday), and he’ll start the protocol from there.”
Stanford (4-6, 3-5) has had its share of injuries, too, and, like Cal, the Cardinal have an uncertain quarterback situation.
Anybody Stanford has thrown out there has done well enough against Cal in recent years, considering the Bears have not won the Big Game since 2009.
Wilcox said he has not mentioned the streak to the players and does not pay much attention to it.
“You get to play Stanford one time a year in the Big Game, and so it’s not hard to get motivated for that,” Wilcox said.
Wilcox was barely aware of the nine-game losing streak until reminded of it by a Cal official after practice.
“I’m sure we talked about it last year and probably didn’t talk about it again until seven minutes ago,” he said.
Cal linebacker Ben Hawk Schrider is aware of the streak. He grew up in Berkeley and is a lifelong Cal fan. Until he went to college, he attended just about every Big Game in Berkeley since he was 4 and a couple at Stanford as well.
“It means a lot,” Schrider said of the Big Game. “I don’t like red. I don’t wear red. Basically Cal and that school with the tree, that rivalry, it means a lot.”
Even while attending college at Richmond and Chattanooga before coming to Cal this season as a graduate transfer, Schrider paid attention to the Big Game. Last year, while at Chattanooga, he and his roommates had to have two televisions on: one to watch the Alabama-Georgia game and one to watch Stanford-Cal.
UCLA game time set: The Bears’ game against UCLA at the Rose Bowl has been scheduled for a 7:30 p.m. kickoff Nov. 30. It will be televised by FS1.
Jake Curtis is a freelance writer.
Neither quarterback Chase Garbers nor running back Christopher Brown Jr. practiced for...
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