Some decisions are easy to make, and that was the case for graduate transfer quarterback Ryan Glover. The former Penn and Western Carolina quarterback hit the portal after playing the spring season, and the Bears needed quarterback depth in a room that lost two players to the transfer portal during spring practices.
“When I hit the portal, a bunch of teams hit me up, including Cal,” Glover noted, “I had always been interested in Cal, in high school. I was also in the portal earlier this year, in December and January, and I connected with Cal both times. This time they showed a little more interest and eventually ended up offering me.”
Cal’s offensive coordinator Bill Musgrave was the one to reach out to Glover, with Musgrave having lived in Atlanta, where Glover is from. That helped to bridge the connection, as well as having some familiarity with the Bay Area, and a visit to Cal made the decision that much easier
“He hit me up and said they were pretty interested,” Glover said. “They have a young quarterback room, and an addition like me, a vet at this point being a fifth year senior, having played some meaningful snaps, it would add value to the quarterback room. Both of my parents are from the area, they were both sold as soon as they heard that Cal was interested. He likes my abilities, thinks I can run and pass it well, and thinks I’ll add good value to the team. (The visit) was amazing, the area is very nice, Berkeley is very nice. My parents are from Oakland so I’m familiar with Cal and the Oakland area in general, but I hadn’t really experienced a visit like that, where it was me alongside the coaches, walking around, doing the facility and campus tour. Everything looked real nice, they obviously have state of the art equipment and facilities. I like how the facilities are all in one place, everything you need is right there.”
Glover, who got his undergraduate degree from the Wharton School of Business at Penn, will now be heading into the Haas School of Business, with the new graduate certificate program in business administration and management. That program made it easy for Glover to make the move to Cal.
“It was a no-brainer,” Glover said. “The Haas School of Business is one of the top business schools, graduating from Wharton and going to Haas, to add it to my resumé is a very big deal for me and my family professionally.”
Cal offered Glover to provide extra insurance in the quarterback room, with sixteen starts at Penn and Western Carolina combined, as aside from Chase Garbers, the Bears QB room has all of five snaps played. Glover is aware of the situation he’s walking into with the quarterback room, and Garbers has already welcomed him in.
“He texted me when I committed,” Glover noted, “all the quarterbacks have been very welcoming. I can tell I’m going to have fun with them and I can learn from them.”
That said, Glover’s goal is the NFL, and conversations with Musgrave have helped in working toward that goal.
“I think he’s a very smart guy,” Glover said, “just from talking to him, chopping it up about football, he obviously knows what he’s doing. He’s a quarterback veteran in the NFL, so he has some experience in a place that I want to be, he knows what the NFL scouts are looking at and what it takes there. I think his knowledge of the game will be helpful to my game and to Cal football.”
The next step for Glover is learning Cal’s offense, a bit of a difference from what he ran previously at Penn and Western Carolina.
“The pro-style, I ran a little of it in high school,” Glover said, “but Western Carolina and Penn were both spread, 100% in the shotgun. I know Cal mixes it up a little bit, but I’m excited for the challenge, I don’t think it’ll be too much of a transition and obviously that’s what they do at the next level.”
Glover will be arriving on campus this weekend, as he looks to get moving with the Bears.
“Very quick turnaround,” Glover said, “I want to get to work.”