Think it's tough to make a comparison between Mendoza and Beck & Ewers. There are valid concerns about the latter two, but those concerns mostly stem from watching them **** the bed against very good P2 teams in game of consequence. Mendoza simply hasn't played in games like that. He played poorly against Oregon last year, but it's a bit unfair to judge him harshly on that as Cal was completely overmatched.
Beck's injury concerns me a lot. If he needs Tommy John surgery he
should be good to go in the summer, but that means he's misses spring practice and it's an unknown whether he'll be the same QB after the surgery. All that said, I'll be happy if we took either of the 3 and rank them:
1. Ewers
2. Mendoza
3. Beck (significant injury)
I thought Ewers played a nice game last night. The miss on 4th down sucked, and it highlighted the concern that he doesn't have
it when the chips are down. However 2 possessions later when Texas sealed the game he made some nice clutch plays:
- Threw perfect backshoulder throw from his own goal line to draw a PI
- Didn't force a throw on 2nd & 9 when he was pressured and no one was open and got back to the LOS
- Worked through his progressions and took his checkdown to convert on 3rd & 9
Nothing spectacular, but he didn't need to be spectacular up 2 scores in the 4th. The 3rd down conversion essentially sealed the game. I have trouble accepting that we're somehow screwed if Ewers is our QB next year. He is flawed but he's also been the starting QB on a playoff team 2 years running, and won a playoff game last night.
I would take Nico over all of them if he's over Heupel treating him like a pinata.