Getty Los Angeles Rams QB Jared Goff
For Los Angeles Rams quarterback Jared Goff, his move from college to the NFL didn’t involve a whole lot of travel. When the team traded up to select him with the No. 1 pick in the 2016 NFL Draft, it meant a few different things for the University of California, Berkeley star. The first was that he was set to have a ton of hype around him as the top pick, but the second was that his new home headquarters were just a drive up the coast from his college stadium.
Goff had roughly a 6-6.5 hour drive from California Memorial Stadium, where he shattered a number of records, to the Rams team headquarters in Agoura Hills. At the time, it seemed like a match made in heavy for the Cal quarterback with the most hype surrounding him since Aaron Rodgers entered the league.
While Goff was a highly-touted NFL draft prospect over the final year of his collegiate career, the numbers he posted over his three-year stretch helped his stock surge. Beyond that, it allowed him to hold a place in Cal football history with records that may never be broken.
Jared Goff Was First True Freshman to Start Opener for Cal
The collegiate debut for Goff came against the No. 22 ranked Northwestern Wildcats and he became the first true freshman to start a season opener in school history, per FOX Sports. For what it’s worth, Goff apparently wasn’t nervous about it, but instead was ready to hit the field after beating out Zach Kline and Austin Hinder for the job.
”I wouldn’t say I’m nervous,” Goff said. ”I’m just more anxious to get out there. Just ready to go. All this waiting around is building up anxiety.”
Although California went on to lose that game, Goff didn’t fail to impress. He threw for 450 yards and two touchdowns while completing 60.9 percent of his passes. Although he did throw three interceptions, they came on 64 attempts and marked one of two games during his entire freshman season where he threw more than one interception.
Jared Goff’s Impressive Stats Lead to 26 School Records
While Goff began his career with Cal by hitting the ground running during his freshman season, he only continued to get better. Over the 37 games he played in three seasons, Goff completed 62.3 percent of his passes for 12,195 yards, 96 touchdowns and 30 interceptions. The numbers look impressive on paper, but they’re even better when compared to the school’s previous quarterbacks.
As the team’s official website shows, Goff went on to break 26 school records in three seasons. This included career passing yards, passing yards per game (329.7), touchdown passes, completions and passing attempts. There were two specific records worth noting that he did not set, with one being overall quarterback rating, as his 144.0 mark fell shy of Rodgers’ 150.3.
Goff also threw seven touchdowns in a game against Colorado in 2014 and six against Air Force in 2015. Unfortunately, both of those land him in the school record books behind a stellar eight-touchdown performance from Pat Barnes in 1996.
The former Bears quarterback does hold the passing records for career touchdowns, topping Kyle Boller by 32. His 2015 collegiate season set the school record for touchdowns in one year when he threw 43, a number which Davis Webb challenged one year later, finishing at 37.
Beyond that, Goff shattered the career passing yards record by more than 4,000 yards, single-season mark by more than 400 yards and holds three of the four highest single-game totals. He threw for 542 yards (No. 1 in school history) as a junior, 527 yards (No. 2) as a sophomore and 504 yards in 2013 as a freshman (No. 4).
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