Jared CohenFormer Saguaro High School standout Luke Rubenzer will be expanding his role with the Pac-12 North’s California Golden Bears in 2015.
The former Arizona State Champion was the back-up for Jared Goff but was utilized often by Head Coach Sonny Dykes in Wildcat packages on offense during his freshman season.
This past spring, Rubenzer was on the field running with the first team but not on offense. He was doing so at safety on the defensive side of the ball in the spot that was once utilized by Griffin Piatt. Piatt went down with a season-ending injury in Cal’s sixth game against Washington and was still out during spring practice which opened the door for Rubenzer, who played both safety and quarterback in high school as well.
“It will be kind of like last year,” Rubenzer told Sports360AZ.com. “I’ll still have a little Wildcat package back there at quarterback and get to throw it around a little bit but mostly I am playing safety this year. I was taking the one reps all throughout spring ball.”
“They came out with the depth chart a couple weeks ago and our starter from last year is coming back at safety, too,” he added. “So right now I am two on the depth chart on defense and two on offense. So I am just going to try and make the most of my opportunities just like I did last year.”
It’s a lot of work putting in the work in preparation on one side of the football at the Division I level. Doing so on two sides of the ball makes it that much more busy. Rubenzer said he knows the offense like the back of his hand at this point and will have a good routine during practices where he is getting reps on both sides.
“Throughout spring ball and through the summer, I pretty much played defense the whole time,” he explained. “Then when we go special teams, the coaches will keep me off of special teams and I will go do footwork and a lot of throwing drills with the quarterbacks just to stay fresh. Hopefully I’ll get a shot again to compete at quarterback in camp while still playing defense. So it will be fun.”
Rubenzer is back home in Arizona this week having had a week off before the start of fall camp. In that time he continues to put work in on both sides of the ball and working out in the 110 degree heat with former teammate Christian Kirk before he also leaves town for his freshman season at Texas A&M.
“Been home for a week before I leave for camp and decided to come out here with Dennis (Gile) and Christian (Kirk) and all those guys and get a little better this week.”
Rubenzer begins camp with the Cal Bears next week leading up to their first game of the 2015 season with a home game on September 5th against Grambling State.
