Zachary Desmond Maynard (born July 29, 1989) is a former

American football American football (referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada), also known as gridiron, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular field with goalposts at each end. The offense, the team wi ...

quarterback The quarterback (commonly abbreviated "QB"), colloquially known as the "signal caller", is a position in gridiron football. Quarterbacks are members of the offensive platoon and mostly line up directly behind the offensive line. In modern Am ...

who played college football for the

California Golden Bears The California Golden Bears are the athletic teams that represent the University of California, Berkeley. Referred to in athletic competition as ''California'' or ''Cal'', the university fields 30 varsity athletic programs and various club tea ...

and

Buffalo Bulls The Buffalo Bulls are the intercollegiate athletic teams that represent the University at Buffalo (UB) in Buffalo, New York. The Bulls compete in the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) at the Division I level as a member of Mid-A ...

. He is the older half-brother of current

Los Angeles Chargers The Los Angeles Chargers are a professional American football team based in the Los Angeles metropolitan area. The Chargers compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the American Football Conference (AFC) West division, and ...

wide receiver Keenan Allen.

Early years

Maynard attended

Grimsley High School Grimsley Senior High School, also known as Grimsley High School or simply Grimsley, is a public high school in Greensboro, North Carolina. Formerly known as "Greensboro High School," "Greensboro Central High School," and then "Greensboro Senior ...

Greensboro, North Carolina Greensboro (; formerly Greensborough) is a city in and the county seat of Guilford County, North Carolina, United States. It is the List of municipalities in North Carolina, third-most populous city in North Carolina after Charlotte, North Car ...

, where he led his team to a Metro League title as a senior in 2007. He committed to Buffalo to play for coach

Turner Gill Turner Hillery Gill (born August 13, 1962) is an American college athletic administrator and former gridiron football player and coach. He is the Executive Director of Student-Athlete and Staff Development at the University of Arkansas, a positio ...

College career

Buffalo

Maynard began his college career as the backup quarterback to

Drew Willy Drew Willy (born November 13, 1986) is a former American professional Canadian football quarterback. He was signed by the Baltimore Ravens as an undrafted free agent in 2009. He played college football at Buffalo. Willy has also been a member o ...

, and saw limited action during the Bulls 2008 season, culminating with the team's 2008 MAC championship, and an appearance in the

2009 International Bowl The 2009 International Bowl was a postseason college football bowl game between the Connecticut Huskies (UConn) and the Buffalo Bulls at Rogers Centre in Toronto, Canada, on January 3, 2009. The game was the final contest of the 2008 NCAA Divis ...

. For the 2009 season, Maynard took over for Willy as the team's starting quarterback and led the Bulls to a 5–7 record. During a 54–27 loss to

Pittsburgh Pittsburgh ( ) is a city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, United States, and the county seat of Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, Allegheny County. It is the most populous city in both Allegheny County and Wester ...

in the second week of the season, Maynard threw for 400 yards and 4 touchdowns. During the 2009 season, Maynard accounted for 2,994 yards of total offense, the second highest single-season total in Buffalo football history.

California

In January 2010, after

Jeff Quinn Jeff Quinn (born September 26, 1962) is an American football coach. He was formerly an assistant coach at the University of Notre Dame. Quinn served as the head football coach at the University at Buffalo from 2010 to 2014. He was the 24th head c ...

replaced Gill as Buffalo coach, Maynard transferred to the

University of California The University of California (UC) is a public land-grant research university system in the U.S. state of California. The system is composed of the campuses at Berkeley, Davis, University of California, Irvine, Irvine, University of Califor ...

to play for coach

Jeff Tedford Jeffrey Raye Tedford (born November 2, 1961) is an American football coach and former player who is currently serving as the head coach at Fresno State, a position which he also previously held from 2017 to 2019. From 2002 to 2012, Tedford was t ...

. The move reunited him with his younger half-brother, Keenan Allen, who had committed to Cal to play wide receiver. After sitting out the 2010 season per NCAA transfer rules, Maynard won the starting job at Cal for the 2011 season. Maynard's 2,990 passing yards in 2011 were the third-highest single-season total in Cal history, as he led the Golden Bears to a 7–6 record and an appearance in the

2011 Holiday Bowl The 2011 Bridgepoint Education Holiday Bowl, the 34th edition of the game, was a postseason American college football bowl game between the Texas Longhorns of the Big 12 Conference and the California Golden Bears of the Pac-12 Conference (Pac-12 ...

. During the 2012 season, Maynard started nine games before an injury suffered in a game against

Washington Washington commonly refers to: * Washington (state), United States * Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States ** A metonym for the federal government of the United States ** Washington metropolitan area, the metropolitan area centered o ...

prematurely ended his season, as California slumped to a 3–9 record in what would prove to be Tedford's final season as coach of the Golden Bears.

College statistics

References

External links

California Golden Bears bio
{{DEFAULTSORT:Maynard, Zach Living people Players of American football from Greensboro, North Carolina American football quarterbacks Buffalo Bulls football players California Golden Bears football players 1989 births