touchdowns in his freshman season at Butte Community College, leading the school to a 10–1 record, the NorCal Conference championship, and a national ranking. While there, he was discovered by the California Golden Bears's head coach Jeff Tedford, who was recruiting Butte tight end Garrett Cross. Tedford was surprised to learn that Rodgers had not been recruited earlier. Because of Rodgers's good high school scholastic record, he was eligible to transfer to the University of California, Berkeley after one year of junior college instead of the typical two. 2003 As a junior college transfer, Rodgers had three years of eligibility at Cal. He was named the starting quarterback in the fifth game of the 2003 season, beating the only team that offered him a opportunity out of high school, Illinois. As a sophomore, he helped lead the Golden Bears to a 7–3 record as a starter. In his second career start, Rodgers led the team to a 21–7 halftime lead against #3 USC. Due to injury, Rodgers was replaced in the second half by Reggie Robertson. The Bears won in triple overtime, 34–31. Rodgers passed for 394 yards and was named game MVP in the Insight Bowl against Virginia Tech. In 2003, Rodgers tied the school season record for 300-yard games with five and set a school record for the lowest percentage of passes intercepted at 1.43%. 2004 As a junior, Rodgers led Cal to a 10–1 record and top-five ranking at the end of the regular season, with their only loss a 23–17 loss at USC. In that game, Rodgers set a school record for consecutive completed passes with 26 and tied an NCAA record with 23 consecutive passes completed in one game. He set a Cal single-game record for passing completion percentage of 85.3. Rodgers holds the Cal career record for lowest percentage of passes intercepted at 1.95 percent. Rodgers' performance set up the Golden Bears at first and goal with 1:47 remaining and a chance for the game-winning touchdown. On the first play of USC's goal line stand, Rodgers threw an incomplete pass. This was followed by a second-down sack by Manuel Wright. After a timeout and Rodgers' incomplete pass on third down, USC stopped Cal's run play to win the game. Rodgers commented that it was "frustrating that we couldn't get the job done." Overall, he finished the 2004 season with 2,566 passing yards, 24 touchdowns,