The Cal football program officially started a new era Monday as Justin Wilcox opened his first training camp as the team’s head coach.

Just ahead of leading his squad onto the field to prep for what many believe will be the toughest schedule in college football, Wilcox shared his thoughts with The Chronicle.

What are your emotions heading into your first training camp?

“I think it’s all about continuing to grow as a team. They’ve had a dose of the systems: offense, defense and special teams. They are now ingrained with how we do things in strength and conditioning, which is a huge part of our program. It’ll be exciting to see where they are now, because we made significant progress through spring practice. We needed to, and we need to stay on that same trajectory.”

Cal presents some unique challenges, especially the academic standards in recruiting. How do you address those?

“It’s the No. 1 public school in the country. We’re not going to go change that. Why would we? We have a certain profile that we’re looking for in recruiting. Not everybody is going to fit it. That’s OK, but we feel like there are enough guys, especially starting in the West and the Bay Area. Even going national, we have a national brand. The last thing we want to do is diminish the value of that degree. Is it harder? Do we have a smaller pool? Yeah, but our players have to be motivated in school. Every recruit says that, but we have to find the ones who really mean it. It will impact them for the rest of their lives.”

What kinds of improvements do you need to see on the field?

“We need to see that same focus, energy, growth that we saw in the first 15 practices. If we can do that, we’ll give ourselves the best chance to win. Along the way, we’ll find out what this team is really going to be. Who’s going to step up in some really critical spots? Whether there’s a coaching change or not, every team is different. That’s part of the fun of the fall: seeing how things are going to play out.”

What’s the latest with the quarterback competition?

“It’s the most important position in sports. Chase (Forrest) and Ross (Bowers) both got a lot better during the spring. They’re both going to have a chance to earn the opportunity to be the starter, and we’ve got a freshman in (Chase Garbers), who can throw the ball. We’re going to give him opportunities as well. It truly is a quarterback competition. We don’t really have a timeline on announcing a starter. Ideally, you wanted the starter named six months ago, but that’s not our situation.”

What would it take for you to deem this a successful season?

“We continue to grow as a team and continue to improve. Winning is important. We’re here to win. We’re going to prepare to win every game. The goal is to win. I mean, it’s that simple. Winning is important to our team. It’s important to our student body, our department and our alumni, so that’s the goal. But it’s a byproduct of all of the things we’re working on daily. In order to do that, we’ve got to continue to grow.”

Rusty Simmons is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: rsimmons@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @Rusty_SFChron