There are times when California offensive coordinator Tony Franklin watches quarterback Jared Goff and Golden Bears receivers execute a play and he doesn't know what's going on.

Be mindful that Franklin's lack of knowledge doesn't stem from incompetence -- many consider him an offensive mastermind, after all.

"Sometimes, they do things with signals I don't even know," he chuckles, before adding that the improvisation usually works. "So that's when I say, 'I don't know what that was, but do it again!' It would have concerned me before this year, but not anymore."

That's because Goff and Cal's deep stable of receivers have developed enviable chemistry, a cohesion strong enough for Bryce Treggs -- one of the unit's leaders -- to declare the Bears' receiving corps as "the best in the country."

Treggs' statement is bold -- especially considering there were no Cal receivers statistically ranked in the Pac-12's top 10 in 2014 -- but he can explain.

"We're not going to put up Amari Cooper numbers (a nation-leading 124 catches and 1,727 yards last year)," he said. "That's not what we do. We spread the ball around."

And the Bears are remarkably good at sharing the wealth. In 2014, they featured eight targets who caught at least 20 passes. Their top four receivers amassed 204 catches and 2,579 yards of production on the season -- and it was almost perfectly balanced between all of them.

"The first thing that comes to mind is how unselfish they are," inside receivers coach Jacob Peeler said. "If they were on any other team, they'd be the marquee guy."

Golden Bears' balance Cal prides itself on spreading the ball around in its passing game, which was evident in 2014. Receiver Catches Yards TD Kenny Lawler* 54 701 9 Stephen Anderson* 46 661 5 Chris Harper 52 634 6 Bryce Treggs* 52 583 6 Trevor Davis* 24 399 5 Daniel Lasco* 33 356 2 Darius Powe* 20 328 1 Maurice Harris* 25 252 2 *Indicates 2015 returner

But in Berkeley, the offense is predicated on Goff's rapport with the entire group, and not just one member of it.

"Jared's not looking for one guy; he's looking for a spot," Treggs explained. "And there's a different guy in that spot on every play."

All of Cal's receivers are good at getting to that designed location and Goff is precise in his recognition of when they'll arrive. That combination of skills has turned the Cal passing offense into a machine -- even Stanford's David Shaw said the receiving corps is the Pac-12's most dangerous. Its capabilities are centered on a quarterback-receiver union that's taken thousands of repetitions to develop.

"They know each other in ways we could never imagine," Franklin said.

Trevor Davis, who leads Cal with 170 receiving yards through two games, says that Goff can use body language to identify whether a target will break inside or outside.

"We've run so many routes together," he said. "So he knows how we're going to run them."

The players have accumulated the majority of repetitions necessary for this mastery in the offseason. NCAA rules limit coaches' instructional capabilities for much of the year, so Goff has filled in the gaps himself by organizing winter, spring, and summer throwing sessions himself. Receivers enthusiastically attended over the past several months.

"When we fell just short [of bowl eligibility] last year, that sparked a lot of fuel in us," Kenny Lawler, last year's receptions leader, said. "So three days a week in the offseason, we worked on nothing but routes and timing. Jared sees that he can fully trust us now. He knows where we're going to be."

Goff threw three touchdown passes to Lawler in the season opener, and he later said that neither of those plays would have worked until this season, after those long hours of passing game refinement.

"It takes a quarterback working with receivers year-round to get on that same page," head coach Sonny Dykes said. "There's no substitute for repetition."

It's also difficult to replicate the nuanced competitiveness within Cal's receiving room. At least some sort of rivalry between players is generally viewed as a prerequisite for improvement -- think "as iron sharpens iron, so one person sharpens another" -- but receiver is a position particularly prone to go overboard in this regard. Selfishness and greed for more catch opportunities can flare up, especially if the NFL draft stock becomes a dominant individual concern.

But Cal's Stephen Anderson, a frequent winner of weekly competitions within the inside receiver room that award the victor with a prize fighter's belt, says that the Bears' battles don't breed a self-centered approach.

"We embrace the competition," Anderson said. "But we don't take it in the way that says 'I've gotta beat him out or I won't make it to the next level.' We know that everybody is going to get the ball, and if they do, we'll win. The next level comes later. Winning comes now."

And for Cal's receivers, winning begins with proving what they've already proclaimed -- that they're the nation's best.

"We want it to be unanimous," Anderson said. "When people discuss [the top unit], we want the answer to be Cal. That's what motivates us."