CHARLOTTE — It typically takes around three minutes or so for the Panthers' quarterback room to descend into anarchy. It can be the smallest spark that starts the flame; an opponent on film, a new update to recruiting rankings, or the most hotly contested one of all, a mention of food.

"Apparently they think their food is better in Texas," scoffs assistant quarterbacks coach Mike Bercovici, "but we'll just say our quarterbacks are better in California."

It's a frequent debate, thanks to Bryce Young and Bercovici both being quarterbacks born and bred in Southern California, facing off against Andy Dalton and quarterbacks coach Will Harriger who are both proud Texas natives.

"We do quite a bit of odes to the high school ranks and where Andy went (Katy High School)," explains Bercovici, "so we follow those teams pretty close."

When there's a little bit of extra time and they really want to dig into the sparring, as well as evaluate each others play, they'll dial up the tape, as in the literal tape. Sometimes it's Young's tape from past games, spanning his career at Mater Dei to Alabama, and two years in Charlotte. Other times it's Dalton's, starting at Katy, moving on to TCU, and his three Pro Bowls across 13 years in the NFL.

No one is spared though, and before long, offensive coordinator Brad Idzik will dial up another set of game tape; this one is Bercovici's.

The coach began his career at Taft High School in Los Angeles, home to multiple professional athletes including Steve Smith, politicians, rappers like Ice Cube, and actresses such as Lisa Kudrow, and Robin Wright. But when Bryce Young thinks of Taft, as a fellow Southern Cali guy himself, he remembers Berco.

"For sure, yeah, definitely," Young nods when asked if he could remember those playing days. "Taft, so not too far, so definitely knew the program, knew of him while he was there."

It also created a network that even surprises another Southern Cali guy, Dave Canales

"A friend of mine from Los Angeles where Berco played high school at Taft High School in Los Angeles, California, ran into him at the Houston Joint practice," laughs the coach when describing what it's like to travel with Berco around the NFL. "It seems like everywhere we go he's worked with or played for somebody."

It also means there's ton of tape to dial up for evaluation.

There's his preseason tape from time with the Chargers and Cardinals, or his season with the AAF. But perhaps the fan and room favorite is from time at ASU.

"Oh yeah," reacts Idzik, "he was just a gamer…He wasn't the 6'4 guy. He wasn't the 4.4 guy, but your man would stand in there and deliver some plays."

Adds Young, "He was a baller, definitely a gunslinger at ASU, he was spinning it."

With no play is that more evident than the "Jail Mary."

After starter Taylor Kelly was injured during the 2014 season, Berco took over, and in his second start at the college level, had to travel to the Coliseum to take on the vaulted, No. 16 USC Trojans. With three-minutes left in the fourth quarter, the Trojans led by nine. On the next drive, Berco and Cameron Smith connected on a one-play 73-yard touchdown to bring the score within two.

USC milked over two minutes off the clock, and when the Sun Devils got the ball back, there was only 23 seconds left. After a chunk play to flip field position, they had one shot—0:07 seconds—to go 46 yards.

"They called Hail Mary and I just told myself I'm not going to get sacked here, I'm going to throw balls," Berco recalls, a nostalgic gleam in his eye as he rewatches the play that used to always make the round in highlight reels every year when the two teams would face off again, pre-conference realignment. "It looked like a helicopter up there, but it got there.

"Diving on the ground, I could have had way better celebration ready for this one. Yeah, we call that one the Jail Mary; Jalen Strong, Hail Mary.

"I mean we practice this play all the time. It never really dolled up to that perfection, but I guess there's only so many Hail Marys caught in the history of football, so I'm glad this was very smooth."

When the Panthers tape session makes it to that play, they see an on-field manifestation of everything they've come to know about Mike Bercovici.

"He was in there tough as nails, delivering the ball, and that's who he is as a coach," compliments Idzik. "Like he's the same thing. He takes that approach and the players feel that, so we respect that."

"Definitely a tough guy," echoes Young, "which, it's someone you want on your side of the wall, someone who's—when people are tough on the field a lot of times it's not just out there, it's kind of a way of life and that's someone you want, you want grinding, you want staying late, you want watching the film, breaking down film, knowing that they can fight through (whether) there's adversity on the field or adversity and monotony at work, whatever it is, so that was probably the biggest thing that stood out, and you definitely see translated."

And for Kelly, the man who had been named the starter over Bercovici two years prior and sidelined with a foot injury for that game, seeing his teammate not only stand in the pocket and deliver the ball, but be available to do so in the first place, spoke to everything great about Berco's character.

"He had a hell of a game and came down all the way down to the wire and we called the Hail Mary play and he let it rip," recalls Kelly. "It was a pretty epic, for sure going to be one of the biggest plays in ASU's history, and I was so excited for him and how that happened and being an LA kid.

"With Mike, he's such a great person and super loyal. When I got named the starter in 2012, he and I were competing and he could easily transferred and went to a different school and whatnot, but he decided to stay loyal to his commitment and to the school and ride it out and for him to get that opportunity and take full advantage of it speaks highly of his work and dedication of who he is. And then for that to happen, good things happen to good people and when you're living right."

It's the kind of attitude every coach and player purports to have, but not all will put in the work to actual achieve. Berco did, even in his first year with the Panthers, the 2023 season that resulted in a complete offensive reset, more than once, and a clearing of house that removed every offensive coach and staff member ahead of Dave Canales' hiring.

Well, every coach but Bercovici, that is.

When the Canales staff arrived, they evaluated each of the previous staff members that were here in 2023, determined not to "cut weight just to cut weight" as Idzik puts it. When Canales and Berco got on the phone together for an informal interview, the conversation was mostly about old times and paths nearly crossed in California.

"It's funny because Dave and I's first conversation was about, kind of stems from Los Angeles," laughs Berco now, telling the story. "Sometimes I feel like I'm on quite literally the other side of the world out here. But Dave kind of remembered me as a young high school player when he was helping assist at USC football camps, so there was a name recognition.

"We'd never actually met one on one or knew each other in the past, but it was all kind of just classic high school Los Angeles connection."

It created a connection that added to the point already in his column, having someone who had spent that first year around Bryce and the offense and could help make the transition.

"There's always usefulness of having a guy from previous regime gives you context of things," explains Idzik, before a pause. "But that's not really what it was for him."

No, what it was for Berco, what ended up helping him become the only offensive staff member held over from 2023, was that all of that quiet work and time put in during that season when everything was falling apart, was noticed by someone else in the building late at night, trying to build something for the future.

It had to have been the Dan Morgan recommendation.

"He's a former player that is really smart," Morgan says now, recalling why he went to bat for the young coach two years ago. "He works his butt off, he's at the office all the time, and I just felt like he could wear a lot of different hats for coach Canales.

"So I recommended to Coach that we keep him because I know what type of guys Coach likes on his staff, and it's guys that have what he has; is energetic, smart, hard worker, I just felt like he had all those qualities."

When Young found out, there was a sense of relief. Bercovici had primarily worked with receivers his first year in the building. But the two had a connection, thanks to Berco's former ASU teammate, Taylor Kelly, who has been coaching Young since 8th grade, through high school, and in the offseason.

"I thought that was just a really cool, like small world type of thing," chuckles Kelly, "where Mike and I's relationships started back in college. And then now with my relationship with Bryce and how both of those guys, now how we all are intertwined in that way, which it's pretty cool."

And the duo would also often find themselves in conversations around the table or in the hallway about playing the QB position.

"I found out after the fact, but I was really, really thrilled that he was able to stay," says Young. "He was, even back then, such an important part of what we did, worked super, super hard behind the scenes, and then now from last year's transition to this year, he means a ton to us as a unit on the offensive side of the ball, especially in the quarterback room."

Over the past year, Bercovici's role with the offense in general and the quarterbacks in particular has grown exponentially. That first season under the Canales staff, he was pretty much glued to Brad Idzik and Will Harriger, as the three navigated implementing a new system, a quarterback change, and developing the No. 1 overall pick who was, for all intents and purposes, starting over.

As Idzik worked to learn each of his offensive players and how they best individually received information—whether through live reps, note taking, or watching film—he kept Berco with him through it all.

"I did a lot of trying to piece together the best combination of those things and presented to the staff, and Berco, whether he liked it or not, was in my hip along that journey for a lot of it and he was drawing the passes," Idzik shares.

"That forces him to understand the details more than anybody else because every time there was a picture that was a little bit off, I'm telling him I'm like hey that looks like this and this is why, and now he's got all that, he's got a year of hearing those corrections. He's got a year of hearing the details that I'm trying to get forward through all the position rooms that he can echo those sentiments out."

It also allowed him to understand the offense at a granular level—even though he can often be found grabbing any spare minute with Canales, asking a litany of questions to help him dig even deeper on quarterback play and how to coach it to the group. That understanding and willingness to learn even more moved Berco to where he's always wanted to be; coaching in the QB room.

"I do love the quarterback position because I played it, and I think there's just a natural connection that I can have with guys," offers Berco with a thoughtful expression. "I have been in the O-line room, have been in the tight end room, have been in the receiver room, and I love those positions, but I think for me, working with quarterbacks has always been a passion."

The marriage of his work ethic and passion has opened doors this past year, progressing his role as a coach and what he's trusted with by Canales, Idzik, and Harriger.

"I've given him more and more as time has gone on and and trust has grown for both of us," explains Idzik. "Trusting his knowledge of what we're trying to accomplish, but then also me trusting him, communicating it out so that relationship—it's taken off exactly like what we'd hoped it would have."

Adds Canales, "I think Berco's just, he's made right. He's developmentally minded, you know, he wants to be all hands on deck. He's courageous to bring things up that may seem a little bit out of scheme and he'll say, 'Hey, I think we should look at this.' He's kind of scouring the NFL, scouring college football to see if there's stuff that we can incorporate. So he's doing a great job."

That trust manifested itself during the preseason, when the Panthers brought in Bryce Perkins for the final game and he had around 48 hours to take a crash course and learn the offense. To get him ready, Canales paired him with his former ASU teammate, Berco.

"That was definitely unique," laughs Berco. "I think the biggest thing when you have those moments is how fast can I get through to someone to know, 'OK, I'm building the trust with them, here's the plan.' I'm going to talk to them so that they can honestly tell you how they feel about the game plan itself and then kind of gauge, because your normal players, they want the kitchen sink, they want to be able to show you that they know everything and anything in the shortest amount of time. But I think my specific role as a coach in that moment is to just make sure that when he does go across the lines on game day, he's fully prepared for everything that we're going to throw at him.

"We can do so much walkthroughs, call sheet preparation, going through pictures and run game, but like ultimately it's the connection that you kind of have with the guy to to know that I'm being honest with you, you're being honest with me, and you know we're going to put him in the best situation possible.

"So it's actually probably the most fun thing to do as a coach is to get someone ready for game day and just, every word I'm about to say is really important because what I say sticks."

As he's proven himself, the staff around him have trusted Berco more and more with preparing Young and Dalton for game day as well, from sending reports and clips of anything they might need, to answering late night texts with logistical questions.

"We trust his opinion about how he feels about plays," shares Young. "How he feels about how to better be another voice behind Will and Brad and Dave with the system, with the offense, and with the mechanics and everything, so his voice kind of just growing and that's been really fun to watch. It's been huge for us."

More than any time spent preparing clips, more than any of the hours at home and in the office breaking down film to find future plays, more than insight on the practice field, or even adding backup to Young to even out the California vs. Texas debate, there is one aspect of having Bercovici around that can't be overstated.

"His experience as a quarterback is always, it's invaluable to have a former quarterback on staff," preaches Idzik.

His presence, in the meeting room, in the quarterback room, the practice field, even the cafeteria, also gives Young and Dalton a touchpoint. Someone who understands the mental side of the position in a way not every coach can.

"There's certain stuff that you just can't—you have to experience," explains Young. "It doesn't mean someone who hasn't played can't be a great coach or doesn't have anything to offer by any stretch of the means, but there's certain stuff when you play a position.

"So him having that, having played, him knowing what it takes, being around a lot of guys and you know doing it himself at a high level, you're able to speak a certain language, you're kind of able to just understand certain things and it's always cool to have people like that in the room."

If his growth and ascension continue like the Panthers believe it will, Mike Bercovici might not be in that particular room for long though, as opportunities arise for the young coach.

"I think he's doing great," bragged Morgan. "He's worked with different position groups and has experience and is gaining all that experience, and I know Coach Canales really likes him as well, so yeah, I think he's trending in a really good direction."

As for what that direction will be?

Well, it's hard—especially for those on the Panthers' staff—not to look at their head coach and imagine what is possible. Canales started his career as the offensive coordinator at Carson High School. He spent a stint as the assistant strength coach at USC, and made the jump to the NFL with Pete Carrol as a position coach, paying his dues for years in that capacity.

Now, he's one of the younger head coaches in the NFL.

"It's hard to not look up to where he's at right now and be like, that's kind of—I would really, ultimately the big picture would be, I'd love to be in his shoes one day," admits Berco.

"When I first got into coaching, I obviously wanted everything, instantly right away thinking that like, OK, like I'm ready for this moment, this moment. But now that I've been in the NFL for six, seven years, I think, I'm really trying to be exactly where I'm at right now, learn as much as I can.

"It's the reason why I got into this and like, being around Dave, who has a similar kind of upbringing in pro football, has really inspired me to kind of like, it's—he's just a great role model for not only myself, but for my family.

"So just taking it one year at a time and just, I've been really just learning as much as I can from him because he's just got such a wealth of knowledge of what the future may be for me. But nothing's more important than my daily growth here and lucky to be working with quarterbacks. We've got some great ones and between quarterbacks we got working with, Will Harriger, working alongside Brad, working alongside Dave, I mean there's just such a great amount of growth that's to be made here and we're still only in year two."