It seems that Cal has jumped in desperation from one unstable conference to another one. In order to prepare for the next blowup, Cal needs to improve dramatically the competitiveness of its football program, and to a lesser extent, its men's basketball program. If not, Mountain West here we come

Good morning! The big day has finally arrived and Cal is welcoming in its latest additions to the program. There are expected to be some more additions today other than those prospects and transfers already committed, so it should be a busy morning for the Bears. Head coach Justin Wilcox is set to speak with the media around 9:30 a.m., so Cal should get most of its signing group (if not all of it) prior to that time.

NATIONAL SIGNING DAY LINKS

🔎 Recruit search

🔒 2024 Cal commitment list

📈 2024 Rivals.com team recruiting rankings

📊 2024 Pac-12 recruiting rankings

2024 Cal commitment list

– DE BJ Canady | SIGNED
– WR Josiah Martin | SIGNED
– TE Camden Jones | SIGNED
– DB Brooklyn Cheek | SIGNED
– DE Eze Osondu | SIGNED
– WR Trevor Rogers | SIGNED
– RB Jamaal Wiley | SIGNED
– ATH Dayton Aupiu | SIGNED
– QB EJ Caminong | SIGNED
– DT Legend Journey | SIGNED
– OL Aiden Newbill | SIGNED
– OL Tyler Knape | SIGNED
– LB Luke Ferrelli | SIGNED
– DB Isaiah Crosby | SIGNED
– DE Michael-Anthony Okwura | SIGNED
– OL Syris Corley | SIGNED
– DB Ja'ir Smith | SIGNED

2024 Cal transfer additions

– LB Teddye Buchanan | ANNOUNCED
– QB Chandler Rogers | ANNOUNCED
– DL Aidan Keanaaina | ANNOUNCED
– DB Marcus Harris | ANNOUNCED
– OL Rush Reimer | ANNOUNCED

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It's been another busy day for the Bears, and didn't want to have this one get lost in the shuffle. Colorado transfer wide receiver Cole Boscia is headed back to the Bay Area to continue his career at Cal after a couple seasons with the Buffs. The Danville native, who played at Monte Vista HS, made some noise last year in camp and eventually pushed his way up the depth chart as a walk-on to earn five appearances during the season.

He played in the opener against TCU and also made appearances in games against Nebraska, Oregon, Washington State and Utah.

The 6-foot-3, 210-pound pass catcher will join the Bears as a preferred walk-on with three more seasons of eligibility left after redshirting as a freshman in 2022. Current Cal tight end Jack Endries and linebacker Nate Rutchena are a couple of the other Monte Vista players on the Bears' roster heading into next season.

Cal is retooling its receiver group this offseason and Boscia is the third transfer receiver to join the team in the last couple days along with Notre Dame transfer Tobias Merriweather and Tufts University transfer Jaden Richardson.

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Cal has now announced the signing of Notre Dame receiver Tobias Merriweather. He played in 12 games this season and made six starts. The sophomore, who has two seasons of remaining eligibility, caught 14 passes for 284 yards and two touchdowns this year.

He's a former four-star recruit who was rated as the No. 2 player from Washington in the 2022 cycle. A big and important pickup for the Bears.


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In a big — but not unexpected — blow to the Cal offense, top receiver Jeremiah Hunter announced this morning that he intends to enter the transfer portal.

Hunter was the Bears’ receiving yards leader two years in a row and led the team with seven touchdowns and 63 pass catches this season.

With two incoming freshman signees and a transfer in Jaden Richardson, the team is filling out its wide receiver room, but it shouldn’t be surprising if the Bears add some more receivers from the portal.

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I will not be able to run a game thread today because of national signing day obligations but Devin Askew is active for the Bears for the first time since Nov. 13. He's been dealing with a couple different injury issues but is good to go. ND Okafor remains out while guard Vladimir Pavlovic is also out for today's afternoon tip against the UC San Diego.

I know many of you don’t care about the delicious disintegration of the fightin Texum Aggies football program but since Cal sucks this year, I need to find happiness and solace somewhere.

Edit: dammit, it’s fake. Still, I’m keeping this for the shenanigans to come

FYI - The Football Recruiting Pipeline google sheet, that is pinned in the sticky thread above, has been updated with the latest signing day information.

Justin Wilcox just provided the media with the list of players who will be arriving at Cal within the next few weeks to begin working with the team as midyear additions. He said there are a "couple" more that will be added to this list, but he could not speak about them yet.

For now, these are all the new signees/transfer additions who will be on campus for the spring according to Wilcox.

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Montana State transfer offensive lineman Rush Reimer told me he will be part of that group as well though Wilcox didn't mention him. His financial aid paperwork came in while Wilcox was speaking with us.

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College of San Mateo defensive back Ja'ir Smith has flipped from TCU to Cal today. Smith is the No. 26-ranked junior college prospect according to Rivals.

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Montana State offensive lineman Rush Reimer has committed to Cal. He has one season of eligibility left but will come to the Bears with a redshirt year available if he needs it. Texas Tech was the other top contender, but he picked up offers from Kansas State, Purdue, Oregon State and Boise State upon entering the portal as a graduate transfer back on Dec. 4.

Updated list of Cal's 2023 transfer additions (as of Dec. 18)

– LB Teddye Buchanan (UC Davis)
– QB Chandler Rogers (North Texas)
– DL Aidan Keanaaina (Notre Dame)
– DB Marcus Harris (Idaho)
– OL Rush Reimer (Montana State)

@Maria Kholodova is celebrating her birthday (everyone wish Maria a happy birthday!) but here is her latest article wrapping up Cal's 2023 season after Saturday's Independence Bowl loss to Texas Tech. Justin Wilcox again discussed a lack of consistency as being his team's biggest problem this season while both Cade Uluave and Fernando Mendoza were encouraged but not satisfied with their own contributions this year.

All of that is discussed in the latest piece from Maria.

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North Texas QB Chandler Rogers is indeed coming to Cal as second transfer addition in the class. Rogers threw for 3,382 yards this season and is 16th among all FBS quarterbacks this season with 281.8 yards per game. Only eight FBS quarterbacks threw more touchdowns than Rogers this season — he had 29.

Rogers has just one remaining season of eligibility.

Our inability to recruit high caliber high school players (Ott being the lone exception) has forced us to replenish the roster with portal transfers with 1 or 2 years eligibility. For the most part, they’ve been solid to good contributors. Lack of resources and lack of football pedigree, however, means our portal transfers are highly indexed towards good, experienced FCS players.

The top 10-15 programs are basically trading high caliber players amongst themselves whereas we dig into the lower level for players looking to upgrade their last year of football.

Our portal transfers tend to be good enough to contribute at a P-5 level, but not good enough for us to truly compete at that level. Our ceiling is likely 5-6 wins with this “strategy” (I think of it more a necessity than a strategy) and maybe 6-7 wins when you luck into a player like Ott once every 5 years.

It being the week of Early Signing Day, @Matt Moreno, @Ryan Young , I am wondering how things are looking. From what I gather, these are some of the recruits that Cal might still be in the mix for:

Syris Corley, OT
Kekai Burnett, Edge
Cole Harrision, TE
Naki Tuakoi, Edge
Remington Strickland, OL (Texas A&M transfer)
Samuel Okunola, Edge (Pittsburg transfer)
Sebastian Valdez, DL (Montana State transfer)
Rush Reimer, OL (Montana State transfer)
Brent Helton, OL (Iowa State commit)
Wade Helton, OL (Iowa State commit)
Justin Hylkema, OL (Arizona commit)
Malachi Durant, WR (Oregon State commit)

what the heck is wrong with this guy? seems like he has no impulse control on the court. wonder if he's like this is real life, too? I remember thinking Rasheed Wallace was such an a$$ on the court, but then listened to some interviews with him, and he was so nice and mellow.... for some people competition just turns people into freaks.... know the type from windsurf/foil racing

I wonder how many games suspension is coming?

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The cornerback was first-team All-Big Sky this season and second-team last season. He had 51 tackles, 5.5 TFL, 3 INTs and 10 PBU this year -- really impressive production.

One year of eligibility left.

Here is the game story from last night's Independence Bowl against Texas Tech. Tough loss for the Bears with some clear issues all around.

We'll have more game coverage coming up later!

Who: Cal (6-6) vs. Texas Tech (6-6) | All time series: 1-0 (Red Raiders); last meting: 2004 Holiday Bowl 45-31 (Texas Tech)
When: 6:20 p.m. PT
Where: Independence Stadium | Shreveport, Louisiana
TV: ESPN | Kevin Connors (play-by-play), Rocky Boiman (analyst), Marilyn Payne (reporter)
RADIO: 810 AM Justin Allegri (play-by-play), Mike Pawlawski (analyst), Alex Jensen (sideline reporter);
SiriusXM Ch. 383 or 109 SXM App 973, The Varsity App

The Bears will take on the Red Raiders in Shreveport, Louisiana at the Independence Bowl for their final stint of 2023, in their first bowl game appearance in four years. Texas Tech leads the all time series with just one previous game — the infamous 2004 Holiday Bowl — and Cal is looking to even out the record at 1-1. Follow along as Cal looks to earn its fourth win in a row this season and end the year with a winning record for the first time since 2019.

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Here's the postgame press conference after the 31-14 loss for Cal to Texas Tech in the Independence Bowl Saturday in Shreveport.

GAME DETAILS

Cal (3-6) vs. Ole Miss (9-0) | Hall of Fame Series

Time: 4:30 p.m. PT
Location: San Antonio, Texas | Frost Bank Center
Watch: SEC Network | Kevin Fitzgerald (PxP), Carolyn Peck (analyst)
Listen: 560AM KSFO & The Varsity App | Chris Sylvester (PxP)

Cal is back in action this afternoon as it looks to bounce back from a double-overtime loss to Butler last Saturday. Today, the Bears will get undefeated Ole Miss in San Antonio as part of the Hall of Fame Series in San Antonio. I'll be updating this thread as the game plays out plus I invite you to join along in the conversation as Mark Madsen's team looks first its fourth win of the season with just two nonconference games left on the schedule.

FootballScoop with the news first, but Cal appears set to name Ole Miss analyst and former McNeese State head coach Sterlin Gilbert as its next quarterbacks coach. He's got deep ties to Texas and like Mike Bloesch came up as a high school coach in the Lone Star State. Gilbert and Cal's new offensive coordinator coached together previously at Temple High School (2011) and again at Tulsa (2015). His previous stops also include Eastern Illinois, Bowling Green, Texas, South Florida and Syracuse. He was OC or co-OC at each of those schools in addition to Tulsa. He is 7-5 in his career as a head coach.

His biggest success story with a quarterback was in 2017 when he helped tutor Quinton Flowers to nearly 4,000 all-purpose yards at South Florida. The Bulls went 10-2 that season.

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Shoutout to @absolutesoverignty for getting it posted in the other thread, but I figure this is one that deserves its own. Notre Dame defensive lineman Aidan Keanaaina has now officially announced his commitment to Cal after his recent visit. The 6-foot-3, 309-pound interior lineman comes to the Bears as a graduate transfer with two seasons of remaining eligibility. He has 11 career tackles and 1/2 a sack with 90 snaps played.

This season was his most productive and that came with his most time on the field with the Irish. He played a handful of snaps at nose but mostly was used as a defensive tackle this season.