Looks like there's a need for another CB.

After a standout season for several Cal players, a handful of them were rewarded by conference coaches Tuesday when the Pac-12 postseason awards were announced.

Cal’s starting quarterback Fernando Mendoza was the other Cal player to earn freshman honors, being recognized as an honorable mention for the Pac-12 Offensive Freshman Player of the Year award. The Bears also earned recognition at the first team All-Pac-12 level, with star running back Jaydn Ott being selected alongside Oregon State’s Damien Martinez on offense, while punter Lachlan Wilson earned second-team honors.

Outside of first and second team All-Pac-12 selections, two Cal players earned honorable all-conference recognition: outside linebacker David Reese and defensive back Craig Woodson.

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The New York Jets QB was on the Pat McAfee show this week and made sure to shout out his alma mater for its win over UCLA.

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Cal receiver Brian Hightower is opting out of playing in the bowl game to prepare for a run at the NFL.

We'll continue to track any other players who opt out of the bowl game as they become known and finalized.

Cal Independence Bowl opt-out list

- WR Brian Hightower

The latest:

His relationship with Peter Sirmon could play a huge role here:

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Cal with some good news today for its game against Santa Clara. Keonte Kennedy is set to make his Bears debut after dealing with a hand injury. A big boost for Mark Madsen’s team.

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Linebacker Cade Uluave has been named the Pac-12 Defensive Freshman of the Year leading a group of six players from Cal to earn postseason honors. Running back Jaydn Ott (1st team) and punter Lachlan Wilson (2nd team) are the two Bears to be represented on the all-conference teams. Quarterback Fernando Mendoza earned an honorable mention nod for Pac-12 Offensive Freshman of the Year, which went to Arizona quarterback Noah Fifita.

Cal outside linebacker David Reese and defensive back Craig Woodson earned all-conference honorable mention selections rounding out the group.

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Archbishop Riordan senior linebacker/safety/quarterback Tobey Weydemuller picked up a preferred walk-on offer from the Bears two days ago and he wasted no time making a decision. He committed to Cal this morning.

Weydemuller has battled injury in high school but remained productive. He’s expected to play linebacker in college giving Cal another depth piece at the position.

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The latest:

Like many programs throughout the country, Cal will be hosting a group of official visitors this weekend in hopes of adding to the 2024 recruiting class prior to the early signing period in a few weeks. The trend for many programs has been to push key official visits until after the regular season (or in June) to give the staff a better opportunity to focus on those recruits without worrying about getting ready for a game. As such, Cal will be hosting some key remaining targets in the class and here is the list (some of which you have already known earlier in the week).

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Cal found out its bowl game destination and opponent Sunday, and is now preparing to head to Shreveport, Louisiana to face Texas Tech in the Independence Bowl Dec. 16. Cal’s head coach Justin Wilcox, as well as Fernando Mendoza and Bryan Roppolo, the Independence Bowl Foundation Chairman, addressed some key questions ahead of the bowl game.

With lots of speculation given the opening of the transfer portal window and coaching staff movement, here are the key takeaways from Sunday’s media availability following the announcement.

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The Bears land their most prominent visitor of the weekend as Denton (Texas) Guyer receiver Josiah Martin announces his pledge to Cal at the end of his official visit. He was previously committed to Boston College and backed off that pledge early in the fall. It's a really important get for Justin Wilcox and Co. The likes of Alabama, Baylor, Tennessee, Michigan State, Oregon, Missouri and Utah all offered the 6-foot playmaker.

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Ugh, not ideal for anyone traveling.

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Cal is staying in-house for its OC with Mike Bloesch being promoted to offensive coordinator in addition to his duties running the offensive line.

Wilcox:

"Mike Bloesch has made a huge impact in his first season with our program, and we are excited to give him the opportunity to make an even greater impact moving forward," Wilcox said. "Mike has proven himself to be a versatile and skilled coach, as well as an excellent recruiter. It's easy to see why Mike has risen so quickly through the ranks to become one of the nation's top young coaches and recruiters."

Bloesch: "I'm excited about this opportunity and prepared for it," Bloesch said. "We have taken strides to becoming a great football program this season, and I can't wait to see what we can accomplish down the road. I want to win championships, and I want to win them at Cal."

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Every other projection I’ve seen is usc

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Still trying to get this confirmed but there are now multiple reports out of Texas that Jake Spavital is headed to Baylor to take over as offensive coordinator for Dave Aranda. A big blow for the Bears in what could be another hectic offseason for Justin Wilcox.

Ample shots of tosh calling plays. I thought he was too dumb to call plays? How did Oregon have a good defense? Interesting

Just read a post on the Cardboard that mentioned UCLA may have difficulty attracting transfers because of "horror stories about UCLA NIL deals leaving players stiffed."

Does anyone know about UCLA transfers getting stiffed out of promised NIL cash? Is this having a negative impact - as it should - on UCLA?

I really would rather not talk about USCLA from here on out given conference changes, but USCLA are still obviously going to be a recruiting foe for Calford, and I want them both to be hampered and suck as much as possible as always. Getting a rep for stiffing guys is a great way to suck in the future, so hoping it's true.

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I caught up with 2024 Cal quarterback commit EJ Caminong tonight. He said he did not get any kind of a heads up from Jake Spavital about the move and only learned about it through social media when it was reported (gives you some insight into how much Cal's staff knew what was going on). The Seattle-based prospect said he immediately reached out to Marshall Cherrington for info and felt comfortable with what he was told about the situation moving forward.

"He caught me up and everything was good there," Caminong said. "The message is the same, they believe in me like they have from the beginning, and they also made sure that I’m in the loop on the OC search."

At this point, Caminong says though he has a good relationship with Spav, that is only part of the reason he committed to the Bears. He feels everything else that pushed him to make his decision remains in place, so at this point he has no plans of decommitting or looking around even. He is going to be paying close attention to the OC search but feels comfortable after listening to what Cherrington relayed to him.

So, for now, sounds like good news regarding one of the most important current commits. I'll have a full update with Caminong posted tomorrow.

It's time. Bad news for bears fans. I don't have cal having a successful season and as we know my predictions have been unfortunately right every single year.


at North Texas - I've been a cal fan a long time and a road non power 5 game has been a loss many more times than not. Can anyone think of the last non power 5 road win we've had? And wilcox loves to keep these games close. That being said North Texas is bad, so Cal wins I hope.

Auburn - Auburn is one of these teams that always surprises bad or good. Their team composite ranking is 18th which was shocking to me because usually it's top 10, but I still see a Cal loss here.

Idaho - Better be a Cal win.

at UW - Cal loss.

ASU - This series has a long history of the home team winning. If we lose this look out below. Cal wins.

Oregon State - Oregon State is just better. Huge coaching mismatch. Cal losses.

USC - Cal loss. Maybe we get a moral victory.

at Utah - Cal loss

at Oregon - Cal loss

WSU - Cal win. Though I could see this as the Wilcox shits the bed game he seems to have annually.

at Furd - Cal loss. I see a more motivated Furd team winning this one. Furd's going to be bad, but will we care?

at UCLA - Cal loss. Chip kelly own Wilcox.

4-8

My guess is we lose one of the asu, wsu, furd or north texas games. So I just picked the furd assuming a new coach might have them more motivated than cal.

The sad part is what's the best case scenario for cal? maybe we beat auburn and the furd and go 6-6?

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2024 edge rusher Kekai Burnett has backed off his commitment from Oregon State today. He picked up an offer from Jonathan Smith and Michigan State yesterday but if the Hawaiian edge rusher doesn't want to go that far from home Cal is certainly a closer option. The Bears hosted him for an official visit in June and had been making a strong push prior to his decision.

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