Interesting.

https://www.si.com/college/stanford...candidates-aside-from-smu-and-san-diego-state

I've been monitoring the score all game, but it's actually getting real now ...

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@Ryan Young or anyone else who may know. I've read Alabama has as many as 12 analysts on staff. Also do you know how our number compares with the rest of the conference?

I played (rode the bench) back in the Tedford era and am still close to the program. Many of you will remember stud TE, Craig Stevens and his younger brother, fullback, Eric Stevens. For those not already familiar with the story, Eric was diagnosed with ALS shortly after leaving the NFL, starting his career with LAFD and getting married. The diagnosis came a few years ago and he is still battling. The Stevens family started the AxeALS Foundation and I'm actively involved with them. We've run fundraising events and golf tournaments down in Southern, CA and in Atlanta raising money to fight ALS. Our next charity tournament is at Orinda CC. The women's soccer program (Eric's wife, Amanda, was a Cal soccer player), Men's Golf and Football programs will all send some representation and participate. James Hahn, PGA tour pro and Cal Alum will give a clinic ahead of the event. Many of our football alumni circle the wagons, so to speak, to support AxeALS and come out to the events as well.

Some of you may have already joined us at Virginia CC in Long Beach over the last few years and will know, it's a truly amazing day and extremely impactful. We'll be at Orinda CC on 4/3 coming up and are looking to book sponsors, live auction items and foursomes. I would suggest watching the video on Eric's story and last year's SoCal event. Details can be found on the link here. This is, admittedly, an expensive charity tournament but they go over-the-top to make it a wonderful day and it's a great way for the Cal community to rally around one of our own.

If you'd like to register as a single golfer or have any questions, you can DM me and I can help coordinate.

Thank you, @Ryan Young for allowing me to post the info on the board. Go Bears!

Right here:

Sorry all, I was a bit under the weather the last two days and there might not be a better time to have to lay low for a bit, but I always feel guilty all the same. Anyways, back at it!

I have my full Spavital story coming this week, plus a look back at the transfer portal movement, ranking the impact of the additions and departures.

AND we're a little more than a month to the start of spring practice (March 11). We'll start rolling out position breakdowns, spring preview pieces by the end of this week. I'd also like to share with you our plan for spring practice coverage. My hope is to have Jesse involved, still waiting to see what he's thinking, but to take the pressure off him as he juggles a busy schedule, we're transplanting Matt to the Bay Area for the duration of spring ball. He'll be there every day providing full coverage from practice, while also using the opportunity to connect with 2024 prospects in the area. We felt it was well worth the investment. He's a spring ball veteran, having covered Arizona's spring practices for many years, so he'll make sure we're covering every angle through stories, photos and videos.

I'd also like to get the 2024 recruiting database done in the coming weeks. Stay tuned for a more precise update.

Cal lost to Utah. Cal played well for 10 minutes and then imploded as usual.

as one of the top freshmen in the country.Glad he chose SMC over Cal as Mark Fox would have ruined this kid.

For all our dismay over men’s basketball, the women’s team is arguably worse. How long is her leash? How long should it be? Does anyone care?

She’s 6-37 in the Pac 12 over the last 3 years. Fox is literally twice as good, if you can imagine that.

I’ve been pondering what is Cal’s transfer portal strategy and was curious whether you all think it is likely to succeed.

I know we won’t obviously know until these players are in actual games in the Fall, but given we’re about to get our 10th transfer portal commit (likely David Reese), which is the same number of high school commits for the year. So clearly, there’s been a shift in Cal’s strategy given the big impact from NIL + transfer portal.

Besides the obvious (get players that fill a need, get the most talented athletes ideally 4* or 5*, recruit to your system), it feels like Cal’s recent transfer portals also are the following:

• 4* athletes that are early in their career (QB Sam Jackson), that are eager to play but haven’t started yet
• 4* athletes that are late in their career and have had limited or mixed success at their first school (David Reese, LB Sergio Allen, RB Justin Williams-Thomas, RB Byron Cardwell, WR Brian Hightower), but perhaps because they were at blue blood programs and were stuck in the depth chart and are still possibly high ceiling players
• 3* athletes that were really productive at lower tier schools (DB Nohl Williams, DB Kaylin Moore), so proven production even if they weren’t highly touted out of HS
• 3* workhorse type athletes (TB Asher Alberding, TE JT Byrne) with specific skillsets (blocking TE) and high character guy

So, I'm wondering: do you think the above summarizes Cal's strategy? What am I missing?

More importantly, are you guys optimistic this might actually work and we have a winning season in 2023 (based on these transfers really contributing to more wins for Cal)?

Yikes
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Who will be our QB in 2023 and who are our prospects after that

Everything should be taken care of by the morning with Wilcox having an early press conference. So far the program has announced long snapper David Bird's addition and JUCO WR Marquis Montgomery has announced his commitment to the Bears over a final group of Texas A&M, Oregon, Penn State and LSU. East LA College OL prospect Martin Tine is the other recruit in focus today.

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Looks like the report found numerous violations prohibiting race, national origin and disability discrimination. And yet people called the allegations bogus…


Jim Knowlton made the right call. Heres a quote from him:

“I was disturbed by what I learned in the course of reading through the report’s 482 pages that substantiate far too many allegations of unacceptable behavior. I want to apologize, on behalf of Cal Athletics, to every student-athlete who was subject to this conduct in the past, and I want to thank everyone who had the courage to come forward and share their story with the investigators.”

RIP Lou, a good guy who I was fortunate to get to know

Folsom QB Austin Mack commits to Washington.

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Big 6-foot-5 Snow College (Ephraim, Utah) receiver Marquis Montgomery is visiting Cal this weekend. The high three-star prospect recently included the Bears on his top 5 list over the weekend along with Oregon, Penn State, LSU and Texas A&M. Cal has been active in his recruitment as of late including having Burl Toler out for an in-home visit with him last week. USF stopped by last week and Arizona made a stop at the school yesterday.

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Miami didn’t look all that hot, especially in terms of QB usage and innovation. Any chance we might be alive here if we can get some more NIL stuff going?

Here

I didn't notice any major changes, but I'm sure those of you more clued in can chime in.

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Looks like two commits!

Cal had two main visitors:

JUCO OL Martin Tine (East Los Angeles College)

JUCO WR Marquis Montgomery (Snow College in Utah)

There were also two unofficial visitors:

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Cal has announced its start and end dates for spring football practice this year. The Bears will open up spring ball on March 11 and end it exactly five weeks later on April 15 with the annual Cal Football Spring Showcase. It's all free to attend and is expected to be open to the public.