2020 QB Ben Gulbranson Breaks Down his Cal Commitment

Ben Gulbranson's already endeared himself to Cal fans by announcing his commitment to the Bears, but how he came to visit Berkeley last Tuesday, which led to his commitment, may go just a bit further in that regard. Gulbranson had planned to spend a full day at Stanford for their camp, but the Newbury Park QB decided that they ought to make the trip across the Bay to Berkeley.

"I was planning on doing the full day, the morning and afternoon session," Gulbranson said, "but we were already up there, so we just did the morning session and went up to Cal in the afternoon."

That led to a visit with the Cal coaches, seeing the facilities, the campus, and it left an impression on Gulbranson, enough for him to commit late Friday night.

"That night, we were like, why not just commit now?" Gulbranson noted, "I can't really think of any school I'd rather play for, so why not just commit now, secure my spot there."

To Gulbranson, a sterling student with a 4.42 GPA, Cal ticked all the boxes in the early going after the visit.

"I just thought there was no real reason to look forward to any other choice of school," Gulbranson said, "I understand that there's a lot of great schools to play football for, but Cal's the right school for me for many reasons. I really like the coaches there, coach Baldwin, coach Tuiasosopo, and coach Wilcox seem like really great coaches that I can learn a lot from. The culture that coach Wilcox is establishing there, accountability, competition, it seems like he's got a great vision of what the Cal football program will become. Also, the opportunity to play in the Pac-12, it's a really great conference to play in. The area itself, it's an amazing area, I can't think of any other place I'd rather live in and play football in. Also the academics are unparalleled, I heard it's the number one public school in the world, so you can't really get much better than that."

That trio of coaches, Baldwin, Tuiasosopo and Wilcox, took Gulbranson through the experience of being at Cal as a player, and what his average day would be like at the football facility.

"I got to spend a lot of time with Baldwin, Tuiasosopo, and Wilcox," Gulbranson said, "and they seem like really great coaches and great people that could teach me both about football and about life. They're very knowledgeable about football and I think I could learn a lot from them. I sat in with them (on a film session), I went over a couple key drives with coach Baldwin, and he gave me an overall view of what a typical film day would look like at Cal. It was a really great experience."

For now, the Bears are looking to get him back up when the dead period ends near the end of July. Until then, Gulbranson is preparing to lead his Newbury Park squad in his first year as the starter. They're going through 7 on 7 camps, where he had the opportunity to play firsthand against Cal commit Blake Antzoulatos at the LA Rams 7 on 7 tournament.

"We played against him at the 7 on 7," Gulbranson said, "and afterwards we met each other and talked a bit about Cal. When we were playing against him, he's a great player, I'm glad he's committed to Cal, he's a beast. We could not get off his press, he was manhandling our slot receivers."

For now though, the Bears have one of their centerpieces going forward in the 2020 class at a very early stage.