A Possible Inflection Point

Derek Wilkins’ commitment Saturday represents a handful of things to Cal. It marked the commitment of a prioritized defensive player, one that had been a priority for the Cal staff for the better part of a year. Wilkins is a talented defensive lineman with plenty of positional flexibility in Cal’s 3-4 and 2-4-5 schemes. He has a lightning fast first step, along with great length and leverage. Wilkins is listed as a 5.7 3-star on Rivals, but probably should be ranked higher.

A big piece of it all is what Wilkins’ commitment means from a symbolic standpoint, as he chose the Bears over Stanford. The Cardinal had beaten the Bears for the better part of the last decade on the football field, holding the Axe for a decade. On the recruiting trail, Stanford had been just as dominant over Cal when it came to priorities. The Cardinal have flipped a handful of Cal commits over the past couple of years, including Zahran Manley, Bradley Archer, and Casey Filkins, and Wilkins, who had previously been admitted to Stanford, was a priority target for the Cardinal. Since I’ve been covering recruiting, I haven’t seen Cal beat out Stanford for a priority recruit.

That’s why Wilkins’ commitment means just a bit more than the talent he provides on the football field. With the overlap in Cal’s and Stanford’s recruiting pitches, those being an appeal of top academics and top development, from an athletic and personal standpoint, the Bears had to start winning some battles against their top rival.

This is only one guy so far, and the Bears will need to sustain success to build up something similar to what Stanford has built over the past decade and change during the David Shaw years, but it could be an inflection point in a rivalry that has been mostly one-sided recently.

Browning on Fire

Wilkins’ commitment also gives defensive line coach Andrew Browning his fourth commitment as a lead recruiter in the 2021 class. Akili Calhoun, Myles Williams, Patrick Hisatake, and now Wilkins make up his group, a long group of linemen/big OLB types with plenty of the qualities Browning has said he looks for in a group.

“There’s certain things, on the defensive line,” Browning said back in May, “a thing I want to see jump off the tape is the motor and the physicality, those are the things you love to see. Then, the physical traits, the explosiveness, the ability to change direction and bend. All those things, then you start getting into the size, and it’s a blend of all those things. It comes down to who they are as a person too, it’s a big part that’s underrated, how motivated they are, how passionate they are about football, how motivated they are to develop and push themselves, I think that’s a part of the process that’s underrated.”

At a time where coaches have only really been able to do stuff over Zoom and phone calls, Browning, a relatively young coach, has made some major strides for the Bears. He has picked up seven recruits over the past two classes, growing into an excellent recruiter in Berkeley. Not bad for someone who has been on the job for less than 18 months.