In the latest extension of the Cal-Stanford rivalry, the two football programs found themselves competing head-to-head for a coveted safety target in Montana State transfer Dru Polidore.
Fresh off helping Montana State reach the FCS national championship last week, Polidore knew he had a short window to navigate the transfer portal and set up back-to-back visits to Cal and Stanford.
Expect, he won't be making that drive over to Palo Alto anymore.
On the second day of his visit to Berkeley, Polidore announced his commitment to Cal on Friday.
"I had narrowed it to down to Cal and Stanford, and I was supposed to hop into a car tomorrow morning to go to Stanford, but I decided that wasn't really necessary. Saw enough here that I decided that I'll just hop on a plane tomorrow, go back to Bozeman to pack and come back here Monday morning and get ready for team meetings," Polidore told Golden Bear Report.
Polidore, a 6-foot-2, 180-pound redshirt senior with one final season of eligibility remaining, started at safety the last two seasons for Montana State. This year, he had 35 tackles, 2 interceptions and a pass breakup while playing 491 defensive snaps (mostly at free safety) and helping Montana State to a 15-1 record, as the Bobcats lost to North Dakota State in the FCS national championship game.
He said he wouldn't have left Montana State if he didn't expect to play a major role for the Bears in his final season.
"They see me as a field safety, playing the over top and what not. They see me as a plug-and-play guy for the last year that I have. ... Obviously I still had a great situation going for me at Montana State if I would have chose to stay there," Polidore said.
"It's great to be able to get a chance to really sharpen my sword and go against the best talent in the nation. It's an opportunity for me to really evaluate myself and I guess prepare for the next level, which is the real goal for me."
Cal has to replace both of its starting safeties in Craig Woodson and Miles Williams. The Bears also added Washington safety transfer Tristan Dunn, who got limited playing time the last three years for the Huskies (including just 17 defensive snaps in 2024).
They have Ryan Yaites (16 tackles, 1 pass breakup) returning as a junior and Jasiah Wagoner (2 tackles) returning as a redshirt sophomore while veteran reserves Ja'ir Smith (12 tackles, 1 sack, 1 INT) and Isaiah Crosby (3 tackles) will be in the mix along with incoming freshman Aiden Manutai.
Polidore is the most experienced of that bunch and felt a strong mutual fit after meeting with the coaches Thursday and Friday.
"Cal is obviously a great place to be as a DB nowadays. They've sent six guys to the league the past five years and they'll send more after this season as well. So I really trust in what Coach Watson and Coach Brown have been doing, as well as the fact of just great Cali weather," Polidore said. "I've been in Montana -- it's been very cold. So it's going to be a nice change-up, a lot more time to train throughout the year as well. It's my last year -- I wanted to play at the highest level college football has and really sharpen my skills and get to the next level."
As for the highlight of his visit ...
"Just the facilities in itself. Obviously, I'm not coming in as a freshman. This is my last season. I've been at other places, and just to be able to see the resources that are around here at Cal, it would honestly be a blessing to take advantage of that and be able to become the best player I can be," Polidore said. "And how the coaches also showed me how they see me fitting in the defense, where they saw me improving as a player as well and gave me a plan of how we can attack it. It sounded really good to me -- that's really all I was looking for, as well as a great institution at Cal Berkeley."
