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Cal Football Countdown: 97 Days, State of Offers

For day 97 of our Cal football countdown, we're looking at the offers that Cal's put out in the 2020 class, more specifically where they're putting them out and how they distribute.

(Note: we're counting all offers put out by Justin Wilcox's staff, including offers to those who have committed elsewhere or have eliminated Cal from their lists)

2020 Offer List

As with every year, a plurality of Cal's offers are currently out in the state of California, but there are going to be different distributions outside of California based on which positions are being offered and which coach is putting out the offer.

Where the Commits Come From

California: 3 (Everett Johnson, Isaiah Young, Jeremiah Hunter)

Oregon: 2 (Andy Alfieri, Casey Filkins)

Early on in this 2020 class, Cal's landed five commits, three from their home state and two from their neighbor to the north. Alfieri and Filkins are the first two Cal recruits from Justin Wilcox's home state in his tenure, and the first Cal recruits from the state since Johnny Ragin III in 2013 (though 2019 signee Orin Patu did play some of his HS football in Eugene). With Steve Greatwood being the area recruiter for Oregon, the Beaver state is a bigger focus for the Bears.

By our count, Cal's put out 118 offers in the class of 2020, on the lower end as far as Power 5 Schools go. It's worth remembering that teams can only take in 25 scholarship athletes each year, now that the NCAA has put a hard cap on the number.

Where the Offers Are:

California: 48 (NorCal: 12, SoCal: 36)

Arizona, Washington, and Texas: 12 each

Hawaii: 7

Colorado and Utah: 5 each

New Jersey and Oregon: 3 each

Connecticut, New York, and Georgia: 2 each

Alabama, Nevada, Michigan, Missouri, and Minnesota: 1 each

118 total

What Stands Out

The numbers that stand out first are the offers in the Pacific Northwest, with 15 combined offers between Oregon and Washington. This is for a couple of reasons:

1. There's a lot of talent there, more than in the past thanks to population booms in and around Seattle/Portland (True for a number of cities, including the Phoenix Metro Area that Cal did well in in 2019).

2. Inside linebacker coach (and now recruiting coordinator) Peter Sirmon is more familiar with the area, being from the state and having coached at UW. In fact, Wilcox, Sirmon, Marques Tuiasosopo, Beau Baldwin, Gerald Alexander and Nick Edwards have all either coached or played in Washington, or both in the case of Baldwin, Tui, and Edwards. Sirmon, Wilcox and Greatwood also all played at Oregon, with the latter two hailing from there.

That's led to the commitments of Filkins and Alfieri, and solid relationships with a handful of guys like WR Justin Baker, CB Ayden Hector (a Cal legacy who visited on the weekend of the Opening), TE DJ Rogers, and ILB Mitchell Wolfe.

The next part that stands out is the offers in Texas and Arizona. Leading the charge in those states are defensive coordinator Tim DeRuyter and special teams coordinator Charlie Ragle. Ragle notably took six commits out his home state in 2019, and while that may not happen again, Cal's got their eye on a couple kids, including WR Tommy Christakos (who's making his way to Berkeley next weekend for an official visit) and underrated LB Osiasi Taueli.

DeRuyter recruiting Texas has long been noted, though the Cal defensive coordinator did play his high school ball at Southern California powerhouse St. John Bosco. DeRuyter and Gerald Alexander have been targeting Texas DBs, after pulling Miles Williams and Craig Woodson from the state, with eyes on guys like Kobee Minor, Jordyn Morgan, and Collin Gamble (some of their recent offers).

What's next for the Bears a handful more local offers. Cal's offered 12 NorCal guys, and that's with counting the Fresno area as Northern California. They landed the top offensive lineman in Northern California in Johnson and one of the best wideouts in the state in Hunter, but are looking for more DBs in the form of Trey Paster and DeJuan Butler, along with versatile athlete Nate Rutchena. Camp season, which starts next weekend in Berkeley, should bring some local talent out to Memorial Stadium, which in turn could lead to more offers in the class from the area.

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