With National Signing Day having come and gone and the Cheez-It Bowl only five days away, Cal's kicked into overdrive for their TCU preparation. With that Cal's released their depth chart for the Bowl Game, with a few changes since their regular season finale.
- The first change comes at the wide receiver spot, where Vic Wharton is nowhere to be found. He is likely not playing in the bowl game, as Jordan Duncan and Moe Ways will start on the outside. There's the thought that Kanawai Noa will be healthy for the bowl, something that the Bears would welcome.
- Valentino Daltoso is listed with an or at both left tackle and left guard. If he's at tackle, Gentle Williams will be at LG. If he's at LG, Will Craig will man the tackle spot.
- Brandon McIlwain is not listed on the depth chart, but he's officially listed as a QB/RB/WR by the Cal media. He's been practicing with the running backs, where the Bears have been affected by transfers in the past couple weeks.
- With that, Marcel Dancy is listed on the depth, but will likely not play unless it's an emergency, as he's right at the four game mark for redshirting.
- On defense, the entirety of the defense has stayed the same, with Tevin Paul remaining at outside linebacker along with Chinedu Udeogu. Joey Ogunbanjo isn't listed, but he'll still likely see the field on passing downs
- Specialists all hold the same as during the season, though Steven Coutts had his eligibility corrected (he's a junior and had previously been listed as a senior).
The biggest thing with regard to the depth chart is the general health of an offensive group that's played big rep counts, especially on the offensive line and at running back. Laird had been banged up, along with a couple of receivers, and while TCU's on the same level of healed up, the group has a bit of a spring in their step.
"You can see with the receivers that way, see it with Pat a little bit," Beau Baldwin said, "see it with a couple of the tight ends at that level. Then the OL, they bang so much throughout the year that when you see them have a couple weeks off, they're getting their shoulders back, but TCU is too."
Homecoming for Charlie Ragle
When the Cal media schedule came up for the Cheez-It Bowl came out, one thing stood out, an open bowl practice at Chaparral High School. That's where the Bears will practicing, at Charlie Ragle's old stomping ground. Ragle didn't have anything to do with it in this specific instance, but did have something to do with it back during his tenure as the Firebird's head coach.
"That's the way the set-up is for the bowl. In all actuality, back in 2010, we set that up (at Chaparral) with the Fiesta Bowl, we wanted to have a bowl site practice at Chaparral, because I wanted my kids while I was there to see what big-time college football was like and to be inspired to be a part of it. It's kinda weird how that ended up, with going full-circle and being back to practice there, but I'm excited for it."
Ragle's been in and out of the state of Arizona for the past month either way, being a big part of Cal signing six of the top 20 football players from the Grand Canyon State in their 2019 class.
"We got six really good football players out of the state, anybody that you talk to, on our staff or who follows Arizona high school football knows that we got in there early with a couple of kids and we were able to steal a couple, we're really excited about the prospects of all six of them."
