In bringing in a new offense to Berkeley, Cal offensive coordinator Bill Musgrave has made reintegrating the fullback position a priority. That priority became more apparent Friday when former Kentucky fullback Drew Schlegel announced his intention to grad transfer to Berkeley. Schlegel, a native of Parker, Colorado, may bring a fit to Berkeley that goes beyond his position.
"Obviously coach Musgrave wants to put in a fullback this year," Schlegel"and when they saw my film, they said ‘you’ve done it against the highest level of competition, dudes that are NFL first rounders and you destroyed them, we love your film, we love what you bring to the table,’ and I play all four (core) special teams, so they know I can be a gamechanger on the field on special teams and on offense. They also thought my fit would be good with the team, because not everyone can make it in Berkeley."
Schlegel, who earned a degree in finance from Kentucky back in May, also entered the transfer portal that month. Cal reached out relatively quickly, with running backs coach Aristotle Thompson being the first point of contact.
"I entered the transfer portal in May and just needed to transfer from Kentucky (after graduating)," Schlegel said, "I was sending out emails, sending out my film to everyone, and I got followed by Aristotle Thompson on Twitter, that’s where communication started. That was a really long time ago, May or June. I was mass emailing schools my film, and he slid in my DMs and was like ‘yo Drew, we got your film, we’re interested in you,’ and that’s where communication started."
The communication wasn't consistent, as Cal hadn't talked to him as he got closer to feeling the need to make a decision. That's in part because the Bears were looking at Schlegel to be a part of a new graduate program they'd been working on.
"I think it was in June, I was getting nervous," "that I’ve got to get somewhere and get to lifting, so I moved back to Kentucky. I was living in Colorado during quarantine, I moved back to Kentucky, and I was like ‘in these two weeks, I’m going to go to one of these group of five schools,’ because Cal had stopped talking to me. Then it had been two weeks since I had talked to them and I was going to sign with another school and AT calls me, ‘Drew, we figured it out, there’s this new grad certificate program that you can do here, so you have an offer from us.’ He said, ‘I’m warning you, it’s going to take a while because it’s a brand new thing, you’re going to be the first person in the program, they’ve got to do a bunch of paperwork on it.’ After that, I was like ‘okay, I’ve got to wait this one out.’"
Schlegel will earn a certificate in entrepreneurship and start-up management through the program, a one-year program with four different disciplines (Entrepreneurship, Marketing, Management, and Data Science). This program was just approved at Berkeley and by the NCAA, and Schlegel is one of the first to go through it, as the Bears look to utilize this program to keep players in Berkeley for graduate degrees.
The decision to come to Berkeley came as a leap of faith for Schlegel, who didn't visit Berkeley before driving the 18 hours down Interstate 80 from Colorado.
"I could’ve flown out here by myself," Schlegel said, "but I didn’t want to do that, so I packed my car with my girlfriend and we drove to Berkeley when they said to come out, stay in this hotel, and quarantine for a week, never visited before."
In Schlegel, Cal's getting a guy who played on every special teams unit he could, along with playing sporadically on Kentucky's offense, as the Wildcats didn't utilize a fullback too frequently. Schlegel transitioned to offense after his first two years in Lexington, playing mainly scout team linebacker during those times. In addition, the Bears are getting a guy with a variety of interests outside of football. His roster page on the University of Kentucky website listed a variety of his likes and aspirations, with a want to play for the revived XFL's St. Louis Battlehawks before becoming an alpaca farmer, along with a love of mid-major (mainly Murray State) basketball. The alpaca farming was covered in a Louisville Courier-Journal article, which led to contact between the fullback and alpaca farms in his native Colorado.
"I started getting alpaca farms in Colorado tweeting at me," Schelegel recalled after the article, "me and my girlfriend got to go out to one of those alpaca farms, we’re in constant contact with them, I visit probably four times a year now, it has been awesome. I drove past a show in Denver one time, and I’m like ‘these things are awesome, this would be a nice retirement thing, up in the mountains of Colorado, having an alpaca farm, that’d be incredible.’"
The alpaca farm may have to wait until later in life, but Schlegel will have more opportunities to see mid-major basketball in the Bay Area with St. Mary's only separated from Berkeley by the Caldecott Tunnel. Schlegel has been a fan of Murray State basketball, stumbling onto the Racers while Houston Rocket Isaiah Canaan was there, and with his time in Kentucky, he's had the opportunity to see a lot of good basketball.
"I honestly have no idea I even found this team, it was maybe 2011-12," Schlegel said, "and Isaiah Canaan was playing point guard, they went on this run where they were the last undefeated team, I think they got up to ranking number three in the country and I was a diehard fan. Every since then, I’ve watched every single game they’ve played on the OVC sports website, and in my free time, because in Kentucky there’s so many little mid-majors around you, me and my boys, after practices or on weekends during the spring, we’d go to all these different mid-major arenas, I think I made it to about 30 mid-major arenas. When I was meeting all the guys at the house I’m living in, one of the girlfriends said ‘I’ going to this small school, you’ve probably never heard of it, St. Mary’s,’ and I said, ‘are you kidding me, the St. Mary’s that’s always ranked in the top 25?’ I’m driving to it. I’ve got all the mid-majors mapped out, we actually had a Pacific Tigers flag in our basement. It’s some good basketball here too, so I’m excited to see all the different little arenas out here."
The next step, from the football side for Schlegel, may end being to play professionally. With the XFL being revived, again, thanks to their purchase by Dwayne 'the Rock' Johnson, the fullback will potentially have a chance to play for a team whose atmosphere he was blown away by.
"When I saw they were coming back," Schlegel said, "it was the second greatest day of my life, the first was when me and my girlfriend met in St. Louis for the first ever game vs. the New York Guardians. I’m telling you, I’ve been to a lot of football atmospheres, I’ve been to high level college football, high level college basketball, NBA, the St. Louis Battlehawks atmosphere was something I’ve never seen before. You could tell that city was starving for football, the place was sold out, going crazy, they killed the Guardians, it was an amazing experience. These fans acted like they’ve been fans for years, everyone was dressed up, one person brought a live hawk, others were dressed like Battlehawks, painted their whole faces, all saying ‘ca-caw’ to each other, I was like ‘this is my favorite team ever, I’ve got to play for them.’"
In the more immediate future, Schlegel will get acclimated to playing the fullback position, after playing more in an H-back role at Kentucky, while adjusting to a whole new world, as Berkeley is a different game than Lexington.
"It’s the exact opposite," Schlegel said,"it’s a big culture shock, but I like stuff like this, I can handle it. I came from Colorado, which has kinda that hippy vibe, but kinda the conservative side, ski bums and stuff, it’s a fun vibe. Then I go to Kentucky, you’re playing with dudes from Detroit and south Florida, which is another country. You’ve got so many crazy personalities, those are my boys for life, mixed with dudes who are proud to be from Kentucky, so you’ve got that culture at Kentucky. Then coming out here to Cali, where they’re about the vibes, just chilled out and relaxed, I’ve loved it so far, but it has definitely been a polar opposite coming across the country."
Now he's getting acclimated with his future teammates, living in a house with five of them, as he looks to complete a degree that could open up some doors for him.
"Just looking at it, even though they might not be playing this season, I wanted to go to a Power 5," Schlegel said about his final decision to come to Cal, "and it was basically deciding if I wanted to go to one of the teams in the Big 10 versus a Pac-12 team. I’ve always considered myself a west-coast type kid, and the school? If I can get a grad degree from here, I can go anywhere, it opens up so many more doors for me. That’s what I started realizing, because I didn’t really know Berkeley, I knew it was a good school, but I didn’t know it was a great school until I started doing my research and I was like ‘if these people offer me, I’m going here, because this is opening up doors that I don’t even know about yet.’"
