Five Things: Cal's Early Signing Day Class and Class Superlatives

With only one more “Five Things” left this year, I thought that this familiar style might be the best format with which to discuss the 2019 class. Let’s see what’s worth keeping an eye on:

1) Grand Canyon Invasion -

Six -- count em, six! -- of the 2019 class hail from Arizona, where Charlie Ragle cleaned up. A look at the rankings shows Cal snagging commitments from more than their fair share of the Copper State’s top prospects, headlined by defensive lineman Brett Johnson and running back DeCarlos Brooks. Experts who cover the Arizona area have heaped praise onto Cal’s efforts in the state this year, and a look at each guy’s tape suggests the same.

(Those of you who remember the Dykes efforts to recruit Georgia, Louisiana, and Mississippi may recall it ended up with many transfers and flips last minute, due in part to the presence of SEC programs in those areas, and also the call of staying closer to home. Generally speaking, Arizona is much, much easier to pull from for that reason, so there’s less of a worry here.)

2) Soft close -

In December, the Bears needed to make a bunch of late offers to JUCO players who may have already been in the plans -- more on that in a moment -- but it’s more than fair to say their last two weekends on campus didn’t quite hold the same impact anyone would have hoped for. On top of losing Zahran Manley and Bradley Archer late, they were unable to close on several key targets, whose names really don’t need to be typed out here, if only to spare us the pain of reliving it.

3) Coming up short -

This was, as reported by many, a strong year for Northern California talent. Austin Jones was in Cal’s back yard. Henry To’o’oto, Isaiah Foskey, Jacob Bandes...and so on and so forth.

Cal went 0 for any of them. (Trace: Foskey and To’oto’o are not signed anywhere yet)

They signed a whopping 3 of Rivals’ top 100 recruits in California this year, evidently unable to turn the momentum of this season and the general dominance of the #TAKERS into something tangible on the trail. Worse still, is how their direct rival down South ends up victorious in nearly every head to head they want, and was able to flip two Cal guys for good measure. (Off the top of my head, that makes four in the time I’ve been covering recruiting, but none in the other direction: Zach Hoffpauir, Brennan Scarlett, and the aforementioned Manley and Archer.)

(Second sidenote: perhaps we should be wondering how to better differentiate itself from Stanford, since both are hard-nosed, defense first, strong academic programs.)

While there are many good and likable players in the 2019 group, all of these combined results have created a class that -- no matter what they say on Signing Day -- leaves all somewhat wanting. There isn’t much in the way of star power or immediate sex appeal, either, outside of 4* Kuony Deng, who you will note, is not a skill position player.

More importantly, there isn’t much in the way of success in their own territories.

4) Help Wanted

Giving the staff some credit, though, we should acknowledge that they did their best to fill immediate areas of need, in attempt to prevent a possible backslide in 2019. To have won 7 games in the first place required trends that may not necessarily be sustainable -- capitalizing on turnover luck, outperforming our not great yard per play margin and such -- and the coaches recognized that counting on returning talent alone isn’t enough to prevent that.

So they went out and grabbed a new quarterback in Devon Modster, three wide receivers who are transfers or JUCOs, a JUCO running back, and a JUCO do-everything linebacker to help ease the losses of, well...some of the team’s best players: Patrick Laird, Jordan Kunaszyk, Vic Wharton.

Can’t fault their thinking. Just have to make sure that this isn’t a long-term requirement. Few programs can truly replenish themselves from the JUCO ranks alone.

5) Pieces

This is the second straight year we’re writing this, but as the Bears finalize their rebuild in Justin Wilcox’s image, converting to the 3-4 and finding the type of linemen they want up front, they’ve brought in a bunch of highly desirable players that they’ve already proven capable of developing. Guys like Blake Antzoulatos, Ben Coleman, and Brayden Rohme aren’t flashy, but they’ll be the backbone of this team going forward, because the team prides itself on tough, hard-nosed, and smart play.