Cal head coach Justin Wilcox went on Pac-12 Today (on the Pac-12 Sirius XM Channel) with Guy Haberman and Geoff Schwartz this morning to discuss the NFL draft, and the conversation turned toward the Cal staff's role in facilitating information both to their players and to NFL decision-makers. With the Bears' Pro Day gathering representatives from 31 NFL teams last month, the Cal staff was there to provide some of the intangible pieces to their picture.

"We have relationships with the scouts who come in to scout our guys," Wilcox said"and we want to help them as much as possible. I talk to a couple head coaches that I know, a couple general managers I know, and they're really looking for 'what's the guy all about?' We're fortunate and it's easy to talk positive about our guys because of the way they handle them. Those guys are experts at identifying, looking at traits physically, and they're going to go back and watch the tape. From us, they just want to know the intangible things, and that's where we can be supportive to our guys"

There's one Cal player nearly guaranteed to be drafted over the next three days, and that's Cam Bynum. The Cal cornerback has gotten NFL feedback the last two seasons prior to departing after his fifth year. Wilcox had a lot to say when asked what he told NFL personnel guys about Bynum.

"A+ character guy, he is a special person," Wilcox said. "He is all the things you look for in terms of the character part, he checks all those boxes. He's a tough guy, he practiced every day, rarely was he out of a practice or even out of a drill, he wasn't one of those guys getting his shoelaces fixed on the sideline during an individual drill. He was out there working every single day. Guys appreciate that, they want to know that they're available and focused, and he works at it, studies. Those are the things it starts with. Then from the football side, just a very instinctive guy, very smooth, played calm. He had a great college career for us, started every game that he was here (for), he did a great job."

With the feedback the Cal staff gives to various decision makers, there's also information they'll take back from those conversations, to draft eligible players who may want feedback as to where they'll be drafted. It's not necessarily one answer, as Wilcox noted different teams will see players differently based on scheme and they'll get a range of where guys can get picked.

"It has come up every year we've been here," Wilcox said, "with at least one player per year. Our goal is to get them information, that's not the time for us to recruit for a guy, if they've done through their career what we've asked them to do, then it's our duty to continue to help and support them. We get information based on what scouts and GMs are seeing on tape. We provide it to give them some guidance, and we'll support what the NFL says. If they say 'this is a first or second round guy, and would recommend him coming out,' we would support that. If they recommend he come back (to school) to continue to develop his game, we'd support that too. Ultimately, it's the player's decision and we help to do right by them."

Some of that feedback makes for change of position at Cal, like Elijah Hicks moving to safety last year or even Kuony Deng moving to outside linebacker this year. Deng had the opportunity to leave for the draft, but took the 'super-senior' year of eligibility.

"There were some other things that we talked to Kuony about," Wilcox noted, "with a position switch to outside linebacker. We think and others in the NFL think that will be best for him in the long run, so he decided to do that. Ultimately we're going to support the information that we get from the NFL and help those guys that way."

This continues a growing trend in college football on the recruiting end, not only with the pitch to develop players to the NFL, but a growing trend of a 'pro-system.' Cal has former NFL coaches in Bill Musgrave and Geep Chryst on the offensive side of the ball, along with former NFL player personnel guys in the recruiting/football operations department in Zach Bocian and Derek Haithcock. The NFL is the goal for many recruits, and it dovetails with what the Bears want to do as a team.

"It certainly comes up," Wilcox said of the develop to the NFL pitch in recruiting. "It's a goal for everybody that enters our program and it's great to have those goals, they live in harmony with our goals as a team. Whether it's schemes we're teaching, offense, defense and special teams, the drills we work on, the techniques we utilize, there's going to be some carryover (to what the NFL does). Not that every team is doing (something similar), but we believe in our way to develop guys for a career after college. It's part of recruiting, but it's not the entirety of recruiting."

With only three players departing from Cal to the pros, this isn't slated to be a big year for Cal draftees, but 2022 may prove to be a bigger year with multiple super seniors and other fourth and fifth year players being draft eligible.