The 2021 Cal Football team is shaping up to be one based off senior leadership. The Bears have ten 'super-seniors,' who have amassed 165 starts altogether (Elijah Hicks and Valentino Daltoso have the most of that group, with 34 apiece). As a whole, Cal has 31 players on their roster that have started a game on offense or defense for a grand total of 306 starts.
In spite of that, Cal does have a relatively young roster. Of the 103 players currently on the roster, 64 of those are in their third year or younger in the program. That number will grow to 75 of 114 in the fall when the rest of the class of 2021 gets to campus.
That makes for opportunity for young players to step right into bigger roles, something Damien Moore and Muelu Iosefa did during the truncated 2020 season. As of right now, there are three areas where younger players can help the Bears take the next step.
The Youth at Wide Receiver
Cal has five players who have taken reps at the wide receiver position (Kekoa Crawford, Trevon Clark, Nikko Remigio, Monroe Young, and Ben Skinner). With the first three names making up the main experience, there's still plenty of room for the five man 2020 receiver class to make a difference. That holds especially true with Makai Polk transferring to Mississippi State in the offseason.
At this point in spring football, three names from that 2020 group have come forward. Jeremiah Hunter, Justin Baker, and Tommy Christakos have taken steps toward more playing time with their performances over the last week. Hunter has gotten plenty of praise since his arrival last summer, and was seen as the most ready to play from the group. That has continued, with praise both coaches and players alike.
"On offense, Jeremiah Hunter, he has a lot of great tools," OLB Kuony Deng noted, "I think he's going to be a great player."
"Jeremiah seems to make (a contested catch) each day," Justin Wilcox added.
Hunter brings another taller receiver body to the picture, with the ability to make contested catches and to run after the catch. An injury kept him out last fall, otherwise he would have been a part of the freshman group to play along with Moore and Iosefa.
Alongside him are Baker and Christakos. Baker finished the Saturday scrimmage with a touchdown on a fade against a taller cornerback, another flash of the talent he got to showcase at Kennedy Catholic. Christakos was one of a handful of receivers with three receptions and led the Bears in receiving yards during the scrimmage, and his growth gives the Bears a skillset they haven't had at the receiver position during the Wilcox era. He's a 6'4" wideout with physical stature (multiple schools offered as a tight end) who can make a living on jump balls, a la multiple Stanford wideouts who have tormented the Bears in the past.
"Tommy really showed up on Saturday," Wilcox said, "I think the receivers as a group, there were five, six, seven catches where they were covered and went up and got the ball, and Tommy had two or three of them."
The group as a whole is becoming more athletic, more able to turn 50-50 balls into 90-10, something that former defensive coordinator Tim DeRuyter always mentioned as a problem to face with other offenses. That athleticism and size is something the Bears have lacked, but the room has slowly gotten bigger thanks to the recruiting efforts of Burl Toler.
Nose Guards
Cal hasn't had a true nose guard healthy for the start of a season since 2018, when Chris Palmer manned the position. Brett Johnson has manned the spot in the meantime, with Aaron Maldonado playing it in spurts during the 2019 season, but Maldonado hasn't been healthy for the starts of the 2019 and 2020 season.
Enter two nose guards from the class of 2020 in Stanley McKenzie and Ricky Correia. Both didn't play last fall due to injuries and a handful of Covid related circumstances, but both are healthy this spring. McKenzie was penciled in to contribute before Covid-19 contact tracing and injuries took him out, but Correia hadn't been talked about as much. The second-year player from Fresno has flashed early on, as the Bears could use the 6'4", 350 lb lineman as a run stopper.
"Getting big Rick back healthy, that has been good to see," Deng noted, "he's a really big guy who's a natural athlete. A lot of people that are that size aren't natural athletes like he is."
Both are starting to develop as every down players, with McKenzie developing as a pass-rusher. That development was something Peter Sirmon touched on, as has a guy who's charged with blocking them every day
"They're awesome, they're really talented young guys who have come a long way since the fall," center Mike Saffell said, "especially in the pass rush game. I think a lot of our bigger guys are doing that right now, getting more dynamic in the pass game, which is definitely needed from a nose, can't just go in on run downs."
Having a nose, and at this point multiple noses, makes the Bears that much more dynamic on defense. Without a true nose in 2019 and 2020, the Cal run defense has failed to match the highs of the 2018 defense, and the development of McKenzie and Correia helps to shore up that weakness.
Jermaine Terry and the Tight End Position
If there's a young player who has been focused on by media the most this spring, it has been Jermaine Terry. The tight end from Richmond has entered the program with a 6'4", 268 lb frame, and from the videos of Cal's practices, he carries it as well as anyone. Coming into the program ready-made for the inline tight end position, more than just about anyone who has been recruited during the Wilcox era, Terry has the potential to be a threat from day one. In addition, Terry has been one of the most eager players with regard to learning, according to his coaches.
"He's got a lot of effort and hustle, he does weigh 268 pounds, that's a big youngster," Geep Chryst said last week, "and I'm really proud of the way the veteran guys have taken him under their wing, because they're learning so many things every day. We see a lot of tight ends play the on the line position and off the line position, we're really just concentrated with JT on the line of scrimmage as a 'true Y,' that way he can sink his teeth into one area of responsibility. All the other guys are learning off the line, on the line, and even in the backfield."
"He's a big guy," Wilcox added, "and the strength and conditioning program here will be different than what he's used to, that's not uncommon and he'll develop his body as a college football player. He's very eager, which is what we look for, and Jermaine has absolutely been a coachable guy, he's been out there early with Geep. He's big and strong and he has some physical tools. He can catch the ball, he had a couple really nice catches today, but there's a lot more (he can accomplish)."
Cal does have a handful of tight ends that have played a ton, with Chryst noting (on Cal Football Recruiting's Instagram story) that he thinks Jake Tonges can be an all-conference player, but Terry is starting from a higher place than a lot of the group. His development early is absolutely critical, especially in an offense that can showcase multiple tight ends.
A name that keeps coming up
Collin Gamble has come up a fair number of times during the spring, as he did in the fall, as the second-year defensive back from Texas is creating playing time for himself. Gamble's name was the first to come out of Justin Wilcox's mouth after the two established starters (Chigozie Anusiem and Josh Drayden) at the cornerback position, and it isn't far-fetched to think Gamble could make an impact there or at the nickelback spot.
