Cal Football Recruits

College football recruiting is a year-round thing. It has been for a while. As soon as one class of high school recruits is filled colleges start filling the next. Cal hasn't always played that game. At least it never appeared that they did. Jeff Tedford had some terrific recruiting classes in his 11 years (2002-12) as head coach in Berkeley but he never seemed to start collecting commits until the fall. Many of the commits didn't come until the final month before signing day in early February. That's started to change since Sonny Dykes replaced Tedford following the 2012 season. Dykes and his coaching staff had to scramble to keep what they could of Tedford's 2013 recruits (Jared Goff being one of them) and then do their best to fill out the class. Since then, Cal has been collecting recruits in early-spring, mid-spring, late-spring, and throughout the summer. They are year-round commit-collectors. Their numbers are quite modest compared to the powerhouse recruiters like Alabama, Ohio State, and LSU. Those schools just throw their name at a promising high school football player and they usually have a commit. Cal's coaches often have to work a bit harder to get that commit but they are a plucky bunch. With their first game of the 2016 season this Saturday, here's how the Golden Bears recruiting class of 2017 looks.

Gabe Cherry, DT, Centennial-Bakersfield, CA

Taariq Johnson, TE, Buena Park-Buena Park, CA

Jeremiah Hawkins, WR, Buena Park-Buena Park, CA

Michael Onyemaobi, WR, Chaparral-Temecula, CA

Je'Quari Godfrey, CB, Bishop O'Dowd-Oakland, CA

Da'Quan Patton, Trinity Valley CC-Athens, TX

Chase Garbers, QB, Corona Del Mar-Newport Beach, CA

Alex Funches, DT, Trinity Valley CC-Athens, TX

Biaggio Ali-Walsh, RB, Bishop Gorman-Las Vegas, NV

Gabe Cherry was the first to commit Cal. He did so on February 13, 2016. Biaggio Ali-Walsh was the most most recent commit. He did so just over a week ago. See, Cal recruiting is a year round thing now. 

Cal's nine commits pales in comparison to the approximately 20 commits that colleges like Alabama have collected so far but it's a start. 

As for Cal's nine, Buena Park pass-catchers Taariq Johnson and Jeremiah Hawkins and quarterback Chase Garbers highlight the class. Cal had one of the best receiver groups in the country the past few years. Most of those receivers are on NFL rosters right now. It still has to be seen on the field, but on paper it looks like that position has been restocked. A couple true freshmen (Melquise Stovall and Demetris Robinson) could start this year and the position is littered with talented freshmen and sophomores. Johnson, Hawkins and Michael Onyemaobi are set to join them next year. 

One interesting little bit of trivia with this growing 2017 recruiting class is that Biaggio Ali-Walsh is the grandson of Muhammad Ali. 

Cal announced their football captains for the 2017 season. 

QB  Davis Webb

RT   Steven Moore

DT  James Looney

LB   Ray Davison

CB  Darius Allensworth

As voted on by their teammates.

The Golden Bears will spend this week in Australia in advance of Saturday's game there against Hawaii.