College football introduced an early, three-day signing period this year. As the December 20 start neared Cal expected 18 high school football players to sign a Letter of Intent and 18 players did sign. The 18 weren't the 18 that they expected. Here are the 18 that did sign.
Will Craig, OT, Granite Bay (Granite Bay, CA) 6'5" 265
Nikko Remigio, WR, Mater Dei (Santa Ana, CA) 5'10" 160
McCallan Castles, TE, South Tahoe (South Lake Tahoe, CA) 6'5" 230
Jasper Friis, OT. Aquinas (San Bernadino, CA) 6'7" 315
Nick Alftin, DE, Archbishop Mitty (San Jose, CA) 6'5" 224
Miles Owens, OT, Bishop O'Dowd (Oakland, CA) 6'7" 315
JH Tevis, DE, Menlo-Atherton (Menlo Park, CA) 6'5" 227
Evan Tattersall, OLB, Granite Bay (Granite Bay, CA) 6'2" 215
Chigozie Anusiem, CB, Sonora (La Habra, CA) 6'2" 175
Matthew Cinrdric, OT, Skyline (Sammamish,WA) 6'4" 270
Brandon Mello, OL, Clayton Valley (Concord, CA) 6'7" 295
Colt Doughty, ILB, College of San Mateo (San Mateo, CA) 6'2" 235
Lone Toailoa, DE, Mt. San Antonio College (Walnut, CA) 6'3" 260
Slater Zellers, LS, Notre Dame Prep (Scottsdale, AZ) 6'1" 220
Louis Bickett, OLB, Torrey Pines (Emcinitas, CA) 6'3" 200
Johnny Adams, RB, Ben Davis (Indianapolis, IN) 5'11" 196
Aaron Maldonado, DT, Bishop Amat (La Puente, CA) 6'3" 295
Chris Brown, RB, El Camino (Oceanside, CA) 6'1" 218
The group includes nine offensive players, eight defensive players, and a specialist. The group didn't include quarterback JT Shrout and nose tackle Antonio Mafi. Both were players that Cal expected but both players flipped to other schools a day or two before the signing period. Shrout decided to sign with Tennessee. Mafi signed with UCLA. Cal likely expected Mafi's change of heart. Defensive line coach Jerry Azzinaro recruited him. Azzinaro has coached with Chip Kelly in college and the NFL. After UCLA hired Kelly as head coach it wasn't long before Azzinaro headed south. Mafi followed. Who knows if Shrout caught Cal by surprise. We do know that he's the second Cal quarterback commit that de-committed in favor of Tennessee. Adrian Martinez did it first months ago. Martinez is now with Nebraska.
Aaron Maldonado was a UCLA commit. One could look at his Cal signing as a trade for Mafi.
For fans of the star rating system here's how Cal's new players rank.
4-stars
Will Craig
Nikko Remigio
3-stars
McCallan Castles
Jasper Friis
Nick Alftin
Miles Owens
JH Tevis
Chigozie Anusiem
Colt Doughty
Lone Toailoa
Matthew Cinrdric
Brandon Mello
Louis Bickett
Slater Zellers
Evan Tattersall
Chris Brown
Johnny Adams
Aaron Maldonado
There's still the usual signing day on the first Wednesday in February. As it stands now Cal has no quarterbacks in the this class. That could change in the next month. Here are Cal's current quarterbacks and their remaining years in Berkeley.
Ross Bowers 2018, 2019
Brandon McIlwain 2018, 2019, 2020
Chase Garbers 2018, 2019, 2020, and 2021
Chase Forrest 2018
2017 starter Bowers should enter spring practices as the starter but he'll get competition from South Carolina transfer McIlwain. And Garbers challenged Bowers for the job in camp.
Some early signing data from the Athletic:
In any given class, roughly 2800 recruits sign with an FBS school.
Yesterday, about 1950 recruits signed (very close to the predicted 70% figure)
There are about 530 recruits committed but not signed.
That leaves about 320 recruits in the uncommitted pool (spread over 130 schools).
I really have no idea why the NCAA introduced this early signing period. It strikes me as a terrible time for it seeing as many college coaching staffs are deep in the heat of preparing for Bowl games. Then there's the coaching changes taking place at many colleges. Those often messy fires and hires disrupt everything. It's difficult to imagine any high school recruits sticking to a Tennessee commit while the recent coaching search fiasco played out on that campus. It's even more difficult to imagine and disappointing to see Tennessee pull a quarterback commit from Cal. Some college football talking heads have said that the early signing period is supposed to be easier on the kids. It may end the madness of recruiting earlier but I don't see how it makes it any easier. It doesn't really matter what anyone thinks about it as it's done. And it could be permanent.
Cal's 2018 recruiting class looks good on paper. The next 4-5 years will tell the real story. The class is heavy on offensive lineman. That's a very good thing as that's a real need. Some of those linemen are huge. That's always good. The two smaller linemen (Will Craig and Matthew Cindric) are probably the most ready to play early, especially Craig. Another potential early starter is corner Chigozie Anusiem. He could pair with last year's true freshman Elijah Hicks to form one of the youngest, most talented corner combos in the Pac-12.
It's all hopes and dreams right now. Congratulations and good luck to all of the new Cal Bears. Welcome to Berkeley. It's a wonderful place.
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