Cal Football Recruiting

With the world slowly creeping back to normalcy, Cal football has finally been able to host high school football players on official visits. A couple of the visits last weekend led to a couple defensive linemen verbally committing last week. St. John Bosco’s Nathan Burrell and Cathedral Catholic’s Jaxson Moi have decided to become future Golden Bears. They become the third and fourth members of Cal’s 2022 recruiting class. 

Damonic Williams, DL, Bishop Alemany (Mission Hills, CA) 6-2, 325

Justyn Martin, QB, Inglewood (Inglewood, CA) 6-4, 210

Nathan Burrell, DL, St. John Bosco (Bellflower, CA) 6-2, 285

Jaxson Moi, DL, Bishop Alemany (Mission Hills, CA) 6-2, 260

Three defensive linemen and a quarterback. It’s only the beginning of this recruiting cycle but it’s clear that the defensive line is a focus. It’s probably been since Viliami Moala that Cal has had a legitimate nose tackle in the middle of the defense. He was in the 2011 recruiting class. Sonny Dykes really set the defense back about a decade. Damonic Williams has the big, sturdy build to be the sort of player that’s been lacking on the Golden Bear defense. 

Thinking about Cal’s next recruiting class got me thinking about some of the best high school players to come to Berkeley in recent memory. It helps that Cal’s 247sports recruiting page has a ranking of the All-Time Top 25 Golden Bears Recruits. “All-Time” is relative. It’s more 247spots lifetime than Cal’s lifetime. Otherwise, players like Tony Gonzalez, Russell White, Reagan Upshaw, Andre Carter, Marc Hicks, Sean Dawkins, Joe Roth, Steve Bartkowski, Craig Morton, Paul Larson, Jackie Jensen, Les Richter etc. would be part of it. Anyway, here’s 247sports’ “All-Time” Top 25 Cal Recruits.

1.   Keenan Allen, WR, Class of 2010

2.   DeSean Jackson, WR, 2005

3.   Demetris Robertson, WR, 2016

4.   Marshawn Lynch, RB, 2004

5.   Lorenzo Alexander, LB, 2001

6.   Zach Kline, QB, 2012

7.   Viliami Moala, DT, 2011

8.   Derrick Hill, DL, 2006

9.   Darian Hagan, S, 2006

10. Cecil Whiteside, LB, 2010

11. Anthony Felder, LB, 2005

12. Bryce Treggs, WR, 2012

13. Phillip Mbakogu, DL, 2004

14. Todd Barr, DL, 2011

15. Jason Gibson, DL, 2011

16. Stefan McClure, S, 2011

17. J. Michael Sturdivant, WR, 2021

18. Steve Williams, CB, 2009

19. Gabe King, DL, 2010

20. Erik Brown, WR, 2014

21. Desmond Bishop, LB, 2005

22. Brennan Scarlett, DL, 2011

23. Syd’Quan Thompson, CB, 2005

24. Carlos Strickland, WR, 2015

25. Mustafa Jalil, DL, 2011

The first five were five-start recruits. The remaining 20 were four-star recruits. I’m not sure what this says about the recruit ranking process but not even half of these Top-25 commits made a significant impact on the Cal football program. Aaron Rodgers was one of the best college quarterbacks I’ve ever seen. He’s one of the best NFL quarterbacks anyone’s ever seen. Not only did he not come close to making this list, he was a no-star recruit coming out of high school. He did earn three stars as a junior college transfer. Four of the five five-star recruits are four of the best Cal players of the past two decades. They also had/are having terrific NFL careers. Keenan Allen and Marshawn Lynch will one day have very real gold jacket discussions. Not the kind of discussions that fans and media have but the kind that the actual Hall of Fame voters have. The fifth five-star recruit, Demetris Robertson, was outstanding during his brief stay in Berkeley. Sadly, he transferred to Georgia after a year-plus at Cal. 

Only eight of the “All-Time” commits had a sustained NFL career.

Keenan Allen

DeSean Jackson

Marshawn Lynch

Lorenzo Alexander

Steve Williams

Desmond Bishop

Brennan Scarlett

Syd’Quan Thompson

J. Michael Sturdivant is approaching his freshman season at Cal. Hopefully, he’s more Keenan Allen than Erik Brown. 

Go Bears!