Deem 2023 “The Year of the Transfer” for Cal Football

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Cal’s roster now includes 36 players from around college football. A few of the notables are pictured above.

By Connor Buestad | Connor@Section925.com

When Cal welcomes the Auburn Tigers to Memorial Stadium on the 9th of September for their home opener, upwards of 20 impact players on the Golden Bears side will be by way of the Transfer Portal. Yes, you’re reading that right, the transfer admissions department at UC Berkeley has been burning the midnight oil. Cal football is quietly becoming Transfer U. Seventh year head coach Justin Wilcox has suddenly become a portal devotee and as a result the 2023 Bears roster will look almost nothing like a year ago. Will the transfer method get the Bears back into a much needed bowl game? Only time will tell.

Staying with the theme of change, even Cal’s best player, Jaydn Ott (one of the few non-transfer starters on the team), will look a bit different to fans this year as he’s shed the #6 jersey and adopted the #1 made famous by DeSean Jackson. Standout wide receiver Jeremiah Hunter will also be back for the Bears, but beside that, a whole lot has changed from Cal’s disappointing 4-8 record in 2022. Three years in-a-row falling short of bowl eligibility has sent Wilcox searching high and low around the country for D1 transfers that can help him win now, before his seat gets too hot.

But before we look forward to who the Bears have added to their roster, let’s quickly mourn the losses of who walked out the door and headed to a new school during the offseason. We’ll start of course with Cal’s tough, gutsy and productive QB1, Jack Plummer. Did he win much at Cal? Not exactly. But he certainly kept the Bears in plenty of games (including at Notre Dame) and put up some good offensive stats at quarterback despite a shaky O-line and unreliable defense. He originally came to Berkeley by way of Purdue and now he’s off to his third school, Louisville. We wish him luck in Kentucky.

Not only did the Bears lose their starting quarterback from last year, but they also lost one of their best receivers to UCLA. The future BIG 10 Bruins (don’t tell Bill Walton) took J. Michael Sturdivant from us, not to mention starting linebacker Oluwafemi Oladejo, who also has taken his talents to Los Angeles.

Two of Cal’s running backs decided to leave Berkeley as well, as Damien Moore left for Fresno State and DeCarlos Brooks is now at Arizona State. Speaking of ASU, kicker Dario Longhetto also decided it was time to leave and he is now also a Sun Devil. But enough about the bad news. Who was Cal able to convince to come? Let’s take a look by position.

For starters, Cal’s quarterback in 2023 will almost assuredly be a transfer student. Sam Jackson V, who is the fifth of five Sam Jacksons in his family will wear #5 and most likely be the Bears’ opening day starter at North Texas. He’s a running quarterback who played last year at TCU under Sonny Dykes. He made the National Championship Game and lost to Georgia, the only catch being he was the third QB on Dykes’ depth chart and saw very limited action for the Horned Frogs. New offensive coordinator and running-quarterback-whisperer Jake Spavital will try to mold him into the likes of a Kyler Murray, Johnny Manziel or Geno Smith, all QB’s he’s coached up in the past. Jackson’s likely backup will be Ben Finley who has seen time on the field at NC State and has recently transferred into Cal.

One of Cal’s top receivers this year figures to be Taj Davis, who previously played at the University of Washington. Another transfer wideout will be Marquez Dortch who comes to Cal by way of Mississippi State.

The running backs room at Cal will be full of players who have started their college careers elsewhere. Byron Cardwell comes to Cal from the Oregon Ducks, Justin Williams-Thomas has transferred in from Tennessee, King Doerue comes in from Purdue and Isaiah Ifanse comes from both San Jose State and Montana State.

At tight end the Bears are bringing in J.T. Byrne from Oregon State as well as Asher Alberding from North Texas University. On the offensive line the Bears brought in Matthew Wykoff from Texas A&M and even Barrett Miller who came over from Stanford.

On the defensive side of the ball, the Bears will be led by Jackson Sirmon. Sirmon played a pivotal role as a Cal linebacker last year, but before that, he did spend some time in Washington as a Husky linebacker wearing purple. His defensive coordinator dad coaching at Cal helped convince him to give Berkeley a shot. In addition to Sirmon at linebacker, you have Sergio Allen coming in from a big time program in Clemson and even David Reese from the Florida Gators.

The defensive back position will also look a lot different due to Cal’s newfound dedication to the transfer portal as Patrick McMorris has come from San Diego State and Nohl Williams is coming from UNLV. Williams in particular comes with tons of hype surrounding his talents covering elite receivers.

The list of transfers doesn’t stop there, stick with me here. You also have the likes of defensive backs Kaylin Moore from Colorado and Raymond Woodie III from Florida State, as well as receiver Brian Hightower from both Miami and Illinois. The list goes on when you include some JUCO guys, etc. All told the Bears will have 36 guys on their roster who have played football at another college before Cal. In summary, the Transfer Portal has been raging.

Starting with Auburn’s visit to Berkeley, Cal will play a good team virtually every single week. Sports Illustrated believes they have the 12th hardest schedule in the nation. Cal will have to play Washington, Utah, Oregon, Stanford and UCLA all on the road. Not to mention USC, who will come to Berkeley with the defending Heisman Trophy winner at quarterback.

By the time Cal gets through that gauntlet of a schedule, Vegas is pinning the Bears as a 5-7 or 6-6 type team. Justin Wilcox and his staff could really use a seven win season. They’ve certainly pushed all their chips in on the Transfer Portal Lottery, Old Blues would love to see it cash out.

Cal’s 2023 roster is a melting pot of players from around the nation. It’s not where you start, it’s where you finish, as they say. And all roads lead to Berkeley…