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| Dykes has his work cut out for him at Cal. (AP) |
We're going to take a brief break from boxing to cover my alma mater's 2013 football recruiting class.
During his introductory press conference in December, first-year Cal head coach Sonny Dykes repeatedly used the word "fit" to describe the type of student-athlete he hoped to lure to Berkeley. As the 2013 Signing Day revealed his inaugural recruiting class, a group of 25 future Golden Bears will aim to vindicate his evaluations of their respective potential.
RANKING: The Bears will land somewhere between in top 30-40 nationally and in the middle of the pack in the Pac-12. Surprisingly, the Bears have a higher-ranked class than archrival Stanford, which is coming off a conference title and a victory in the Rose Bowl.
NEEDS (in order of importance):
CB, S, OT, OG, DE, ILB, HB
STARS: With Dykes's high-octane "Bear Raid" offense in mind, he decided to invest heavily in the offensive line. Cal signed five of the "big uglies", with 6'8'', 364-pound tackle Aaron Cochran (Buhach Colony H.S./Atwater, CA) leading the charge. Cochran will join his older brother Matt, currently a freshman center for the Golden Bears.
At the skill positions, 6'4'', 190-pound Elite 11 quarterback Jared Goff (Marin Catholic H.S./Kentfield, CA) is highly decorated, and 5'8, 174-pound burner Khalfani Muhammad (Notre Dame H.S./Sherman Oaks, CA) is a much-needed addition to the running back corps now that injury-riddled gamebreaker Brendan Bigelow has reportedly suffered another torn ACL. Former Boise State commit Jack Austin (Chino Hills H.S./Chino, CA) is a 6'3, 210-pound physical specimen who joins an already deep receiver group.
Defensive back Darius Allensworth (Heritage H.S./Romoland, CA) tore his ACL in December but will be back in time for his freshman campaign. The 5'11'', 175-pound athlete will contend for a cornerback spot, where the Bears just lost NFL-caliber talent in Steve Williams and Marc Anthony, while top returnee Stefan McClure missed all of 2012 due to a major knee injury.
Perhaps the best news the Bears received all week occurred when 6'3'', 215-pound outside linebacker Johnny Ragin III (Wilsonville H.S./Wilsonville, OR) made good on his promise to de-commit from BYU and stay with Cal despite a final overture from Oregon.
SLEEPERS: Takkarist McKinley (Kennedy H.S./Richmond, CA) is a 6'3'', 240-pound physical freak. To give you an idea, he's currently headed to the California State Track meet as a sprinter. Expect him to see some action as a defensive end/outside linebacker hybrid. As far as a project, perhaps Drake Whitehurst (San Francisco City College/San Francisco, CA) qualifies. Though lacking blinding speed, the 6'6'', 215-pound wide receiver has good hands and the size to become a matchup problem down the road.
THE ONES THAT GOT AWAY: Rule No. 1 of recruiting is that a commitment isn't final until pen goes to paper and the National Letter of Intent hits the fax machine. With that said, three players stick out in my mind in terms of last-second losses:
Cameron Hunt (Centennial H.S./Corona, CA), a 6'4'', 267-pound offensive guard, was the crown jewel of the class, but due to his would-be position coach Jim Michalczik's departure, will now clear holes for Oregon.
Oklahoma stoned the Bears twice in two months, starting with 6'5'', 205-pound wide receiver Dannon Cavil (James Madison H.S./San Antonio, TX), whom Dykes convinced to de-commit from Texas Tech only to switch allegiances to the Sooners a few weeks ago. Then today, safety L.J. Moore (Central East/Fresno, CA) decided to join high school teammate Hatari Byrd (another Cal target but an unlikely one from the beginning) and pulled the trigger for OU despite a promising official visit to Berkeley last week.
In reality, the loss of Moore has a more lasting effect than Davil's because while Cal has a plethora of blue-chip wide receivers from the last class in Bryce Treggs, Chris Harper, and Darius Powe among others, the secondary is thin, especially at safety. Once you get past playmaker Avery Sebastian, the jury's out on upperclassmen Michael Lowe and Alex Logan.
BEAR RAID(ING) OTHER SCHOOLS: Wraggling Austin away from Boise State was a very good get; snatching Ragin and keeping him was a coup on a moderate scale. The Bears also struck gold with offensive tackle Erik Bunte (Mission Viejo H.S./Mission Viejo, CA), a UCLA de-commit who will compete for a spot on the two-deep right away.
TOSH.NO: It would be downright criminal to ignore that last year's loss of defensive line coach Tosh Lupoi to Washington has continued to hurt the Bears in the recruiting department. Never before had Cal recruited as strongly on a national scale with consensus five-star recruits, and the 2010 class that included likely first-round draft pick Keenan Allen only validated the program's arrival in that regard.
At the same time, academic issues have plagued the program the past few years, with the graduation rate finally hitting rock-bottom in the Pac-12 last year--an unequivocally unacceptable result for a school like Cal. Whether those problems are attributed to signing players who could not cut it in the classroom or the academic support systems is another story.
With only three consensus four-star recruits, the truth is that 2013 has yielded a solid but not spectacular class. Stars aren't everything, but in the scope of perception, they matter in this case. The question remains, however, whether Dykes and his staff will be able to return to a top 15-20 level while still attracting guys who "fit" academically will be one of his greatest challenges at Cal.
PROTECT THIS HOUSE: Though the constant underachieving on the field and in the classroom caused his demise, one cannot deny former head coach Jeff Tedford's ability to protect the homebase recruiting-wise. He cultivated enough relationships with local high school and junior college coaches to plant his flag in the critical Northern California triangle of the Bay Area, Sacramento, and Fresno, in addition to everything north of that area to the state border.
With Tedford holding court, no longer would other schools travel from Miami and South Bend to poach kids with impunity. Marshawn Lynch, Aaron Rodgers, Jahvid Best, Syd'Quan Thompson, Lavelle Hawkins, Zach Kline, Derrick Hill, Worrell Williams, Freddie Tagaloa, Viliami Moala, and Desmond Bishop are prime examples of local four and five-star kids who were convinced to stay close to home.
However, when Lupoi left, he took Sacramento's Shaq Thompson (Syd'Quan's little brother) with him, and fellow NorCal blue-chipper Arik Armstead is now starring at Oregon after being thisclose to enrolling at Cal. With 2013 five-star defensive line recruit Eddie Vanderdoes of Sacramento barely even looking the Bears' way, even after he had de-commited from USC late in the process, it's pretty clear that the triangle is open for business once again. No question about it: Dykes must dominate locally in the future.
One encouraging sign was Dykes plucking junior college recruits like Whitehurst out of San Francisco City College and 6'4'', 245-pound defensive end Sione Sina (College of San Mateo/San Mateo, CA). In contrast, despite them enjoying a substantial presence on his early 10-win teams, Tedford inexplicably shied away from JuCo kids as time wore on. Rodgers, Bishop, and sackmaster Ryan Riddle all attended two-year colleges before landing at Cal.
GRADE: Given that Dykes and his staff entered late in the game, it would be unfair to evaluate his ability to land top-notch recruits and get Cal back to a recruiting level that Tedford enjoyed toward the end of his tenure. (On a side note, that's why I feel an eight-win season from Dykes should be the goal due to the talent on this roster. Last year, more than one out of every four scholarship players were either U.S. Army or Under Armour All-Americans, an unprecedented figure in the program's long history.)
However, Dykes was still able to steal away a top prospect in Ragin and kept most of the current class together upon his arrival. Hey, for all we know, Dykes mined 25 (26 if defensive back Trey Cheek's SAT score qualifies for admission) guys who will blossom into major stars and significant contributors. Obviously, there's no better recruiting tool than success on the field, but I think we'll get a better idea of the effectiveness of the new coach's sales pitch in Year Two. For now, let's give him a B.
FULL CLASS:
http://rivals.yahoo.com/cal/football/recruiting/commitments/2013/california-59;_ylt=AlXsekDUK6.cYYlFK_XeIXoSrZB4*
*NOTE: I find the Rivals.com ratings superior to ESPN.com, 247Sports.com, and Scout.com, in that order. They have been more accurate and less biased over the years. And I read this stuff religiously.
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