Updated: Cal Football 2021 Roster Tracker
Updated: Cal Football 2021 Roster Tracker
It's going to be a confusing off-season, but we're here to help you keep track of everything
New year, new roster
This is going to be, by a wide margin, the most confusing and chaotic off-season in modern college football history.
Thanks to the COVID-19 pandemic, the NCAA decided that the 2020 season would not count against a player’s four years of eligibility. But allowing players an extra year of eligibility would be borderline useless if schools were still limited to 85 scholarship players on a roster, and so the NCAA also announced that, for 2021 only, the 85 roster limit will be waived.
To further complicate things, the NCAA has instituted a transfer waiver, meaning that nobody will have to sit out if they elect to transfer.
For the best summary of these short-term decisions and the murky long term impacts, I would strongly recommend you read this Pete Thamel article. The super quick summary? The NCAA is still limiting how many scholarship players an NCAA team can recruit in one season, which means that hundreds of players entering the transfer portal may never get a destination, and teams may struggle badly managing their roster once the 2021 waiver to go beyond 85 scholarship players expire.
It’s impossible to say how this impacts Cal, but in the short term one big question is what Cal’s seniors will do with their extra year of eligibility. We have already started to get announcements from players on the roster.
We’re going to do our best to keep you up to date on the comings-and-goings, and as such this post will be updated as roster news is announced. As you’ll likely note, the list below assumes that non-seniors will be returning to Berkeley for the 2021 season until we hear otherwise.
Seniors who have announced they are returning
LB Kuony Deng
DB Elijah Hicks
OL Michael Saffell
RB Marcel Dancy
LB Cam Goode
DB Josh Drayden
Seniors who have announced they are leaving
DL Zeandae Johnson (NFL Draft)
DB Camryn Bynum (NFL Draft)
FB Drew Schlegel (transfer)
OL Jake Curhan (NFL Draft)
QB Devon Modster (transfer)
RB Bradrick Shaw (transfer)
Seniors who have not publicly announced a decision
WR Trevon Clark (left team mid-season for personal reasons but still listed on the roster)
WR Kekoa Crawford
OL Valentino Daltoso
OL Gentle Williams
Non-seniors who have announced they are leaving
WR Makai Polk (transfer to Mississippi St.)
WR Jeremiah Hawkins (transfer to Texas State)
OL Poutasi Poutasi (transfer)
DL Gabe Cherry (transfer)
FB Zach Angelillo (grad transfer)
Really sorry to lose Polk and Hawkins, but I understand. They were both solid performers and will be missed, but we have some young horses that should step up and fill their shoes. I wish the three going to the pros all the best and thank them for their time and sacrifices for our Golden Bears. Of the seniors who have not yet announced a decision the only one I really would like to see back is Kekoa Crawford. Daltoso might return and I would see him as the 6th man in the O-line rotation, but not as a starter unless there is an injury. He's a Greatwood guy and not and Angus guy. I am very happy about the list of returning players and I think they have all done themselves a huge favor by returning. I think another year in the weight room, and another on the field will improve the NFL prospects for the entire list of seniors returning. My big question is who is going to win the job at #2 QB?
Here we go again....another stud defense and a meh offense with Polk gone and Crawford maybe not coming back. It's okay to be the Wisconsin of the Pac 12 if you can pound the rock with the best running backs and O linemen in the conference year in and year out......Cal is pretty far away from that. Is there any chance of Tevin Paul coming back?