Cal Football 2026 Season Preview Part 3: The Defense
A slew of talented-but-unproven transfers will define Cal's success on defense.
Part 1: Finally Something New Under the Sun
Part 2: The Offense
In however many years I’ve been writing up season previews, this might be the most challenging article I’ve written. Here is a list of players who received starts on defense for the Bears last year who are still on the 2026 roster:
Aiden Manutai (11 starts)
Jayden Wayne (9 starts)
Cam Sidney (8 starts)
Jasiah Wagoner (4 starts)
Isaiah Crosby (4 starts)
Derek Wilkins (2 starts)
Aaron Hampton (1 start)
That’s just 39 combined starts returning, mostly from players who were getting rotational snaps and won’t enter this season with a starting position locked down. The two players with the most returning starts from 2025 did not begin the year in the starting lineup, but were thrust into roles after injury.
To be fair, that doesn’t include the return of Nate Burrell, who missed all of 2025 with an injury, nor fully count the return of Crosby, who would have started every game last year if his season hadn’t ended after 4 games from injury as well.
Still: Cal lost 9 of their top 12 tacklers from the 2025 defense. It wouldn’t surprise me if the defense trots out onto the field against UCLA with just three starters who were on the roster last year. That level of turnover isn’t entirely unusual in this era, but when you throw in a coaching regime change on top it means that this defense will look radically different than last year.
I’m going to make a bunch of guesses at starters below, before fall camp ends, and they will probably look pretty dense if you re-read this in November.
2025 Defense, revisited
The primary strength of Cal’s defense last year, their cover cornerbacks, are both in the NFL and must be replaced. Cal’s primary weakness, a complete lack of disruption from their defensive line and outside linebackers, might not mean much because there’s a decent chance that Cal’s starting linemen and linebackers will entirely turn over from 2026.
So sure, you can go back and read what I wrote about the 2025 defense, but it’s not going to tell you much about 2026.
Unit Summaries
1st year transfer portal additions noted by their former school. All classes/eligibility based on the current Calbears.com roster.
Defensive Line
Projected starters:
DE: Senior Nate Burrell
DE: Sophomore Jericho Johnson (Oregon)
Depth: Senior Ashun Shepphard (Mississippi St.), Senior Derek Wilkins, Senior Stanley Saole-McKenzie, Junior Jayden Williams (North Texas)
When Cal announces their depth chart before the season opener, there’s a decent chance that it lists three starters on the defensive line. But Oregon ran a 2-4-5 last year (or, alternatively, a 4-2-5) and I’m expecting that to be Cal’s base defense as well.
Why Burrell and Jericho Johnson as predicted starters? It’s a balance of experience and raw talent. Burrell is (if he’s fully recovered from the injury that kept him out in 2025) the most talented returning lineman on the roster. Johnson, a former 4 star top 100 recruit who was good enough to get rotational snaps for Oregon last year despite playing behind a ton of elite talent
IF Burrell is healthy and IF Johnson realizes his talent, this could be a pretty intriguing duo up front. You don’t want to go into the season with big IFs from your starters, but then again that was pretty inevitable after so much roster churn.
Derek Wilkins and Stanley Saole-McKenzie were both in the d line rotation last year and will likely get rotational snaps again, and they’ll be competing with transfers Jayden Williams and Ashun Shepphard for those snaps. None of those four have been major impact players yet across multi-year college careers, which is partly why I’m expecting a Burrell/Johnson starting unit and a 2-4-5 formation on defense.
Rush Linebackers
Projected starters:
OLB: Sophomore Solomon Williams (Texas A&M)
OLB: Senior Justin Beadles (Louisville)
Depth: Senior Jayden Wayne, Junior Joshua Pierce (North Texas), Sophomore Emmanuel Okoye (Tennessee)
This is probably the least settled position group on the entire team. Similar to the logic at defensive line, I’m guessing that Cal starts veteran Justin Beadles in his seventh season of college football alongside Solomon Williams, a former 4 star recruit entering his 3rd season after getting rotational snaps at A&M last year.
But would I be surprised if Jayden Wayne held onto his starting spot from last year? Would I be surprised if Joshua Pierce took another step forward in his climb up the college football ladder? Would I be surprised if Emmanuel Okoye turns his raw physical skill set into on-field production and gets the nod over the course of the season? No.
Would I be surprised if nobody separates themselves and you see a ton of rotation at this position? Also no.
Inside Linebackers
Projected starters:
ILB: Sophomore Tristan Jernigan (Texas A&M)
ILB: Sophomore Kamar Mothudi (Oregon)
Depth: Junior Aaron Hampton, Freshman AJ Tuitele (USC)
Three transfers in, all with a very similar profile: high end recruiting pedigree, minimal immediate on-field impact. Are you sensing a theme?
To be clear, that’s not a major knock on Jernigan, Mothudi, or Tuitele. The first two took redshirt years, then picked up rotational snaps as redshirt freshmen for national title contenders. The latter redshirted for USC. Teams like Texas A&M, Oregon, and USC aren’t typically going to play 1st or 2nd year players unless they’re undeniable talents because there are going to be performing veterans ahead of them.
But it’s still another risk for Cal, without any proven production at this position. Aaron Hampton is back and will compete as well after getting snaps as a back-up last year, and I’d expect the former walk-on to occupy a similar role this year.
Defensive Backs
Projected starters:
Cornerback: Senior Ricky Fletcher (Ole Miss)
Safety: Senior Isaiah Crosby
Safety: Sophomore Aiden Manutai
Cornerback: Senior Daniel Harris (Georgia)
Nickelback: Senior Cam Sidney
Depth: Junior Josiah Wagoner, Freshman Jae’on Young, Senior Marquis Groves-Killebrew (Arizona), Sophomore Kingston Lopa (Oregon), Junior Quimari Shemwell
Cal has four returners with heavy experience at safety/nickelback, so while I’ve listed Josiah Wagoner as ‘depth,’ I basically view him as another starter who will get significant snaps in rotation with Crosby, Manutai, and Sidney. Cal should be very sound on the back end of the secondary.
It’s on the edges where there is uncertainty . . . though not much. Ricky Fletcher and Daniel Harris were both rotational players on CFB playoff participants and are very likely the starters. Maybe Jae’on Young wows after a redshirt season, maybe transfer Marquis Groves-Killebrew forces his way into the conversation, but I think Fletcher and Harris are safe bets.
Defining Questions
Can Tosh Lupoi and Cal’s coaches unlock unproven talent?
By my count, Cal brought in seven transfers on defense who general share the same three attributes:
4 star high school recruiting rankings, give or take some outlier scouting from different recruiting services.
Youth - most are in their 3rd year of college football after a redshirt season.
Minimal on-field production as back-ups.
Jericho Johnson, Solomon Williams, Emmanuel Oyoke, Tristan Jernigan, AJ Tuitele, Kamar Mothudi, and Daniel Harris collectively represent an on paper level of talent Cal hasn’t had on defense in at least 15 years. For that reason, the ceiling on this defense is tantalizingly high.
On the other hand, in the transfer portal era, high school recruiting stars mean less and less the further you actually get from a player’s high school production. There’s a ton of risk when the bulk of the defense is made up of guys who have never been go-to starters in their college careers. It means that the floor for this defense is terrifyingly low.
What does a Tosh Lupoi/Michael Hutchings defense look like?
If you’re a glass-half-full fan, you look at Tosh Lupoi’s curriculum vitae and you see a coach who has almost uniformly been a coordinator over elite defenses. Two years at Alabama when the Crimson Tide went a collective 27-2. Four years at Oregon when the Ducks went a collective 48-8. All six seasons those teams had elite defenses.
If you’re a negative Nancy, you’ll note that Nick Saban and Dan Lanning may have had a little bit of something to do with the defenses at Alabama and Oregon, respectively.
Meanwhile, new DC Michael Hutchings has been with the Minnesota Vikings for the last three years as a defensive backs/safeties coach, and that’s a good sign because Minnesota’s defense generally and passing defense specifically have been very good. But he’s never been a DC before so it’s not clear what ideas he’ll be bringing to the table. So while I thing it makes all kinds of sense for a guy like Lupoi with a defensive line background to bring in a DC with a background in the secondary, there’s not a ton of track record to go by.
Will Lupoi’s defense try to mimic what he did at Oregon? Is he itching to try different things now that he’s fully in charge? What ideas will Hutchings bring to the table, to say nothing of Cal’s suddenly massive stable of assistants and analysts? Nobody outside the program really knows!