Cal football announces departure of two players
Wilcox made the announcement at his first media availability for Spring Football
Cal Football HC Justin Wilcox met with the media this morning for the start of Spring Football. His biggest announcement being the departures of Junior OL Will Craig and Senior DL Aaron Maldonado.
Will Craig started the first 8 games of the 2021 season before missing the rest of the season due to injury. The former 4-star recruit was the highest rated OL recruit in the Wilcox era over the first 4 cycles.
Aaron Maldonado has not played for the Bears in nearly two years after the 2019 season. The former signing day flip from UCLA, had career highs in 2018 as a freshman but was unable to build upon it into the next few seasons.
We thank you for your time and sacrifice here gentlemen. And wish you nothing but the best in your next step!
No surprises here. Maldonado was never really all in. He didn't seem to gain weight from offseason lifting programs and he took some personal time off. It's hard to win playing time when you are a 275 lb. one tech and are competing against guys 320 lbs. and 340 lbs. And, no one wants to play scout team their whole career. As to Will Craig, despite his athletic gifts, he never seemed to enjoy the game and was often injured. Maybe he was going to lose his starting job and saw the writing on the wall. My take away is that the losses will have next to zero impact on our performance. I know on CAL Bears Maven they wrote an article about their worry with our team only having 8 returning starters. I see it as opportunity. We have upgrades in talent across the board and I believe a lot of our new players will surprise people as they rise to the occasion. I've also read a lot about Plummer being the leading contender for the QB starting spot. My take is that the best QB will play, but my desire is that Kai Milner throws the ball around as well or better than the other QB's because ultimately he is a better athlete and has some wheels. We'll have some early growing pains for sure, but I'm gonna pump some more sunshine because my Bears are Golden in my eyes.
Another season of the OL being on the struggle bus.