Sturdivant hitting the portal was inevitable, unfortunately. If anything, I’m surprised he didn’t do it sooner to be quite honest. I was holding out hope the big 3 (ott, sturdivant, and hunter) would remain intact but that did not happen. The NIL money is a real concern. You would think that with Silicon Valley in the backyard that there would be more money thrown at the program to induce athletes to stay.
What CAL needs right now is a QB or two and a more offensive line pieces. The RB’s at CAL with the addition of the new RB CAL was able to poach from Stanfurd has the potential to be lynch-Forsett like. If cal can get a few more pieces to shore up the offensive line then they can at least control games with this talent in the backfield and stay competitive. I’m not sure spavital’s offense caters to ball control as the bear raid is a spread offense and more up tempos so it will be interesting to see how he utilities this talented backfield.
I think it's always hard to judge early on how good a highly regarded high school athlete will be at the college level. The difference between HS and college is hard to comprehend for most, but the difference from HS to Power 5 is YUGE. Teams try to recruit more 4* and 5* athletes knowing that when the ones who don't perform fall out that the ones who rise to the top end up being the best. (Look at Brock Bowers a TE from GA...he started as a freshman and all the other older 4 and 5 stars are sitting behind him or are in the portal.). In the end football is pure: it's all about production. The guy who gets the job done plays. If Terry couldn't win the starting role at CAL I wonder where he will win a starting role. Terry has all the attributes that you want in a star TE, but tall and slender Latu blocks better and catches better than 4* Terry. One of the reasons I don't put to much stock in the rankings is because sometimes an experienced 3* player in the Portal is better than a 4* or 5* player without much experience. And, you can be sure that at least our coaches watch film on every one of the Portal players they are considering before they offer them. Often a solid 3* with experience that fits our system will be a better pick than the 4* or 5*. Remember, it's about building an effective team, not just picking great athletes.
I think Latu and Elija Mojarro 'started' plenty of games as well. What I am saying is that there was no clear starter at TE. Different TE's were on the field depending on the situation. None of the TE's clearly separated themselves from the others to be an every down player. Terry may yet prove to be a real talent at TE, but for sure what he has done in the last two years did not come close to what his recruiting hype said he was capable of (sorry for the poor grammar).
Okay I can agree with that. With his talent, he should be the clear featured TE on the team.
He was always used in blocking or caught passes in the flat and his strengths were never utilized. I don't know how much of that was coaching scheme or his lack of abilities, but I definitely wished he had caught more passes down field and scored several touchdowns.
I don't disagree with you but watching him on film showed that he was not a good blocker, which is disappointing when you consider his size and athleticism. Latu was actually a better blocker, and I think Latu was a better receiver. If Terry had shown ability in practice he would have received more balls coming his way; coaches always want to get the ball in the playmakers hands. I just think he is one of those Tarzan/Jane guys....looks like Tarzan plays like Jane. I wish him the best and hope he proves me wrong, but over two years he has not done anything that I would have expected from a guy so highly ranked and recruited. Just look at Brock Bowers who was in the same class.
I agree with all of your points. If he really showed the abilities in practice then I'm sure he would have been used more in the passing game. He would be a matchup nightmare and a real weapon on offense. Whether that was him or lack of coaching I don't know, but it's disappointing he couldn't do what we all expected at Cal.
This is starting to get ridiculous. Rivals has confirmed that Jermaine Terry is also transferring. Holy shit, things must be BAD for so many players to be hitting the portal. I never thought that I would say this but if Cal doesn't get serious about improving all aspects of the football program, then we may as well cut it loose. Seriously, what's the point of even having a football or basketball team if their only function is to provide wins for somebody else? On the other hand, I'm old enough to remember when Cal beat Rutgers to escape the shame of being the absolute worst football team in college football (we finished 1-11, Rutgers went 0-12) and we were able to become respectable during the Tedford years. I guess that this means that anything is possible and that we can rise again from our current depths.
Perhaps he will flourish on another team but while at Cal, he was a low level contributor that had more than his share of penalties versus snaps played. Honestly I think he is playing the wrong position and on the wrong side of the LOS. He likely has a better chance for the League on the DL. If I were advising him ~ I'm not ~ that is what I would recommend.
Hard disagree. He’s a pro style TE, not a pure blocker. We just don’t use pro style TEs. He’ll go somewhere that will let him run real routes and play in space like a modern TE and he’ll do well.
I don't watch the pro game much until the conference championships and SB so I don't know much about the pro style TE but that TE for Kansas City is pretty good and I think the 9ers had one as well. Terry does not strike me as either of those two. But if Terry is, in fact, a pro style TE it is a damn shame Musgrave, a pro OC, could not figure out how to use him!!
I wish Terry the best and hoped he would have stayed but in this age of NIL, it is understandable that kids will take the best deal available.
Wilcox's complete under-utilization of the tight end position has been a major gripe of mine for basically his entire tenure. We have had so much wasted talent there, especially over the last couple years. I thought he finally figured something out in the first quarter of last year's (2021) Oregon game when we were absolutely mauling them, but then we immediately reverted to ignoring the tight ends. Infuriating.
"Wilcox's complete under-utilization of the tight end position has been a major gripe of mine for basically his entire tenure. "
Last year tight ends were extremely under-utilized and it was really frustrating because we all hoped to see a breakout season from Terry, but years before that we used tight ends in the passing game more than ever before, which makes it even more puzzling why Wilcox/Musgrave went away from it this past season.
I went back and checked the stats and it looks like the tight ends had 42 total receptions in 2021 with Tonges accounting for 22 of those. Decent I guess, but still under four a game for the position group as a whole. Tonges was such a big target and a matchup nightmare; still feel like we could have done so much more to involve him in the offense.
Kids come and go. Maybe the change works out for them, maybe it doesn't, and that's for them to decide. The reverse is the same for the teams. Not denying this is a big loss, but either pony up the money (if that really is the case) or learn to deal with this new reality. College football as we've known it is gone. I'll cheer for whoever suits up in August.
For players that leave via poaching...err the portal, teams should receive a transfer fee like they have for pro soccer in Europe. Yeah, that's the ticket!!
For those of you blaming Wilcox and the bad year...stop. J Mike is getting money whipped, reportedly 2x his current NIL haul. Now that he is in the portal, Miami and others have jumped in so his price is getting jacked even higher. I suspect the Cal backers are passing the hat to see if they can hold onto him but until we find a Casey Wasserman, who is single handedly bankrolling UCLA's NIL, this kind of stuff will happen. If we want a bright side? WR is the easiest position to fill with talented replacements. Maybe not J Mike good but not FCS level either.
In a vacuum, sure, blaming Wilcox for this transfer is the wrong move. But this transfer, combined with all of the other transfers, combined with all of the losing post-covid, combined with the continued failures at OC, combined with the recruiting that's fallen off a cliff, combined with the poor player development at crucial positions (namely QB and OL), all kiiiiiinda makes me want to blame Wilcox. And as I write this, Jermaine Terry has hit the portal. How's that '21 class lookin now? Yeah I'm gonna go ahead and keep blaming Wilcox given he's in charge of all of this.
Cal really needs to embrace NIL. There's plenty of money in the Bay Area (and other things, like stock) that can be very valuable. We should be able to financially blow other programs out of the water, particularly the football-rich, resource-poor states like those of the SEC. Alums of both Cal and Stanford have tuned out of football and are apathetic. Partly the problem is lack of winning and no tradition. The Bay Area market loves winners, just look at how the Dubs started raking in the dough 5 years back.
Seems like many people on this thread are complaining about NIL and the money … stop complaining and open your checkbooks otherwise let me get you some cheese to go with your whine
This one really hurts not only because he's our best receiver, but also because it's been a few weeks since Spavital was hired. If he was frustrated with the Musgrave offense and is leaving Cal that's understandable and no one can blame him, but he's leaving after we made an upgrade in the offensive coaching staff. He knows Spavital will be calling plays next season and he's not convinced. That's sad.
By all indications, he’s not going to a traditional blue blood, and the kid does have serious ability. He may not put up otherworldly numbers in a predominantly run-first system, but I don’t expect him to be a forgotten guy like D-Rob…that UGA WR room was loaded.
There is no good way to spin this, only mitigating factors for the upcoming season... WR is the deepest room on the team, and Hunter is our best WR (although JMike will likely eclipse him once it's all said and done). This makes us worse, but likely doesn't mean much in the W-L column.
The worse news is the reality check that we are officially a farm team and we are going to hemorrhage our halfway decent players every single year. It will be near impossible to be competitive under those circumstances.
You can survive the loss of J Mike, as next year’s tough schedule will be made or broken by the O and D lines, not a WR, even one as talented as Sturdivant.
But what losing a player of his caliber represents, and that of Latu, on the heels of Mettauer bolting last year, is just a really bad sign all around. Wilcox’s program doesn’t have the culture in place to simply reload each year with portal guys…there’s no system he can rely on to plug and play guys…this isn’t Alabama, tOSU or UGA…he’s simply not a winner.
Sturdivant hitting the portal was inevitable, unfortunately. If anything, I’m surprised he didn’t do it sooner to be quite honest. I was holding out hope the big 3 (ott, sturdivant, and hunter) would remain intact but that did not happen. The NIL money is a real concern. You would think that with Silicon Valley in the backyard that there would be more money thrown at the program to induce athletes to stay.
What CAL needs right now is a QB or two and a more offensive line pieces. The RB’s at CAL with the addition of the new RB CAL was able to poach from Stanfurd has the potential to be lynch-Forsett like. If cal can get a few more pieces to shore up the offensive line then they can at least control games with this talent in the backfield and stay competitive. I’m not sure spavital’s offense caters to ball control as the bear raid is a spread offense and more up tempos so it will be interesting to see how he utilities this talented backfield.
I think it's always hard to judge early on how good a highly regarded high school athlete will be at the college level. The difference between HS and college is hard to comprehend for most, but the difference from HS to Power 5 is YUGE. Teams try to recruit more 4* and 5* athletes knowing that when the ones who don't perform fall out that the ones who rise to the top end up being the best. (Look at Brock Bowers a TE from GA...he started as a freshman and all the other older 4 and 5 stars are sitting behind him or are in the portal.). In the end football is pure: it's all about production. The guy who gets the job done plays. If Terry couldn't win the starting role at CAL I wonder where he will win a starting role. Terry has all the attributes that you want in a star TE, but tall and slender Latu blocks better and catches better than 4* Terry. One of the reasons I don't put to much stock in the rankings is because sometimes an experienced 3* player in the Portal is better than a 4* or 5* player without much experience. And, you can be sure that at least our coaches watch film on every one of the Portal players they are considering before they offer them. Often a solid 3* with experience that fits our system will be a better pick than the 4* or 5*. Remember, it's about building an effective team, not just picking great athletes.
What are you talking about? He started most if not all games last year at Cal.
I think Latu and Elija Mojarro 'started' plenty of games as well. What I am saying is that there was no clear starter at TE. Different TE's were on the field depending on the situation. None of the TE's clearly separated themselves from the others to be an every down player. Terry may yet prove to be a real talent at TE, but for sure what he has done in the last two years did not come close to what his recruiting hype said he was capable of (sorry for the poor grammar).
Okay I can agree with that. With his talent, he should be the clear featured TE on the team.
He was always used in blocking or caught passes in the flat and his strengths were never utilized. I don't know how much of that was coaching scheme or his lack of abilities, but I definitely wished he had caught more passes down field and scored several touchdowns.
I don't disagree with you but watching him on film showed that he was not a good blocker, which is disappointing when you consider his size and athleticism. Latu was actually a better blocker, and I think Latu was a better receiver. If Terry had shown ability in practice he would have received more balls coming his way; coaches always want to get the ball in the playmakers hands. I just think he is one of those Tarzan/Jane guys....looks like Tarzan plays like Jane. I wish him the best and hope he proves me wrong, but over two years he has not done anything that I would have expected from a guy so highly ranked and recruited. Just look at Brock Bowers who was in the same class.
I agree with all of your points. If he really showed the abilities in practice then I'm sure he would have been used more in the passing game. He would be a matchup nightmare and a real weapon on offense. Whether that was him or lack of coaching I don't know, but it's disappointing he couldn't do what we all expected at Cal.
This is starting to get ridiculous. Rivals has confirmed that Jermaine Terry is also transferring. Holy shit, things must be BAD for so many players to be hitting the portal. I never thought that I would say this but if Cal doesn't get serious about improving all aspects of the football program, then we may as well cut it loose. Seriously, what's the point of even having a football or basketball team if their only function is to provide wins for somebody else? On the other hand, I'm old enough to remember when Cal beat Rutgers to escape the shame of being the absolute worst football team in college football (we finished 1-11, Rutgers went 0-12) and we were able to become respectable during the Tedford years. I guess that this means that anything is possible and that we can rise again from our current depths.
Looks like OSU TE, JT Byrne is transferring to Cal:
https://www.si.com/college/cal/news/tight-end-byrne
Also, Spav has his 1st recruit, QB Brady Weingart from Redwood, Larkspur
This is now a crisis. https://247sports.com/Article/Cal-TE-Jermaine-Terry-to-enter-NCAA-transfer-portal-Top-200-recruit-for-2021-leaving-Bears-after-two-seasons-202215407/
Yeesh. TEs were severely underused under Wilcox. Spavital may be an Air Raid guy but he uses a Y receiver.
Unless this is NIL-related, then we're boned.
Perhaps he will flourish on another team but while at Cal, he was a low level contributor that had more than his share of penalties versus snaps played. Honestly I think he is playing the wrong position and on the wrong side of the LOS. He likely has a better chance for the League on the DL. If I were advising him ~ I'm not ~ that is what I would recommend.
Hard disagree. He’s a pro style TE, not a pure blocker. We just don’t use pro style TEs. He’ll go somewhere that will let him run real routes and play in space like a modern TE and he’ll do well.
I don't watch the pro game much until the conference championships and SB so I don't know much about the pro style TE but that TE for Kansas City is pretty good and I think the 9ers had one as well. Terry does not strike me as either of those two. But if Terry is, in fact, a pro style TE it is a damn shame Musgrave, a pro OC, could not figure out how to use him!!
I wish Terry the best and hoped he would have stayed but in this age of NIL, it is understandable that kids will take the best deal available.
Wilcox's complete under-utilization of the tight end position has been a major gripe of mine for basically his entire tenure. We have had so much wasted talent there, especially over the last couple years. I thought he finally figured something out in the first quarter of last year's (2021) Oregon game when we were absolutely mauling them, but then we immediately reverted to ignoring the tight ends. Infuriating.
"Wilcox's complete under-utilization of the tight end position has been a major gripe of mine for basically his entire tenure. "
Last year tight ends were extremely under-utilized and it was really frustrating because we all hoped to see a breakout season from Terry, but years before that we used tight ends in the passing game more than ever before, which makes it even more puzzling why Wilcox/Musgrave went away from it this past season.
I went back and checked the stats and it looks like the tight ends had 42 total receptions in 2021 with Tonges accounting for 22 of those. Decent I guess, but still under four a game for the position group as a whole. Tonges was such a big target and a matchup nightmare; still feel like we could have done so much more to involve him in the offense.
Kids come and go. Maybe the change works out for them, maybe it doesn't, and that's for them to decide. The reverse is the same for the teams. Not denying this is a big loss, but either pony up the money (if that really is the case) or learn to deal with this new reality. College football as we've known it is gone. I'll cheer for whoever suits up in August.
For players that leave via poaching...err the portal, teams should receive a transfer fee like they have for pro soccer in Europe. Yeah, that's the ticket!!
Then our AD would be start selling all our good players to raise money for the department....
WHAT?? Hasn't he been fired yet??
Wouldn't that be nice, lol.
annnnnddddd Jermaine Terry to the portal
Whaaat
For those of you blaming Wilcox and the bad year...stop. J Mike is getting money whipped, reportedly 2x his current NIL haul. Now that he is in the portal, Miami and others have jumped in so his price is getting jacked even higher. I suspect the Cal backers are passing the hat to see if they can hold onto him but until we find a Casey Wasserman, who is single handedly bankrolling UCLA's NIL, this kind of stuff will happen. If we want a bright side? WR is the easiest position to fill with talented replacements. Maybe not J Mike good but not FCS level either.
In a vacuum, sure, blaming Wilcox for this transfer is the wrong move. But this transfer, combined with all of the other transfers, combined with all of the losing post-covid, combined with the continued failures at OC, combined with the recruiting that's fallen off a cliff, combined with the poor player development at crucial positions (namely QB and OL), all kiiiiiinda makes me want to blame Wilcox. And as I write this, Jermaine Terry has hit the portal. How's that '21 class lookin now? Yeah I'm gonna go ahead and keep blaming Wilcox given he's in charge of all of this.
Well said, FS.
Mason Starling for a full season would be solid news as well...he can help.
Cal really needs to embrace NIL. There's plenty of money in the Bay Area (and other things, like stock) that can be very valuable. We should be able to financially blow other programs out of the water, particularly the football-rich, resource-poor states like those of the SEC. Alums of both Cal and Stanford have tuned out of football and are apathetic. Partly the problem is lack of winning and no tradition. The Bay Area market loves winners, just look at how the Dubs started raking in the dough 5 years back.
Seems like many people on this thread are complaining about NIL and the money … stop complaining and open your checkbooks otherwise let me get you some cheese to go with your whine
With Hayes and now JMike leaving, Cal has lost something you can't coach: speed.
I do wonder if teams were poaching JMike??
uhhhh, all of our best players are getting tampered with. That is happening at every school as well.
Rampant tampering.
This one really hurts not only because he's our best receiver, but also because it's been a few weeks since Spavital was hired. If he was frustrated with the Musgrave offense and is leaving Cal that's understandable and no one can blame him, but he's leaving after we made an upgrade in the offensive coaching staff. He knows Spavital will be calling plays next season and he's not convinced. That's sad.
Crap….
Well, he could very well turn into Demetris Robertson--50 catches as a freshman, 42 total catches over 3 seasons at his transfer spot, Georgia.
I can't help but think he'll simply be buried on one of the blue bloods' depth chart, tbh...
By all indications, he’s not going to a traditional blue blood, and the kid does have serious ability. He may not put up otherworldly numbers in a predominantly run-first system, but I don’t expect him to be a forgotten guy like D-Rob…that UGA WR room was loaded.
There is no good way to spin this, only mitigating factors for the upcoming season... WR is the deepest room on the team, and Hunter is our best WR (although JMike will likely eclipse him once it's all said and done). This makes us worse, but likely doesn't mean much in the W-L column.
The worse news is the reality check that we are officially a farm team and we are going to hemorrhage our halfway decent players every single year. It will be near impossible to be competitive under those circumstances.
Exactly.
You can survive the loss of J Mike, as next year’s tough schedule will be made or broken by the O and D lines, not a WR, even one as talented as Sturdivant.
But what losing a player of his caliber represents, and that of Latu, on the heels of Mettauer bolting last year, is just a really bad sign all around. Wilcox’s program doesn’t have the culture in place to simply reload each year with portal guys…there’s no system he can rely on to plug and play guys…this isn’t Alabama, tOSU or UGA…he’s simply not a winner.
This is a really bad news.
Who knows if Hunter will be at Cal next season