Cal offensive line news: Spencer Lovell transfers, Matt Cindric to return, Ben Coleman to ASU
There is a lot of upheaval up front for the Bears.
Cal lost two season opening offensive line starters this offseason.
Offensive guard Ben Coleman chose to see what was out there, and ended up at Arizona State. Coleman did get his degree from UC Berkeley though!
Some additional holiday transfer news came in after Christmas: Cal offensive lineman Spencer Lovell has entered the transfer portal after only a year with the Bears.
Lovell joined Cal from Arizona State and started the first three games before missing the rest of the year with injury. It was a tough blow and did significantly impact the effectiveness of the offensive line.
There is one good piece of news: At his National Signing Day conference, Justin Wilcox did indicate that offensive center Matthew Cindric is set to return for his sixth year of eligibility. Cindric was one of Cal’s few well-performing linemen before he suffered a season-ending injury at Colorado.
Unless portal help arrives the next few months, Cal’s offensive line is going to be in a very patchwork state next season. Offensive line coach Mike Bloesch has his work cut out for him.
Before anyone panics, this is a summary post, not new DOOOOOOOM news. These have been both known for a while, at least (Coleman entered 11/29 and Lovell 12/26 for those who skip the text). We don't know how transfer recruitment is going behind the scenes but we need to actually significantly IMPROVE this year. Just maintaining OL performance would be a failure.
When we lost Lovell we put in true freshman Vatikani, shuffled RG and LG and the line improvement in my opinion. I hope Vatikani doesn't transfer.