Cal Football: Bears send multiple offensive line offers to immediate transfer talent
Cal handed out several offers to potential offensive linemen
Cal has a few urgent positions of need in the spring transfer portal, including quarterback.
But the earliest news from this portal cycle has come from the offensive line, where Cal remains thin. At the moment there has only been one offensive linemen inbound in Martin Tine, when last year indicated it was a critical position of need. Offensive line coach Mike Bloesch is definitely not standing pat though.
Houston transfer Cam’Ron Johnson showed early interest in the Bears, but appears to be down to Missouri and USC. So in the past few days, a few offers have been handed out. Let’s take a look at some of the names.
Wyoming offensive lineman Emmanuel Pregnon
Pregnon is arguably the most talented prospect on the market, landing offers from basically everywhere the moment he entered the portal this past week. More on Pregnon from 247Sports:
"Pregnon has intriguing capabilities as an interior lineman with ideal body structure and movement skills," says 247Sports national analyst Clint Brewster. "He plays with the willingness to bury people in the run game and shows outstanding effort in pass sets. Pregnon is still very raw which gives him exciting potential. He has ability to be an upper-tier offensive guard in college football if he continues to grow in terms of technique, leverage, and awareness. He's quickly becoming one of the most coveted transfers in this window."
He’s at 20 offers and counting, including Cal. The names the Bears will be competing against (Oregon, LSU, USC, Texas A&M and Penn State) will be stiff, so it’d be a recruiting coup if Cal can get in the mix here.
Tulsa offensive lineman Jaden Muskrat
Muskrat is another offensive lineman picking up a host of buzz after entering the portal, and Cal was one of the many to offer. More from 247Sports:
Muskrat (6-3, 307) played in 20 games during his three-year career at Tulsa. He started in 11 games at right tackle last season, allowing just three sacks in 848 snaps.
Since Muskrat entered the NCAA Transfer Portal on Saturday, Auburn, California, Penn State, Virginia Tech, Arkansas and Cincinnati have offered. He has three seasons of eligibility remaining.
Muskrat was recruited strongly by Bloesch at North Texas, so you have to image a pretty strong connection here. But competition will be stiff.
Houston offensive lineman Trevonte Sylvester
With Johnson likely no longer a viable target for the Bears, Cal will look at one of his teammates Trevonte Sylvester, who they offered earlier this week. Some of his most recent tape is available here. Purdue and Louisville have also extended offers.
Sylvester saw some action for the Cougars last season as the backup left tackle.
72 snaps on field goal/extra points
42 snaps at left tackle including 33 in win vs. Rice (Sept. 24)
Helped Cougars to 427 yards of total offense vs. Rice
No sacks or quarterback hits allowed (16 opportunities)
OL was clearly our Achilles heel last year. We must have led league in 3 and outs. This meant the defense was on the field far too long and we consistently got dominated in time of possession. When the D is on the field too long, it all comes home to roost in the 4th quarter. We lost almost every 4th quarter last year.
Given that, I was shocked we signed no OL prospects in the spring recruiting class. And the OL deficiency continues to be palpable as we saw in the spring game. We're still not there yet. We have some wonderful skill players, but if we can't block for them our 'O' is still going to be a 3 and out machine. If we don't fix the OL I would expect another 4-8 season.
Doing what we need to do. Based on how people described practice sessions, improved OL coaching alone won't get us where we need to be. Musgrave and McClure Foxed up big time.