Cal Football: T.J. Bush, Nick Morrow & Leon Bell Enter Transfer Portal
Several key California Golden Bear rotation players are on the market.
The transfer portal kicks off this Friday, but the leaks are already starting to trickle. Several California Golden Bears have already made their intentions known to enter the portal, and we can expect more to follow.
As you’d expect, the linemen are the first ones to make their intentions known, as the offers will be flying across college football.
Nick Morrow (offensive tackle)
Cal’s starting left tackle is in the portal. After converting from tight end, Morrow has started most of the last two seasons protecting the edge. Unfortunately, Cal ranked near the bottom of college football in 2025 in sacks allowed, and were worse in 2024, so there is still definitely a lot of development required for Morrow to get to where he needs. Morrow did also struggle with injury issues that likely hampered his ability to protect Fernando Mendoza and Jaron-Keawe Sagapolutele.
If he can put it together athletically, there is a lot to like, so it makes sense for Morrow to test his value in the portal. I’d expect Cal to try and get him a proper offer to come back if they can.
T.J. Bush (defensive end)
Cal’s starting edge rusher is in the portal. After Ryan McCulloch was lost for the season to injury, the Liberty transfer stepped up and led the Golden Bears with 5.5 sacks and was second on the team with 10.5 tackles for loss. However, that level of edge disruption was always going to attract attention, so he is testing the waters.
It wouldn’t be a surprise if Cal tried their best to retain him, but it’ll be a bidder’s market for his services.
Leon Bell (offensive tackle)
Another Cal offensive tackle is in the portal. Bell transferred in last year and started at right tackle for much of the season, but when given the task to protect Jaron-Keawe Sagapolutele’s blind side, he had his troubles in ACC play and did not play much after the Virginia game, when Braden Miller took over.
This is your regular reminder that entering the transfer portal does not mean these players are gone. A few players have entered and returned to Cal. For now, consider this essentially the college football free agency period, where players will be courting offers, then making the best decision available to them. And we’d expect Cal to offer many players who end up entering the portal.
After a disappointing 7-6 campaign, you can expect Cal to be turning over quite a bit, as they look to remake the roster for Tosh Lupoi’s first season. It’s going to be a noisy period ahead.
Cal needed to upgrade on both the offensive and defensive lines.
This is a good start.
TJ would be too bad to lose, but just in the limited search I’ve done of the players so far declared for the transfer portal (very few) there are already a couple of “edge rushers” who are rated 93-95. TJ would have been an 88-89 and unproven at P4 level. Have no idea if these 92+ edge guys can satisfy Cal’s academic standards but just sayin there are already some studs out there to recruit.