College Football Recruiting: Fullback Drew Schlegel Announces His Grad-Transfer to Cal
The Bears address a position of need in the new offense.
In rather surprising news, it seems like the Golden Bears have picked up a grad transfer despite the postponement of the Pac-12 season—just hours after we learned a beloved Bear would be grad-transferring out of the program.
Kentucky’s Drew Schlegel took to Twitter to announce that he will be grad-transferring to California. Schlegel was a walk-on tight end/fullback for the Wildcats; however, his Twitter bio describes himself as a fullback and that is certainly a position where the Bears are a tad bit inexperienced.
Cal’s 2018 team famously featured fan-fave fullback Malik McMorris, but the position was not heavily used under Beau Baldwin’s offense and there were no players officially listed as a fullback in 2019. With the Musgrave offense (hopefully) debuting soon, news broke that fullbacks would be returning to the gameplan with Zach Angelillo switching from inside linebacker to be our sole fullback.
Looks like he won’t be so lonely anymore with Schlegel joining the team. Schlegel played in all 13 of Kentucky’s games last year, “mainly in a special teams role”; he has one career reception (against Florida last year, for 12 yards) and returned two kicks last year. As a member of the SEC Fall Honor Roll in 2017–2019 and a member of Kentucky’s Dean’s List in the Spring of 2017, hopefully he will be well-equipped to handle the rigors of UC Berkeley. He’s not exactly a stranger to the West Coast as he grew up in Colorado and he has a sweet, sweet mullet.
Welcome to Berkeley, Drew!
More on Schlegel from his Kentucky days
https://www.courier-journal.com/story/sports/college/kentucky/2019/08/21/kentucky-football-drew-schlegel-loves-rugby-alpacas-ovc-basketball/2063711001/
"Let’s be clear. Schlegel’s importance for Kentucky runs far deeper than a quirky media guide bio.
He played in 11 games last season, totaling four tackles on special teams and serving a key blocking role in short-yardage situations for the Kentucky offense. As Benny Snell ground out many of Kentucky’s 10 victories last season late in games, it was frequently Schlegel paving the way in front of him.
“When we’re running the ball he’s one of the main guys we put in there,” [TE coach Vince] Marrow said. “He’s a guy that he’s very physical. He starts on all of our special teams. He’s a true throwback fullback. You talk to a lot of our guys, he will smack you.”
...
“He can be whatever he wants to be because he’s a good young man,” Marrow said. “He’s very driven. He really is important to our program. … I think he’s one of those guys that live and die and breathe football. I think people are going to notice now because we’re talking about him, but you’ll see him out there knocking the crap out of people when we play.”"
Already lorded this over my brother! Go Bears!!
Too bad, Cats.