Texas OLB/DE Marqez Bimage Joins the Bears as a Transfer Walk-On
The Bears add a former Longhorn to their defensive ranks.
Longhorn state defensive line transfer arrived on campus earlier this year and has showed up on the 2021 roster as an OLB.
Bimage was a 2017 3*(247)/4*(Rivals) out of Texas who held offers from Baylor, Cal, LSU, and Utah. Initially, he was committed to Houston only to flip to the Texas Longhorns. He started as a true freshman for Tom Herman’s defense, he opted out of the 2020 Covid season prior to transferring.
He was expected to be a big contributor to the 2021 Texas defense as an edge player, per Burnt Orange Nation:
A 6’2, 251-pounder and one-time Houston commit who followed Tom Herman to Austin in 2017, Bimage spent the 2020 offseason dropping weight to make the transition from playing heads up against offensive tackles to getting the opportunity to more frequently play on the edge. Ultimately, the Brenham product lost 20 pounds in an effort to capitalize on the flashes that he showed late in 2019 when he was able to use his speed and explosiveness against Texas Tech to force a strip-sack and add another quarterback hurry.
Looking at the above quote and how the Cal defense operates with its OLBs, we can look to him to compete for the Big OLB (Tevin Paul/Braxten Croteaux spot) opposite of the Cam Goode spot. He tried playing at 270 lbs in 2019 as a 4i (lined up on a Tackle’s inside shoulder) DE but opted to slim down to go back to being a stand-up OLB.
Fun fact: one of Bimage’s hobbies is doing magic! (Sources say it was a tough decision between Cal football and Hogwart’s #1 ranked quidditch team.)
While at Texas he was also a weight room beast with the video below of him quarter-squatting 700 lbs.
I wouldn't get too excited. He left Texas to come to CAL as a walk on? He might be an athlete, but there are some issues there. I hope he is able to leave them behind and live up to his potential.
What is quidditch, is it an Olympic sport??