Golden Nuggets: Jeff Tedford Welcomes Khairi Fortt to Cal

It's a great week for the Cal defense: Khairi Fortt is the second linebacker joining the Bears this week after it was announced that Cecil Whiteside has returned to the team. On the eve of fall camp, Tedford is excited to welcome a new member to the team.

"When the NCAA gave Khairi the opportunity to transfer in this instance, he and his family decided to take a look at our program," Tedford said. "We are excited to welcome him to the Cal family."

Fortt, a 6-foot-2, 238-pounder, was expected to compete for the starting middle linebacker job at Penn State this fall. He said the decision became clear after his campus visit last weekend.

"They took me around and I connected with those guys very well," Fortt said. "They seem like great people. The environment there is fantastic and I got a good vibe from going out there."

Fortt will be eligible to play immediately at Cal as current Penn State players are being allowed to transfer without sitting out a year in the wake of NCAA santions against the Nittany Lions following the Jerry Sandusky child-abuse scandal.

Cal begins training camp Saturday.

Fortt , an ESPN top-150 recruit out of high school. said he nearly chose Cal over Penn State at that time, but decided to stay closer to home.

As the players report for camp this weekend, hopefully we get an update on how Fortt's knee is progressing. It is unclear whether or not he will redshirt this season.

Calympics

• Nathan Adrian won the 100m free gold medal by finishing one hundredth of a second ahead of James Magnussen. Dana Vollmer also earned another medal by helping the U.S. team win the 4x200 free.
• Kara Kohler propelled the US to a bronze medal in the women's quad sculls.
• Caitlin Leverenz won a bronze medal in the 200m individual medley.
• The U.S. women's team tied Spain 9-9.
• CalBears.com recaps the Calympians' performances from Wednesday.
• Alex Morgan will lead the U.S. against fellow Bear Betsy Hasset of New Zealand.
• Cal Athletics' Director of High Performance Keith Bower reports from London on how to incorporate the highest level of training regimens into Cal.
• Assistant AD Dan Williams is also in London. CalBears.com catches up with him.

Football

• Former Penn State linebacker Khairi Fortt has made the decision to transfer to Cal.
• ESPN ranks the top-10 rushing attacks in the nation. Cal is conspicuously absent.
• ESPN ranks the nation's ten best receiving corps. Again, Cal is mysteriously absent. I wouldn't be surprised to see Cal left off this list, but Washington State happens to be 9th and their receiving corps consists of Marquess Wilson and a bare cupboard. That sounds a lot like Cal...except Keenan Allen is clearly a better receiver than Wilson. That really rustles my jimmies...
• Surely Cal will place on ESPN's rankings of top-ten D-lines? Nope.
• Ranking the top-5 most overrated and underrated teams of the last five years. One of the great things about Cal's recent slide is that we no longer place on these most overrated lists. That's a good thing, right?
• Ted Miller rounds up the media rankings for each of the Pac-12's OOC opponents. Nevada was picked second in the MWC and Ohio State second in the Leaders division of the Big Ten.