Golden Nuggets: Losing makes recruiting hard (shocker!) and Golf's Michael Kim is #1!

It's hard for a losing team to recruit. I'm sorry for destroying your reality with that mind-blowing news.

By Leland Wong Dec 15, 2013, 3:00am PST

A losing football team doesn't ingratiate you with recruits. I normally warn people to sit down before delivering shocking news, but something like this is so unbelievable that I know it wouldn't make a difference if you were sitting or standing. Hopefully the mess isn't too much for you to clean up after your mind being blown like this.

Signing day is Feb. 5, and the early returns aren't encouraging. Cal already has lost two top committed high school players, several more are wavering, and the Bay Area's No. 1 prospect hasn't decided where he'll go.

Brandon Huffman, national recruiting analyst for Scout.com, says the Bears' belly-flop season is the culprit.

"It had the potential to be so much better," Huffman said. "There was a lot of traction when Sonny Dykes was hired, with NorCal kids especially. Now those kids aren't even thinking twice about Cal."

Scout rates Cal's current list of 11 oral commitments as the No. 59 recruiting class in the nation. Over the past five years, the Bears have finished no worse than No. 39 nationally.

The article discusses players once committed to Cal who have since switched commitments (CB Jaleel Wadood committing to UCLA), players who remain (mostly) firm in their decision to come to Cal (RB Tre Watson) and undecided players who still see something appealing about this situation (RB Joe Mixon).