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Remembering Cal football seniors Chris Adcock, Michael Lowe, Alejandro Crosthwaite, Austin Clark

Who's left of the Golden Bears?

By Avinash Kunnath, Trace Travers, Leland Wong, and Nick Kranz
Ezra Shaw/Getty Images

What are your fondest memories of the seniors? Michael Lowe, Chris Adcock, Austin Clark, Alejandro Crosthwaite were our four seniors on the two deep.

Avinash Kunnath: Chris Adcock will be a very tough replacement. The center is the key to the Tony Franklin system even more so than the quarterback, and Adcock stepped admirably into that role for two seasons. When he got hurt in 2013, Cal's offense went into the dumpster, and our chances of winning another football game dwindled to near zero. In 2014 the Cal offense took massive leaps, and I think we have to thank Adcock for being the steady presence in that offense. He ensured the linemen were in position and that the calls came out correctly. Yeoman work from Chris.



Michael Lowe has had a tough three year go at Cal as our starting safety. He has been one of the few Golden Bears to stay relatively healthy and maybe the only Bear in the secondary who got through a season intact. Lowe had to struggle being on reallly bad defenses with inexperienced or overmatched talent. He had to play next to walk-on wide receivers at free safety at times and cover up the mistakes of a linebacking corps that was all over the place in 2013. He had to deal with the Tedford collapse. It could not have been the most fun times. But he made the most of it!

Austin Clark had to perservere through injuries, and Crosthwaite found his way onto the field in his final years. Both were key members of the 2014 squad and did all they could to keep Cal afloat. It's good to see Clark back on the sidelines. It just feels like he could have a bright future with the Bears as an up-and-coming assistant. The man bleeds Cal.

Trace Travers

Chris Adcock: Chris was actually in my first class I went to at Cal, a Nutri Sci discussion that I almost missed because I hadn't looked up where the VLSB was. On the football side of things, Adcock developed into a center who made a bunch of calls on the line. He worked through injury to become a solid starter over his final two years, which is a fantastic topper on a career for a guy who also concentrated on his academics.

Austin Clark: Clark is one the hardest working players I met at Cal. He made amazing strides after coming on as a walk-on, suffering through injuries and Tosh-gate to become a contributor on the defensive line. Him and Mustafa Jalil provided a good push defending against the run last year, even causing a safety together against USC. He earned his way into a recruiting assistant position.



Michael Lowe and Alejandro Crosthwaite: These two guys came in with a 2010 class that was torn asunder for a number of reasons. While both of these guys weren't exactly gamechangers, they stayed for the entirety of their eligibility and became contributors and starters at their position. Lowe had a few more memorable moments, specifically an interception against UCLA in 2012 that sealed the deal on a great win during a horrifying season.

Leland Wong: These are the less-celebrated players who don't get the acknowledgement they deserve for their hard work. Our secondary has been under fire these past few years (both from fan criticism and from opposing quarterbacks...), but Lowe deserves recognition for being a dependable player on the field and being a team captain, leading our young team.

Few fans watch football for offensive-line play, so Adcock is another one of those players who will go unnoticed to most. While the media loves him for his intelligence and academic ambition, he also deserves significant recognition for his impact on the field. Fans probably don't study Adcock's play, but we all remember how the 2013 offense regressed significantly after we lost Adcock to injury.

Thank you to all of our seniors for their dedication and hard work over their careers.



Nick Kranz: I don't really have an individual comment on most of these players. They were generally cursed to play during one of the worst stretches in the history of a program without much success.

What I will say is that these players stuck with the program when they had every opportunity to get the hell out of dodge. The amount of attrition that Cal went through in the Tedford-to-Dykes transition was extreme, which is why we don't have a ton of seniors to talk about right now. These guys saw one era crater miserably and saw another era start brutally, and they stuck through it in spite of it all. And for that they deserve tons of credit. This last year, for the first time since Jahvid went down, we saw tendrils of hope. That wouldn't have been possible without these seniors leading on and off the field.

Lowe, Adcock, Clark and Crosthwaite are survivors of something like a 70-80% attrition rate from their incoming classes. I hope all four are walking away with degrees for their efforts. Whatever Cal achieves this year, they can rightfully say that they helped build the foundation of a program and culture ready to win again.

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