What was the most important recruiting class in Cal history?

Trace Travers: Oddly enough, 2003 Cal Football produced a number of notable Bears

JJ Arrington - 2000 yard rusher in 04
Garrett Cross - see Lindsay's story, solid target for Aaron Rodgers
Thomas Decoud - hard hitting safety, played lots for the Falcons, played the meow game on an ESPN interview
Matt Giordano - Solid safety, made a long career with the Colts and Raiders
Daymeion Hughes - Lockdown corner at Cal
Brandon Mebane - Great DT for the Seahawks
Ryan Riddle - I think he holds the Cal record for most sacks in a season
Aaron Rodgers - Jeopardy champ
Craig Stevens - Has stayed with the Titans for a while

Also, the 2005 Class gave us Joe Ayoob. Never forget.

Ruey Yen: That's paper airplane throwing world record holder, Joe Ayoob.

Avinash Kunnath: I'd say the 2006 Cal basketball class ended up producing the most important sea change, because it set up all the dominoes for the Bears to win the Pac-10 in 2010. It had three dynamo recruits in Jerome Randle, Ryan Anderson and Patrick Christopher. The backcourt of Randle and Christopher would become unstoppable offensively by their junior years. Anderson was so good that he went two-and-done and gave Cal at least a recent selling point in terms of producing NBA draft prospects. Also (and I'm cheating) I believe Jamal Boykin transferred in midseason after all of this (even though technically he was for 2007).

Additionally, Ben Braun screwed up so badly with all that talent (including a dynamo like Anderson) that the Bears ended up canning him and hiring Monty. It was a curse and a blessing.

Vincent S: I completely agree re: 2006 recruiting class. Braun went on to middling results at Rice, where he became involved in a scandal that saw the departure of several international players (e.g. Arsalan Kazemi). We got Monty and a conference championship.