Cal football spring roster: Early enrollees, new arrivals and departures

The Cal football spring roster has been out for awhile. Some quick updates on who the Bears will have arriving and not have returning for next season.

• Cal currently has three early enrollees as freshman: Cornerback Elijah Hicks, wide receiver Taariq Johnson and defensive lineman Gabe Cherry.
• Cal has one early JUCO enrollee: Defensive lineman Alex Funches.
• Cal has a greyshirt scholarship arriving: Offensive lineman Daniel Juarez.
• Cal has an additional freshman face in Antioch (Ca.) Christian Rodriguez joining the team this spring as a kicker/punter.

Here are the players that Cal is losing from last year’s team due to non-graduation matters.

• Offensive tackle Aaron Cochran has been granted the ability graduate transfer.
• Wide receiver Jack Austin graduated with a year of eligibility remaining. He was one of the many football players who walked on Senior Night against UCLA.
• Defensive back Antoine Albert is also out. Albert didn’t register any counting stats in 2016, so I believe he redshirted last season and had a year of eligibility remaining, but he isn’t on the roster.
• Defensive end Kennedy Emesibe hasn’t played any significant time at Cal (one tackle in 2014, one tackle in 2015), and appears to have also left the program.
• Offensive lineman Vincent Johnson appears to be out. He’s spent much of his career as a backup tackle and seen occasional snaps, but has never registered any starts.
• Defensive tackle Chris Yaghi. Yaghi burned his redshirt somewhere in mid-October, but didn’t have any major contributions his freshman season. It appears as if he will not be with the team this spring.