Cal slips to No. 5 in Pac-12 Recruiting Rankings

Your California Golden Bears have received just one pledge for the class of 2021 in two months. While their total of eight commitments for this class among the most in the Pac-12, their average recruiting ranking and total points accumulated via the 247Sports calculator have seen them stay relatively as stagnant as their bits of commitment news have.

Only Fatuvalu Iosefa has committed to Cal since April, pledging on June 12, and his three-star status did enough to keep the Bears above their conference rivals at that time.

However, after a great weekend of recruiting from the majority of the conference, Cal saw their ranking slip two spots, out of the top three.

Washington and UCLA passed the Golden Bears with great weekends of commitments and the USC Trojans and Oregon Ducks cemented their places at No. 1 and No. 2, respectively, in the conference.

Washington and UCLA both reached double-digit commitments and UCLA’s hot streak continued. The Bruins have now seen as many total commitments as Cal has for this class come within just the past month alone. Their latest was their second four-star recruit in Thomas Cole, a tackle prospect that Cal had offered.

The Huskies saw a commitment from 4-star safety Will Latu, boosting them up two spots into No. 3, where Cal had previously been ranked. One of the reasons for their jump was the commitment of CB Dyson McCutcheon, who Cal had also offered.

I bring up the fact that California prospects committing to other conference schools is not a good sign for the Bears. Despite offers from Cal and head coach Justin Wilcox, these players are staying on the west coast and not attending Cal. It’s not all bad, though, because half of the class currently is from California and three of the four remaining committed athletes all hail from ‘west’ states.

Cal will have to hope to continue to bring in these nearby athletes, especially those who may have been able to already get on campus prior to the coronavirus shutdown. The Bears have reportedly offered 101 scholarships for this class, so the work is most certainly being done.

It’s also only June, but it is also already summer. Most student-athletes around the country are going to start gearing up for their returns to their high school campuses for summer workouts and the recruiting journey typically takes a pause for some of the top athletes in the class.

We’ll see, and absolutely this is not something to be too worried about, but certainly is something to be thought of going forward in case the tides do turn. One way or another.