Cal Football: 5 Reasons Golden Bears Have Pac-12's Top Recruiting Class

When the 2011 college football season came to a close for the Golden Bears, their record stood at 7-6 (4-5 conference).

The pedestrian season highlighted some holes that needed to be filled on both sides of the ball. So far, the Golden Bears hard work in recruiting is paying off in a big way—with the best recruiting class in the Pac-12.

The biggest edge that the Golden Bears have in the Pac-12 is their overall recruiting class strength.

They have more commits than any other school in the Pac-12, other than Oregon and UCLA, only one of their committed recruits is rated less than a three-star. Only USC has more ESPNU 150 Commits with four, to the Bears three.

The Golden Bear’s class on the other hand is much more balanced with eight four-star and seven three-star recruits. The top recruits for the Bears this year are led by No. 16 on the ESPNU 150 list Shaq Thompson. Recruits Zach Kline and Darius Powe are also ranked among the top 150 prospects.

Cal is doing better than the rest of the Pac-12, because they have had strong recruiting in the positions that they are weakest.

This past year both its offense and defense struggled against top 25 teams, giving up 95 points while only scoring 53 in its three games against ranked competition.

In hope to change this trend in the next few years the Golden Bears have a very diverse class, receiving commitments from players in eight different positions, mostly on the offensive side (12 athletes). There are three different positions that the Bears focused on that will make an immediate impact, detailed over the next three slides.

The position that the Golden Bears recruiting class will help the most is safety. The addition and commitment of Shaq Thompson and Damariay Drew will help decrease the 24.2 points allowed per game, which was 48^th in the FBS. Shaq Thompson will be able to make an immediate impact on the defensive side of things, at safety.

The second is their offensive line. Adding three 300-plus pounders in Christian Okafur, Freddie Tagaloa, and Matthew Cochran, the Bears should be able to better protect the quarterback.

In 2011, the Bears' offensive line allowed 27 sacks, which ranked  74^th in the FBS. These three commitments should help reduce that number, making it easier for the quarterback to run the offense.

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The last position the Bears have upgraded is quarterback. where commit Zach Kline, with a good fall camp, could make a case to be the starter over senior Zach Maynard.

If Kline doesn’t win the starting job, he will be solid as a backup.

It will be some time before these additions make a noticeable impact, but for now—at least on paper—the Golden Bears seem poised to become a force once again in the Pac-12.