Cal Football: Best and Worst of the Golden Bears' Offseason
Cal Football: Best and Worst of the Golden Bears' Offseason
Cal football didn't have an extremely eventful offseason—something that most coaches want.
The Golden Bears were able to improve by keeping their core players the same, having a good recruiting class and staying healthy.
They did have some tough losses due to graduation and the NFL, but they seemed to have improve as a whole. They should be able to compete heavily this year in the Pac-12.
Worst: Mitchell Schwartz, Michael Calvin and Marvin Jones Lost to the NFL
Losing a pair of top receivers and the starting left tackle is never easy, but it's exactly what happened in May to the Golden Bears.
Marvin Jones got taken in the later rounds of the draft, Mitchell Schwartz was a surprise second-round pick and Michael Calvin signed as an undrafted free agent with the Falcons.
The offense will now have to rely on Keenan Allen a bit more unless some of their talented recruits step up.
Worst: Mychal Kendricks, D.J. Campbell and Trevor Guyton Lost on Defense
Losing the best defensive players on the roster is never easy. Mychal Kendricks and D.J. Holt heading to the NFL from the linebacking corps will be tough for the Golden Bears, but they have the depth to handle the losses. Even bigger than that are the losses in the secondary.
They lost two starting safeties in Sean Cattouse and D.J. Campbell and a top-notch defensive end in Trevor Guyton.
Cal will have to get some players to step up into those holes. While those players did not possess top pro potential, they were very good for the Golden Bears the past few years.
Best: Players Stayed Relatively Healthy in the Offseason
The Golden Bears can be quite flashy when they want to be. In order for them to do so, they have to continue to stay healthy.
For the most part, they have stayed healthy this offseason. There haven't been any big season-ending injuries and most of the injuries sustained in the spring were short-term ones.
When the season rolls around, expect the Golden Bears to be completely healthy and ready to take on the Pac-12.
Best: Minimal Arrests or Suspensions
One of the biggest problems for a team is when players act stupid by getting arrested, suspended or both.
Cal has been very lucky this offseason since they haven't had any players get caught being stupid by putting their playing career on the line outside of Cecil Whiteside.
His dismissal was for an unspecified team rules violation (h/t CollegeFootballTalk's John Taylor). That could have been anything from academic failure to a respect issue with the coaching staff.
This may change by the time the season rolls around. But for the most part, Tedford runs a very tight ship.
Best: Have Multiple Great Recruits Coming In
Cal's best thing they did this offseason was replenish their team's depth in recruiting especially at wide receiver.
According to SFGate.com, the Bears only had two wide receivers on the depth chart after spring practice and need some of their top recruits to step up there.
They have a 5-star and a 4-star recruit coming in at wide receiver in Bryce Treggs (5'11", 171 lbs) and Darius Powe (6'2", 186 lbs).
Athlon Sports rated them with the 25th-best recruiting class in the nation. Taking pressure off Keenan Allen at wide receiver will make the most difference in 2012.
Scott Carasik is a Featured Columnist and Trends and Traffic Writer for Bleacher Report. As a Featured Columnist, he covers the Atlanta Falcons, NFL and NFL draft. He is also the Falcons' analyst at Drafttek and also runs the NFL draft website ScarDraft.com and the host of Kvetching Draftniks Radio.