Cal Bears Football

If a couple of key prospects sign with the University of California, the Golden Bears will have a top ten recruiting class. Either way, their excellent offseason will undoubtedly land them in the top 20. 

Cal has been on a roll this recruiting season. They have been lining up blue chip prospects left and right and knocking them down. 

Their excellent efforts took a bit of a hit when their prized recruiter Tosh Lupoi left the bay area for Pac-12 rivals Washington. While this has left a couple of commitments wavering, Cal is still a virtual lock to have at least a top 20 class. 

Who's on Board

You can view a full list of Cal's commitments and signings on ESPN. 

They have already inked four-star prospects QB Zach Kline and OT Christian Okafor.

Those will be two centerpieces in what is the foundation of an amazing passing offense. 

They have received commitments from six other four-star recruits. Of those six, three are wide receivers and there is another offensive lineman as well. 

Cal has also received a commitment from eight three-star recruits. This group is filled with athletes that will make an impact on offense and defense. OLB Hardy Nickerson Jr. highlights this group and will bring a familiar name and pass rush.

More Possible Recruiting Booty for Cal

One of the stars of signing day is going to be 6'8", 295-pound offensive tackle Arik Armstead. He is widely regarded as the nation's best tackle prospects. 

Armstead's father was quoted by Greg Biggins of ESPN as listing Cal as a finalist with Auburn, Oregon, Notre Dame and Washington.

This signing would give Cal an amazing class of offensive linemen. If they can ink Armstead while holding onto their commitments, they will be in serious contention for the top 10 recruiting classes. 

The recruiting process is heating up as we are now just a week away from national signing day. That's where majority of the top uncommitted players in the country will make their commitment to one lucky school and the fans and students of that program go crazy and celebrate all night long. 

One of the players that will make his decision before national signing day (which, of course, would be Jan. 31) is wide receiver Bryce Treggs. On most top recruiting sites he's considered a 5-star wide-out. He's not the biggest at 5'11 and 175 pounds, but he runs great routes and is great at picking up yards after the catch. He's simply a playmaker.

As we get closer to his decision, it's about that time to breakdown all of the teams that are still in the race for his services. Here they are.

USC Trojans

USC may be the dark horse to land one of this year's top wide receivers, but don't ever doubt the power of the Trojan. Treggs will visit USC this week and then will likely make his decision a few days after. USC has a loaded offensive team already, and with the addition of Treggs it would continue to get even better.

Who in the world wouldn't want to play for a team that will compete for Pac-12 Championships and BCS National Championships every year? Treggs is from California, so the Trojans do have that working for them as well.

USC is the underdog in this race, but it is the biggest program out of the four, and I wouldn't underestimate it.

UCLA Bruins

Another California school that Treggs is interested in is UCLA. He actually just came back from his visit with the Bruins, and here's a few things he said about it:

"I had met Coach (Noel) Mazzone when he was at Arizona State, but I got a chance to meet with him on this trip," Treggs said. "And I also got to talk with Coach (Jim) Mora and he's a good guy, and I think he's going to do great there."

UCLA may have a firs year head coach in Jim Mora, Jr. but the Bruins are recruiting extremely well and just picked up a 5-star player in defensive tackle Ellis McCarthy. Treggs would also have the opportunity to compete for quality playing time right away due to the lack of depth at the receiver position.

The Bruins may have the worst shot to land his talents, but a shot is always better than none.

Arizona State Sun Devils

Arizona State is another team that would allow a player like Treggs to compete for a starting position from day one. In fact, with receivers like Gerell Robinson and Aaron Pflugrad graduating, he will probably be a starter from day one regardless. You can't exactly say the same for schools like USC. Treggs made his visit back in September and here's a few things he said about it:

"Coach said that I can play all wide receiver positions," Treggs said. "I can go one on one down the field or catch bubble screens. I really like the way the ASU offense is set up and their style of play suits me."

The Sun Devils may have lost seven games last season, but it wasn't the offense's fault. This team was ranked 10th in the country in passing yards, averaging more than 300 yards in the air. That has to put a smile to a receiver's face like Treggs. 

California Golden Bears

And then there is California, where Treggs has been committed to since July. Even as early as October he was still committed to the Golden Bears, saying things like, "Go Bears, I'm not going anywhere, trust me."

Keep in mind, this was even after his visit to Arizona State.

Cal has an excellent recruiting class and looks to be a team that's on the rise, but the recent loss of defensive line coach Tosh Lupoi is having a huge impact on things. Regardless, Cal has to remain the favorite leading up to his decision at the end of this month.

Prediction

My guess is really as good as yours. The only thing we know for sure at this point is that he will be playing his college ball somewhere in the Pac-12. Where, exactly, is anyone's guess.

If I had to make a prediction, I'd go with my gut and say California. It's close to home, it's the school he's been committed to since day one and it's a school loaded with talent on both sides of the ball. 

Randy Chambers is a B/R featured columnist that covers college football and the NFL. You can contact him @Randy_Chambers or Randy.Chambers7@yahoo.com.

Building relationships is often times the most critical element in recruiting a high-profile high school football prospect and how strong of a bond there is between an assistant coach and the player he’s in charge of recruiting will usually be the determining factor when it comes to that player deciding where to play his college ball.

Many assistants at college football’s upper echelon programs will devote hours upon hours of their life trying to land one certain player and. if they can figure out how to develop a strong enough friendship and trust with the recruit, their chances of landing him increase exponentially.

Such is the case with star safety prospect Shaq Thompson, a five-star recruit considered by many to be the top overall safety of the 2012 recruiting class, and now former Cal assistant Tosh Lupoi.

Lupoi, who has been credited with being the main reason for Cal’s tremendous success on the recruiting trail in recent months, sent shock waves through the recruiting world when he bolted Berkley to join Steve Sarkisian’s coaching staff up in Washington on Monday.

The move stunned many of the players who Lupoi had built those all-important close relationships with during the recruiting process, including Thompson, who told ESPN, “I know this is a business and everyone has to do what’s best for them, but this one still hurts. I’ve known Tosh forever. He has been recruiting me for the last three years and, even though he won’t be my position coach, he’s a big reason I got interested in Cal in the first place.”

Losing Lupoi has already cost Cal one blue-chip prospect, DT Ellis McCarthy, a four-star recruit out of California's Monrovia high school, who switched his commitment from Cal to UCLA shortly after the news came out about Lupoi.

Many recruiting analysts and fans are now beginning to wonder if Lupoi's departure will effectively lead to Cal’s 2012 class, which was shaping up to be one of the most highly rated in the country, dissolving and ultimately falling apart.

The decision of Thompson, who is considered to be the gem of the Bears’ 2012 class, is sure to have a major impact.

The 6’2’’, 210-pound All-American is viewed as a potential instant impact player, who could step in right away and fill either of the holes left by departed starting safeties D.J. Campbell and Sean Cattouse and, in time, develop into one of the premier defensive backs in not just the Pac-12, but the entire country.

Losing a player of that caliber would certainly be a huge hit to the team, but it remains to be seen if Thompson will actually stick with Cal or join Lupoi up in Seattle.

Tara Turnure of Fox Sports said she recently interviewed Thompson and she said that he told her he was “50/50 between Cal and Washington.”

Those aren’t the type of odds you want to see if you’re a Cal fan, especially since it was just a few weeks ago that you were celebrating Thompson’s announcement, when he put on a Cal hat and committed to the Bears at the U.S. Army All-American game.

At the time, that seemed like a great day for the program, but with the way things seem to be headed since the departure of Lupoi, Bears fans may soon look back at that video after National Signing Day and simply wonder what could have been.

If Cal does lose Thompson to the Huskies, it wouldn’t necessarily be the end of the world, though.

The Bears already have their quarterback of the future, four-star prospect Zach Kline, one of the best signal-callers in the country, locked up, and they’ve still got commitments from some of the biggest names in the state of California such as WR Bryce Treggs (St. John Bosco HS), LB Michael Barton (De La Salle HS) and OT Freddie Tagoloa (Salesian HS), who are all considered four-star prospects.

Still, obviously losing a recruit like Shaq Thompson, especially to a conference foe such as Washington, would be a tough pill for Cal fans to swallow and it could signal a deeper problem that coach Jeff Tedford better get corrected quickly, or else he could run the risk of falling back to the pack in recruiting in the years to come.