The California Golden Bears looked like they were on their way to a top recruiting class, perhaps the best in the entire conference. But main recruiter Tosh Lupoi departed Cal two weeks before signing day, and appeared to conduct a scorched earth policy on his way out of town. Cal lost their two top recruits in Ellis McCarthy and Shaq Thompson to rival schools UCLA and Washington. Also lost were wide receivers Kenny Walker and Jordan Payton (to UCLA) and safety Zach Hoffpauir also trekked out of town to Stanford. Cal fell out of the top 25 of the aggregate college football rankings overall.
Still, Cal's class is far from a disaster. Considering their average 7-6 season, it's actually still a fine effort.
Cal landed quarterback Zach Kline is one of the pro-style quarterbacks of the 2012 recruiting class and should be another prominent pupil for Jeff Tedford. Kline will have an array of strong wide receivers to throw to, including Bryce Treggs (perhaps the best wideout in all of California), Darius Powe, Cedric Dozier, Chris Harper and Kenny Lawler. Cal also has some strong offensive line commits in Freddie Tagaloa, Christian Okafor, Matt Cochran and Steven Moore, all of whom are likely to contribute down the line. Finally, they have two solid linebackers in Michael Barton and Hardy Nickerson.
Cal might not be done with their recruiting, but for now they're doing their best to lick their wounds and try and recover for next year's commitments.
To talk about Cal football recruiting, head on over to the California Golden Blogs.