Cal Bears Open the Season in a New Place with Plenty of New Faces

The long offseason is almost over, as the California Golden Bears and the Hawaii Rainbow Warriors kick off the 2016 College Football season in Sydney, Australia.

Turnovers were the Cal defense’s calling card for the first half of the 2015 season, but roster turnover has been their calling card since. The lineup they roll out tonight will feature a lot of different names from the one that took the field last year.

On offense, the biggest loss came in the form of their quarterback, number-one overall draft pick Jared Goff, who declared a year early. After a spring and summer of competition to find his predecessor, graduate transfer Davis Webb, formerly of the Texas Tech Red Raiders, won the job.

Webb doesn’t come with a résumé like Goff’s, but he has his own pedigree as a starting quarterback. The former four-star recruit threw for 5,257 yards while completing 61.9 percent of his passes in 18 games between the 2013 and 2014 seasons. Webb threw twice as many touchdowns (44) as interceptions (22).

Keeping Webb healthy will be a big factor this season. He suffered from ankle and shoulder injuries while at Texas Tech. While out following the ankle injury in 2014, he was replaced by Patrick Mahomes, who never relinquished the starting gig.

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Though Goff was the biggest name to move on, he was far from the only one. Starting running back Daniel Lasco, though he only played in nine games and carried the ball 65 times last season, was drafted by the New Orleans Saints in the seventh round. All of Cal’s top-five wide receivers, Kenny Lawler, Bryce Treggs, Trevor Davis, Darius Powe, and Maurice Harris, are working towards making an NFL roster. Tight end Stephen Anderson is also gone.

The running back position shouldn’t be a problem. Vic Enwere, Khalfani Muhammad, and Tre Watson are all back, and should get the bulk of the carries moving forward. That trio combined for 1,585 yards on 281 carries (a 5.6 yard average) and 12 touchdowns. Add to that group sophomores Patrick Laird and Billy McCrary III, plus true freshmen Zion Echols and Derrick Clark, and things are okay in Cal’s backfield.

On the outside, there’s a bit of a different story. Junior Chad Hansen is the only returning wideout that made any significant offensive impact last season, when he caught 19 passes for 249 yards and a score. They also have junior college transfer Jordan Veasy, but they’ll be relying more on a youth movement this year. This year’s recruiting class was headlined by receivers like Melquise Stovall, Jordan Duncan, and Demetris Robertson, and each of those three should get fairly significant run this season. They also have recruits from last year, like redshirt freshman Brandon Singleton and sophomore Kanawai Noa, who mostly played special teams last season. Ray Hudson and Patrick Worstell will have to step up as tight ends with spiritual leader Anderson calling Houston home now.

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The defense took big blows at each level. Defensive end Kyle Kragen, the defense’s leader both in statistics and heart, graduated and is following his father’s footsteps, trying to earn a spot on the Denver Broncos’ roster. Sophomore Cameron Saffle, fifth-year senior DeVante Wilson, and freshman Evan Weaver are just some of the names trying to fill his shoes.

At linebacker, the team lost Jalen Jefferson to graduation and Hardy Nickerson to transfer. Nickerson decided to move on to the University of Illinois, where his father, Hardy Nickerson Sr., was hired as the defensive coordinator. With those two gone, it will be up to juniors Devante Downs and Hamilton Anoa’i, and redshirt sophomore Aisea Tongilava, among others, to anchor a defense that was gashed time and time again at the end of the season last year.

The defensive backfield lost safety Stefan McClure and cornerback Darius White to the NFL, and subsequently lost safety Damariay Drew to a knee injury that will cost him his last season at Cal. Drew was slated to be the defensive leader this year, and his injury hurts in more ways than just on the field. With those two safeties gone, Cal will be relying heavily on fifth-year senior Khari Vanderbilt, junior Luke Rubenzer, and sophomore Evan Rambo.

At corner, Darius Allensworth is back for his junior year after a solid, yet unspectacular campaign last year. He is joined by highly-touted junior college transfer Marloshawn Franklin and freshman Traveon Beck, both of whom should play big roles this season.

Next: Cal Bears: Where Are They Now?

All this turnover is scary, even for a college team, but there’s still a lot of talent on this Cal roster. They have big shoes to fill after last year’s eight-win season and Armed Forces Bowl victory, and it all starts in a different hemisphere. They can also get a little payback for Cal’s men’s basketball team’s loss to Hawaii in the NCAA Tournament earlier this year.

The Bears will try to turn this unfamiliar territory into Bear territory.