Tosh Lupoi's Recruiting Will Focus on High School Athletes, Not Transfers

A lot of players who transferred to Cal this offseason will be starters in 2026, but that won't be a habit

Tosh Lupoi at Tuesday's press conference | Photo by Jake Curtis

Cal brought in 33 transfers this past offseason, and about half of them are expected to be starters for the Golden Bears in 2026. 

However, Cal head coach Tosh Lupoi made it clear on Tuesday this was an anomaly and that the transfer portal won’t be the way the Golden Bears will acquire most of their football talent going forward.

“The lifeline of this program is going to be built on high school recruiting,” he said Tuesday, the day before the start of preseason training camp.

Cal’s heavy use of the portal this year was because Lupoi was faced with a number of immediate needs.

“We were only active [in the transfer portal] because we were forced to,” Lupoi said. “I wasn’t the head coach here for national signing day for high school [in early December] so there was only one way to impact the roster and so that’s exactly what we did.”

And Lupoi was successful, pulling in a group of transfers ranked as the nation’s 14th-best transfer class by 247Sports and the 15th-best by Rivals/on3.

Lupoi Wants to Get to Know His Recruits

However, the amount of time coaches have to assess the talent and character of players available in the portal is limited, and Lupoi prefers to have a greater knowledge of the players he targets.

“We’re doing our best to vet those individuals,” Lupoi said. “Obviously in the transfer portal, when you’re doing 24-hour visits, and you have 10 days or less to make those decisions, that makes that tremendously hard. So why we’ve committed the way we have, and are currently sitting somewhere around the top 15-regarded class in the country from the high school ranks and the JUCO ranks, so we can do a thorough process and truly investigate the character, the academic report, family and everything we’re looking for that’s going to join, and hopefully not just join our culture but drive our culture.”

Lupoi compares it to an NFL model of going through the draft to acquire most of the talent while adding free agents (transfers) to fill in specific needs.

Lupoi has already demonstrated his ability to recruit top high school talent. The Bears’ 2027 class is ranked as the 19th-best in the country by 247Sports Composite and is No. 21 in the Rivals Industry Composite team recruiting rankings.

Cal has not had a recruiting class ranked that high since 2011, when 247Sports ranked the Bears’ class No. 15. Cal’s classes had not been ranked higher than 50th in the past five years.

On Sunday, Cal topped off its 2027 class by beating out Alabama and LSU to get a commitment from defensive back Alius Mayo of Modesto Junior College, who is ranked as the No. 1 junior college prospect in the country.

Lupoi’s method of collecting talent through the high school and junior college ranks depends on Cal’s ability to retain those top players for several years.  Cal has had a lot of its most talented players leave through the transfer portal in recent years.

Lupoi made a statement in that regard when he convinced quarterback Jaron-Keawe Sagapolutele to stay at Cal for his sophomore season in 2026 while other schools were tugging at him to transfer.

So while some schools will depend on transfers to replenish their talent every year, Lupoi plans to recruit and keep players coming out of high school.

247Sports' ranking of Cal’s high school recruiting classes the past 16 years:

2026 – 50th

2025 – 66th

2024 – 53rd

2022 – 58th

2021 – 23rd

2020 – 40th

2019 – 37th

2018 – 42nd

2017 – 78th

2016 – 32nd

2015 – 39th

2014 – 55th

2013 – 44th

2012 – 29th

2011 – 15th