Cal Sports Report

Touted Defensive End Decommits from Cal for the Class of 2026

Edge Cam Brooks, one of Cal's top commitments, says he is re-opening his recruitment
Jake Curtis|
Justin Wilcox
Justin Wilcox | Brian Bishop-Imagn Images

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California Golden Bears

The impact of Cal's decision to fire head coach Justin Wilcox is starting to impact the Bears' recruiting, which is not surprising.

Defensive end Cam Brooks, one of the top prospects to commit to Cal for the class of 2026, announced on social media shortly after Wilcox was fired that he has decommitted from Cal and is re-opening his recruitment

Brooks added that Cal is still under consideration, but the competition for Brooks' services is heavy.

Ohio State and Florida State seem to be the leaders for Brooks' services, but he also has offers from Georgia, Texas, USC, Tennessee, Miami, Texas A&M, LSU, Mississippi, Louisville and Clemson, among others.

The 6-foot-2, 225-pound Brooks, who attends Thomas Country Central High School in Thomasville, Georgia, committed to Cal back in April. He was rated a four-star recruit by some recruiting services last spring, but Rivals/On3 and 247Sports both rate his as a three-star recruit now.

Rivals ranks him as the nation's 51st-best edge prospect in the class of 2026, and 247Sports rates him as the 60th-best edge prospect.

Players are not bound to a college until they sign a financial agreement, previously called a letter of intent. The first day players can sign a financial agreement is December 3, the first day of the early signing period.

Cal will play its final regular-season game on Saturday in Berkeley against 25th-ranked SMU. Wilcox was fired on Sunday, and Cal offensive analyst Nick Rolovich will serve as the Bears interim head coach against SMU and in the Bears' bowl game.

Cal has a 6-5 overall record and 3-4 mark in ACC games. The Bears could still get its first winning season since 2019, and an upset of SMU would give Cal a winning percentage of .500 or better in conference games for the first time since 2009.

Recent articles:

A brief look at Cal interim head coach Nick Rolovich

Early speculation about who could become Cal's next football coach

Cal fires Justin Wilcox the day after Bears lose the Big Game

Coaching decision has been made but there are other issues for Cal to deal with 

SMU is a double-digit favorite over Cal

Summary of Cal's 31-10 loss to Stanford in the Big Game

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Jake Curtis
JAKE CURTIS

Jake Curtis worked in the San Francisco Chronicle sports department for 27 years, covering virtually every sport, including numerous Final Fours, several college football national championship games, an NBA Finals, world championship boxing matches and a World Cup. He was a Cal beat writer for many of those years, and won awards for his feature stories.

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