Transfers, Recruiting Making Cal Dominant at One Key Position

First-year Cal head coach Tosh Lupoi seems to be strengthening the Bears at a number of positions through Cal’s work in the transfer portal and the recruiting scene. However, the most noticeable improvement is coming at wide receiver, a key skill position that is essential for big-play potential.

The Bears have one of the nation’s best group of 2027 wide receiver commitments, and the two wide receivers they added for the 2026 season through the transfer portal may be the best players on this year's team, practically on par with quarterback Jaron-Keawe Sagapolutele.

Finding a replacement for Jacob De Jesus, who set a single-season Cal record of 108 receptions in his one season with the Bears in 2025, is a tall order, but the Bears are bringing in talent at the position.

Cal’s 2026 transfer class was ranked as the 14th-best in the country by 247Sports and 15th by On3, and it is noteworthy that the three highest rated incoming Cal transfers are wide receiver Ian Strong, running back Adam Mohammed and wide receiver Chase Hendricks, in that order.

Strong and Hendricks are getting the most preseason praise. Strong is listed as a third-team preseason all-ACC pick by Athlon’s preseason magazine and a fourth-team pick by Phil Steele’s preseason college football guide, while Hendricks is named to the fourth team in both. That’s more preseason recognition than anyone else on the Cal team, including Sagapolutele.

Strong, who caught 52 passes for Rutgers last season as a junior and 43 as a sophomore, and Hendricks, who had 1,037 receiving yards in 2025 as a junior at Ohio, figure to step right in as starters for Cal.

They both have just one year of college eligibility remaining, but Cal will be well fortified at that position after they are gone based on the wide receivers committed to Cal for 2027.

Cal’s 2027 recruiting class is ranked as the 21st-best in the country at the moment, largely because of the commitments the Bears got from four standout wide receivers – four-star prospects Charles Davis III, Demare Dezeurn and Zion White and three-star Blake Gunter.

A Rivals report ranks Cal’s group of committed wide receivers as one of the three best in the country coming out of June, equaling the wide receiver commitments at Florida and Washington.

A subsequent twitter from Rivals puts Cal’s 2027 wide receivers among the four best wide-receiver groups in the nation, along with Florida, Oregon and Texas A&M.

Top WR classes in the 2027 cycle⚡️https://t.co/JwlncVYbl0 pic.twitter.com/anBnp9QT4b
— Rivals (@Rivals) July 6, 2026

Adam Gorney of Rivals suggests Cal may be amassing the best wide-receiver class in the country.

Cal is the only school in the country that has commitments from three wide receivers ranked among ESPN’s top 25 wide receiver prospects in 2027 – Dezeurn (No. 17), Davis (No. 22) and White (No. 24).

Texas A&M, USC and Texas Tech are the only other schools that have as many as two wide receivers ranked among ESPN's top 25 wide-receiver prospects.

Gunter is ranked 98th among wide receiver prospects, and this four-player grouping does not include four-star Cal commit Elyjah Staples, who is listed as a wide receiver by 247Sports but is expected to be an outside linebacker at Cal.

The recruiting skill of Lupoi is certainly part of the success in acquiring the wideouts, but the presence of Cal wide receivers coaches Ike Hilliard and Geoff McArthur, both of whom were standout wide receivers in college, presumably has something to do with it.

To allow these wide receivers to flourish, Cal needs two things – a quarterback who can get them the ball and an offensive scheme that makes the best use of their talents.

Cal knows it has the quarterback for the job in Sagapolutele, who figures to be at Cal for the 2026 and 2027 seasons before heading to the NFL, assuming he does not transfer after the 2026 season. His presence presumably played a role in attracting Strong and Hendricks as well as the highly rated receiver recruits.

The Bears’ touted 2027 wide receivers, assuming they sign with Cal, will get one season with Sagapolutele, and wide receiver and running back are the two positions in which freshmen have the best chance to see significant playing time.

The 2027 class is scheduled to provide Cal with four-star quarterback (Dane Weber), who might be ready to take over in his second season with the Bears after Sagapolutele’s anticipated departure to the NFL..

The other variable is the offensive scheme. Cal offensive coordinator Jordan Somerville is planning to run a pro-style offense, which means different things to different people. Because Somerville has never been an offensive coordinator before, we won’t see what Somerville’s version looks like until the Bears start playing games.

However, pro-style offenses often use two tight ends, make use of play action and require the quarterback to work under center a lot and make more presnap decisions.

It’s impossible to know how Cal will perform under Lupoi and Somerville, but the Bears seem well fortified at the wide receiver position for the near future.

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