Cal Football: RB Byron Cardwell, DB Collin Gamble Out for the Season

Cal's running back depth took a hit on the first day of preseason practice on Wednesday.

That's when head coach Justin Wilcox announced that running back Byron Cardwell, a transfer from Oregon, will miss the entire 2023 season with an unspecified injury and that running back Justin Williams-Thomas, a transfer from Tennessee, is out for an undetermined amount of time with an unspecified injury.

Wilcox also announced that defensive back Collin Gamble, who started 16 games over the past two seasons, is also out for the season.

Cardwell rushed for 493 yards as a freshman and sophomore at Oregon the past two seasons, but was limited to two games in 2022 because of injury. He missed virtually all of spring ball after transferring to Cal and now will miss the 2023 season. He was expected to get considerable playing time behind starter Jaydn Ott.

Williams-Thomas rushed for 37 yards in his three games as a true freshman at Tennessee before redshirting the season and transferring to Cal. He missed all of spring ball with a leg injury, and is sidelined for the time being in fall camp. Wilcox is hoping to get him back soon, "because he's missed a lot time."

With those two out, the running back depth behind Ott consists of Montana State transfer Isaiah Ifanse, fifth-year Purdue transfer King Doerue, fourth-year sophomore Ashton Stredick and true freshman Jaivian Thomas

Ifanse left Montana State as the school's alltime career rushing leader with 3,742 yards, even though he missed the entire 2022 regular season with an injury before returning for three postseason games. He set a single-season school record in 2021 when he rushed for 1,623 yards, albeit at the FCS level. Whether he can do something similar at the FBS level remains to be seen, but it appears he'll get his chance.

Gamble started the first eight games last season before missing the last four games with an injury. He recorded 6.0 tackles for loss in 2022. He also started eight games last year.

Walk-on linebacker Sam Ross is also out for the year.

52 Newcomers on the Roster

The Bears have quite a few options in the defensive backfield, including UNLV transfer Nohl Williams, San Diego State transfer Patrick McMorris and Colorado transfer Kaylin Moore. They are three of the 50 players on the current roster who were not on Cal's 2022 roster If you include Stanley McKenzie, who returned after sitting out the 2022 season, and Nick Morrow, a 2022 recruit who greyshirted and did not enroll at Cal until last January, it's actually 52 newcomers.

That means 43% of the 122-man roster is made up of players who were not on the team a year ago -- a collection of college transfers, junior college transfers and true freshmen.

Having so many newcomers has become typical in college football with the use of the transfer portal, but it's new for Cal and Wilcox, who has never had a roster with this many newcomers.

"One of the keys in this era of football," said Wilcox Wednesday, "is how quickly you can get them integrated and how quickly you can create chemistry on and off the field.

"You want to have them learn the system as quickly and efficiently as possible, and let the competition sort out the depth chart."

Jaydn Ott talks about the newcomers

Wilcox on the Pac-12 instability

Wilcox acknowledged that Cal's uncertain future with the Pac-12 is a significant issue, but not one that he can worry about.

"That falls in the category of something that certainly matters, but not something that we have control over," Wilcox said.

The most recent reports suggest Big Ten officials are discussing whether they want to invite Cal, Stanford, Washington and Oregon to join their conference.

Follow Cal Sports Report on Twitter: @jakecurtis53

Find Cal Sports Report on Facebook by going to https://www.facebook.com/si.calsportsreport

Add us as a preferred source on Google