Cal Football: Zoom to the Rescue for Recruiting Home Visits
Typically in early December Cal's regular season would be over and its coaches would be taking plane trips to make home visits to players expected to sign with the Bears on the mid-December early signing day, which this year is Wednesday, Dec. 16.
But in the atypical 2020 season, Cal is still playing regular season games, both this Saturday at Washington State and again on Dec. 19 against an undetermined opponent.
So home visits are out.
But this atypical college football season has also provided an answer: virtual home visits.
Zoom was an unknown means of communication to most college coaches before the pandemic hit, but now -- by necessity -- they have become 'fluent' in the Zoom language and usage. And Cal has used that medium for much of its offseason recruiting, as noted in an earlier Cal Sport Report story.
So instead of catching a flight that would interrupt their preparation for the upcoming game, head coach Justin Wilcox and Cal assistants can make a virtual home visits without leaving their office.
It's not quite as intimate as a real home visit, but with the Zoom home visit, players and their families can take a virtual tour of the Cal campus and see how other aspects of Cal football work, such as academic counseling.
And Cal expects to get official commitments next week from a solid 2021 class, which is ranked as the third-best incoming class in the Pac-12 and the 18th-best in the country by 247 Sports and is ranked 27th in the nation by Rivals.com.
J. Michael Sturdivant, a wide receiver from Texas, looks like the headliner of the Bears' 2021 class, getting the highest ranking of any 2021 Cal recruit by practically every recruiting site. But quarterback Kai Millner -- he of the over-the-head two-point conversion pass -- got a high rating from ESPN, which ranks him as the 114th-best recruit in the country and the 19th-best quarterback recruit.
The Bears did all their signings in the early signing period last December and is expected to do likewise this year. The traditional signing period in February has become practically extinct, with only a handful of players nationwide waiting until then to sign.
Follow Jake Curtis of Cal Sports Report on Twitter: @jakecurtis53
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