CALIFORNIA GOLDEN BEARS FOOTBALL TABLE OF CONTENTS Media Info .................................................................1 2018 Year In Review ..............................................12 Records ..................................................................42 History .....................................................................70 This Is Cal ............................................................ 120 2018 PRESEASON CALIFORNIA FOOTBALL NOTES WILCOX BEGINS SECOND SEASON IN 2018 CAL IN SEASON OPENERS • Justin Wilcox is in his second season as the head football coach at • Cal opens the 2018 season in Berkeley when the Bears host North Cal in 2018. After leading some of the top defenses in the nation as Carolina in the second-ever meeting ever between the teams. Cal won an FBS defensive coordinator for 11 seasons prior to his arrival at the first meeting, 35-30, in the 2017 season-opener in Chapel Hill, Cal in January of 2017, Wilcox posted a 5-7 overall mark in his first N.C. The Bears have won their last season openers. campaign at the helm of the Golden Bears. • The highlights of his first season as the head coach in Berkeley in NATIONAL HONORS CANDIDATE PATRICK LAIRD 2017 included a 3-0 start that featured wins over North Carolina and • Running back Patrick Laird is a national honors candidate and on Ole Miss, as well as a 37-3 victory over then No. 8/9 Washington State the preseason watch list for the Maxwell Award given annually to in an ESPN nationally-televised Friday night home game. The victory America's College Football Player of the Year in 2018 after a breakout against the Cougars snapped Cal's 17-game losing streak to top-10 2017 junior season when he earned honorable mention All-Pac-12 teams, was the Bears' first victory against a top-10 team since 2003 honors and was one of 10 national semifinalists for the Burlsworth and only its second top-10 win since 1977. Trophy awarded annually to the country’s most outstanding college • Cal also had a Pac-12 victory over Oregon State and took three football player who began his career as a walk-on. Laird rushed 191 conference squads down to the final moments before falling by a times for 1,127 yards and eight touchdowns as a junior to become combined total of seven points to Arizona, and on the road at UCLA the 16th 1,000-yard rusher in Cal history and the first since Daniel and Stanford. Lasco in 2014 while recording the 19th 1,000-yard rushing season • Over his 17 seasons in collegiate coaching, which began as a graduate in school history. Laird has an opportunity to become only the third assistant at Boise State in 2001, Wilcox has helped teams to 14 bowl two-time 1,000-yard rusher in Cal history with the others Russell games and compiled an all-time record of 155-65 (.705). White (3) and Marshawn Lynch (2). • Laird is hosting the Patrick Laird Summer Reading Challenge over 2018 PRESEASON HONORS the summer of 2018 for students currently enrolled in grades 1-6. • Several Cal players have earned 2018 preseason honors as of press Participants who complete the challenge by Aug. 24 will get an time with many more still to be named. Patrick Laird (Maxwell Award) opportunity to meet Laird and receive four complimentary tickets for and Jordan Kunaszyk (Lott IMPACT Trophy) are on watch lists for the Cal’s 2018 season-opener against North Carolina at Memorial Stadium nation's top overall and defensive players, respectively. Laird is also on Sept. 1. Laird has visited over 20 schools and has nearly 3,500 a preseason candidate for the Doak Walker Award honoring the signed up for the program as of July 25. Registration and additional nation's top running back, as well as Cal's nominee for Allstate AFCA information about the reading challenge can be found on Laird's Good Works Team® and Wuerffel Trophy. In addition, Addison Ooms website at walkonthenrun.com. Laird is an avid reader who routinely is on the preseason watch list for the Rimington Trophy) honoring the celebrated his 2017 touchdowns by simulating the reading of a book. nation's top center. • Laird also leads the way for Cal players on preseason All-Pac-12 teams, BOWERS LEADS PAC-12 RETURNEES earning second-team honors from Athlon and Lindy's while as well as • Quarterback Ross Bowers completed 272-of-461 passes (59.0%) for a fourth-team selection by Phil Steele 3,039 yards with 18 touchdowns and 12 interceptions for a 122.06 • Others on preseason All-Pac-12 teams include Camryn Bynum (third- quarterback rating as a 2017 sophomore with his 253.2 yards of team Phil Steele), Steven Coutts (fourth-team Phil Steele), Ashtyn Davis passing per game the most of any returning Pac-12 player. The passing (fourth-team Phil Steele), Kunaszyk (third-team Athlon), Patrick Mekari yardage total ranks sixth in Cal’s single-season history (second-team Athlon and Lindy's) and Vic Wharton III (second-team • Bowers’ first career rushing touchdown came on a seven-yard run Lindy's, third-team Athlon and Phil Steele). against Washington State capped with a highlight-reel flip over a de- fender into the end zone that was the Opus Bank #12Best Moment 2018 SCHEDULE of the Year according to Pac-12 Network and SportsCenter's Top 10 • Cal will play seven home games including five Pac-12 conference Play of the Day. contests at California Memorial Stadium in 2018. Each of the team's • Bowers’ mother, Joanne, spent 10 seasons (2006-16) as the head 12 regular-season games will be played on Saturdays for the first women’s gymnastics coach at Washington. His father, John, spent time since 2013. three campaigns on the football coaching staff at James Madison when the Dukes won the 2016 FCS National Championship. Both left their most recent positions prior to the 2017 season and moved to the Bay Area in order to be closer to Ross. 2018 CALIFORNIA FOOTBALL RECORD BOOK 1 CALIFORNIA GOLDEN BEARS FOOTBALL ALL QB'S GET QUALITY REPS IN SPRING DAVIS RETURNS AFTER SHOWING KICK RETURN PROWESS • In addition to Bowers, quarterbacks Chase Forrest, Brandon McIlwain • Ashtyn Davis, who joined the Cal football program in the spring of and Chase Garbers all received quality reps with the first team in spring 2015 after a walk-on tryout, has become an integral piece of Cal’s ball with all four listed as “or’s” at the starting spot on the depth chart special teams and defensive units as a kick returner and safety. at the end of spring football. Forrest saw action against Oregon and Davis shared the nation’s lead in kick returns (39) a year ago while Washington last year, completing 5-of-10 passes for 53 yards with no ranking ninth in kick return yards (826) and 14th in combined kick touchdown and no interceptions for a 94.52 passer efficiency rating, return yards (826). His total kick returns and kick return yards both while Garbers and McIlwain are looking for their first action at Cal in rank third in Cal’s single-season history. 2018 after both redshirted a year ago. McIlwain transferred to Cal • Davis also competed on the track & field team through the end of his from South Carolina after playing in eight games with three starts collegiate eligibility in the sport in the spring of 2018, earning four during his 2016 true freshman season when he completed 62-of- All-American honors while winning the Pac-12 title in the 110 meter 118 passes for 600 yards with two touchdowns and one interception hurdles as a 2017 junior and back-to-back MPSF Championships in while adding another 127 yards and two scores on the ground on 63 the 60 meter hurdles as a 2016 sophomore and a junior. carries for a squad that reached the Birmingham Bowl. McIlwain is also a member of the Cal baseball program. TWO NEW SPECIALISTS IN 2018 • Cal will feature a new placekicker and punter in 2018 after the TOP RECEIVING DUO RETURNS departures of Matt Anderson and Dylan Klumph. Gabe Siemieniec • Vic Wharton III (67-871, 5 TD) and Kanawai Noa (56-788, 4 TD) and Chris Landgrebe split kicking reps during spring ball. Siemieniec combined for 123 receptions to rank third among all returning FBS handled the majority of Cal’s kickoff duties in 2017 while Landgrebe duos while their 1,659 yards receiving is seventh. Wharton’s 67 is looking for his first action at Cal. Steven Coutts is the lone returning receptions rank ninth in school single-season history. punter on the roster after averaging 40.8 yards per punt on five attempts last season. He was a national semifinalist for the Ray Guy Award EXPERIENCED OFFENSIVE LINE IS BACK honoring the nation’s top collegiate punter as a 2016 sophomore at Louisiana before coming to Cal as a graduate transfer in 2017. • Cal returns all of its offensive line starts from a 2017 group that helped the Golden Bears boast a 3,000-yard passer and 1,000-yard rusher COACHING STAFF CHANGES in the same season for only the third time in school history in 2017. Kamryn Bennett, Addison Ooms and Jake Curhan each started all 12 • Cal has added two assistant coaches since the 2017 season in as- games a year ago, while Patrick Mekari (10), Valentino Daltoso (9), sociate head coach defense/inside linebackers coach Peter Sirmon Ryan Gibson (3) and Michael Saffell (2) also made starts in 2017. and running backs coach Burl Toler III. • Cal’s 2018 recruiting class had an emphasis on the offensive line with • Sirmon had been the defensive coordinator at Mississippi State (2016) the Golden Bears signing five of the nation’s top-100 ranked offensive and Louisville (2017) the past two seasons after previously coaching tackles or guards in Will Craig (No.