Cal, Stanford football both hit hard by spring transfer portal losses
It's common for a program to work through spring ball with two-deep talent that won't be around by preseason camp in August. Even cornerstone pieces can be lost to this cycle, as Cal experienced first-hand earlier this month when former All-Pac-12 first-team running back Jaydn Ott and his backup, Jaivian Thomas – who rushed for 626 yards and seven touchdowns on an impressive 6.3 yards per carry in an elevated role last season – entered the transfer portal with days of one another once the spring portal opened on April 16.
Stanford's 10-day window effectively tripled after the school fired head coach Troy Taylor for alleged mistreatment of staffers in late March. After any head-coaching change, a team's players have up to 30 days to enter the transfer portal. Per 247Sports, a recruiting service that invests in a network of websites dedicated to coverage of major college athletics programs, four-star edge rusher David Bailey was among the seven Cardinal players who entered the transfer portal after Taylor's dismissal.
'You can't name a team right now that doesn't have a player that they wish didn't go into this,' Cal general manager Ron Rivera said in a virtual press conference on April 21.
With the transfer portal now closed, how did Cal and Stanford do with roster turnover?
Cal Bears
Cal has received 25 verbal transfer commitments – which among Atlantic Coast Conference schools trails Wake Forest (31), North Carolina (30), Virginia (26) and Louisville (26) in terms of total pledges. The group was ranked eighth in 247Sports' transfer class rankings for the 17-team ACC. Transfers, unlike high school and junior college recruits who sign a national letter of intent (NLI), are not bound to a given school until they enroll in their first class, so a few transfers the Bears welcomed during the December cycle have since re-entered the portal.
Of their 25 incoming transfers, 13 are offensive players. An exodus of 23 outgoing transfers on that side of the ball comes in the wake of significant changes to the offensive coaching staff following a fourth consecutive season with a record under .500.
Starting quarterback Fernando Mendoza headlined Cal's departures along with Ott and wide receiver Nyziah Hunter. The abrupt loss of five running backs to the portal, including Ott and Thomas, was an unexpected development this offseason. Rivera had relished the promise of an Ott-Thomas one-two punch in the Cal backfield less than a week before they emptied their lockers.
In an offense likely to be led by four-star freshman quarterback transfer Jaron Keawe-Sagapolutele, they weren't going to be easily replaced. NC State junior transfer Raphael Kendrick, who received the fourth-most carries among Wolfpack running backs last season, and UTSA junior transfer Brandon High Jr., who averaged 7.8 yards per carry with a team-high eight rushing touchdowns as a backup back, are set to join a room that returns only two scholarship players from its spring roster: sophomore Jamaal Wiley and three-star incoming freshman Anthony League.
'Did we give Jaydn Ott a great shot?' Rivera said of the staff's efforts to keep the three-year starter. 'I believe we did. … Sometimes an athlete just thinks, 'I've accomplished all I can here, and it's potentially time to move on.''
Four star: QB Fernando Mendoza (Indiana), RB Jaydn Ott (Oklahoma), WR Nyziah Hunter (Nebraska), WR Tobias Merriweather (uncommitted), RB Byron Cardwell Jr. (uncommitted), WR Mavin Anderson (Texas State).
Three-star: RB Jaivian Thomas (UCLA), TE Jack Endries (Texas), WR Mikey Matthews (UCLA), IOL Matthew Wykoff (Houston), WR Josiah Martin (Oklahoma), TE J.T. Byrne (Georgia Tech), EDGE David Reese (Syracuse), S Ryan Yaites (uncommitted), WR Jonathan Brady (uncommitted), TE Camden Jones (uncommitted), EDGE Myles Williams (uncommitted), QB Andrew Maushardt (uncommitted), IOL Dylan Jemtegaard (uncommitted), WR Mason Sterling (San Jose State), OT Trent Ramsey (uncommitted), RB Justin Williams-Thomas (uncommitted), P Bobby Engstler (Arkansas State), S Brooklyn Cheek (Wyoming), TE Nate Rutchena (UC Davis).
Two-star: EDGE John Gayer (uncommitted), K Kyle Cunanan (uncommitted).
Unranked: TE Simon Mapa (uncommitted), RB Kadarius Calloway (uncommitted), QB Chandler Rogers (uncommitted), K Derek Morris (UMass), LS Caleb Johnston (uncommitted).
Four star: QB Jaron-Keawe Sagapolutele (Oregon).
Three-star: QB Devin Brown (Ohio State), RB Kendrick Raphael (NC State), WR Quaron Adams (South Dakota), EDGE TJ Bush (Liberty), RB Brandon High Jr. (UTSA), EDGE Chris Victor (Chattanooga), CB Quimari Shemwell (Utah), S Dru Polidore Jr. (Montana State), EDGE Jayden Wayne (Washington), WR Dazmin Jones (Arkansas), WR Jacob De Jesus (UNLV), TE Mason Mini (Idaho), IOL Tyson Ruffins (Nevada), LB Buom Jock (Colorado State), S Tristan Dunn (Washington), OT Leon Bell (Mississippi State), IOL Lamar Robinson (Georgia State), IOL Lajuan Owens (New Mexico), CB Hezekiah Masses (FIU), IOL Jordan Spasojevic-Moko (Charlotte), DL Tyson Ford (Notre Dame).
Unranked: P Brook Honore (Arkansas State).
Stanford Cardinal
From a transfer portal standpoint, the firing of Taylor was less of a catalyst than it was confirmation that Stanford was not prepared to field a winning football program. Eighteen of its 25 outgoing transfers entered the portal before Taylor was relieved of his duties. The Cardinal finished 3–9 in both seasons under Taylor, extending its streak of 3-9 records to four. Long gone are the glory days of the David Shaw-led teams in the 2010s.
Then a high-profile player also decided it was time to go. Bailey led the Cardinal in sacks back-to-back seasons with seven in 2024 and five in 2023, and left for Texas Tech as a four-star transfer.
Stanford's 15 incoming transfers include no four-stars, unless you count Texas Tech sophomore interior offensive lineman transfer Nick Fattig, who was a four-star high school recruit in the 2023 class but has yet to be re-evaluated as a transfer after appearing in four games as a redshirt freshman backup left guard last season. The Cardinal ranks 11th on 247Sports' ACC transfer class rankings. It will most likely take more than one offseason with an interim head coach (Frank Reich) for first-year general manager Andrew Luck to renew Stanford football to what it was when he led the program to an Orange Bowl and a Fiesta Bowl as a two-time Heisman runner-up in 2010 and 2011.
Four-star: EDGE David Bailey (Texas Tech), CB Julian Neal (Arkansas).
Three-star: QB Bear Bachmeier (uncommitted), WR Emmett Mosley V (Texas), IOL Jake Maikkula (Oklahoma), WR Mudia Reuben (USF), RB Brendon Barrow (uncommitted), WR Ismael Cisse (Arkansas), WR Ahmari Borden (uncommitted), CB Brandon Jones (uncommitted), WR Chase Ferrell (Northwestern), EDGE Aaron Armitage (FIU), S Jaden Siocum (uncommitted), WR Jackson Harris (Hawaii), S Jshawn Frausto-Ramos (Arizona), QB Ashton Daniels (Auburn), IOL Austin Uke (Maryland), WR Jayson Raines (NAU), IOL Trevor Mayberry (Mississippi State), OT Connor McLaughlin (USF), OT Luke Baklenko (Oklahoma), QB Justin Lamson (Montana State).
Unranked: CB Evan Jackson (uncommitted), RB Ryan Butler (uncommitted).
Incoming transfers
Four-star: IOL Nick Fattig (Texas Tech).
Three-star: CB Breylan Thompson (Yale), CB Sam Neely (Wake Forest), QB Dylan Rizk (UCF), LB Zach Johnson (Idaho), RB Tuna Altahir (Eastern Washington), OT Kai Greer (Georgia Tech), TE Brendan Doyle (Memphis), WR Caden High (South Carolina State), WR C.J. Williams (Wisconsin), IOL Nathan Mejia (Sacramento State), OT Niki Prongos (UCLA), WR Jordan Onovughe (Colorado), CB Jordan Washington (Dartmouth), WR David Pantelis (Yale).
Recruiting stars reflect the latest 247Sports rating assigned to each player, which for some is a new re-evaluated transfer grade while others may have only their old high school ranking. Note that as-yet uncommitted players may not ultimately transfer out, though most do.
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