{"id":14807,"date":"2026-05-08T03:59:48","date_gmt":"2026-05-08T03:59:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/2026\/05\/08\/assessing-the-high-ranking-for-cals-offseason-football-moves-sports-illustrated\/"},"modified":"2026-05-08T03:59:48","modified_gmt":"2026-05-08T03:59:48","slug":"assessing-the-high-ranking-for-cals-offseason-football-moves-sports-illustrated","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/2026\/05\/08\/assessing-the-high-ranking-for-cals-offseason-football-moves-sports-illustrated\/","title":{"rendered":"Assessing the High Ranking for Cal's Offseason Football Moves – Sports Illustrated"},"content":{"rendered":"

In this story:
This week ESPN ranked the offseason moves<\/strong><\/a> of every Power Four conference football team, and it ranked Cal third-best in the ACC in that category.
That high ranking of the coaching changes and gains and losses in the transfer portal suggest success for the Golden Bears, perhaps as soon as the 2026 season. But did ESPN get it right?
The ranking of offseason moves involving player acquisitions and departures are more significant that the rankings of incoming freshman classes for two reasons:
First, the college-level skills of transfers have been established and are more apparent that the rating of high school prospects, which are educated guesses of their college potential.
Second, transfer gains and losses have an immediate impact on a team\u2019s success or failure, while incoming freshmen may take time to develop into contributing players.
ESPN considered three factors in its offseason rankings: biggest coaching changes, what went wrong and what went right.
It listed Cal\u2019s \u201ckey additions\u201d as WR Chase Hendricks,<\/strong><\/a> RB Adam Mohammed and OLB Solomon Williams.
While those three should help, ESPN left out the most important addition, wide receiver Ian Strong<\/strong><\/a>. His production \u2013 52 catches, 762 yards, five touchdowns in 10 games at Rutgers \u2013 gives Cal talent at a position where it is most needed with the loss of wide receiver Jacob De Jesus and the return of a quarterback talent (Jaron-Keawe Sangapolutele) who needs quality targets.
Hendricks\u2019 stats are impressive \u2013 71 catches, 1,071 yards, seven touchdowns in 13 games at Ohio \u2013 and he will be a major factor in 2026, but his numbers were produced against Mid-American Conference defenses, while Strong worked against Big Ten defenders.
ESPN considers the hiring of Tosh Lupoi a beneficial offseason move, and he has already demonstrated a penchant for acquiring talent <\/strong><\/a>and energizing the fan base.
However, he has never been a head coach and his coordinators are new to those roles, so it remains to be seen whether the new staff can put together a winning package, which involves player development, player utilization, game planning, game management, team discipline and countless details.
Lupoi and his staff may well be outstanding in that respect, but we just don\u2019t know that yet.
ESPN correctly noted in the \u201cwhat went wrong\u201d category that the loss of inside linebackers Cade Uluave (to BYU)<\/strong><\/a> and Luke Ferrelli (to Mississippi) <\/strong><\/a>is significant. And those departures along with the moves of cornerbacks Hezekiah Masses<\/strong><\/a> and Brent \u201cPaco\u201d Austin <\/strong><\/a>to the NFL leave the Bears without their four best defensive players from last year at their four most important defensive positions. Cal has had top-notch players at those four critical positions in recent years, and it remains to be seen whether it has adequate replacements for 2026.
The most important item in the \u201cwhat went right\u201d category is obvious, and ESPN hit the mark by saying, \u201cThe No. 1 objective for Lupoi upon accepting the job was flying to Hawaii\u00a0and ensuring the Bears' rising star at QB,\u00a0Jaron-Keawe Sagapolutele re-upped for his sophomore season.\u201d\u00a0
Lupoi also worked hard in the transfer portal, acquiring the targets for Sagapolutele, i.e., Strong, Hendricks and tight end Dorian Thomas, and providing a running back \u2013 Adam Mohammed –<\/strong><\/a>– and some offensive linemen to try to improve the Bears\u2019 woeful running game of 2025.
Cal has added 32 transfers since Lupoi was named head coach. That\u2019s a lot, and many of them will be asked to fill many of the vacant starting spots, especially on defense.
So what does the high ranking \u2013 if it\u2019s accurate \u2013 mean for Cal football in 2026.
Since rosters and starting spots at most Power 4 schools these days are affected dramatically by offseason gains and losses through the transfer portal, the offseason work has a lot to do with how a team will perform in the ensuing season.
Cal\u2019s presumed offseason success should bode well for the Bears\u2019 2026 season, especially since Cal will not face Miami, which is ranked first in the ACC by ESPN in offseason moves, or Louisville, which is No. 4.
It suggests Cal should finish higher in the ACC standings than this summer\u2019s preseason ACC poll is likely to show.\u00a0
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Jake Curtis worked in the San Francisco Chronicle sports department for 27 years, covering virtually every sport, including numerous Final Fours, several college football national championship games, an NBA Finals, world championship boxing matches and a World Cup. He was a Cal beat writer for many of those years, and won awards for his feature stories.
\u00a9 2026 <\/span> ABG-SI LLC<\/span> – <\/span>SPORTS ILLUSTRATED IS A REGISTERED TRADEMARK OF ABG-SI LLC. – All Rights Reserved. The content on this site is for entertainment and educational purposes only. Betting and gambling content is intended for individuals 21+ and is based on individual commentators' opinions and not that of Sports Illustrated or its affiliates, licensees and related brands. All picks and predictions are suggestions only and not a guarantee of success or profit. If you or someone you know has a gambling problem, crisis counseling and referral services can be accessed by calling 1-800-GAMBLER.<\/span><\/p>\n

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In this story:This week ESPN ranked the offseason moves of every Power Four conference football team, and it ranked Cal third-best in the ACC in that category.That high ranking of the coaching changes and gains and losses in the transfer portal suggest success for the Golden Bears, perhaps as soon as the 2026 season. But […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":14808,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-14807","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14807","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14807"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14807\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14808"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14807"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14807"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14807"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}