Contra Costa Times: Cal recruiting not hurt much

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By Jonathan Okanes

Six months ago, Cal coach Jeff Tedford could have sold potential recruits on the national level program the Bears had become — the top-25 rankings, the 10-win seasons, the near-BCS misses.  It may have been harder for Tedford to make that argument during the latter stages of this recruiting season after a chaotic 2007 campaign left Cal out of the national spotlight. An unsightly second half of the season had the Bears simply scrambling to finish with a winning record.

Were potential recruits turned off by Cal's precipitous fall out of the national scene last year? Maybe a little. But the class the Bears will sign today on national letter-of-intent day still addresses some of the program's pressing needs, and recruiting experts downplayed the effect the 2007 season may have had on the Bears' efforts.

"I don't think it had a dramatic effect," said Jamie Newberg, a recruiting expert for scout.com. "It definitely may have hurt with a kid or two. But regardless of the season that Cal had, they've filled their needs. You're still talking about a top-30 class."

Scout.com ranks Cal's class as the 31st-best in the country. Rivals.com has the group of newcomers ranked No.33.   Those numbers are the worst since Tedford's first year at Cal in 2002. Rivals.com had ranked three of the Bears' previous four classes in its top 20, while scout.com had each of the previous four in its top 25.

Tedford admitted that some potential recruits may  have been turned off by the way Cal's season ended, but said he didn't notice a significant impact while he was out on the recruiting trail.

"People had opinions about certain things," Tedford said. "They were concerned about the way we finished. But it's not like we were getting blown out. We were right there in position to win almost every game. I think some of the recruits see that you're right there."  Tedford said one recruit told him, "I just didn't like the way you guys finished," and committed to another school.  One of the reasons Cal's class may not be ranked as high as in previous years is that it's lacking that one headliner who can boost the quality of an incoming group. In 2005, DeSean Jackson helped give the Bears' the ninth-best class in the country. Last year, Jahvid Best gave Cal a boost up to No.12, according to scout.com.  "It may lack the star power of a DeSean Jackson or Jahvid Best, but it's a very balanced class," said Greg Biggin, director of recruiting for Student Sports. "It's not that glamorous, if you're looking for that one marquee name, but overall I think they did a nice job of meeting their needs.

"You never know, maybe they lost a player or two because they weren't as good as the last couple of seasons, but recruiting is a weird deal. Every year is different."   One piece of evidence that perhaps the second half of the season didn't hurt recruiting too much is that of the 21 commitments Cal has received, according to rivals.com, 11 have come since the end of the regular season. That means less than half of the Bears' incoming class committed before the season started to unravel, although most of their higher-rated recruits come from that group.

EXTRA POINT: Tedford said running back James Montgomery underwent minor surgery on his right knee after the season but is expected to be close to 100 percent healthy by the time spring practice begins on March17.