Cal Sports Report

Cal Kicker Derek Morris Enters Transfer Portal

Freshman Morris shared the field-goal duties with Ryan Coe this season for the Bears

Jake Curtis

Cal kicker Detek Morris
Cal kicker Detek Morris / Darren Yamashita-Imagn Images
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Freshman kicker Derek Morris, who did most of the place-kicking for Cal in the second half of he 2024 season, announced on social media this week that he is entering the transfer portal.

Morris shared the Bears' place-kicking duties with Ryan Coe this past season. Morris was 11-for-15 on his field-goal attempts with his longest being a 46-yarder. Coe has run out of college eligibility after going 14-of-22 on field-goal tries, although he made four field goals of 50 yards or longer, with his longest being a 54-yarder.

Earlier this month, Cal got a commitment from transfer kicker Kyle Cunanan, who was a sophomore at Charlotte this past season. Cunanan shared the 49ers' kicking duties with Stephen Rusnak. Cunanan was 3-for-3 on his field goal attempts in 2024, but none wss longer than 31 yards.

Morris replaced Coe as Cal's place-kicker in the seventh game of the season, against North Carolina State, after Coe had struggled hrough the first six games. Morris made his first three field-goal attempts in that game against the Wolfpack, but he missed a 28-yard attempt with 1:34 left in the game and Cal trailing by one point.

He then went 5-for-5 against Oregon State and 2-for-2 against Wake Forest then next two weeks.

Morris missed a 48-yard field goal attempt against Syracuse, and Coe attempted -- and made -- a field-goal attempt from 44 yards later in that game.

At that point, Coe took over attempting long field goals with Morris attempting the shorter ones.

Morris missed a 38-yard field-goal try against SMU, and Coe made kicks of 40 and 53 yards against the Mustangs later in that game.

In the LA Bowl, Morris made a 43-yard field goal, and missed a 41-yard atempt. Coe then attempted the third Cal field goal and made a 30-yarder.

Morris is from Dayton, Ohio.

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Jake Curtis
JAKE CURTIS

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.

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