Cal's Byron Cardwell Ready to Show Off His Inner Reggie Bush

The transfer running back from Oregon, now healthy, fantasized as a youngster about being the former USC star

Byron Cardwell /

Byron Cardwell has dreamed big since he was little.

“As a kid, I would run up and down my grandparents’ hallway screaming I was Reggie Bush,” said Cardwell, a redshirt sophomore running back, who came to Cal a year ago from Oregon. 

A native of San Diego and a consensus four-star prospect out of high school, Cardwell enjoyed a breakthrough game during his freshman season with Ducks, rushing for 127 yards on just seven carries with a touchdown against Colorado. He had runs of 21, 29, 31 and 34 yards.

And it made him feel just a little like Bush, the former USC Heisman Trophy winner who also was born in San Diego.

“It felt like what I always dreamed about,“ Cardwell said of his game vs. Colorado. “Being able to go out there and play like him, it was a big thing for me.”

Cardwell rushed for 417 yards as a freshman at Oregon and his yards per carry average of 6.84 led the Pac-12 Conference.

It was nothing more than he expected coming out of Morse High School in San Diego. 

“I knew I was going to play right away. I did a lot of work coming in. Mentally, it didn’t really matter who was there,” he said. “That was my mindset.”

Byron Cardwell at Oregon in 2022 / Troy Wayrynen-USA TODAY Sports

His new teammates at Oregon included standout running backs CJ Verdell and Travis Dye, and Cardwell was confident in what he could achieve.

“To be the best to ever do it, honestly,” he said. “To come in, make an impact, make a name for myself and make it to the next level. And continue to do the same thing.”

Unfortunately, he suffered a significant ankle injury in the second game of his sophomore season in 2022. He red-shirted and along the way decided he would resume his college career elsewhere.

“Just to be in an environment where it was more conducive to my success,” Cardwell said.

But where?

Cardwell was recruited out of high school  the likes of Notre Dame, Michigan, Florida State, Florida, Washington, Utah, UCLA and USC. But also Cal.

So he had an existing relationship with Cal running backs coach Aristotle Thompson and felt a connection with the Bears.

His ankle healed, but Cardwell promptly injured his knee in the spring of 2023, keeping him on the sidelined for all of last season with the Bears. He says he’s fully healthy now.

His time on the shelf taught Cardwell patience, how to say no to distractions and gave him the ability to “focus on the main thing.”

He said his faith got him through the long wait. “The frustration obviously is I’m very competitive and I like to pay ball,” Cardwell said. “Once you start being able to get back on the field, little by little, you start to feel better.”

Thompson, his position coach, said Cardwell has had a good fall camp and sees his confidence returning.

“When you have a lower-extremity injury, it can set you back mentally. That’s usually the biggest thing,” Thompson said. ”The science nowadays, what they do in repairing the body, I mean it’s amazing. 

“But it’s the mind. It’s getting your edge back. How do you get the edge back? And so we continue to push Byron in ways that we know he’ll respond to. He’s doing a really good job. We’re excited to see what he’s going to get back to and beyond.”

Cardwell said the injuries did not steal his edge. “For me personally, it kind of ignited it more,” he said.

Asked to describe his skillset to Cal fans who haven’t seen him play, the 6-foot, 215-pounder said, “Elusiveness, smoothness, an intelligent player,  controlled. One that’s going to compete and is excited.”

Cardwell, who said he plans to remain at Cal at least through the 2025 season, is battling for a spot behind preseason All-Atlantic Coast Conference junior Jaydn Ott. Cal has a deep room of running backs, and Cardwell wants to be available to do whatever the team needs from him.

By the time the Bears open their season against UC Davis at Memorial Stadium on Aug. 31, it will have been just 10 days shy of two years since he played in a game.

“It almost feels like freshman year again,” Cardwell said. “I’m just very excited for this season.”