Cal Sports Report

Eastern Kentucky Transfer OLB Cheikh Saliou Fall Commits to Cal Football

Fall comes from an FCS school and acts a replacement for transfer Deamontae Diggs, who has de-committed from Cal

Jake Curtis

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Cal needs depth at the outside linebacker position, and the Golden Bears took a step to fix that shortcoming when Eastern Kentucky edge transfer Cheikh Saliou Fall announced on social media on Wednesday that he has committed to Cal.

Fall comes to Cal as a graduate transfer with one season of college eligibility remaining, and he will be stepping up in class at Cal in the Atlantic Coast Conference after playing the past four seasons at an FCS school.

Most of the other schools that offered Fall a scholarship as a graduate transfer were all FCS schools, and they included Youngstown State, Northern Illinois, Hampton, Western Illinois and Jackson State. However, Georgia State, which is an FBS school, also offered Fall.

Late last month, Cal had received a commitment from Deamontae Diggs, another outside linebacker transfer from an FCS school, Youngstown State, but earlier this month, Diggs de-committed from Cal and is back in the transfer portal.

.The 6-foot-4, 200-pound Fall, who is from Middletown, Ohio, started just four games for Eastern Kentucky in 2023, but played in 11 games.  He recorded 23 tackles, including 3.5 tackles for loss and two sacks.  He also had three quarterback hurries and forced one fumble.

He is listed as a linebacker, so he would be an outside linebacker in Cal’s basic defensive scheme, which includes two down linemen, two inside linebackers and two outside linebackers.

Fall’s best games last season came against FBS schools Cincinnati of the Big 12 and Kentucky of the Southeastern Conference.  He had five tackles and forced a fumble while stacking the quarterbacks against Cincinnati, and he had three tackles and a quarterback hurry against Kentucky.

He played in just five games in 2022 and had seven tackles, and Fall played in 10 games in 2021 and finished with two tackles. In 2020 Fall participated in 10 games (no starts) and recorded seven tackles.

As of now, David Reese and Xavier Carlton appear to the Bears’ starting outside linebackers for 2024. But the Bears need depth at the position.  Myles Jernigan, who received considerable playing time at outside linebacker for the Cal in 2023, has transferred to Louisville. Although Diggs has de-committed, Cal has received a commitment from Missouri transfer outside linebacker Serigne Tounkara.

Cal’s pass rush improved significantly in the latter stages of the 2023 season, but it was a shortcoming for most of the season.  Cal finished the 2023 season ranked ninth in sacks, total defense and scoring defense.

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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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