Cal Sports Report

Cal Adds Florida Outside Linebacker Transfer David Reese

Injuries limited his playing time in the SEC, but he has two years of eligibility left

Jake Curtis

Florida outside linebacker David Reese is transferring to Cal, the Golden Bears announced via twitter on Sunday,

Reese, a graduate transfer, will be a sixth-year player at Cal next season, but will have two years of eligibility remaining. He redshirted his freshman season after playing just two games, and he missed all of the following season after suffering a torn Achilles tendon. He was limited to five games because of injury in 2020, but that pandemic season did not count against eligibility.

He did not play in any games in 2021 and finally became a contributor in 2022 under head coach Billy Napier, appearing in 13 games, being involved in the rotation at outside linebacker and being a key special-team performer.

Reese finished his Gators career with nine tackles, but just two in 2022.

The 6-foot-2, 238-pound Reese is from Fort Pierce, Fla., and was a four-star recruit coming out of Vero Beach High School.  He chose Florida over offers from Georgia, Michigan and Florida State among others.

He graduated from Florida with a degree in education sciences in the spring of 2022. He was a three-time member of the SEC academic honor roll.

Cal hopes he can stay healthy and be a productive edge rusher.  The Bears ranked eighth in the Pac-12 in sacks with 19, while the top three teams in the conference -- Utah, USC and Washington -- had 41, 40 and 37 sacks, respectively. No Cal player had more than 4.5 sacks this past season.

Reese joins former Clemson linebacker Sergio Allen as the transfer additions at the position this offseason. 

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Cover photo of David Reese by Calvin Mattheis, News Sentinel via Imagn Content Services, LLC

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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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