Cal Football: Justin Wilcox Suggests Spring Signing Day is `Becoming Obsolete'

Golden Bears corralled their entire 2020 class in December

Wednesday was the start of the spring national letter-of-intent signing period for college football.

How many prospects did the Cal Golden Bears bring on board?

Uh, none, actually.

This is no cause for alarm. It's the direction things are headed, according to Cal coach Justin Wilcox.

“This day is becoming obsolete, nearly,” he said referring to how most players prefer to sign in December after making their college decisions in the summer or fall. “And I’m not even sure it won’t get moved up even earlier.”

Cal signed 25 players during the early letter-of-intent period in December, and the Bears had basically no intention of adding to their 2020 class this month.

They are not maxed out with scholarships but they're close. 

The Bears have added two preferred walk-ons, players the program has recruited but will take on a non-scholarship basis. Otherwise, their December class remains as it was.

Recruiting websites 247Sports and Rivals both rank Cal’s class of newcomers eighth among Pac-12 schools. Rivals has the Bears at No. 35 overall, 247Sports puts them at No. 37.

Cal held media access on Wednesday, but not because it was signing day. Instead, the focus was giving the four new assistants -- offensive coordinator Bill Musgrave, offensive line coach Angus McClure, running backs coach Aristotle Thompson and defensive backs coach Marcel Yates -- the chance to interact with reporters.

Wilcox told the amusing story about how on-campus recruiting coordinator Benji Palu arranged a breakfast of biscuits and gravy for the coaching staff. The reason for it was initially lost on Wilcox.

Then, he realized, “It’s signing day. But none of us we were thinking that way. We were just working on football.”