Cal’s No. 1 Running Back: Brandon High or Kendrick Raphael or LJ Johnson

Who will Cal’s starting running back this season? Two weeks before the Bears' season oper at Oregon State, it remains an unanswered question.

Uncertainty about the position arose in the offseason when Cal’s top two rushers from last season, Jaivian Thomas and Jaydn Ott, transferred to other schools, and three running backs with similar 2024 statistics transferred in.

Brandon High Jr. transferred to Cal from Texas-San Antonio, Kedrick Raphael moved from North Carolina State to Cal, and LJ Johnson Jr. transferred from SMU to Berkeley. There are others in the running back room, including redshirt freshman Jamaal Wiley and incoming freshman Anthony League. But you don’t bring in a transfer with the idea of having him sit on the bench.

And with both offensive coordinator Bryan Harsin and running backs coach Julian Griffin saying that Cal will likely use a two-back rotation this season, it means three running backs are competing for two prime spots.

“And we’ve had those conversations,” Griffin said. “It’s going to get tough. There’s going be some decisions that are going to have to be made, but I think at the end of the day it’s going to sort itself out, and all three of those guys will play and have opportunity.”

Determining a pecking order for the running backs may take awhile.

“The skill sets between those three, they’re very different,” Griffin said.

He gave a brief description of the styles of each one:

Griffin on Brandon High Jr., who rushed 495 yards and a 5.3 yards-per-carry average, and caught six passes for 58 yards in 2024 as a redshirt freshman at Texas-San Antonio:

“He’s a young player but he’s extremely smart, high academic kid as well, so he understands defenses, how to play with great leverage, has obviously great speed, just bringing in that toughness, that mental toughness and the physical toughness.

“He’s about 5-10, 5-11, but he’s like 219 pounds, but he was a 10.4 100-meter guy coming out of high school, so he’s a big kid who can run.”

Griffin on Kendrick Raphael, who ran for 425 yards and a 5.4 yards-per-carry average, and caught 10 passes for 41 yards as a sophomore at North Carolina State in 2024:

“On the flip side you have Kendrick. He’s a great player, he has great speed, he has long speed. He’s very quick, he’s like cat-quick. So he’s a guy who can make people miss.”

Griffin on LJ Johnson Jr., who rushed for 332 yards and a 3.1 yards-per-carry average, and caught 11 passes for 80 yards as a redshirt junior at SMU last season:

“Kind of the best of both worlds. He’s able to run pretty fast, he can get downfield. He can pass [receive], great hands. Then on the flip side of it, he’s powerful. He’s a guy I can definitely see getting in between the tackles and making those hard, tough runs, getting three, four, five yards, and then boom, we burst and then everybody’s excited.”

Griffin says Johnson is the best pass receiver of the three.