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Major College Football Program Suffers Mass Exodus, Loses Five RBs In 48 Hours

Originally posted on Athlon Sports | By Kevin Borba | Last updated Apr 16, 2025 5:13 PM ET

With the spring window of the college football transfer portal officially open, hundreds of players are in search of a new program.

It is now the norm in college football, but that doesn't mean every team is prepared to be decimated at a single position. For the California Golden Bears, who are in search of the program's first winning season since 2019, they were hit extremely hard by transfer portal departures in the last 48 hours.

On Tuesday, it was revealed that running backs Byron Cardwell, Jadyn Ott (Oklahoma), Justin Williams-Thomas and Kadarius Calloway were all entering the portal. Although it was a blow to Justin Wilcox's program to lose that much talent, the bright side of the exodus was that the team's leading rusher, Jaivian Thomas, was still with the program.

This sentiment didn't last long, as Thomas was revealed to have entered his name into the portal on Wednesday by On3's Pete Nakos.

With his departure, Cal is down to just one scholarship running back in true freshman Anthony League, who 247Sports ranked as a three-star recruit, and as the No. 56 running back in the country.

Luckily for the Golden Bears, the portal is flooded with running backs in search of a new place to call home. Notable names such as Anthony Carrie (Georgia Tech), TJ Harden (UCLA), Savion Red (Nevada) and Isaiah Augustave all headline what is a very talented group of running backs in the transfer portal.

In addition to nearly all of their running backs, Cal also lost All-ACC tight end Jack Endries. Needless to say, the Golden Bears will have a lot of work to do in this window.

This article first appeared on Athlon Sports and was syndicated with permission.

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