Phil Steele's Football Guide Picks Cal to Finish Near the Bottom of ACC

Phil Steele’s ’25 College Football Preview magazine is the thickest of all the preseason magazines, loaded with statistics you never knew existed.

Nonetheless its predictions for Cal's 2025 season and possible honors for Golden Bears players are similar to what the other two major preseason college football magazines – Lindy’s and Athlon – say about the Golden Bears. 

Phil Steele projects Cal to finish 15th in the 17-team ACC, which is the same spot Athlon places the Bears and two slots higher than Lindy’s, which predicts Cal will finish last.

Steele’s final forecast said last season’s Cal team “was much better than its final record” of 6-7, and provides this concluding excerpt:

This year they appeared poised for a solid year but the spring portal hit them hard, losing a lot of key players including their top 5 RB’s and All-ACC TE. They did a solid job of replacing RB’s but have questions at WR and DB. They hired a new GM in Ron Rivera and Wilcox is on the hot seat. Cal is 7-36 vs teams with a winning record under Wilcox (0-5 LY). They do avoid Clemson, Miami and Florida State this year and if they have success early and build momentum have a shot at another bowl game.

Note: Tight end Jack Endries, now at Texas, was not an all-ACC selection in 2024, although he probably should have been. Also, whether Wilcox is on the hot seat is the subject of debate.

In Steele’s projection of Cal’s starting lineup for 2025, 13 of the 24 players (including kicker and punter) are players who transferred to Cal after the 2024 season. It’s a good bet that over half of the Bears starters will be newcomers as Steele suggests, but predicting the Bears’ starters on the offensive line and the defensive backfield are little more than educated guesses at this point.

Inside linebacker Cade Uluave is the Cal player who gets the most love from Steele.

Uluave is projected as a third-team All-American and a first-team All-ACC selection, and he is ranked as the 15th-best inside linebacker in the country.

The only other Cal players listed on Steele’s projected first-team, second-team, third-team or fourth-team all-ACC teams are Jacob DeJesus, who was listed as a second-team punt returner, and Aidan Keanaaina, who is projected to be a fourth-team all-ACC defensive lineman.

Cal’s Buom Jock, a transfer from Colorado State, is ranked as the 39th-best outside linebacker in the country by Steele.

(In case you’re curious, Fernando Mendoza is ranked as the 15th-best quarterback, Jaydn Ott is the No. 10 running back, and Jack Endries is ranked as the fourth-best tight end,)

Not surprisingly the Bears’ linebackers are the highest ranked Cal group and were rated the 33rd-best linebacking unit in the country by Steele.  The Bears’ defensive line was ranked as the 73rd-best in the nation, and their defensive backs were rated the 70th-best unit.

Cal lost all five of its starting defensive backs from last season, but Justin Wilcox always sems to come up with a solid secondary, even if he has to build the 2025 group from scratch.

No Cal offensive unit earned a national ranking from Steele, and, as we all know, Cal’s success will depend on the effectiveness of its quarterback. Ohio State transfer Devin Brown is the Bears’ likely starter at quarterback, but freshman Jaron-Keawe Sagapolutele will compete with Brown for that spot in preseason camp.

Steele noted that Cal does not face Miami, Clemson and Florida State in 2025, and that no doubt figures into the ranking of Cal’s schedule as the 61st-toughest in the country. That favorable schedule gives the Bears a reason to be optimistic.

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