Tosh Lupoi's recruiting efforts making Cal football relevant again

The Cal Golden Bears have to feel like they're a bit of a sleeping giant.

This is a school that has had athletic success in the past, but Cal has had a hard time being consistent.

The pieces are there, though.

The Golden Bears have an iconic campus in Berkeley, California. They've got fertile recruiting grounds all around them in the San Francisco Bay Area, but they can honestly reach just about anywhere on the West Coast.

They now also have a coach with serious gravitas on the recruiting trail in Tosh Lupoi.

Lupoi built up his resume from 2022 to 2025 as the defensive coordinator of the Oregon Ducks, and he learned from one of the best coaches in the game, Dan Lanning.

He's now using his abilities to pick up some nice recruiting wins for Cal.

There's still time for things to shake up, but Cal's 2027 recruiting class is currently ranked No. 21 in the nation.

The Golden Bears have 25 hard commitments. That includes a massive in-state commitment from 4-star wide receiver Charles Davis, who was originally thinking about committing to the UCLA Bruins.

“When I started out, I was feeling UCLA,” Davis told Rivals recently. “I went to a few practices within a week and at first it felt like home. But I hopped on the phone with coach Tosh and then I went up there to Cal, and it was a different feeling for sure. It was a family-oriented feeling, and that’s something I looked for in a school.”

Tosh Lupoi making moves on the recruiting trail for Cal Golden Bears

Cal also landed four-star defensive lineman Troy Bowens, who is sticking with the Golden Bears despite getting heavy interest from the Michigan Wolverines.

He credits Lupoi for keeping him committed.

“If Tosh wasn’t there, I don’t think Cal would have been an option,” Bowens said. “Since he’s the head coach, I really trust in Tosh, and he’s a great guy, and all the other staff he brought from Oregon with him. They’re all amazing. It’s all love there at Cal now.”

Lupoi has to take this recruiting momentum and turn it into actual wins on the gridiron, but you can't win big-time games without big-time players.

Success always starts on the recruiting trail. For Cal, it also starts in the transfer portal, and on that note, Lupoi kept star quarterback Jaron-Keawe Sagapolutele in the fold.

Will this all lead to wins? Cal gets a huge test right off the bat and a chance to find out in a game against Bob Chesney and the UCLA Bruins to kick off the 2026 season.