Cal football’s offensive line will face a drastic change as redshirt senior Dwayne Wallace, projected starting right guard for the Bears, is no longer associated with the program. The reason for his departure has not been revealed.

Wallace transferred to Cal as a junior following a two-year stint at Riverside City College. During his one season with the Bears, Wallace played in all 12 games and started in 9 at right guard.

He was an instrumental figure in enabling his team to achieve the fourth-highest offensive passing rank (358.8 ypg) and fourth-down conversion percentage (74.2 percent). Moreover, his contributions helped Cal gain the eighth-best ranking in first downs offense and 10th in total offense (513.2 ypg).

Thanks to the safety provided by Wallace and company, quarterback David Webb stood out as one of the nation’s best, totaling the second-most passing yards per game (357.9 ypg), and third-most completions per game (31.83 cpg) and points responsible for per game (3rd, 21.7 ppg).

With Wallace out the door, Cal has a hefty task ahead as it must find some source of rejuvenation for its thinning offensive line.

Hildenberger: Following four seasons with the Minnesota Twins farm system, Trevor Hildenberger, a former pitcher for the Cal baseball team, made his major league debut, striking out one and holding the Cleveland Indians scoreless in his first official inning of work.

“All my expectations were exceeded,” said Hildenberger in a postgame interview with Fox Sports North. “It was everything I wanted and more.”

Hildenberger was a workhorse out of the bullpen during his senior season in 2014 with the Bears, pitching 47.2 innings, the most of any Cal reliever, over 28 appearances. The San Jose native made major strides in his last season with the Bears, ending the year with an ERA of 2.83 which nearly cut his junior year total of 5.31 ERA in half.

The Twins selected Hildenberger in the 22nd round with the 650th overall selection that season. Hildenberger gradually rose up through Minnesota’s minor league system and was promoted to Triple-A by the start of his fourth season with the organization.

Hildenberger continued to dominate minor league hitting with the Rochester Red Wings, Minnesota’s Triple-A affiliate, totaling an ERA of 2.05 and a FIP (fielding independent pitching) of 2.38 while striking out 35 batters over 30.2 innings.

The Cal product joins a Twins pitching staff which currently sports the fifth-highest team ERA in baseball and a reliever core which has the second-highest ERA in baseball.

Travel: The state of California has recently added Alabama, Kentucky, South Dakota and Texas to its travel ban list due to discriminatory legislation enacted against people of the LGBTQ+ communities. Following the ban, Cal athletics can no longer travel to these states for competition.

According to the State of California Department of Justice, this restriction applies to state agencies, departments, boards, authorities and commissions, including the University of California, the Board of Regents of the University of California and the California State University.

These four states are added to a pre-existing list of banned states including Kansas, Mississippi, North Carolina and Tennessee.

This ban will affect future game scheduling, but games scheduled before the ban are expected to be played. Cal football is set to play at North Carolina in its season opener, at Ole Miss in 2019, at TCU in 2021 and at Auburn in 2024.

Cal athletics may run into issues should its teams qualify for postseason tournaments hosted in these states throughout various sports.

Cal also may no longer be able to take recruiting trips to states with anti-LGBTQ+ legislation, which could potentially cause harm its programs in the future. While the new Wilcox era is likely to bring about more West Coast-based recruiting in football, this does not mean the Bears will cease to seek out talent throughout the nation. The football team currently has 13 players on the roster from the banned states.

McNeill: Three-star guard Darius McNeill has chosen to join the Cal men’s basketball team after originally committing to Iowa State.

McNeill held the interest from many schools and was ranked 22nd in the state of Texas. He received offers from Baylor, LSU, Florida and a few others.

McNeill announced his switch to Cal on Friday via Twitter.

The guard will reunite with his old summer coach Chris Walker. He originally did not intend to attend Cal but decided to join the Bears after hearing about head coach Wyking Jones’ play style.

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