The California Golden Bears are dealing with a massive exodus in the college football spring transfer portal, seeing standout starters like tight end Jack Endries and running back Jaydn Ott leaving the program. It turns out, multiple things are fueling the exodus from Berkeley and the problems aren’t going away soon.
As tracked by On3.com, Endries and Ott are among 10 players from the Golden Bears’ spring roster who have entered the transfer portal. Alarmingly, five of Cal’s running backs have all sought to leave the program. The wave of departures has been especially devastating to the offense.
As noted by Avinash Kunnath, Cal has seen five running backs, its starting tight end and quarterback, along with five of its seven wide receivers, all enter the college football transfer portal. All of this has happened since the program hired Bryan Harsin as offensive coordinator.
On Friday, Richard Johnson of CBS Sports detailed the ongoing issues at Cal, with many of them tied to Harsin. The first-year Bears’ offensive coordinator reportedly “hasn’t exactly been a culture fit” with the locker room and some sources close to the Golden Bears said that Harsin’s presence has “accelerated the team’s unraveling” this spring.
Harsin is well-known for his abrasive style of coaching and it’s part of the reason he lasted less than two full seasons as the Auburn Tigers head coach. There were other issues at Auburn University, with reports of players transferring because of his leadership style and finding that he ran a toxic, dysfunctional program where he wasn’t open to input from others, nor changing his style.
- Bryan Harsin coaching record: 85-36 overall, 9-12 with the Auburn Tigers
Endrie’s departure speaks to the issues going on within the program. The star tight end, who committed to Texas, grew up in Danville, California and joined the Golden Bears as a walk-on from Monte Vista High School. He worked his way up the depth chart and led the team in receiving last season. Now, after growing up dreaming of playing at Cal, he was part of the massive exodus this spring.
- Jack Endries stats (ESPN): 56 receptions, 626 receiving yards, 2 touchdowns with the California Golden Bears in 2025
However, there are reportedly other issues at Cal that go beyond Harsin. SF Gate‘s Gabe Fernandez reports that two top boosters supporting the school have vowed to cut off funding to the athletic department unless newly appointed general manager Ron Rivera is given more control.
Amid the frustration from top boosters over the “perceived emphasis” by Cal on Olympic sports as opposed to pouring more money into the football program, there are also questions about Wilcox’s future at Cal. Specifically, whether or not the Golden Bears’ coach will continue to stick around a program amid the turbulence when there are top Power 4 programs willing to make him one of the highest-paid defensive coordinators in college football.
Between Harsin’s penchant for creating a divide in the locker room and clashing with certain groups of players, to the risk of Cal’s football program losing support from some of its top boosters, it’s become an increasingly unstable situation. It’s what has already led to a wave of key Golden Bears’ players leaving this spring and could eventually result in Wilcox also departing.
