Cal is trying to wipe the slate clean at running back.
After a season in which the Bears averaged just 81.7 rushing yards per game in 2025, the position group is getting a major overhaul. Lead rusher Kendrick Raphael is gone after transferring to Southern Methodist University, and Brandon High Jr. is headed back to the University of Texas at San Antonio after one year in Berkeley. Between them, they accounted for nearly 90% of Cal’s rushing yards last season.
So the Bears went shopping in the transfer portal, and they didn’t just bring in bodies. They brought in production.
Washington junior Adam Mohammed, UC Davis redshirt sophomore Carter Vargas and University of Texas at El Paso redshirt sophomore Ashten Emory arrive with a combined 1,540 rushing yards and 13 touchdowns on 292 carries last season. That gives Cal three experienced backs who have already shown they can carry a load, and it should give the offense a very different look. The group also includes three returners and a high school recruit, so the Bears have a mix of proven college players and younger options to sort through.
Mohammed is the headliner. He comes over from Washington with real buzz, having been ranked as high as No. 6 among running backs in the transfer portal and landing on the preseason watch list for the 2026 Paul Hornung Award, which goes to the most versatile player in major college football.
In 2025, he ran for 523 yards and five touchdowns on 106 carries, caught 17 passes for 138 yards and added another layer as a kickoff returner, bringing back 16 for 420 yards. That kind of all-purpose profile is exactly what Cal was missing.
Vargas made his case in a smaller sample but did plenty with it. In just eight games at UC Davis last season, he piled up 445 rushing yards and five touchdowns, averaging 6.6 yards per carry.
He had a 136-yard, two-touchdown game against Southern Utah and added 90 yards on 16 carries against Northern Colorado. He also chipped in 177 receiving yards and two scores on 10 catches, which makes him another back Cal can use in more than one way.
Emory brings the steady stuff. At UTEP, he played in 12 games and rushed for 592 yards and four touchdowns on 119 carries, hitting double-digit carries in eight of those games.
His best outing came against New Mexico State, when he ran for 181 yards and a touchdown. For a Cal offense that ranked 133rd out of 134 FBS teams in rushing offense last season, that kind of week-to-week reliability matters.
The Bears also added freshman Victor Santino from Miami Edison Senior High School. He rushed for 902 yards and seven touchdowns on just 63 carries in seven games during his senior season, and his speed stands out even more with a 10.96 personal best in the 100-meter dash. Santino also showed some receiving chops at the SoCal Under Armour Next Camp, where he made several catches in one-on-one work.
There are returners in the mix, too. Redshirt freshman Anthony League has the most experience among them after playing in five games and making one start last season.
He ran for 38 yards and a touchdown on 11 carries, scoring his first collegiate touchdown in the Sheraton Hawaiʻi Bowl. Redshirt junior Dean-Taylor Chapman had one carry for 5 yards against Texas Southern, and redshirt sophomore Carson Perry-Smith is moving from wide receiver to running back after appearing in seven games last season.
Cal has plenty of new faces to work with. The harder part is turning that into a run game the Bears can actually trust.
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