BearTalk

Cal ranks 11th in the Pac-12 in the latest Graduation Success Rates released today by the NCAA. Of the football players that began their careers at Cal in 2004, 54 percent received their degree. The only school with a worse mark in the confernce is Arizona, at 48 percent.

ESPN.com’s Greg Biggins had a couple of significant news items today, both with ties to Cal:

• Biggins reported that Aric Armstead, a mammoth offensive lineman considered one of the top overall recruits in the nation, has decommitted from USC. Armstead mentioned Cal as one of his possible visits, but sounds fairly wide open now.
• Biggins also reported that Shaq Thompson really enjoyed his visit to Oregon last weekend and now considers Oregon, Washington and Cal as co-leaders. My hunch is Cal is still the leader, but the way the rest of this season goes down could be a factor.

The Bears reportedly have received an oral commitment from athlete Cedric Dozier out of Washington. Dozier is believed to be head to Cal to play wide receiver. Dozier had offers from much of the Pac-12, among others.

If Dozier ends up at WR, that means Cal already has three wide receivers among its eight oral commitments so far, with the others being five-star recruit Bryce Treggs as well as Kenneth Walker.

If Shaq Thompson winds up at Cal as many believe he still will, he’s expected to play wide receiver as well. That could give the Bears one of the top WR classes in the country, and there could be others.

It’s a good thing, too. The receiving corps would look pretty thing without an influx of talent next season. The Bears are losing Marvin Jones, Michael Calvin and Coleman Edmond. That would leave Keenan Allen and not much else, especially with the academic status of Kaelin Clay up in the air. Certainly, these incoming freshmen know they have a chance to play right away at Cal, possibly even start.

Cal kicker Giorgio Tavecchio has been named a semifinalist for the Campbell Trophy, given annually to the top student-athlete in college football. This is the award that former Cal center Alex Mack won in 2008 (when it was called the Draddy Award) and linebacker Mike Mohamed was a finalist for last season.

Former Cal wide receiver Jeremy Ross was signed to the Indianpolis Colts practice squad today.

Cal picked up its sixth oral commitment of the 2012 class when safety Zach Hoffpauir of Peoria, Ariz. pledged to the Bears. Hoffpauir is the 22nd-ranked safety in the country by rivals.com and No. 32 by scout.com. He hopes to play football and baseball for Cal.

The Pac-12 office has announced it will not further expand. The conference’s presidents and chancellors reaffirmed their preference to remain a 12-team conference. So much for those road trips to Austin…

Four former Cal players have been released by NFL teams. WR Jeremy Ross (Patriots), DT Derrick Hill (Raiders), DB Darian Hagan (Browns) and OL Donovan Edwards (49ers) were all cut as NFL teams got down to the 80-player limit required Tuesday. Ross was in Berkeley today watching Cal practice.

As game day gets closer, there is one pretty good development for the Bears — their health.

Cal is pretty whole as it prepares for Saturday’s season-opener against Fresno State. Freshman running back Darren Irvin really is the only player sidelined. Whether he would have been playing as a true freshman is up in the air, but he was getting good reviews from both Jeff Tedford and running backs coach Ron Gould before getting hurt.

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Here’s a story by our own Jimmy Durkin on Kennedy-Richmond wide receiver Kenneth Walker orally committing to Cal.