Stanford lost two quarterbacks to the transfer portal and added a four-star recruit at the position Wednesday while Cal missed out on a top QB recruit on national signing day.
Ashton Daniels, the Cardinal’s starting quarterback this season, announced Wednesday that he will be transferring away from The Farm, following backup Justin Lamson out the door.
As a junior, Daniels passed for 1,700 yards, 10 touchdowns and 12 interceptions while adding 669 yards and three touchdowns as a rusher. He debuted as a freshman in 2022 in a limited role in David Shaw’s last season and started the majority of the last two seasons under coach Troy Taylor.
Daniels, a three-star recruit from Buford, Georgia, could be heading closer to home for his next stop.
Lamson, the Cardinal’s wildcat quarterback, announced his plans to enter the portal earlier in the week after two seasons at Stanford, where he transferred from Syracuse in 2023. Lamson will be a graduate transfer completing 24-of-47 attempts this season for 804 yards, four touchdowns and four interceptions this season. He was used as a runner in short-yardage situations, rushing 68 times for just 94 yards, but scoring eight touchdowns.
A new face arriving to Palo Alto from Murietta, California is Bear Bachmeier, ranked as a top-30 quarterback and the brother of Cardinal wide receiver Tiger. (Another older brother, Hank, was Wake Forest’s quarterback this season.)
Bear Bachmeier starred at Murrieta Valley, amassing 86 total touchdowns (30 rushing) in high school as a dual threat. He will have to compete with former top recruit Elijah Brown, the likely starter next season for the Cardinal after a disappointing 3-9 season.
The top recruit in Stanford’s 19-player class is four-star wide receiver JonAnthony Hall, out of New Jersey, ranked the No. 10 wideout in the country by 247Sports.
Cal, which went 6-6 overall and 2-6 in its first year in the ACC, was dealt a serious blow on Wednesday. The Bears had hoped to land Top 10 quarterback Jaron-Keawe Sagapolutele from Hawaii after he had been committed to the Golden Bears since July. But Sagapolutele, Hawaii’s top player, decided to sign with Oregon.
Sagapolutele is rated as the No. 8 quarterback, according to 247Sports. He finished with 10,653 career passing yards, most in Hawaii state history and surpassing the mark held by Oregon’s Dillon Gabriel (9,848).
Losing Sagapolutele to Oregon is particularly painful for Cal since he was the only blue-chip prospect among the Bears’ 14-player recruiting class.
Sagapolutele’s signing helped vault Oregon to the top of the Big Ten recruiting rankings after starting Wednesday behind Ohio State and Michigan in the Big Ten recruiting rankings and was poised to finish Wednesday on top.
Meanwhile, San Jose State’s well-balanced recruiting class is ranked No. 6 among the 12-team Mountain West Conference teams as each of the Spartans’ 12 newly signed players are 3-star prospects, according to 247Sports.
The top-rated prospect joining Ken Niumatalolo’s program is wide receiver Jase Nix from San Marcos High (Ca.), who finished his four-year career with 212 catches for 3,304 yards (15.6 yards per catch) and 48 touchdowns. The 5-9, 165-pound Nix is rated the state’s 109th-best prospect and has been compared favorably to another former San Marcos star receiver Kyle Phillips of the Philadelphia Eagles.
San Jose State also signed intriguing Marin Catholic tight end Braiden Bachich-Dixon, a 6-4, 220-pound speedster who presents matchup problems for defenses. Bachich-Dixon is California’s 111th-rated prospect.
Another interesting add for the Spartans is dual-threat quarterback Tama Amisone of Hawaii’s Kapolei High. Amisone, San Jose’s only quarterback in this class, threw for almost 1,500 yards, ran for more than 750 yards while also gaining 72 yards receiving this year.