It's early Wednesday morning in Berkeley. The sun hasn't even begun to rise. Yet, eager coaches and student-athletes have already begun filing into California Memorial Stadium, ready to get to work on a new season of Golden Bear football.

Not long after, Barrett Miller arrives for his first training camp at Cal. It's been a little over a month since the announcement that the 6-foot-5, 310-pound offensive lineman joined the Bears as a fifth-year senior.

After four years at Stanford, things feel a bit different this time around, but that's understandable. At the end of the day though, it's just the start of another training camp, right?

Wrong. Welcome to the transfer portal era.

"College football is changing. It's more competitive nowadays. All these teams are changing leagues and everyone wants the best," Miller said. "A lot is different."

A versatile piece who can be plugged into multiple spots on the offensive line, Miller is one of many exciting additions for the 2023 Bears, who feature a whopping 50 new faces on the roster - including 28 transfers. 

Previously, undergraduate transfers were required to sit out a year before they could resume their eligibility. Since the NCAA eliminated this rule in April of 2021, granting all student-athletes a one-time waiver to transfer with immediate eligibility, things have changed dramatically - from the way programs treat the recruiting process to the way they approach training camp.

"The immediate eligibility has been huge," Cal Director of Player Personnel Marshall Cherrington said. "You're able to flip rosters a lot. Our desire was to get better than we were last year and I think we did a good job of that."

Defensive back Raymond Woodie III – another fifth-year senior – was one of the first Bears to take advantage of immediate transfer eligibility following the COVID-19-affected 2020 season. As someone who is just over 2½ years removed from his relocation to Cal following two seasons at Florida State, Woodie is well-equipped to perceive the contrast between now and then.

"I was really one of the only ones back then," Woodie said. "As the years go by, you see a little bit more. The next season, even more, and this year, we have a lot. It's cool to see how everything's going and to see how the college game has grown."

Aside from the sheer numbers involved in the rapid roster overhauls taking place all over the nation, the changes in the portal have led to a shift in attitude toward the mindsets and preparations involved during the first days of training camp.

"The (defensive back) unit had guys come in from the portal and as a group we really had to meet a lot, get everybody drills, and do walk-throughs among ourselves," Woodie said. "But from a player's standpoint it really makes you compete, and I feel like that's what's best about it. If there are new guys coming in constantly, you say, 'Hey, I've got to lock in today because there's somebody behind me,' just like that other person knows they have to lock in, too. There's definitely a higher level of competition, and I feel like that's going to bring the best out of everybody."

According to the players, a difference can also be seen in the way the coaching staff has had to alter its methods of teaching in order to quickly get all of its new pieces in place and up to speed.

"Some of the schemes and the coaching style has had to change a little bit to fit people like me who are fresh off transferring," Miller said. "They're being more hands on, kind of coaching everyone individually more. They've definitely had to adapt to the players."

With less than four weeks remaining until the Bears' season opener at North Texas on Sept. 2, Travers Family Head Football Coach Justin Wilcox knows time is of the essence as he continues to make these adjustments.

"One of the keys in this era of college football is how quickly you can get [new transfers] integrated in order to create chemistry on and off the field," Wilcox said. "Our job is to help the players on our team learn the system as quickly and efficiently as possible."

All said, nothing has stopped this Cal squad from building team chemistry at a fast rate – a great strength to have as it figures out the rest of its unknowns before the season begins.

"The thing about us is that we've got so many new guys, but the camaraderie is still there. We're all really close," Woodie said. "You go into a lot of different locker rooms and everybody's not that close, or you transfer somewhere and you've got people saying, 'Oh, I'm not going to talk to this person.' Here, it's not really like that. Everybody's welcoming; no matter if they play the same position or not. I feel like that's how a lot of guys are here and I feel like that's special."