This feature originally appeared in the 2025 Fall edition of the Cal Sports Quarterly. The Cal Athletics flagship magazine features long-form sports journalism at its finest and provides in-depth coverage of the scholar-athlete experience in Berkeley. Printed copies are mailed four times a year to Bear Backers who give annually at the Bear Club level (currently $600 or more). For more information on how you can receive a printed version of the Cal Sports Quarterly at home, send an email to CalAthleticsFund@berkeley.edu or call (510) 642-2427.




When Cal junior inside linebacker Cade Uluave looks around this season, he won't see many familiar faces. Uluave is the only member of this year's defense that was among the unit's top seven tacklers last season, while only he and Aidan Keanaaina started at least half of the Golden Bears' games.

It will be a challenge to quickly mold a talented yet inexperienced group into yet another strong Cal defense, but Uluave is up for it.

"When anything that's challenging comes in front of Cade, he's going to find a way," Cal Travers Family Head Football Coach Justin Wilcox said.

When Uluave arrived at Cal in June of 2023, he was just over a month past his 18th birthday. Six months later, he was a first-team Freshman All-American and the Pac-12 Freshman Defensive Player of the Year after leading all Pac-12 freshmen in tackles (66) and tackles for loss (6.5) despite not having any in the first five games. He also had two interceptions, two forced fumbles and two fumble recoveries, including one he returned for a touchdown.

"I remember coming in on the first day and just knowing I could hang with these guys," Uluave said. "I felt like I had the tools to compete."

His parents, Kalisi and Kindra, also knew he would be successful at Cal. They both saw that trait in him as a kid growing up in the Salt Lake City suburb of South Jordan, Utah.

Still, his father, Kalisi, didn't want to push the intensity of football upon Cade too early.

"I would gauge kids' emotional readiness and too often I had seen some youth sports coaches so over-the-top in intensity that they would scare kids off, burn them out and kill their interest," Kalisi said.

Instead of pushing football, his parents gave Cade the opportunity to show it in other sports – baseball and wrestling were among his favorites – until they felt he was emotionally ready for the rigors of the gridiron.

Finally, they let him put the pads on in the seventh grade.

"The first year he played football Cade made the 'A' team," Kalisi said. "There were a lot of people surprised because usually a first-year player doesn't do that."

But Kindra was not surprised.

"He's always been bigger, stronger and faster," she said. "That's just been him his whole life."

And being bigger, strong and faster would help him with his next significant football hurdle.

Uluave had the choice of attending long-time Utah prep football power Herriman High School or the brand new Mountain Ridge. Most of his friends and football teammates chose Herriman, but he went against the grain.

"I rolled the dice a little bit," Uluave said with a chuckle.

The first year was rough. The school was still being built when the team started summer workouts.

"We didn't even have a field," Uluave said.

The other thing they didn't have – for over a year – was a win.

"We were essentially a junior varsity team playing varsity," Uluave said. "But it helped me a ton because the competition I was playing against was so elevated that it just forced me to get better. Yeah, we didn't win any games, but the growth I had as an individual player was 10 times whatever I would have experienced anywhere else. That first high school football season taught me to keep going when things get hard. When times are tough, there are two options – you can shy away from the opportunity, or you can put your head down and just keep going."

His squad would win more often than not with a 19-13 mark during his final three prep campaigns and twice reaching the second round of Utah's 6A state playoffs. Uluave, a two-way standout at running back and linebacker, was limited due to injury as a 2022 senior but had shown enough during his sophomore and junior campaigns to attract college recruiters including Cal.

Uluaves began his first season at Cal in 2023.  positioned behind preseason All-American inside linebacker Jackson Sirmon on the depth chart, and it seemed like special teams might be the extent of his work as a true freshman. But when Sirmon suffered a season-ending injury in the sixth game of the campaign against Oregon State, the Bears called Uluave's number.

Uluave vividly remembers recording his first tackle the first time he took a collegiate snap on defense.

"The gap just opened up for me," Uluave said. "I ran through it, dove at the runner and knocked him down. That one play gave me a ton of confidence moving forward. I thought 'this is what you've worked for, now it's time to go show everyone what you can do.'"

In Cal's next game at Utah, Uluave recorded nine tackles and a tackle for loss to earn his first start the following week against USC, when he would chase down reigning Heisman Trophy winner and future No. 1 overall NFL Draft pick quarterback Caleb Williams for a 23-yard sack fumble.

Uluave has had many big moments in his first two seasons at Cal but a home game against Washington State two weeks after the USC contest is still arguably the signature performance of his career. With the Bears on a four-game losing streak and holders of a 3-6 record coming into the contest, the only way to become bowl eligible would be to win three straight, beginning with the Cougars.

Again, Uluave was up for it.

On a 4th-and-one from the Cal 46-yard line on the Cougars' first drive of the game, Uluave stripped the ball from another future top NFL Draft pick quarterback Cam Ward then got off the pile to pick up the ball and rumble 51 yards for a touchdown. On the final play of the game, Ward floated a Hail Mary that was tipped and headed toward a Washington State receiver in position to score, but Uluave stepped in front to make a game-saving interception.

After what he's done in his first two seasons at Cal, and In today's age of college football with the transfer portal, revenue sharing and NIL, Wilcox understands how fortunate he is to still have Uluave with the Bears.

"Cade could have done whatever he wanted this past offseason, but he does what he thinks is right rather than following the crowd," Wilcox said. "He's a genuine guy with strong values. You see that in how he lives his life – how he acts, how he communicates. He's always been 100 percent up front and transparent with us, and we've done the same. He's a zero drama guy, and we want to make sure we reward Cade for both doing what he's done on the field and being the person he has been."

For his part, Uluave loves being with the Bears.

"Just being at Cal is a blessing," Uluave said. "To be able to be at the No. 1 public university in the world, play the sport I love and get this type of education is something you really can't get anywhere else."