Football Position Breakdown: Wide Receivers
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FB8/13/2025 4:30 PM | By: Cal Athletics

Football Position Breakdown: Wide Receivers

Grizzell And A Host Of Newcomers Make Up Wide Receiver Room

The Room: WR Notes:
  • Cal's wide receivers are highlighted by the return of Trond Grizzell, who was third on the team with 401 yards receiving and fourth with 27 receptions last season.
  • The wide receiver room is made up of transfers QuaRon Adams (South Dakota State), Jacob De Jesus (UNLV), Jaydon Dixon-Veal (Purdue), Mark Hamper (Idaho/Wisconsin) and Daz James (Arkansas), and returners Cole Boscia, Kyion Grayes, Jordan King, Carson Perry-Smith, Jaiven Plummer, Myles Reber, Trevor Rogers and Issac Torres. The Bears brought in one true freshman this season in Meyer Swinney.
  • Adams, a South Dakota State transfer, played in all 14 games for the Coyotes last season and finished with 543 receiving yards on 18 catches, five of which were touchdown receptions. He led the Missouri Valley Football Conference with 30.2 yards per catch as a 2024 sophomore.
  • De Jesus, a senior transfer from UNLV, spent two seasons with the Rebels from 2023-24, logging 1,118 receiving yards and five touchdown catches. He also added 509 career punt return yards and 1,012 yards on kick returns.
  • Hamper, a transfer from Idaho and Wisconsin, had 966 yards and 6 TDs on 20.1 ypc last year for the Vandals. He originally transferred to Wisconsin this past spring but re-entered the portal and chose the Bears following spring practice and was a June enrollee.
  • James, who comes to Berkeley after an initial stint with Arkansas, saw action in eight games in 2024 with the Hogs and hauled in three catches for 137 receiving yards for the Razorbacks in their Liberty Bowl win over Texas Tech.
Wide Receivers Coach: Kyle Cefalo, 1st Season
  • Cefalo has over a decade of coaching experience at the FBS level. He has made stops at Arkansas State, Maryland and Utah State.
  • During his time as an offensive coordinator and wide receivers coach, Cefalo has been part of six teams that have been ranked in the top 25 nationally in both total offense and passing offense. 
  • Three of his teams have been ranked in the top 10 in the country in passing offense, including the No. 2-rated squad in passing offense when he was the wide receivers coach and special teams co-coordinator at Arkansas State in 2020.
  • During his tenure as offensive coordinator/wide receivers coach at Utah State, Cefalo directed a unit this past season that produced 467.7 yards per game – which ranked seventh in the nation and second in the Mountain West Conference.
  • He coached two Associated Press Second Team All-Americans and Biletnikoff Award semifinalists at Arkansas State – Omar Bayless in 2019 and Jonathan Adams Jr. in 2020. Adams was also the 2020 Sun Belt Offensive Player of the Year.
  • Utah State's Deven Thompkins was also a Biletnikoff Award semifinalist, Third Team All-American and First Team All-Mountain West performer in 2021. He finished second in the country with 1,704 receiving yards and currently plays for the Carolina Panthers. Jalen Royals was a Third Team All-American under Cefalo's guidance for the Aggies in 2023, when he ranked second nationally with 15 touchdown catches. Royals was drafted by the Kansas City Chiefs in 2025.
  • Cefalo began his coaching career at Arkansas State in 2013 and spent three seasons there as a graduate assistant – the first of which he worked under then-Red Wolves head coach Bryan Harsin, who is Cal's current offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach.
  • Cefalo was also a grad assistant at Maryland in 2016 before returning to Arkansas State as inside wide receivers coach in 2017. 
  • Cefalo moved on to Utah State in 2021 as the Aggies' wide receivers coach and passing game coordinator before becoming the program's co-offensive coordinator in 2023. In 2024, he took over sole offensive coordinator duties for Utah State.
  • During his coaching tenure, Cefalo has been involved in 10 bowl games and three conference championships. 
  • Cefalo played wide receiver for the University of Colorado from 2009-13.
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