Football Position Breakdown: Defensive Backs

FB8/21/2025 4:30 PM | By: Cal Athletics

Football Position Breakdown: Defensive Backs

Defensive Backs Look To Replace Three NFL Draft Picks

The Room: DB Notes:
  • The defensive back room carries five true freshmen, three redshirt freshmen, two redshirt sophomores and nine upperclassmen.
  • The Bears brought in multiple transfers during the spring transfer window. The Bears added Brent Austin, Tristan Dunn, Hezekiah Masses, Dru Polidore Jr., Jordan Sanford and Quimari Shemwell through the portal.
  • Redshirt junior Cam Sidney enters the 2025 season as the defensive back with the most tackles (29) a season ago. He also added 2.5 TFL, forced two fumbles and had a sack and an interception last season.
  • Senior Ja'ir Smith made an appearance in 12 games last season for the Golden Bears. The senior recorded 12 tackles, one TFL, sack and interception and defended a pass.
  • Austin, who transferred from USF, started all 13 games for the Bulls in 2024. He recorded 48 total tackles (36 solo and 12 assists), two interceptions and a team-best 10 pass break-ups.
  • Dunn, who transferred to Cal after three seasons at Washington, totaled 20 tackles in two seasons with the Huskies. He played 82 total snaps and registered multiple tackles four times during his time in Seattle. Coming out of high school, Dunn was a 4-star recruit out of high school according to 247.
  • Masses, who comes to Berkeley from Florida International University, totaled 105 tackles, 4.5 tackles for loss, two interceptions and 14 passes defended in three years and 36 games.
  • Polidore Jr., joins the Bears after a stint at the FCS level (Montana State). For the Bobcats, he started the season's final 10 games and logged interceptions against Eastern Washington and UC Davis.
  • Jordan Sanford, a Texas Tech transfer, played in 22 games on defense and special teams for the Red Raiders over the course of two seasons. He played multiple positions in the defensive secondary last season and was credited with 367 defensive snaps by Pro Football Focus on defense while being a significant contributor on special teams during his time in Lubbock.
  • Shemwell, who transferred from Utah, made an appearance in all 12 games, both on defense and special teams for the Utes in 2024.
  • True freshman Aiden Manutai begins his collegiate career in 2025. The Waipahu, Hawaii native was a 4-star recruit according to ESPN and a 3-star by On3, 247 and Rivals. He chose the Bears over Oregon, Washington, Miami and Tennessee.
  • Cal looks to replace three NFL Draft picks from the 2024 defensive back room. Nohl Williams (Kansas City Chiefs), Craig Woodson (New England Patriots) and Marcus Harris (Tennessee Titans)
  • Cal has had seven safeties selected in the NFL Draft since 2020 in Camryn Bynum (Minnesota, 2021), Ashtyn Davis (New York Jets, 2020), Jaylinn Hawkins (Atlanta, 2020), Elijah Hicks (Chicago, 2022), Patrick McMorris (Miami, 2024), Daniel Scott (Indianapolis, 2023) and Craig Woodson (New England, 2025).
     
Defensive Backs Coach: Terrence Brown, 4th Season
  • Terrence Brown enters his fourth season with the Golden Bears and was recently named Co-Defensive Coordinator on April 10, 2025. He previously served as the defensive backs coach and passing game coordinator.
  • Brown has accumulated more than a decade of experience as a coach and player on the West Coast. 
  • Brown has coached at Cal, Washington (twice) and Vanderbilt after graduating from Stanford in 2013.
  • He was named to 247Sports' 30Under30 coaches list in both 2019 and 2020.
  • Brown has coached 17 defensive back draft selections in his four stops at the FBS level.
  • At Cal, Brown has made an immediate impact co-leading the defensive unit. In 2024, the Bears defense led the ACC by only giving up a total of 290 points to opponents. In addition, the Bears ranked third in total defense in the ACC (337.5 ypg) and was one of two teams in the ACC to surrender less than five yards per play over the course of the season.
  • As an assistant defensive backs coach in 2023, Brown co-led the Cal defense into becoming one of the nation's most productive groups. The Bears led the nation with 16 fumbles recovered and tied for the national lead with 28 turnovers gained. The Bears' three defensive touchdowns were second in the Pac-12 and tied for 15th nationally. The unit's 12 interceptions tied for third in the Pac-12 and tied for 36th nationally. The defenses' rushing defense ranked sixth in the Pac-12 and 35th nationally (133.4 ypg).
  • Before his time in Berkeley, Brown served as the assistant defensive backs coach at Washington from 2020-2021. In his two seasons, he coached four Huskies who were later drafted in Kyler Gordon (Chicago), Trent McDuffie (Kansas City), Elijah Molden (Tennessee), and Keith Taylor Jr. (Kansas City).
  • Before returning to Seattle, Brown spent two seasons at Vanderbilt. While in Nashville, the Commodores reached the Texas Bowl and equaled their best record in eight years during his first campaign in 2018. He also coached Joejuan Williams, a 2018 second-team All-Southeastern Conference selection and second-round pick of the New England Patriots in 2019.
  • His first FBS opportunity came as a graduate assistant at Washington from 2015-17. During his first stint in the Pacific Northwest, he coached a pair of All-Americans in Budda Baker and Sidney Jones, while working with a long list of future NFL defensive backs in addition to Baker and Jones including Kevin King, Jordan Miller, Byron Murphy, Taylor Rapp, Keith Taylor Jr. and Zeke Turner.
  • As a player (2009-12), started all 23 of his collegiate games at Stanford during his final two seasons of a four-year collegiate playing career in which he compiled 113 tackles including a career-high 65 stops when he started a career-high 14 contests as a 2013 senior.
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