MANHATTAN BEACH, Calif. — Dane Weber publicly announced his commitment to Cal on Thursday, but privately, he had reached that conclusion a few weeks earlier.“Out of all the questions that mattered to me — me and my mom were talking about them — the answer kept going back to Cal,” Weber told The Athletic at the Elite 11 Finals last week. “And I wasn’t going to ignore that. My gut felt right about it.”Tosh Lupoi was hired by Cal, his alma mater, to win games, elevate the program, and execute a recruiting vision like the one that has played out over the past week.On Thursday, the Golden Bears beat out UCLA and Cincinnati and withstood late interest from Ohio State to land Weber, a three-star prospect and the No. 2 QB prospect in California in the 2027 recruiting cycle. On Saturday, they also received verbal pledges from top-150 prospect and four-star tight end Rahzario Edwards and four-star athlete Elyjah Staples.Cal’s recruiting class ranks 19th nationally, following a top-15 transfer portal class. This past week was another signal that Cal is being more aggressive in talent acquisition.The last time the Golden Bears signed a top-25 recruiting class was 2011, when Lupoi was their defensive line coach.“I think it’s going to be the best (recruiting) class Cal has had in a very, very long time,” Weber said Friday night. “I feel like it’s shaping up for that. It’s just getting started. It’s just May, so I can’t wait for it.”Dane Weber, a three-star QB out of California, chose Cal over other Big Ten and Big 12 schools. (Antonio Morales / The Athletic)Ron Rivera was named Cal’s general manager in March 2025 and made no bones about where the program stood when he stepped into the role. Cal had an assessment that revealed it was below average in spending in the ACC and in the Pac-12 (when it was a member). The support staff was eight members below where it needed to be, and the move to the ACC meant Cal was making millions less than they did in the Pac-12.“Oh, we were behind,” Rivera said. “Financially, we were strapped.”Rivera, who reports to Cal’s chancellor and oversees the football program, remains respectful of former Golden Bears coach Justin Wilcox, whom he fired after an embarrassing loss to Stanford last November. Rivera described Wilcox, who spent nine seasons in charge of the program, as a “terrific human being, good man, smart Xs and Os guy.” He even said that most people don’t realize how well Wilcox did with such limited resources.Ultimately, he decided the program needed to improve.Alignment has been a major talking point for Rivera and Lupoi this offseason. Past university leadership had been almost neglectful of the football program, which was dangerously close to being left out of a power conference during the most recent round of realignment. Lupoi said everything changed when Rich Lyons was appointed Cal’s chancellor.“That certainly sent shockwaves throughout the community and all those mass text threads that I’m on with former players,” Lupoi said. “That excited us knowing someone of high intelligence, great leadership and what appeared to be the understanding of the academic and athletic administrative alignment. That certainly began a new era, a new chapter in our football program.”