All-State Pittsburg HS OT Ryan Lange Commits to Cal

The Bears’ O-line class is filling up in a hurry, as 6-6/320 Pittsburg High School All-State OT Ryan Lange‍ announced his commitment to Cal today, joining Eastside Catholic (Sammamish, WA) OT Will Reed‍ and Yelm, WA OG Dylan Jemtegaard‍ as July Cal offensive line commits along with early Minnesota OL commit Bastian Swinney‍.

Lange announced his commitment today via Twitter, saying:

“After a great call with Coach Wilcox I’m proud to announce that I’ve committed to @CalFootball. I want to thank God for all of his bountiful blessings and opportunities, and secondly thank the Cal coaching staff for this awesome opportunity!”

Cal’s academics were a huge factor for the local product:

“Without a doubt, Cal’s academics were huge for me,” said Lange, “They’re the number one public school in the nation and that’s just a no-brainer to commit. if that’s one of your options and you see yourself attending there.”

Lange’s relationship with the staff played a big role as well.

“The relationship is really good,” said Lange. “I’ve built a great relationship with (OL) Coach Angus (McClure0 and have talked a lot with (Director of Recruiting Strategy) Marshall Cherrington and recently I’ve started talking with Coach Wilcox, which is really awesome to be able to have a relationship with a head coach as a recruit. From a recruit’s standpoint, it makes you really want to go to a school and makes you feel important.

“As far as I can see, I can see that Coach Wilcox runs his program really well and has a great thing going at Cal and that’s something I want to be a part of.”

A strong student with a 3.8 gpa, Lange would like to be an orthopedic doctor in the future after his time on the gridiron is over, so Cal’s academics play in their favor with him.

Lange’s head coach Victor Galli noted that Lange has physically matured with his hard workout ethic and it’s showing on the field.

“I would say it’s probably two things,” said Lange of his development. “One, obviously I’m getting older and as you get older you become more in-shape, and it’s easier to lose baby fat and develop more muscle. I feel like now that it’s my senior year and I’ve already developed muscle over the last three years, working out and stuff, now I can pretty much only worry about speed and agility and all that stuff to make me a better athlete and more agile lineman. So I feel like that’s really making it pop for the people that watch me, but I feel like that’s really the only difference because I’ve always been really strong.

“Obviously, I’m a big guy. Compared to the rest of my teammates, I’m the biggest on the team. Strength has never been a problem, but now that I’m becoming more quick and all that stuff, I think that’s what the coaches are bringing to attention.”

Lange’s offensive line coach Bobby Belleci concurs.

“I’ve known Ryan since he was in probably seventh grade,” says Belleci. “Great family. Both his parents are very supportive of him. It’s crazy how intuitive he is—awesome grades, studies the game of football, loves it. Since he was in seventh grade, he was like, ‘I want to play college football, and I want to go to the NFL.’ That’s a lot easier for someone who’s 6’5” or 6’6”, whatever he is, but he has the determination and everything to back it up. He’s one of those guys that we’ve had to tell in the past to train a little softer, because he would come in in the summertime, do all his summer workouts, then go to extra conditioning stuff that we did, and then go see a private trainer all in the same day. His parents were like, ‘Wow, this kid doesn’t stop working!’ But he’s motivated and that’s what he wants. He knows what he wants and he’s focused.”

What is Cal getting with a commitment from Lange?

“Absolutely a guy that just studies,” said Belleci. “As a coach, we have the opportunity to go in—I don’t know if the players know this—but we can tell how much film they actually watch. We put a practice film up daily during the season. We’ll videotape our practices and I’ll go in there and make notes and stuff, and he’ll spend an hour and a half a night watching practice film. Even in the off-season, he’s going through, texting me during this whole COVID thing, like, ‘Hey Coach, I was looking at game six last year when this happened…’

“You know, he’s just a constant student of the game. Just a great kid. Takes coaching, responds to coaching well. I’ve been coaching for seventeen years; you get some kids that have the athletic ability but they kind of have an attitude that goes along with it because they’re bigger or they’re faste. They think they can cut corners and get around things. That’s not Ryan at all. He’s a student of the game. If he ended up at Cal, I could go watch him play, which would be great.”

Rated 3 stars by Rivals (5.5), 247 (84) and ESPN (77), Lange has offers from nearly half the Pac-12 with USC, ASU, Arizona and WSU joining Cal with offers. The Bears fought off a strong recent push from USC to secure Lange’s commitment.

Other stories:

Bears Stay Hot on the Commitment Trail, Adding WA OG Dylan Jemtegaard

Eastside Catholic OT Will Reed on Why Cal Was the Right Fit