Bears Pick up Their First Grad Transfer Addition for '24 in UCD MLB Teddye Buchanan

The Bears picked up an important addition to the 2024 class today with the commitment of grad transfer middle linebacker Teddye Buchanan today. Currently rated the top portal linebacker in the country by ESPN, the Bears beat out offers from Oregon State, Houston, Washington and Stanford for Buchanan.

The junior MLB earned All-Conference honors in 2022 and 2023, leading the Aggies in tackles in 2023 with 71 and in interceptions with 3. He also added 5 TFLs, 2 sacks, 2 QB hurries and 1 pass defended. In his three seasons at UCD, Buchanan totaled an impressive 8 overall interceptions from the linebacker position.

"I kind of always wanted to go to Cal my whole life and they're kind of my dream school," Buchanan said. “Besides that, Coach Sirmon and Coach Wilcox with Coach Wilcox being a defensive-minded head coach and Coach Sirmon's history working with linebackers along with his own personal career in the NFL really intrigued me just because when you see a coach have many many guys be really successful, that just speaks a lot about him. And I was recruited by Cal out of high school. I didn't get the scholarship offer but I was I was already kind of familiar the program and felt comfortable there. I mean, I've always wanted to go to Cal so that's kind of where my head was at with that."

The Bears also added Buchanan’s brother, 5’10/185 Riordan safety Tobey Weydemuller as a PWO, a fact that has the newest Bear excited. 

"Another thing is the opportunity to play with my little brother. That's another thing we've always our whole lives, we've talked about. Because we're born four years apart, we've always talked about possibly getting to be on the same team for my last year of college. And it looks like it's gonna happen, so it's really awesome for the family and him and me."

The Aggies narrowly missed going to the FCS playoffs after their 7-win season

“It kind of sucks but we ended our season beating Sac State and that’s especially big for us” Buchanan said. “And we ended up with the same regular season records but even though we beat Sac, their win over Stanford probably is what got them in instead of us.”

The rising senior has 2 years to play one, having not taken a redshirt season and will arrive at Cal in June.

"I'm graduating in June so technically I'll be a grad transfer," Buchanan said. “But I'm gonna do as much as I can, in terms of meeting with coaches, and getting the defense down as much as I can after signing.

 "I'm so close to graduating from Davis that I'd like to finish my degree before continuing my academic career at Cal. Another reason why I chose Cal is because with it just so close, we’ll able to learn from them as much as possible.”