New Bears in Town: Cal Soph Portal Transfer Ryan Yaites

The Bears had a big month in the transfer portal in April, in particular pulling in a pair of former 2023 4 star DBs in LSU safety Ryan Yaites‍ and Oklahoma cornerback Jasiah Wagoner‍, key pieces of their Top 10 portal class.

Much like Wagoner‍, the Bears were a finalist for the Texas native, narrowly losing out to LSU for his commitment. As a prep at powerhouse John H. Guyer High School in Denton, Texas, Yaites added 63 tackles, 11 pass breakups and 2 interceptions playing both corner and safety, leading Guyer to a 14-1 record in his senior season. As a junior, he earned all-district honors with 42 tackles and 8 pass breakups for his 14-2 Guyer team that reached the Texas 6A Division II state championship game. He was also named to the prestigious Under Armour All-American Game.

Both visited before their respective commitments, with the Bears narrowly missing out on adding the talented Texas DBs, though their official visits made a lasting impression, especially for Yaites.

"On that first time around, it was it was beautiful," Yaites said. "Just start with the weather. Like every time when we first went out there, we had the first dinner when we first got here, just being outside in that weather...back where I'm from in Texas, around this time, or usually consistently, it's either gonna be insanely hot, or it's gonna be freezing. But here when you step outside, the first thing you notice is you could just breathe.

“The humidity back at home, like you breathe in, you're like (cough, cough) and it's super hot outside but when you're here, the fresh air that you get, that nice bay breeze, all that stuff and then even like from where we are right now (the Stadium Club at Memorial Stadium), being able to look out and see the whole city and see the bay and see the Golden Gate Bridge, it was just it was insane. Like it was kind of surreal."

With Yaites’ choice of LSU, the weather got even more uncomfortable playing in the famous Swamp.

"It was difficult but it's a sacrifice that you've got to really be willing to do if you want to do what you want to do because, think of it, at the next level you don't know where you're going to be,” Yaites noted. “I can end up right back in Louisiana. I can end up right back in Texas or you can go somewhere up where it's insanely cold. So with those situations, luckily, I've always been around the heat, you know, we're coming from Texas, so it's not that big of a shock or it's not that big of a change to me.

“You have to be very disciplined when it comes to stuff like that. You have to take care of your body. Even now in California, it's still highly important to take care of your body. You've got to sleep, gotta consistently stay hydrated, you've got to be drinking your water, you've got to be taking your Pedialyte, you've got to be doing all that extra stuff to make sure that your body's in shape and you don't lose that weight."

As a true freshman, Yaites saw a decent amount of time on the field in a backup role and special teams, adding 16 tackles and a pass breakup for the Tigers. He relished the opportunity to see the field early with the Tigers.

"It was it was surreal," Yaites said. "It's a moment that always cherish forever. I enjoyed my time at LSU. It was great. Going out to Tiger Stadium almost seems like an NFL stadium, walking out with the crowd and the lights flashing and the fireworks going off, all that stuff. It's surreal. It's a moment that I'll never take for granted. It was crazy."

The transition’s been an easy one so far Yaites, validating his decision to be a Bear.

"It's been smooth, coming from starting with the locker room with all those players in there," Yaites said. "We've got good leaders right now with Jadyn Ott, Fernando Mendoza, Jeffrey Johnson. Tobias (Merriweather) - another good guy who kind of like basically kind of paved the way. They set the expectations that we have set and pretty much it was smooth. I picked up nothing like, 'Oh, you're from here. I'm from there.' It was like no, wherever you came from, it doesn't matter. If you're a new guy, you're a transfer guy, you're a guy that's been here, we're all a team. And we all have goals that we have set and we're gonna do them so the transition wasn't hard at all. Those guys made it comfortable for me.

“My coaches - Coach Tre, Coach TB, they've also made that very easy, especially knowing those guys since I was about 16, it's never been a player/coach. It's a player/coach when it's time to be player/coach. But they also have that empathy, they have that heart, where you can talk to them one one-on-one. Like I was talking to Coach TB yesterday and he was just talking to me about you know, 'How's my family doing? How have you been doing? Have you been keeping up with yourself? Same question I have now, how's that transition been? Yeah, everything's hard, you have any questions, I'm always one phone call away one question away. I'm always here to help.' And so that wasn't a problem at all."

Yaites’ transition to the team and the DB room has also been seemless.

"The DB room is great, Yaites said. "Miles Williams, Craig Woodson, Lu (Hearns), Marcus (Harris), So there's a whole bunch of guys. Maize Bryant, all those guys, the energy in there, it's top-notch. Every time you go in there, not only is there the standard that we have, which is we have goals that we want to do and we want to be one of the best. After having a whole bunch of takeaways leading the nation actually in takeaways, we have that standard and we still want to do that and we have a whole bunch of goals that we want to do but also at the same time, you can still tell that those guys are just like me, where you need that young college guy or we're all in college at the same time. So the energy is still there. Like every time you go in there, there's never a dull moment in that meeting room."

Adding to the comfort factor for Yaites is the distinct Texas flavor in the Bears’ DB locker room, with several Bears hailing from the Lone Star state.

"It's 100% cool all those guys being from back home, even Collin Gamble, he's another guy from Texas literally played right up the block for me," Yaites noted. "So I've known that guy. We also worked out together. We have the same trainer so I see him all the time. I've been working out with him since my sophomore year. So I've always been around guys like that. It just makes that transition easier because it's like, okay, I'm not the first one to take this step. There's already guys in front of me that have done it. And they've already made the path for me. Now I just have to execute."

The soph safety brings physicality and speed to the field, having clocked an impressive 21.61 200 time as a prep.

"I feel like my physicality, for sure," Yaites noted as a strength of his game. "I'm a very physical guy. I love to be hands-on. I love to be you know, what, I don't really know how to explain all we do but I love to always be hands-on, a savvy guy, in the guy's face in front of me, and especially when it comes to me and a tight end. Or if it's me and a receiver. I've always loved to cover. I feel like one thing that I've been working on that I'll be able to show upcoming is my post work and especially with my post breaks, I feel like that's something that my game I needed to work on.

“And I feel like going through this offseason with those guys like Craig, Miles and all them, we work out, we have our own time when we do workouts just on our own. They've helped me with those things. So I have a whole bunch of things, and especially my availability. When I came here, my job is to help this team with whatever they need. So whatever they may need, I'll do, and that's what I think is gonna be best for me, especially coming up this season."

As for what he’s most looking forward to in his first season as a Bear?

"Winning," Yaites said emphatically. "Just winning. And not only do I want our group to win but individually, I want myself to win. I want my position group to win and I want the whole team to win. 

"Hey! Go Bears!"

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