Dixon-Veal Ready to Show What He Can Do For the Bears

The Bears appear to be done with portal additions after the commitment last Friday of Purdue portal transfer receiver Jayden Dixon-Veal‍ to the Bears. The new Cal receiver will make a return to California after playing high school ball at Ranch Cucamonga High School, where he hauled in 91 catches for 1352 yards (14.9 ypc) and 13 TDs before playing at College of San Mateo.

The 6-0/190 receiver had a chance to take an official visit last Tuesday and knew he’d found his future home, particularly with his family connection.

"The campus was amazing,” Dixon-Veal said. “My aunt, she's an alumni. She always used to tell me how nice the campus was and I finally got a chance to see for myself. I grew up a Cal fan, too."

The connection the Rancho Cucamongo native found with several of his future teammates also factored into his decision to commit to Cal.

"I'm pretty cool with some of the one of the DBS. He was on my JuCo team, Ja'ir Smith," the new Cal receiver said. "And then also Jacob De Jesus, who transferred from UNLV. Me and him go way back from when we played against him at Modesto JC. I also talked to the transfer receiver from Arkansas, Dazmin James. Those guys are all really cool.”

The new Cal receiver also was impressed by new Cal receivers coach Kyle Cefalo, particularly with his history of developing four All-American receivers.

"Our relationship's good," Dixon-Veal said. "He's a real laid back guy. He was one of the first people to reach out to me when the portal opened up and we set up a visit on the phone and right when I got there, we hit it off. We talked a lot in person. Great receiver meeting. The meetings showed me his style as a receiver coach. He's developed some great receivers like Jalen Royals last year, and a couple other guys at Utah State. So it was like, why not go play for him?"

The newest Bear is anxious to come back to his home state to show what he can do now fully-healthy after putting up 16 catches for 142 yards and a touchdown before his injury in 2023.

"I feel like I'm a big play waiting to happen," the new Cal receiver said. "You know, my first year, I started my last six games in my first year in college, coming from JUCO, so I thought that was pretty impressive. And then going to spring ball, I tore it up. Spring ball went absolutely crazy. And then right before fall camp, I sprained my MCL, missed like five weeks, and came back and rushed it and reinjured it, so I ended up a red shirt. And so kind of feel like, Man, I haven't really shown what I can do in Power 4 football. I feel like I'm just a season away from showing everybody what I can do, just ready to bust out. That's what kind of helped you get the offer, like so many people around college football vouched for me, vouched that I was pretty good.

"Why not do it at Cal? That's the sunshine state back home."

Dixon-Veal will join WR portal additions Jacob De Jesus‍ (UNLV), Dazmin James‍ (Arkansas), Mark Hamper‍ (Wisconsin) and Quaron Adams‍ (South Dakota) in 2025.