The Bears picked up their third commitment of the 2027 class with the addition of 6-2/185 Southlake Carroll (Southlake, TX) High School wide receiver Blake Gunter back on March 7 on his 18th birthday and it was a sign of great things to come for Cal wide receiver recruiting, with fellow receiver commits Charles Davis III (Westlake HS), Demare Dezeurn (Westlake) and Zion White (IMG Academy) eventually jumping on board to help form one of the top receiving recruiting classes in the country.
Even though Southlake, Texas is a long way from the Bay Area, Gunter has strong roots to the bay, having been born in Berkeley’s Alta Bates Hospital and several relatives currently living in the East Bay.
“Yes, sir. I was,” Gunter said. “I was born in that hospital that was like two minutes away from from the stadium.
“My grandparents live in Walnut Creek, which is about 15 minutes from the campus and I have aunts and uncles that are about 15 minutes away too. I’ve got a whole half of my family in that area and my mom went to Las Lomas.
“I lived in California in that area for six years and moved out here and I've been here since kindergarten.”
Growing up playing football, the future Bear eventually found himself playing for one of the most elite programs in the country at Southlake Carroll High School.
“We've won eight state championships,” Gunter said. “We have a lot of district titles we’ve won here.
“We've we've had a lot of great players come through here. We've had people like Quinn Ewers, Greg McIlroy, Kenny Hill, Brock Boyd, Brady Boyd, a bunch of NFL talent that was here, and it's just a really good program, and we're blueblood, and we know how to play football and get kids in and out of here.”
A state championship wasn’t in the cards his junior season though his squad came close, losing a 57-44 6A Division 2 state semifinal barnburner to eventual state champ Desoto last season, though the future Bear did everything he could do to help his squad, hauling in four touchdown passes for 111 yards in the loss.
The semifinal capped off a highly-productive year for the junior as he totaled 68 receptions for 1,224 yards and 18 TDs along with five carries for 138 yards and two TDs on the ground. He put up those big numbers despite sharing balls with current Ohio State WR signee Brock Boyd.
“We threw the ball a ton. We had three receivers go over 1000 yards.”
Gunter is known as a physical player and that includes blocking for his teammates when he doesn’t have the ball in his hands.
Is that something he takes pride in?
“Yes, sir. I pride myself a lot in blocking,” the future Bear said. “Me and my dad used to talk about it. You’ve got to be able to block if you want to play receiver because you know you get the ball 20% of the time and you're blocking 80% of the time, so you’ve got to really value your game if you block.”
As for his assessment of his playing style?
“I'm a I'm a versatile receiver,” Gunter noted. “I can play anywhere on the field. I can play outside. I can play inside. I can play the yo. I'm definitely a great yards after yards after catch guy. So once the ball's in my hands, I'm taking off and I'm running.”
The rising senior plans to graduate early and arrive on campus in January for spring semester, in time to participate in spring practice, joining his stellar receiver classmates.
“I'm looking forward to just like making explosive plays and and really just getting to know these guys because we're really tight here as a receiver corps,” Gunter said. “I'm really excited on what we can do over at Cal.
“I'm definitely looking forward to the the new coaching staff and the new ways because they're very high energy, very detail oriented group, and I just can't wait to see the transition from the old staff to the new staff, and how how Cal and Berkeley just everybody is just getting back into football because this can this is the best class they've had in 15 years.”
The future Bear is particularly impressed with new head coach Tosh Lupoi.
“I love him,” Gunter said. “He's a very well spoken guy. Great coach. Great person. That's why he's one of the big reasons why I came to Cal.
Gunter is also looking forward to working with new Cal offensive coordinator Jordan Somerville and gleaning what he can from his NFL pedigree.
He came from the NFL and he definitely knows what he's talking about,” Gunter said. “I know he he loves throwing the ball. He coached Emeka Egbuka from Ohio State (at Tampa Bay), and I just love him.
As for his WR coach, Ike Hilliard?
“Oh, he's a really calm guy,” Gunter said. He knows he just knows all the little tricks of the trade and he's going to teach us that in practice. I'm really excited to be coached by him.
Gunter’s also been building a strong relationship with former Cal receiving legend and current receivers assistant Geoff McArthur.
“He's been he's been all over my phone, too,” the future Bear said. Between him, Ike, and Coach Pat. We've been really close. We've been texting a lot, but Coach Geoff, he played under Aaron Rodgers and he's a legend over at that Cal campus. So it's very cool to be under those three guys.
“I'm really excited. I'm really excited to get up there.”
