There may not be a position group on the 2026 roster that looks less like its 2025 self than the middle of the Cal defense. Gone are a pair of the most productive young linebackers in the entire ACC — 2025 first-team All-ACC pick Cade Uluave (off to BYU) and ACC Defensive Freshman of the Year Luke Ferrelli (now at Ole Miss) as well as MLB Harrison Taggart.
Instead, new head coach Tosh Lupoi and the staff went to work in the portal and rebuilt the room. The theme of the rebuild is unmistakable: high-end recruiting pedigree, blue-chip pasts, and a whole lot of eligibility left to burn. This is a bet on ceiling, and it starts with the projected starting duo in the middle.
Tristan Jernigan was the priority the moment the portal opened. A former four-star out of Tupelo, Mississippi, “TJaz” chose Texas A&M over a who's-who of programs — Alabama, Georgia, Auburn, Florida State and Oregon among them — before the Bears held off a bevy of programs to land him. At 6-0, 230, the redshirt sophomore is built like a downhill thumper. He earned Defensive Scout Team Player of the Year as a true freshman in College Station (eight games, 11 tackles and a TFL), then bided his time behind one of the deepest linebacker rooms in the country before preserving his redshirt season in 2025. He arrives rated the No. 37 portal linebacker by 247Sports with three years to play. Ask him where the confidence comes from and he'll point to the work and to every time this game has humbled him. That's the mindset of a player ready to run a defense.
AJ Tuitele rounds out the projected top pairing, and Bear Insider readers already know his story. The North Las Vegas product wrote the very first entry in our “Why I Chose Cal” series this summer. The Nevada Player of the Year at Mojave High piled up a hugely productive senior line with 196 tackles, 39 TFL, five sacks before signing with USC as a three-star recruit ranked as high as the #15 linebacker in the country by On3. He redshirted with the Trojans in 2025, seeing three games and logging his lone tackle in the Alamo Bowl against TCU, which means the 6-2, 215-pounder lands at Cal as a redshirt freshman with a full four years in front of him. He was one of the last dominoes to fall before the window shut, committing the same night as fellow linebacker Kamar Mothudi. Rangy, twitchy and comfortable in space, Tuitele is exactly the kind of modern linebacker Lupoi covets.
Kamar Mothudi is another new addition pushing for playing time. The fourth Duck to follow Lupoi — his old defensive coordinator — from Eugene to Berkeley, the 6-3, 245 pound redshirt freshman was a consensus four-star and ESPN's No. 3 inside linebacker nationally out of Los Alamitos, a do-it-all prep who ran for 1,345 yards and 18 TDs, adding 104 tackles on the other side. He chose Oregon over Cal, Washington, Michigan and Texas the first time around. He chose the Bears the second. “I felt Cal was the best fit,” Mothudi said at his commitment, citing his relationship with the staff. Departing from a loaded Ducks depth chart, he's hungry for the opportunity Berkeley can give him.
The one holdover who knows exactly what this moment demands is Aaron Hampton. The Anchorage native and former walk-on — an Alaska Gatorade Player of the Year — played all 13 games in 2025 and made his first career start against Louisville, finishing with 41 tackles, a TFL and a sack. His signature outing tells the story: pressed into duty when Uluave
went down against Virginia, Hampton answered with 15 tackles. He's done the “next man up” job before, and he'll push hard for a bigger role in the rotation.
True frosh Jonathan McKinley has been committed to Cal longer than anyone in the 2026 class after committing to the Bears in February 2025. The versatile 6-2, 225 pound Corona Centennial product profiles as a hybrid MIKE who can also play on the edge. He put up 89 tackles, 11 sacks and 11 QB hurries as a senior for a Centennial squad that finished No. 9 in the nation, all while carrying a 4.5 GPA. McKinley has made a big splash in fall camp so don’t be surprised to see the newcomer earn some serious reps in his first season at Cal.
Fellow true freshman Jaxon Pyatt (6-2, 225 pounds, Arvada West HS in Colorado) adds another body with upside to develop behind the veterans.
Already a year into the program, Beckham Barney, a 2025 Cal recruit who redshirted last season after making his debut against SMU. The 6-1, 220 pound redshirt freshman out of Mountain View High in Mesa, Arizona, was a consensus three-star prep known for his high-motor, totaled145 tackles 13 TFL and four sacks as a junior while averaging 13.2 tackles a game, adding 74 more with 10 TFL as a senior, and snagging four interceptions across his final two prep seasons.
Is there a proven every-down producer in this room yet? Not on paper and that's the honest risk with a group this new. But look closer at the résumés: Jernigan, Mothudi and Tuitele were all recruited at a level that Texas A&M, Oregon and USC don't hand out lightly, and they took the smart, patient path of redshirting and earning rotational snaps for national contenders rather than forcing the field too soon. Now they get their runway, with a battle-tested Hampton as insurance and a developing trio in McKinley, Barney and Pyatt behind them.
If the talent translates the way the pedigree suggests, Cal won't just replace what it lost in the middle. They’ll be faster and rangier doing it.
