The rosters of both Stanford and Cal contain several players who spent their prep football careers — or even most of their lives — in the Bay Area, witnessing the Big Game rivalry for longer than just their time at their respective universities. Here is a snapshot of each player who hails from a Bay Area school, with highlights from their high school and college football careers thus far.

Stanford:

Tristan Sinclair (Alamo): Junior inside linebacker

Sinclair comes from a truly divided household: while his father Andrew played football for Stanford and Tristan grew up going to Stanford football games, his mother, sister and both aunts all attended Cal. He played his prep career at San Ramon Valley High School. On the Farm, he played in four games as a freshman and finished the season with seven tackles, one tackle for loss and one pass breakup. After not playing his sophomore year due to injury, he has recorded 27 tackles and 1.5 tackles for loss thus far this season.

Austin Jones (Antioch): Junior running back

Although Jones has lived in five different states throughout his life, he was exposed to the Stanford-Cal rivalry all throughout high school when he played for Bishop O’Dowd High School. After an exceedingly successful prep career in which he cemented himself as the No. 2 all-time rusher in Bay Area history and was ranked among the top-10 running backs in the nation by all four major recruiting outlets, he immediately made his mark at Stanford. Jones played behind Cameron Scarlett ’20 as a freshman in 2019 but still saw action in all 12 games and finished the season second on the team with 227 rushing yards on 45 carries. In a shortened 2020 season, he started all six games and rushed for 550 yards and nine touchdowns, the latter being the second-most nationally for teams that played six or fewer games that season. In the 2020 Big Game, he rushed 21 times for 85 yards and two touchdowns for his second career multi-touchdown game. He was also named to the All-Pac-12 third team. Jones began this season on the watch lists for the Maxwell Award and the Doak Walker Award, which are awarded to the best overall player and best running back in college football, respectively. He has rushed for 315 yards this season in a Stanford offense that has consistently struggled to establish the run game.

Duke Reeder (San Francisco): Freshman outside linebacker

A St. Ignatius Prep graduate, Reeder has not been around football for long — he started the sport in 2019. He has yet to record any statistics for the Cardinal this year.

Bradley Archer (Livermore): Junior tight end

Archer was a four-star recruit out of high school and consensus top-25 tight end at Livermore High School. As a freshman on the Farm, he only appeared in two games and caught one pass. As a sophomore, he doubled the number of games in which he saw action to four and caught three passes on the season. This year, he has appeared in six games and has two receptions so far. He has dealt with injuries this season as well, but he returned against Utah on Nov. 5 and played on Nov. 13 against Oregon State.

Cal:

Collin Moore (Novato): Redshirt senior tight end

A member of Cal’s football team since 2016, Moore has played 20 career games with five starts at tight end after walking onto the team as a quarterback. He switched to tight end full-time as a redshirt freshman in 2018. The bulk of his playing time came in his sophomore year in 2019, when he appeared in all 13 games and caught the only touchdown pass of his career. During the shortened 2020 season, he only played two games, and he did not appear in that season’s Big Game. He has appeared in all nine games this season and has notched five catches thus far. 

Dejuan Butler (Antioch): Sophomore safety

Butler has not seen extensive playing time with the Golden Bears over the last two seasons, as he didn’t appear in any games as a freshman in 2020 and has played in only one game this season. He did turn in a very successful prep career at Antioch High School, however, as a varsity defensive back and running back all four years.

Marcel Dancy (Oakland): Redshirt senior running back

After graduating from West High School in 2016, Dancy started his post-prep career at Laney College in Oakland and played 22 games over two seasons for the Eagles. He totaled over 1300 all-purpose yards in his sophomore season before transferring to Berkeley before the 2018 season. In his first year at Cal, he redshirted and only played in four games to retain an additional season of eligibility. As a redshirt junior in 2019, he saw playing time in 12 of 13 games and started one game against Ole Miss. He played in the 2019 Big Game but did not record a rushing attempt. At the end of the season, he was also recognized for his volunteer work with one of Oakland’s youth football programs. Of the four games Cal played in 2020, he appeared in all of them and started two. Against Stanford, he rushed seven times for 42 yards and notched three receptions for 24 yards for 66 all-purpose yards. He was Cal’s nominee for the Burlsworth Trophy, which is awarded annually to the best FBS player who started his college career as a walk-on. This season, he has played in all nine of the team’s games and has carried the ball 14 times.

Grant Daley (Martinez): Sophomore wide receiver

De La Salle High School graduate Daley has not appeared on the field for Cal yet, redshirting his freshman season and not playing so far this season either. 

Ronan Donnelly (Hillsborough): Sophomore placekicker

The sophomore out of Sacred Heart Prep has not seen action for the Golden Bears yet but had a successful high school career as a placekicker, punter and defensive back. 

Nate Rutchena (Danville): Freshman inside linebacker

Rutchena has appeared in five games off the bench for Cal this season in his first year on the team. He has recorded 15 total tackles and half a tackle for loss. At Monte Vista High School, the bulk of his playing time came at wide receiver but shifted to playing linebacker at Cal.

Christopher Abbes III (Danville): Junior punter

Abbes graduated from De La Salle High School and played one season at Diablo Valley College in Contra Costa County before joining the Golden Bears. He has not yet seen any action at Cal after redshirting his sophomore season in 2020. 

Beaux Tagaloa (San Francisco): Redshirt sophomore fullback

A third-year in terms of experience but redshirt sophomore in terms of eligibility, Tagaloa graduated from De La Salle High School and attended San Jose State University before coming to Cal. He appeared in one game this season on Nov. 6 against Arizona but did not record any statistics. 

JH Tevis (Piedmont): Redshirt junior defensive end

The Tevis family’s football roots lie with the Cardinal; JH’s father and uncle both played college ball at Stanford. JH chose Berkeley coming out of the Menlo School, where he was a three-star recruit. As a freshman in 2018, he redshirted but saw playing time in four games the following season, including in the Big Game at Stanford. As a redshirt sophomore during the shortened 2020 season, he started three of the team’s four games. In the 2020 Big Game, he recorded four tackles, two sacks and two tackles for loss. As a redshirt junior, he has recorded playing time and at least one tackle in all nine of the team’s games thus far for a total of 33 tackes and one sack on the season.

Daniel Etter (Berkeley): Redshirt senior long snapper

By virtue of playing prep football in Berkeley at Riordan High School, Etter has been loosely connected to the Golden Bears for most of his football career. As a long snapper, he has not seen significant action in five years at Cal, coming off the bench in one game as a redshirt freshman in 2018 but recording no statistics.

Darius Long (Alameda): Redshirt junior defensive lineman

Long began his college career at the College of San Mateo, a public community college in San Mateo. He has played in five games thus far this season off the bench, only recording one tackle.

Kyle Smith (Los Gatos): Redshirt sophomore inside linebacker

Smith was a three-star recruit coming out of Los Gatos High School. He redshirted at Berkeley in 2019 and in 2020, came off the bench in three games but did not record any statistics. This season, he has primarily seen playing time on special teams and has appeared in eight games. 

Kaleb Elarms-Orr (Hayward): Freshman outside linebacker

The Moreau Catholic High School graduate has not yet seen the field with Cal this season. ESPN also had him rated as the 32nd-best outside linebacker nationally, even after his senior season in high school was postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Colin Moroney (Danville): Sophomore offensive lineman

Moroney, a San Ramon Valley High School graduate, redshirted his first year at Cal and has not yet seen the field. 

Sami Nazzal (San Francisco): Senior offensive lineman

Nazzal began his post-prep football career at the City College of San Francisco, playing one game as a freshman and two as a sophomore for a team that won the Golden State Bowl. He and eight others were mid-year enrollees in 2020 and were only able to participate in a few spring practices before the COVID-19 pandemic shut down the season. He has not appeared in any games this season. 

Jaedon Roberts (Marin City): Sophomore defensive lineman

As a second-year player out of Avon Old Farms High School, Roberts has appeared in eight games off the bench this season, recording three total tackles and one sack. He also played in one game in last year’s shortened season but did not record any statistics other than participation. 

Chris Rogers (Lafayette): Redshirt sophomore wide receiver

Rogers graduated from Acalanes High School in 2019 and has not seen playing time with the Golden Bears thus far. He redshirted his freshman campaign in 2019. 

Jake Tonges (Los Gatos): Redshirt senior tight end

The fifth-year from Los Gatos High School has had a long and successful career as a member of Cal’s football team. As a freshman in 2017, he redshirted and did not see playing time but in his second year in 2018, he came off the bench in the team’s final 12 games and played primarily on special teams. As a redshirt sophomore in 2019, he started nine games and played in all 13, recorded 13 catches for 262 yards and caught one touchdown on the season. He averaged 20.2 yards per reception, good for first on the team in that category. In 2020, he appeared in all four of Cal’s games with three starts, and nine of his 13 season catches came in one game against Oregon State. This season, he has played in all nine games and caught 16 passes for 191 yards and two touchdowns. 

Jermaine Terry II (Richmond): Freshman tight end

A four-star recruit out of Kennedy High School, ESPN had Terry as the No. 1-ranked tight end in the nation. After enrolling early at Cal last January, he has played in four games this season off the bench and has recorded one catch. 

Nick Alftin (Woodside): Redshirt junior tight end

Alftin has seen most of his playing time on special teams and defense but is listed as a tight end on the roster. As a college freshman in 2018, he played in three games off the bench on defense and was able to redshirt the season. As a sophomore he played in 10 games, seeing most of his playing time on special teams. He started the season during training camp at outside linebacker but moved to tight end midway through camp, and then moved back to outside linebacker at the beginning of the season before switching again to tight end midway through the season. He did not record any statistics in 2020 and this year has seen action in nine games, primarily on special teams and defense. 

Gunnar Rask (Concord): Redshirt sophomore nose guard

In 2019, Rask redshirted and did not see game action but was named Cal’s Scout Team Co-Defensive Player of the Week for standout performances at practice that helped the team prepare for upcoming games. He played one game in 2020 and played his first game this season on Nov. 6 against Arizona, recording three total tackles. 

Akili Calhoun (Brentwood): Freshman defensive end

At Liberty High School, Calhoun only played 15 games over two seasons of varsity football, as his senior season was cancelled due to the pandemic. He has not recorded any statistics with the Bears yet.

All information comes from player profiles on the GoStanford and CalBears websites.