When Trond Grizzell takes the field for his final home game at California Memorial Stadium on Saturday, he will close out a notable collegiate football career with the California Golden Bears. Grizzell, a fifth-year senior wide receiver, first arrived in Berkeley in June 2021, having never previously visited the campus.
Grizzell’s journey to Cal was marked by unexpected changes and moves. During high school, he transferred from San Marino, California to Telluride, Colorado as a freshman and experienced a significant growth spurt. “Everyone was like ‘what the heck’,” Grizzell said with a laugh.
The COVID-19 pandemic led to further relocation when Grizzell left San Marino again to play football at Park City High School in Utah. By the time he joined Cal as a preferred walk-on nearly five years ago, he was prepared for new challenges.
“I didn’t really have any sort of idea of how that would go, but I knew that I wanted to play football and work hard every day in practice,” Grizzell said.
Grizzell spent his first two seasons developing his skills and became one of Cal’s top scout team players. Fellow wide receiver Jordan King commented on Grizzell’s approach: “Trond is a sponge. Early on before he started playing in games, Trond learned so much from all of the great receivers around him. Then, when he got his chance to play, he applied what he had learned from others that worked for him to his game.”
In 2023, Grizzell began seeing regular playing time and recorded 39 receptions for 590 yards and five touchdowns that season. His performance earned him a scholarship in January 2024. Over his career at Cal—spanning 38 games with 25 starts—he has accumulated 1,660 receiving yards (third-most among Cal players over the past decade), along with 111 receptions and seven touchdown catches.
Grizzell has set records against Stanford in the Big Game rivalry series with more career receptions (20) and receiving yards (310) than any other Cal player versus Stanford. In particular, during the 2023 win at Stanford, he made seven catches for 136 yards and two touchdowns; both marks were single-game personal bests for yardage and touchdowns. He added four catches for 80 yards and a touchdown in the following year’s win and nine catches for 104 yards in this season’s contest.
Looking ahead to potential professional opportunities after college football concludes with Saturday’s regular-season finale against SMU and an upcoming bowl game, Grizzell described what NFL teams could expect: “They will be getting a bigger body guy who is not afraid to go over the middle, catch over routes, and does a really good job at high-pointing and winning 50-50 balls,” Grizzell said about his NFL potential. “I’d also like to think I’m the smartest receiver out there at all times. I take pride in knowing the playbook like the back of my hand, being on top of everything and being overly prepared.”
Grizzell hopes that his record at Cal will attract attention from NFL teams as he completes his collegiate career.
