Meet Cal's Chad Hansen, the Walk-On Turned Dominant Wide Receiver

As two Texas defenders sandwiched California quarterback Davis Webb, he did what quarterbacks are taught to do: throw the ball away.

As it floated toward the sideline during the fourth quarter back on Sept. 17, Webb watched from the ground as Cal receiver Chad Hansen appeared in the ball's path. Hansen leapt into the air, reached over the sideline and not only caught it but also somehow contorted his body to land with his left foot in bounds.

"I thought it was the best catch I've ever seen in my life," Webb said. "I watched it on film, and it was the best catch I've ever seen in my life."

The only person in the building who imagined turning that pass into a reception was the one who made it so, kind of like Hansen's career itself. 

Ten weeks ago, almost no one knew who Chad Hansen was.

His path would make a doubter out of most. He is a former walk-on who was seventh on the depth chart a year ago. He started his career at Idaho State, and when he decided to transfer, he was begging FBS schools to take a chance on him.

Those who responded told him to return to Idaho State. 

One of the biggest questions Webb had when he visited Cal in the spring was who would catch his passes if he signed with the Bears. Along with No. 1 overall NFL draft pick Jared Goff, Cal's top six receivers were all leaving. A team with that much turnover on offense isn't a dream destination for a graduate transfer quarterback with one year left of eligibility. Cal head coach Sonny Dykes tried to sell Webb on Hansen.

"He compared him to a lot of receivers that he coached," Webb said, noting former Texas Tech and current Oakland Raiders wide receiver Michael Crabtree was the first comp. "I knew absolutely nothing about him. I'd never heard of Chad Hansen."

When Webb arrived on campus in May, he watched the tape of every spring practice three to five times. The tape confirmed what he had heard about Hansen, a 6'3", 205-pound pass-catching machine who recently clocked a 4.41 in the 40-yard dash. 

"Wow," Webb remembers thinking as he watched the tape. "He was unbelievable."

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In January 2014, Hansen walked into the office of Idaho State head coach Mike Kramer and delivered the message that he thought he could play at a higher level.

The market had said otherwise. Hansen received one scholarship offer as a senior in high school, and that was from Idaho State. 

Hansen had been a late bloomer and did not play varsity ball until his junior year at Moorpark High School in Southern California, putting up modest numbers that year (20 catches, 216 receiving yards and two touchdowns). Still, his high school coach, Tim Lins, believed he had a player with upside and tried to showcase Hansen during spring ball that year when 11 Pac-12 schools came through.

But there wasn't any interest.

"They all got to see him practice, and they all got to hear me tell what an upside he had, but it's hard for them to really take a chance on projections, I guess," Lins said. "I'm sure if I had it to do over again, we'd throw him 100 balls. It was like, after spring, if there's nothing there, it's rare something appears between the end of spring recruiting and the season. That was the tough part."

Hansen did enough as a senior (49 catches, 882 yards, 12 touchdowns) to get both San Diego and Cal Poly to offer walk-on spots along with the one scholarship from Idaho State. He was a true starter at Idaho State as a freshman, earning All-Big Sky Conference honorable mention. He believed that was enough to convince FBS schools to take another look. 

But Kramer had found a gem in the Southern California product and had the reaction that just about any coach with that kind of potential in his possession would have.

"He was obviously very mad, sort of angry, and he let me have it a little bit," Hansen said.

Kramer refused to grant Hansen his release. The player eventually appealed to the school, but his hearing wasn't until March. Between those months, the Idaho State coaches did everything they could to make him regret his choice.

At first, Sheldon Cross, who was Hansen's position coach, tried to talk him out of leaving and sell him on the future at Idaho State.

"Then it turned into more malicious type of talk," Hansen said.

The ploy that stuck with Hansen was Cross giving him the number of an assistant coach at Arizona State to see what the response would be from an FBS school. It was quickly apparent to Hansen that he'd been set up. 

"He said I'm probably not good enough to play at the Division I level and I should stay at Idaho State," Hansen said.

Hansen joined the track team to stay in shape and maintain a sense of team camaraderie, which he said helped him through that time. But when his parents, Tim and Sheri Hansen, came to visit that spring, they realized how much the Idaho State football coaches had worn him down.

"He physically was sick," Sheri said. "His eyes were sunk, and he was thin. He was pale. It was bad."

Hansen said he lost 15 pounds, and his grades slipped because of the stress. In March, he finally got the opportunity to present his case to an appeals committee made up of professors at the school, and he won. It was still weeks before he was free, though. The Idaho State athletics department waited until the final day legally possible to grant him his release.

A spokesman for Idaho State declined a request for comment from Kramer.

"It was the worst experience ever," Sheri said. "And here we have a coach come into our living room and say 'I'm going to take care of your son. I'm going to turn him into a man' and that kind of thing. I'm thinking, after what you're doing right now, I would never ever recommend you telling a parent that you're going to turn them into a man. That's not the kind of man I want. I do not want somebody telling my kid he was a quitter, ditching his team. They beat him down."

Once Hansen got his release, he was part of a cold-emailing machine that included his mom, father and uncle. The family contacted every coach along the West Coast they could find an email address for.

The Hansens thought it would be easier the second time around equipped with his college stats, but unfortunately, they did not have much game video from his freshman season. Idaho State refused to give him any video, and Hansen went to a local news station in an effort to include some college footage with his high school highlights.

"The film wasn't all that great," he said. "It was field level, and they really didn't have all that many plays. They helped me put together maybe 10 plays from my whole season, so that was helpful. But I think mostly what I sent out was high school tape. It was a little tough."

And barely anyone responded.

The Hansens decided they might have better luck if they hand-delivered their package. Arizona was one of the schools at the top of his wish list, so his family drove eight hours from their home in Fillmore, California, to Tucson, Arizona, to ask in-person for a chance. He did the same at UCLA.

"Absolutely nothing," Sheri said of the response. "Crickets."

It took two months before they got a bite. "After I got a few no's and nobody else was responding, there was a lull," Hansen said. "I got worried and broadened my search [nationwide], and that's when Cal popped up, which was a blessing."

Cal grad assistant David Gru saw potential in the highlights he watched of Hansen—he originally thought Hansen was still in high school based on the film—but Gru was impressed enough to suggest that Dykes take a look.

Dykes told Gru to follow up. Hansen came to visit campus, and the Bears offered a walk-on spot.

"We were like, 'Heck yeah, this is a free guy and it looks like he might develop into something,'" Dykes said.

On the first day of fall camp in 2014, Hansen was working out back home in Fillmore when he got a call from Gru. A spot had opened up, and they needed another receiver. Hansen headed home, packed one suitcase and headed to Berkeley. He spent the first week sleeping on the dorm floor of some of his teammates until he was able to line up housing.

"He was really raw and didn't have a lot of confidence, but you could see the size and the fact that he could run," Dykes said. "You could kind of start to see this guy has a chance to become a good player."

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On Webb's first day on campus this past May, he invited any receivers in town to play catch with him. Hansen was one of the first to show up, and they went through the route tree.

"I threw the first couple balls, and I knew we were going to have something special," Webb said. "The last guy I had that with was [former Texas Tech teammate] Jace Amaro, who is now a tight end for the Tennessee Titans. We threw a couple throws and had a chemistry.

"Just watching him cut in and out of routes, catch the ball with his hands. I threw him a streak, and he went up and got it. Dang, this guy is pretty good."

Hansen could sense the connection right away.

"He was able to hit me in stride on almost every route, and that's pretty crazy for somebody that's never thrown with me before," Hansen said. "For a quarterback to not know a receiver's speed or height, throwing a ball that's very accurate is pretty rare throwing for the first time."

The match was perfect. Not only did Cal have two NFL-level talents at their respective positions, but the two had a bond because of what had happened at their previous schools—Webb had been a starter as a true freshman at Texas Tech and eventually lost his spot in the middle of his sophomore season to Patrick Mahomes.

Webb and Hansen spent the rest of the offseason working out together every chance they got, developing a rapport that has allowed the Bears to turn into the second-best passing offense currently in college football.

It also didn't hurt that the schedule played out perfectly to ignite a fire in Hansen. Two schools stood out to the receiver when he thought back to his search: San Diego State and Arizona State.

Both schools responded, but their rejection stuck.

"They told me they don't miss people coming out of high school nowadays," he said. "There's a reason you're playing at a lower Division I level."

Against San Diego State, Hansen caught 14 passes for 190 yards and a touchdown and was the nation's leading receiver after two weeks.

In the regular-season finale last year against Arizona State, Hansen had a breakout performance with 91 receiving yards and a touchdown. He made the Sun Devils look foolish again in the fourth game of this year. Hansen put up 10 catches, 110 yards and a touchdown, and he had another ridiculous grab along the sideline that rivaled his Texas catch.

"Throughout the week, he's a normal guy. He's very chill," Webb said. "But on Saturday, he turns into a monster, and he's ready to prove people wrong."

Hansen has even proved his own coaches wrong in a way. During spring ball following his redshirt season, the defensive coaches approached him about moving to defense and floated the potential of earning a scholarship if he did so.

"I hadn't played defense since high school," Hansen said. "All my coaching and skill was on offense. They let me make the decision, and I was more comfortable playing offense. I just decided to tell them no."

Even with last year's talented receiver group that included six players currently on NFL rosters, Hansen found his way onto the field and started to show his potential late in the year.

"Once he started to realize, 'Hey, I can play at this level,' he started to get some confidence," Dykes said. "We had six receivers who went onto the NFL, and he was as good as those guys. It just took him a while. Bowl practices, I thought this guy really has a chance to be something special. He just needed more reps and more opportunity."

With Hansen's success, Dykes sees him slowly breaking out of his shell this year, finally starting to ask questions in the meeting room—when he used to sit silent in the corner.

"He really wants to understand the little nuances that make guys really good, and you can tell that he has a feel for things and see things," Dykes said.

That will be music to the ears of NFL scouts. Hansen is a next-level talent with a rare combination of size and speed, and he's at his best when the ball is in the air. He has the ability to maneuver his body to block defenders and make a catch at the highest point.

He's graded out as one of the nation's top receivers, according to Pro Football Focus. Two weeks ago, an NFL personnel executive told Daniel Jeremiah of NFL.com that Hansen was the nation's most surprising player through the first half of the season.

"I love how he waited his turn and then stepped up when his opportunity arrived," the exec said. "He really put himself on the map with his play this year."

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Hansen was still without a scholarship until this summer when he stepped out of his comfort zone and approached Dykes about it. "Already in the works," the coach told him. "I promise you we're taking care of you."

Hansen has more than returned the favor. Even though he missed the last game, he is on pace to set Cal's single-season record for receptions, yards and touchdowns. With similar output as a senior, he would also set the school's career records in all three categories—and remember, he'd do so in three years. Currently, Hansen has 59 receptions, 770 receiving yards and eight touchdowns. 

"It's really surreal," Hansen said. "It's crazy going from where I was to where I am now. It's honestly a blessing. I can really attribute my success to my family and their support."

And do not forget Gru.

After Cal upset Utah earlier this month, the man who discovered Hansen grabbed him on the field and gave him a big bear hug.

"I love you, Chad," Gru told him.

"I love your kid. I just love your kid," he shouted to Hansen's parents nearby.

Before Hansen left the field, he ran toward the stands and handed his receiver gloves to a young Cal fan, which has become his ritual. He says he searches for a "little guy who has that look he had."

It's almost as if Hansen knows he's living a Disney script. We see it as that, anyway.

To him, this is all rather procedural, like the best catch Webb has ever seen. 

C.J. Moore covers college basketball and football for Bleacher Report. You can follow him on Twitter @CJMooreBR.