Freshman Most Likely to Make An Impact

Back in February, the Bears signed 26 players to the 2013 class. Two players (Garrett Hughes and Takk McKinley) failed to qualify and will go the JC route in hopes of rejoining the Bears at a later time. Personally, I’m not holding my breath that happens, but I digress…

That leaves 24 young players joining the program, and while some are almost assured to blueshirt this season, a few are going to be counted on immediately to contribute right away. A handle of these players might not only contribute but become instant difference makers for the program. Let’s take a look at a few.

Trey Cheek - DB
This was a difficult choice. Every Cal fan knows that depth in the secondary is Cal’s biggest question mark going into the season after having lost their top two corners in Marc Anthony and Steve Williams as well as their starting nickelback Josh Hill. And with the challenge of facing against more and more spread offenses, the Bears’ secondary are going to need one of their freshman defensive backs to step up immediately.

I’ve been high on 4-star DB Darius Allensworth, but he’s coming off an ACL injury and may need a bit more time to get back to playing at football speed, let alone #BearRaid football speed.

Cameron Walker was singled out specifically by Sonny Dykes as having a chance to contribute early on.

But I’m led to believe that 3-star DB Trey Cheek might make the biggest impact of the freshmen corners. Why? In recent media appearances, players have been quick to single out Cheek as a defensive player to watch. He provides solid coverage with a head-turning level of work ethic.

Cheek’s difficulty in qualifying for Cal has been pretty well documented, but frankly, this kid has busted his ass off to get into Cal, and that type of persistence is usually a strong indicator of a player who wants to be great. That type of work ethic gets rewarded sooner than later. Look for cheek to get some playing time this year.



Khalfani Muhammad
If there’s another position that has questionable depth, it’s runningback. So any freshman runningback would have a chance to contribute. But when that freshman runningback is the fastest player in the state, then you’ve got a chance to have something special.

Muhammad comes to Cal boasting a state record 100 meter dash of 10.22 seconds. That’s flat out absurd. That’s Jahvid Best fast. That’s actually faster than Jahvid Best fast.

Before people get too excited, Muhammad doesn’t appear to display the same level of speed on the football field as he does on the track. However, there does appear to be a perfect storm brewing with need and talent. Khalfani has enough speed to be an instant contributor out of the backfield, and at the very least on special teams.

And with Brendan Bigelow and Daniel Lasco both coming off injuries, it’s almost assured that Muhammed will get touches this year. How many he gets will depend of course on the corp’s health as well as what Muhammed shows in practice.



Jack Austin - WR
The 3-star Chino Hills receiver was a late recruiting win when he decommitted from Boise State to sign on to the #BearRaid attack.

With Cal’s offense expecting to play up to 12 receivers this year, I’m thinking Austin has a chance to crack the rotation despite the wide receiving corps being arguably the strongest position group on the team.

Austin’s got the size at 6’3, 215 pounds, and exhibits great route running and hands. He flat out goes out and gets the ball. In this offense, those skills translate to more production that a player who simply dances around the field.

There is a bit of a chance that I end up looking foolish here if the coaching staff decides to blueshirt Austin given the sheer depth at the position. In which case I’ll desperately pretend that I said WR Drake Whitehurst was the one to watch all along.