Cal Football: Linebacker Kuony Deng `Excited' About Decision to Return in 2021
The 2020 Cal football season eventually reached a point where linebacker Kuony Deng was holding his breath, wondering what was coming next.
“Until you play the game, you don’t know if the game is going to be played. Even the night before,” he said this week.
The Bears had played just four games but were coming off their 21-17 upset of Oregon as they prepared to travel north to face Washington State.
Everything was quiet. Almost too quiet. Deng got worried.
“Usually when we went too long without something happening, that’s when something happened,” he said. “When we were getting ready to get on the bus to play Washington State, I was talking to coach (Peter) Sirmon, I said, `Coach, it’s been like a whole week since something’s happened. This has got to be too good to be true.’
“And then the rest of our season gets canceled like 30 minutes later.”
Perhaps the hardest part of the 2020 season, dominated by fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic, was the uncertainty, the unknown.
“I’m looking forward to this vaccine getting out,” Deng said, “and being able to play with some fans in the stands, hopefully.”
Deng is among five seniors from the 2020 roster who so far have made the decision to return in 2021. The NCAA is allowing that because of shortened schedules and disruptions we saw everywhere this season.
Also returning are center Michael Saffell, safety Elijah Hicks, outside linebacker Cameron Goode and cornerback/nickel back Josh Drayden. Deng was perhaps the biggest surprise of the group to announce he would be back.
At 6-foot-6, 250 pounds, Deng figured to be drafted by the NFL even after a four-game senior season. He says he talked with his family and coaching staff and accepted input from the NFL, and came away convinced he had two good choices.
“In the end of all of it, I realized I’d be making a good decision either way and that was kind of empowering,” Deng said. “I think I got excited about the idea of being able to play a full 12-game regular-season and getting to come back and play with these guys. I’m excited.”
Deng had 119 tackles in his debut season with the Bears in 2019 after arriving as a transfer from Independence Community College in Kansas. He had 16 tackles at Utah, one of five games where he totaled double-digit tackles, and he earned All-Pac-12 honorable mention.
Much was expected of Deng this fall but he started slowly. In the Bears’ third game, he broke out with 14 tackles against Stanford. A week later he had eight tackles, including 1.5 for losses, against Oregon.
“I feel like I was just starting to hit my stride. I think the team probably felt the same way,” he said. “I was really disappointed because I felt like if we would have just continued to play games we would have had a lot of fun and we really would have hit our stride fully. I think we were on our way. This is what we have 2021 for.”
In the video above, Deng talks about the role he and his four fellow second-time seniors will play on the 2021 squad.
“We’ve got a big, diverse senior class now. It’s going to be important for us to set the tone, be the hardest workers and be resources for the guys,” he said. “We have a lot of potential this season. Great teams are player-led teams, not coach-led teams. So we have some responsibility.”
Deng believes the Bears will grow from the challenges they faced this season, but he understands the pandemic was much harder on so many others.
“Obviously we had obstacles and trials with the season last year. But if agonizing if I get to play in a football game on Saturday is one of my biggest issues, then I’m blessed,” he said.
“We did have a lot of obstacles and it’s going to make us tougher. It’s going to make us more experienced. In the grand scheme of things, this virus has taken away a lot more from a lot of people.”
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Follow Jeff Faraudo of Cal Sports Report on Twitter: @jefffaraudo
