Cal Football: OLB David Reese To Return in 2024; WR Jeremiah Hunter Unsure

Outside linebacker David Reese, who has made a significant contribution to Cal’s three-game win streak to close the regular season, said Tuesday he intends to return to Berkeley for a seventh season of college football.

But wide receiver Jeremiah Hunter, the Bears’ top pass catcher the past two seasons, hedged when asked if he expects to be back at Cal in 2024.

“Right now I’m just trying to focus on the bowl game and see what happens after that,” he told reporters.

Hunter, a fourth-year junior, has the so-called COVID waiver he can utilize to play a fifth season. His options include to remain at Cal, where he has 139 career receptions, transfer elsewhere or try the NFL.

Asked to evaluate his season, Hunter chuckled and said, “I really don’t know. I guess my numbers (are) down. I’ve seen a lot of different coverages . . . getting clouded and things like that, getting bracketed was new.

“There’s a lot of things out of my control. But I feel like I still could have did better in certain areas.”

Hunter has a team-best 58 catches for 669 yards, an 11.5-yards-per-catch average, with seven touchdowns. He is coming off his best game of the season, with eight receptions for 101 yards and two TDs in the Bears’ win at UCLA on Nov. 25.

A year ago, he had 60 catches for 965 yards, or 16.1 yards per receptions, with five touchdowns.

“Last year I was more of a down-the-field threat, like posts and streaks,” he said. “I feel like this year there was a lot of quick stuff.”

We still have no clarity from 1,000-yard running back Jaydn Ott and whether he will definitely return to Cal next fall for his senior season.

But Reese said he is coming back. He is eligible for a seventh season because he redshirted at Florida in 2018, did not appear in any games in 2019 or ’21 because of injuries and received a COVID waiver in 2020.

After five years at Florida, this was his first season at Cal and through nine games he had just one sack.

But over the past three, wins the Bears needed vs. Washington State, Stanford and UCLA to become bowl eligible, Reese collected 5.5 sacks. He had three sacks and forced a fumble against UCLA to earn Pac-12 defensive player of the week honors.

“These past three weeks, really they were all must-win games in order for us to get a bowl game, which we wanted as an organization,” he said. “I really took it upon myself to just do whatever I could in order to help our team win.

“I don’t think it was anything anyone said or specifically did for me. It was just taking it upon myself internally. I feel like this game is really played by mindset. I just had to do something to my mindset and just lock in, really.”

His efforts to spark the Bears defensively landed Reese on the All-Pac-12 honorable mention list.

“These are the things I pray for, these are the things I work for,” he said of his recent success on the field. “To see it come to life is truly an honor.”

Cover photo of Cal wide receiver Jeremiah Hunter

Follow Jeff Faraudo of Cal Sports Report on Twitter: @jefffaraudo