WRs Tobias Merriweather & Kyion Grayes Eager for Year 2 at Cal

Both back from injury-shortened seasons last fall, they are adjusting to lots of changes in the Bears' offense

Cal wide receiver Tobias Merriweather (5) / Photo by Al Sermeno, KLC fotos

Cal’s wide receiver corps received a shot in the arm a year ago when the Bears plucked Tobias Merriweather of Notre Dame and Kyion Grayes of Ohio State out the transfer portal.

Both were 4-star high school prospects whose first stops in college hadn’t worked out, but they were expected to stretch the field with speed and explosiveness.

Then both were injured during fall camp — Merriweather sustaining a broken foot and Grayes suffering an ankle ailment. Neither was available to play in a game until Nov. 8.

Kyion Grayes, left, and Tobias Merriweather / Photo by Jeff Faraudo

They debuted against Wake Forest. Merriweather caught five passes for 52 yards and a touchdown and Grayes had two receptions for 22 yards.

But that was the best day of the season for both players. Merriweather  totaled just six more catches for 63 yards over the final four games. Grayes’ ankle allowed him to play only one more game last fall.

Fair to say we never saw the best of the two newcomers.

They are back for Year 2, greeted by changes all around them, including new offensive coordinator Bryan Harsin, new receivers coach Kyle Cefalo and two new quarterbacks — Ohio State transfer Devin Brown incoming freshman Jaron-Keawe Sagapolutele.

Both are healthy and eager.

“It’s been good,” said Merriweather, a 6-foot-5, 205-pound redshirt junior, who grew up in Vancouver, Washington. “Everyone’s come in with a good attitude and really after it. In my career so far I’ve been used to changing OC, receiver coaches, quarterbacks. We’re all competing for our jobs and having fun.”

“In my opinion, I like it a lot. I’m having a lot of fun,” Grayes, a 6-foot, 180-pound redshirt sophomore from Chandler, Arizona, said of the changes. “I like coach Harsin’s offense. I like coach Cefalo’s teaching. Having Devin back there, we were playing together . . . back at OSU. All around it’s been pretty good.”

Cefalo came to Berkeley from Utah State and he is excited by more than a winter without snow. 

He likes the Bears’ deep corps of receivers, also including returnees Trond Grizzell, Jonathan Brady and Mavin Anderson, transfers Dazmin James (Arkansas) and Jacob De Jesus (UNLV) and freshman Meyer Swinney, who has shown promise in early spring workouts. And that’s not to mention tight end Jack Endries, who led the Bears with 56 catches a year ago.

“I want competition,” Cefalo said. “They’ve got to push each other — they work together, they’re teammates. But they’re also competing. They want to be out there and whoever gives us the best chance to win is going to play.”

Merriweather said being injured on the eve of last season was tough, especially after working hard through spring practice and fall camp.

“I had a lot of talks with God when that first happened,” he said. “I was upstairs in the X-ray room just balling. It’s a tough thing when you put your whole life into something. It’s hard to separate the ballplayer from the guy sometimes.”

Going forward, Merriweather said he’s working hard but trying to stay loose.

“I’m not going to put any pressure on myself. I’m just going to go out there every day and play free and fast and make plays, like I have my whole life,” he said. “It’s just football. I expect to be a starter and I expect to play a lot and make a lot of plays.”

Grayes has hardly played in three seasons at two schools, thanks in part to nerve issues he dealt with at Ohio State. He said he’s still trying to get to where he’d progressed when he injured his ankle last August.

“I feel like I’m doing pretty good, getting back from injury. I’m getting my bearings, trying to get back to where I was.” 

Grayes tries not to dwell on his past setbacks. “It’s frustrating but I try not to think about it too much because I know what I bring to the table. I know the people in this building know what I bring,” he said. “I just try to stay true to myself and believe in me more than anybody.”

Cefalo has hopes for both players.

On Merriweather: “There’s not a lot of things he can’t do on the field. He’s long, he can bend, he can run. To me, it’s just mindset. We’re constantly working on that aggressive, kind of violent mindset to play this game. `When the ball’s in the air, it mine — it’s nobody else’s.’ He’s been working. He’s learning a ton.”

On Grayes: “Really, really twitchy. Really sudden. He can run. Catches the ball really well. He’s strong, too. Really, really strong in the weight room — I think that translates to the field.”

Five days into spring practice, Grayes sees the pieces the Bears can assemble to create a potent offense.

“We can be really special. We have all the guys to do it from JB (Jonathan Brady) to Maven to Tobias to Trond to Jacob. The list goes on and on,” he said. “We have the running backs, the quarterbacks, we have the O-line, the tight ends.”

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