Cal Football: Nose Guard Aaron Maldonado Declared Out for the Season

Bears also lose freshman wide receiver Jeremiah Hunter, both to injuries
Cal Football: Nose Guard Aaron Maldonado Declared Out for the Season
Cal Football: Nose Guard Aaron Maldonado Declared Out for the Season /

Aaron Maldonado, a projected starter at nose guard, and freshman wide receiver Jeremiah Hunter both will miss the entire season due to injuries, Cal coach Justin Wilcox announced Tuesday.

Neither saw action in the Bears’ season-opening 34-10 loss at UCLA on Sunday.

Maldonado has a lower-body injury and Hunter has an upper-body injury, Wilcox said.

Maldonado’s loss is particularly tough for the Bears, who don’t have great depth along the defensive line.

When he was declared out for UCLA, the Bears moved sophomore Brett Johnson back inside, the position he played all of last season.

Maldonado, a 6-foot-3, 285-pound junior, missed the first four games last season for undisclosed reasons, then played in eight of the final nine. He was penciled in as the Bears’ starter in the middle of the D-line this season, backed primarily by young players.

One of those, freshman nose guard Stanley McKenzie, also missed the opener for unspecified reasons. Wilcox said the Bears anticipate getting the 6-foot-2, 320-pounder back at some point but did not provide a timetable.

Cal lost defensive end Luc Bequette, a three-year starter, when he transferred to Boston College after the Pac-12 briefly shut down the fall schedule. Senior Tevin Paul, a defensive end/outside linebacker, opted out of this season before training camp began.

The Bears have had issues on the defensive line for the past several weeks, since one of their players tested positive for COVID-19 and the entire position group was forced into quarantine after contact tracing.

That situation led to Cal having to cancel its Nov. 7 opening game at home against Washington. The Bears had no available scholarship defensive linemen at that point.

*** Wilcox talks about Hunter's situation in the video below: 

Hunter is a true freshman wideout from Fresno who assembled an impressive high school career. He caught 209 career passes for 3,215 yards and 50 touchdowns.

As a senior last fall, he had 72 receptions for 1,070 years and 15 TDs.

Rivals rated him the 51st-best wide receiver prospect in the class of 2020.

Cal returns to action Saturday at Oregon State, which is coming off a loss to Washington and has started the schedule 0-2.

The Bears will be tasked with trying to slow OSU’s run game, powered by junior Jermar Jefferson, who is averaging 126.5 rushing yards per game, second-best in the Pac-12.

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Jeff Faraudo
JEFF FARAUDO

Jeff Faraudo was a sports writer for Bay Area daily newspapers since he was 17 years old, and was the Oakland Tribune's Cal beat writer for 24 years. He covered eight Final Fours, four NBA Finals and four Summer Olympics.