Cal Athletics: Showing Special Promise as Freshmen in 2019-20, Part 1

Sophomores-to-be gave encouraging performances in their Golden Bears debuts

Photo by Al Sermeno, KLC fotos

Nose guard Brett Johnson wasn’t sure what to expect from his freshman football season last fall. But when he got the chance to play, he wasn’t surprised by his contributions.

“In all honesty, I try to keep my expectations to a minimum,” Johnson said.

He played sparingly in the Bears’ season-opening win over UC Davis then drew his first collegiate start in the team’s Pac-12 opener in front of 66,000 hostile fans on the road against 14th-ranked Washington. Quite a stage.

“That was my first real game where I played a lot,” Johnson said. “After seeing how I was able to hold my own and able to perform well, that definitely opened my eyes to what I was able to do."

Cal posted a 20-19 victory and Johnson knew he belonged. “I’m in there just hanging with the big dogs. That’s how I felt, too. Not feeling like I was some high school kid (but) that’s all I knew.”

Thrust into a significant role at a key position because two returning players were not available, Johnson wound up playing in all 13 games, starting nine times.

The game was a little faster, the players a little bigger and stronger than those he faced at Desert Vista High School in Phoenix. Otherwise, Johnson noted, “I can’t say that anything was extremely challenging, to the point where I couldn’t handle it. Football is football, no matter what.”

Peter Sirmon, the Bears’ defensive coordinator, said Johnson handled himself well for a young, inexperienced player.

“He made some really great plays last year, just trying to survive, not really understanding where he fits in in the grand scheme of things,” Sirmon said. “That's a position where the dominant run defenses typically have an interior force that is very disruptive, that when we move him around, it's going to affect how the defense is going to go after us.”

Johnson earned third-team Freshman All-America honors from Pro Football Focus after collecting 26 tackles, including 3.5 tackles for loss, at a position that generally does not generate big stats.

Athlon Sports has named Johnson a preseason third-team All-Pac-12 choice for 2020.

The offseason has been interrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic, but Johnson has been training while at home and can’t wait to reunite with his teammates.

“I’m stoked,” he said. “Playing football is a lot of fun, but doing it with my teammates is what really gets me going.”

*** Beginning today, we look at 20 Cal athletes in a range of sports whose performances as freshmen this past season suggest we will want to keep a close eye on them as sophomores in 2020-21.

Here are nine more from football, men’s and women’s basketball, baseball and softball:

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Joel Brown / Photo by Cody Glenn, USA Today

— JOEL BROWN, basketball: Named the 2018-19 Canadian high school player of the year, the 6-foot-2 point guard started 17 games for the Bears last season, sharing the assignment with senior returning starter Paris Austin. His numbers were modest (2.4 points, 2.0 rebounds, 1.8 assists), but Brown often showed savvy as a ballhandler and was an effective defender. He scored 11 points and made key plays in Cal’s overtime win over Utah and had a season-best 12 points in a win vs. UNLV.

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Jazlen Green / Photo by Robert Edwards, KLC fotos

—JAZLEN GREEN, women’s basketball: The 5-foot-11 guard started just one game last season but was the team’s No. 2 scorer at 8.8 points per game. She posted 11 double-digit scoring games, including the final three games of the season when she averaged 15.3 points. With the departure of senior Jaelyn Brown, Green will be the club’s top returning scorer next season. As a senior at Lakeside High in Upland, Green averaged 28.7 points and was chosen to the all-state second team by USA Today.

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Joseph King / Photo by Robert Edwards, KLC fotos

— JOSEPH KING, baseball: A Collegiate Baseball Freshman All-American this spring, King was 2-0 with one save and a 1.59 earned run average in 11 1/3 innings over seven outings, all of them in relief. The right-hander from Redwood City struck out 17 batters, walked just four and did not allow a home run. Opposing hitters batted just .209 against him. King, who struck out two batters per inning as a high school senior, struck out the side in his collegiate debut vs. Long Beach State.

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Kuany Kuany / Photo courtesy of KLC fotos

— KUANY KUANY, basketball: Born in South Sudan and raised in Australia, Kuany played his final pre-college season at Prolific Prep in Napa. He played sparingly early in is freshman season, but averaged 6.6 points over the final five regular-season games (starting twice), including nine points at Oregon and a season-high 11 two days later at Oregon State. The Bears are hoping the 6-foot-9 Kuany can grow into a starting role at small forward, allowing leading scorer Matt Bradley to slide to shooting guard.

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Nathan Martorella / Photo courtesy of Cal Athletics

— NATHAN MARTORELLA, baseball: The first baseman from Salinas led the Bears with three home runs, all of them in the team’s final four games. He started 14 times, batting .241. He went 3-for-4 with a pair of doubles vs. Long Beach State and batted .429 over the team’s final four games. Cal expects Martorella to become a fixture on the right side of its infield. Martorella was a 30th-round pick of the Boston Red Sox in 2019, but chose attending Cal instead.

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McKade Mettauer / Photo by Al Sermeno, KLC fotos

— McKADE METTAUER, football: Injuries forced Mettauer into the starting lineup by the second game of the 2019 season and the 6-foot-4, 295-pound true freshman from The Woodlands, Texas wound up starting the final 12 games at right guard. Mettauer won the Clint Evans Award as the most intense freshman competitor.

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Makai Polk / Photo by Al Sermeno, KLC fotos

— MAKAI POLK, football: A wide receiver from Richmond, Polk caught 19 passes for 295 yards and a pair of touchdowns while playing just eight games. Polk emerged as a deep threat over the Bears’ final two games, averaging 20.3 yards for each of his nine catches. He had season-highs of five catches for 105 yards in the Bears’ win over Illinois in the Redbox Bowl after making four receptions for 78 yards and a touchdown in the previous game vs. UCLA.

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D'Asha Saiki / Photo y Robert Edwards, KLC fotos

— D’ASHA SAIKI, softball: A second baseman from Mililani, Hawaii, Saiki (pronounced Dee-AYE-shauh SIGH-key) started 22 of 24 games, batted .299 and was second on the team with 18 RBIs in her debut season. A former three-time all-state selection in high school was 3-for-3 and drove in five runs vs. Fordham and had three hits and three RBIs vs. Saint Mary’s.

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Candace Yingling

— CANDACE YINGLING, softball: The first baseman from Temecula evolved quickly from role player to the Bears’ starting cleanup hitter. She finished the shortened season with a .313 bating average — fourth best on the team — and had two home runs, including a grand slam in Cal’s 8-1 win over Auburn. Yingling’s father Ed played baseball at Arizona State and in the Philadelphia Phillies’ organization.

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

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