Aaron Maldonado, Jeremiah Hunter out for season

The California Golden Bears will officially be without two projected impactful players the rest of the 2020 season as DL Aaron Maldonado and WR Jeremiah Hunter have been declared out for the season.

Neither played in the season opener against UCLA but both were expected to see time at their respective positions.

Maldonado was ruled out ahead of the game versus the Bruins and was spectulated to be among those on the defensive line that perhaps were impacted by COVID-19 positive tests but head coach Justin Wilcox stated that Maldonado will be out for the year with a lower-body injury.

Wilcox, however, remains optimistic that fellow defensive lineman Stanley McKenzie, who also missed the game against UCLA, will return soon.

“Aaron, unfortunately, won’t be able to play this season,” Wilcox said. “He had a lower-body injury that is going to keep him out. We’re hopeful that Stanley can come back and join us real soon. That will be determined by the sports-med staff.”

The defensive line got a bit of a jolt when Maldonado was projected to start after losing potential NFL draft pick Luc Bequette to transfer. However, now that means both projected starters at the beginning of what would have been spring camp are now not playing this season.

As for Hunter, he was the highest-ranked receiver in the class of 2020 and he’ll be gone with an upper-body injury.

”Jeremiah is not going to be able to be with us either. I look forward to him coming back as soon as possible. Unfortunately, he’s got an upper-body injury that is going to keep him out.”

Cal is back in action this weekend at Oregon State at 12:30 pm PT.