Brendon Bigelow

2011: Played in each of the team's last 11 contests off the bench as a true freshman ... led the team with 23 kick returns and 475 kick return yards for a 20.7 average ... had Cal's first kick return for a touchdown since 2007 and its lone kick return for a touchdown in 2011 when he brought back the opening kickoff of the second half 88 yards in his Cal debut against Presbyterian ... earned Pac-12 Special Teams Player of the Week and College Football Awards Kickoff Returner Performer of the Week honors for the effort against Presbyterian in which he finished with two kick returns for a career-high 111 yards and a 55.0 yards per kick return average that led the Pac-12 for much of the season before being eclipsed late in the campaign ... his kickoff return for a touchdown was one of only eight by Pac-12 players in 2011 ... also had a career-high 15 yards rushing on two carries, including a career-long 12-yarder, and his lone reception of the season (11 yards) vs. Presbyterian for a career-best 137 all-purpose yards ... had one rush for eight yards vs. Oregon State and a career-high three rushes for two yards at UCLA ... had a career high and team season-high six kick returns for 87 yards at Oregon ... other kick returns came vs. USC (5-96), at Washington (5-93), vs. Washington State (2-40), vs. Texas in the Holiday Bowl (2-39) and vs. Utah (1-9) as he spent most of the early portion of the season as one of the team's primary kick returners ... ranked fifth on the squad with 511 all-purpose yards (475 kick return, 25 rush, 11 receive) for an average of 46.5 per game ... prior to the season listed as the nation's No. 13 running back recruit as well as the No. 13 overall Pac-12 recruit by Athlon, the No. 17 freshman running back according to Phil Steele and the No. 2 Cal recruit by Sporting News ... listed as a "Freshman Phenom" on a Fantasy Flash sidebar in Cal's team section of Athlon's season preview magazine.

CENTRAL EAST HS: One of the nation's top-rated running backs by several sources despite missing his entire senior season with a knee injury ... rushed for an even 1,000 yards on only 87 carries (11.5 ypr) with 14 touchdowns on the ground as a junior, while adding 23 receptions for 327 yards and three scores for a squad that was 7-4 overall and 4-1 in the Tri-River League ... top game as a junior was a 277-yard performance on 30 carries vs. Paso Robles, while he also had an 221 rushing yards and three touchdowns on a mere six carries against Clovis ... also a member of the track and field team, posting personal-bests of 10.62 in the 100, 21.29 in the 200 and 47.00 in the 400 meters.