Santa Barbara 2025 DT Mays Pese Commits to Cal

The Bears picked up their first commitment of their official visit weekend with the commitment of Bishop Diego defensive tackle Mays Pese‍ this morning.

"I really like the academics at Cal," Pese said after his commitment this evening. "They talked to me about the degree if I graduated from there. A Cal degree will really help my family and they have really good academic support, too. I went to other schools and visited them and most of the schools, they only talk about football. I want to Cal and they talked to me about life after football. A big thing that stood out to me, because I know football is going to end for me point, but what I can do in football can only last so long but a Cal degree can take me 40 to more years in life. I don't just play football, but my focus is also very academic."

The diligence Cal defensive line coach Andrew Browning and the recruiting staff showed during the latest Bear’s commitment paid dividends in building the type of relationship that was important to Pese.

"Coach Browing reached out to me like twice a week," Pese said. "He's the only coach that's been doing and he made an effort to come down and see me practicing and see me running around. And the whole coaching stuff when I was there, they showed a lot of love when I got there. I feel like these people can really help me make it and they're gonna push me out of my comfort zone and be a better man.

"Coach Browning came to practice. He liked my leadership. Having been to my practice, he said what stood out most to him is that I I run our line guys. We don't need a coach to tell us what to do. I just run our guys early out and going into practice until we start. And I play both sides of the ball. I rarely come off the field and my motor is a big thing to him. 

"Coach Browning showed me with their film everything that he's looking for in a defensive tackle. He showed me videos of the guys that he's had playing for him. And then he showed my clips. So the things that they look for are the things that I have done. The skillsets that I have is what they want and it's kind of something that they'll just keep developing when I get here.

"The team culture was also really good. Everybody seems like they are really open to each other and they like to do things together. I feel like their chemistry is really strong."

The 3 star 6-2/275 Santa Barbara DT had 63 tackles, 6 TFL, 1 sack and 1 forced fumble as a junior and was named All-CIF. Pese was also named Marmonte League Defensive Line Player of the Year and Southcoast region Defensive MVP in 2023. He held offers from Arizona, Michigan State, San Diego State, Oregon State, Washington State and more before committing to Cal.

Pese becomes the 12th commit of prep commit of the 2025 class, joining RBs Jojo Solis‍ and Anthony League‍, WR Meyer Swinney‍, OL Ben Howard‍, DE Ike Okafor‍, edge Lebron Williams‍, linebackers Carter Jones‍, Ke’Breion Winston and Beckham Barney‍ as well as CBs Kaden Cook‍ and Jae’on Young.

Stay tuned for more from the official visits this weekend.

Related:

Bears Host 9 on Big Official Visit Weekend