This feature originally appeared in the football game program from the Texas-Cal game on Sept. 17.


 
On the first drive during California's 51-31 victory over Hawai'i in the Sydney College Football Cup, the Golden Bears faced a fourth-and-one. So, of course, you hand the ball off to your 5-foot-9, 175-pound running back to pound it between the tackles to get that yard for the first down.
 
Khalfani Muhammad busted through the Rainbow Warriors defensive line and picked up the first down on a five-yard rush.
 
It was that play, not his 9.6 yards per carry, 212 all-purpose yards or his rushing touchdown that day that showed associate head coach and running backs coach Garret Chachere why Muhammad is a leader for the Bears.
 
"He's not a vocal guy, but where you see his leadership was that fourth-and-one against Hawai'i," Chachere said. "He's a 'little' man who gives up his body to make a play, returns kicks, blocks hard and works hard. People see that and that makes them want to work harder."
 
The modest Muhammad said that while there's always more he can do to improve, he was still pretty happy with the performance against Hawai'i.
 
"I'll take it for a season opener," he said. "I feel like I got after it right off the bat. We executed well in that game, but there are still a lot of things we need to work on. We have to get better and keep it going from there."
 
Not only with the ground game, but Muhammad is also a critical component in special teams with kick returns. Having also competed on the track & field team while at Cal, Muhammad is a speedster and it showed when he returned three kicks for 116 yards in Sydney.
 
Muhammad said he thrives on all the different responsibilities he has on his plate. The most important thing for him is to do his job, no matter how many he may have.
 
"He has a 'dawg' in him," said fellow running back Tre Watson. "Everybody is always doubting him because of his size, so that makes him want to prove people wrong. He encourages me to be on special teams because he loves it so much. He tells us that no matter where you are on the field, you can always make a play."
 
Being a vocal leader will not be on Muhammad's resume as a football player, but he doesn't need to be. Every day when he takes the field, Muhammad doesn't try to do everything; he just tries to improve on doing his job.
 
That confidence and leadership gets noticed by his teammates Watson and Vic Enwere, and it also has the younger running backs looking up to Muhammad.
 
Chachere noticed his leadership capabilities last spring when he took over as the running backs coach.
 
"He carries himself like Khalfani, and now that he's older, it's turned into leadership," Chachere said. "When he was younger, people probably said he's too quiet or too serious. He is a quiet, serious, focused kid, but now that he's older, and he's got the younger guys watching him, they see that they need to be quiet, focused and work on your craft."
 
Watson agreed that you probably won't find Muhammad leading the charge in the locker room before a game rallying the troops, but that doesn't mean he will shy away from getting the younger running backs ready to carry the load after Muhammad's time at Cal comes to an end.
 
"He works hard and stays positive at all times," Watson said. "People don't know it because he's not a very vocal guy, but individually with the younger guys, he definitely likes to talk and help them with different things about their game. He's a great leader."
 
Although Watson and Enwere don't look up to Muhammad like the younger players do since they're equals on the depth chart and the playing field, Watson said that he still inspires him and Enwere to keep doing more. Seeing how much hard work Muhammad puts on the football field motivates him to match him and keep up. 
 
There's a lot that Muhammad has experienced and learned from the football field during his time at Cal. He endured the 1-11 season as a freshman in 2013, but he also enjoyed the thrill of a seven-win turnaround that ended with the Bears defeating Air Force in the 2015 Lockheed Martin Armed Forces Bowl, capping an 8-5 campaign.
 
"There have been ups and downs, like a roller coaster, but that's life," Muhammad said. "Coming here has been valuable for my life and the path that I chose. I always need to overcome the down times, but like I said, that's part of life."
 
If Muhammad can keep running like he did against Hawai'i, his senior season should be filled with many more ups rather than downs, which should make the Bears happy since he's on the field a lot.