Pac-12: Cal Golden Bears
I spent several years trying to make Michigan State happen.
The parts were there to be good, but it just couldn’t quite get over the hump – that didn’t stop me from picking it to be in the mix for the Big Ten title, and then it actually happened in 2013.
Cal isn’t going to win the Pac-12 Championship anytime soon, but I’m working way too hard to make the football program a thing.
Granted, the interest level around football in Berkeley is always at a minimum, but head coach Justin Wilcox is good, the teams put together the lines, it seems like everything is about to work, and then …
(Cue the sad trombone)
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Actually, that’s not fair. Yes, the Bears have four losing seasons in the last six – and two in a row – but the 2019 team wasn’t bad and the 2018 version came up with a winning season, even if it finished with a loss in the Cheez-It Bowl to TCU, inarguably the ugliest sporting event ever played.
There were problems in last year’s 5-7 campaign, but there were a ton of close losses, the offense was among the most productive the program had in years, and Purdue transfer QB Jack Plummer should shine with a strong ground game to help the cause.
There’s too much coaching talent on the defensive side for this D to be anything but stellar. Getting hitting machine Jackson Sirmon from Washington was massive for the linebacking corps.
Cal-Davis, UNLV, at Notre Dame, Arizona, at Washington State, at Colorado. Any team worthy of thinking about going bowling needs to be at least 4-2 against that start. Washington and Oregon come to Cal, there’s no Utah to face, and closing with Stanford and UCLA isn’t bad.
If everything breaks right, there’s a real shot at winning eight regular season games for the first time since 2009.