Tag: California Golden Bears Football

Battle of mid: Cal faces Texas Tech in Independence Bowl meeting of 6-6 programs

Cal got to a bowl game, which is surprising enough in its own right. Can the Bears now beat Texas Tech?

The second Pac-12 bowl game on the slate is just a couple of hours after the UCLA-Boise State L.A. Bowl kicks off on Saturday.

This bowl is Cal against Texas Tech in the Independence Bowl. Both programs finished with 6-6 records, but Justin Wilcox leading this Golden Bear team to a bowl game is quite surprising. It took a 33-7 blowout of UCLA in the final week for the Bears to become bowl-eligible.

Cal was 3-6 at one point and won three straight against Washington State, Stanford, and UCLA to close things out. The win over the Cougars was their biggest of the season, a 42-39 final.

Running back Jaydn Ott was the star of the show again for Cal this season, rushing for 1,261 yards with 11 scores and averaging 114 yards per game.

Texas Tech was 3-5 entering its 2023 off week. The Red Raiders won three of the last four games to become bowl-eligible, with the one loss coming to Texas on the road in a 57-7 blowout against the Big 12 champions.

Running back Tahj Brooks had 1,443 yards with nine scores. He recently announced his decision to return for one more year in a huge boost for the Red Raiders.

Behren Morton threw for 1,498 yards with 12 touchdowns and seven interceptions for Texas Tech. He threw five interceptions combined over the final three games, so that could be an issue for Tech.

The Red Raiders are slight favorites in this game, but Justin Wilcox winning a bowl game at Cal should be more than enough to keep him around in Berkeley for one more year as the Golden Bears head for the ACC.

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California Golden Bears have had an unstable QB situation this year — USC must prepare

Alex Grinch might not see a lot of plays on game film. Uh-oh.

USC takes on the California Golden Bears Saturday afternoon. It will be USC’s 110th meeting with Cal, the team the Trojans have played more than any other opponent.

USC tries to avoid a three-game losing streak. The last time the Trojans lost three in a row was in 2021, when USC fell to California, BYU and UCLA at the end of the season.

USC is a heavy favorite in this game, but the defensive woes have to stop. On paper, they should. Few offenses have been as stagnant as Cal in the Pac-12 this season.

Head Coach Justin Wilcox has started three different quarterbacks this season: sophomores Sam Jackson V, Ben Finley, and redshirt freshman Fernando Mendoza. Of the three, Mendoza is most likely to start for Cal against USC.

Mendoza has earned the starting nod the last two games for the Golden Bears. He is 31-for-50 (62 percent completions) and has thrown 4 TDs and 2 INTs.

The 6-foot-5, 220-pound Miami native was a three-star quarterback in high school at Columbus and Belen Jesuit.

Expect Cal to rely on star running back Jaydn Ott, who has 104 carries for 601 yards and 5 TDs.

The California Golden Bears are 3-4 overall and 1-3 in Pac-12 Conference play in the 2023 season.

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Oklahoma fans were right about Lincoln Riley, at least for this specific season.

USC assistants need to be coaching for their jobs.

Lincoln Riley did not assemble an elite 2023 roster, which surprised us and a lot of other observers.

Is USC ready to win in 2024 with Miller Moss or Malachi Nelson at quarterback? Lincoln Riley has to be honest about how he answers that question.

Brent Venables is coaching Oklahoma far better this year than Lincoln Riley is coaching USC. It’s up to Riley to change that reality.

ACC schools could play neutral-site events in Dallas due to Stanford, Cal move

Gathering East Coast and West Coast #ACC schools in Dallas shows how regional identity has vanished in college sports.

As the Stanford-California-SMU triumvirate joined the ACC last week, one of the ideas in place to ease the travel burden for ACC schools was floated. It still hasn’t been finalized, but it sure sounds as though it will move forward in some form and to some degree. Dallas will become a hub for competitions in several ACC sports.

Dallas could become a centerpiece ACC city. That just sounds wrong. It feels wrong.

Charlotte is an ACC city. Greensboro is an ACC city. Atlanta is an ACC city. Clemson is an ACC locale.

Dallas is a Southwest Conference city turned into a Big 12 and AAC city. There’s nothing “Atlantic” about it. Yet, schools from the two opposite coasts will likely travel there in a lot of different sports? What a mess, to be honest.

There ought to be a better way of arranging all of this. This travel setup doesn’t seem like something which should exist on a long-term basis.

Nearly everyone who is responding to this Dallas plan in the ACC feels the same way. See for yourself:

Cal has one of the toughest football schedules in the Pac-12

The California Golden Bears cannot be thrilled with how their 2023 schedule plays out in the Pac-12.

The California Golden Bears have not had a good offseason. Jack Plummer transferred to Louisville, meaning another QB is making their way to Berkeley.

Then, when the 2023 Pac-12 football schedule came out on Wednesday, the Golden Bears wound up with one of the most brutal schedules in the entire conference.

Why? They play on the road against UCLA, Utah, Washington, and Oregon (h/t Jon Wilner of The Mercury News).

“No team faces a more difficult array of road games than the Bears, who visit UCLA, Utah, Washington and Oregon (plus Stanford),” Wilner wrote. “Oh, and they host Auburn in Week Two. Considering how the schedule could have played out, the Bears should be satisfied with the final version: It gives them the best possible chance to succeed. The finale at UCLA will be Cal’s last scheduled game against UCLA, which heads to the Big Ten in 2024.

Cal could end the year at the bottom of the Pac-12 standings, especially with Colorado looking like one of the most improved teams in the entire country.

Justin Wilcox has a tough season ahead of him in Cal, and the Pac-12 schedule makers didn’t do the Golden Bears any favors whatsoever.

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