Cal receives two first place votes in ACC preseason media poll, picked 10th
The California Golden Bears contain multitudes in the Atlantic Coast Conference.
170 ACC media members voted in their preseason poll.
Two of them think the California Golden Bears will win the ACC.
What lords. What fortune-tellers. Build the monuments.
The plurality of the remaining media members has Cal in the soft middle of the conference.
What doubters. What haters. They can’t see the vision.
It’s hard to read much into this. It’s unlikely most of the ACC has actually ever watched a Cal game. Cal’s rival on the Farm was picked last by a vast margin, likely for similar reasons.
But we have two major fans at least!
Cal Football Fall Camp 2024: Practice Notebook #1
Football in July? Christmas came early. The Bears started off their prepartion for the 2024 season on Wednesday with just a day of spider shells and light work. Points of emphasis for the day looked to be on fundamentals, teaching, and walkthroughs. Even with the slowed-down pace of the practice, the key phrase Coach Justin Wilcox emphasized was evident: Team Speed.
In a stroke of tough luck, Cal will play the 1st, 3rd and 4th projected ACC teams on their schedule. But they also play 7th, 12th, 13th, 15th and 17th.
It’s safe to say that if Cal does not finish the season with a winning ACC record, we will be spending our Thanksgiving shopping on pitchforks.
2024 ACC Preseason Poll
Florida State (81 1st place votes), 2708 points
Clemson (55), 2657 points
Miami (17), 2344 points
NC State (8), 2318
Louisville, 1984 points
Virginia Tech (5) 1968 points
SMU, 1798 points
North Carolina, 1712 points
Georgia Tech (1), 1539 points
Cal (2), 1095 points
Duke, 1056 points
Syracuse, 1035 points
Pitt, 1016 points
Boston College (1), 890 points
Wake Forest, 784 points
Virginia, 629 points
Stanford, 477 points
Where do you think Cal will end up ranked? Let us know in the poll and the comments.
"What lords. What fortune-tellers. Build the monuments." My nomination for WFC quote of the week.
This is a transition year for the Bears, as they acclimate to a new circumstance (insane amount of travel; new opponents, several of them ranked). But if Cal finishes .500 in conference play, that would at least be the first instance of achieving a non-losing conference record in fifteen years. I’d be okay with that. Go 6-6 or 7-5 and go to a bowl. Win the bowl game. Finish the season with a winning record. Then, things continue to trend upward for 2025 (presumably with a redshirt junior QB further honing his skills).