I literally said to my friends... "we flew all the way across the country to repeat last week?!" right after the 2nd TD. Thank oski they turned it around.
Loved watching the boys battle and come away on top after a bad loss. It showed a lot of character.
Especially when SDSU beat NIU 6-3. Granted SDSU was traveling east and probably a little flat after beating Cal but it is just shocking that Cal lost to SDSU the way we did
If you look just at total yards of that game(321 SDST, 289 Cal) the score should not have been 34-0. Doesn’t excuse it at all but I think it gives it a bit more context.
We're a team right now that depends on big plays to win. We went down 14-0 really because JKS was overconfident and made a terrible read / throw. I'm okay with that considering he's a true Freshman.
Turnovers, large passing plays, etc., are how we barely survived our 2 P4 wins and how we blew out OSU. With SDSU, all the large plays went the other way. We desperately need to figure out how to run long drives without killing ourselves through procedural penalties.
Yeah, that’s exactly how I feel. I went to the SDSU game hoping a for a win and was fully prepared for a close game that we could potentially lose but I never expected the game to be a blowout loss for us
Duke is coming to town with a huge win number wise yesterday. I hope they're overconfident and conversely I hope our Bears aren't. We need to come out of the tunnel and pound the poop out of the Blue Devils from the opening kickoff so they don't know what hit them.
After a slow start Duke is rolling. Cal will have to bring it's A game and the fans need to show up and be loud like they did for Minnesota. I'll be there.
Such a huge confidence booster for this team knowing they can get blown out one week and then fight through a tough game on the road against what I think is a solid team (on a bad luck streak).
The knowledge that Cal can win a game they weren’t supposed to or lose a game they should have won, will serve this team well in future contests.
Never underestimate mental toughness in a tight conference where one score games will be the norm.
1. As others have noted, not a single pass dropped the entire game. That's a welcome change! Good job on the WRs. King deserves more plays for sure.
2. Last year, we couldn't win any close games. That alone is a big change - hopefully the team starts to combine humility learned from SDSU with tenacity learned from BC and continues to grow into something special.
Speaking of which: I don't think our team is something special...yet. But we have the ingredients. We don't have breakaway speed. We don't have amazing skill position players. But if the Defense can continue to keep teams at/under 20 points (which they did - I'm not counting the 7 points from the INT), and with a QB in JKS that can make the throws, we have something that can be special. I'm hoping that it all comes together soon.
Our record in close games last year was 3-4: Auburn and Furd were close wins by any definition, and Wake had the ball down 3 with about 2 minutes left until we got a pick and added an insurance touchdown. FSU, the U, Pitt, and NC State were close losses. Syracuse was not, they were up 33-17 until we score in garbage time.
The problem was more that all the close losses came in infuriating ways.
Great comeback victory for Cal. Hopefully we can continue to build on this momentum and become bowl eligible again this season. Living on the East coast, perhaps my view of the how competitive the ACC is a bit different. I don't think our schedule has an easy game left. It seems likely we will be underdogs in most games, other than North Carolina at home and maybe Virginia Tech, where it is always difficult to win on the road. Big Game, Stanford had a more convincing win against Boston College. Too early to say on that one. Hoping for the best, but realistic on the talent we lost on offense from last year through the portal an on defense to the NFL. I give the coaching team credit for getting us competitive given the number of new players they have had to build around. Go Bears.
What I don't get is that after running misdirection to score on the goalline against Minnesota, those kinds of plays have suddently vanished from the playbook. Are they being saved? Watching Cal trying to move the pile forward in any fashion is embarrassing right now. It's the blemish on a gutty win yesterday, but it's worrisome going forward, I would imagine.
Those unimaginable play calls on short yardage and especially on the goal line are being called by the OC (offensive coordinator) Harsin. I hope Wilcox gets in his face and orders him to call the stuff he used in the Minnesota game.
I think Fernando's family and his Mother's illness played a significant part in his leaving Cal for Indiana. Being on the same team, he and his brother can support eachother and the family can be together for each game. You could see the family cohesion at the Cal player's gate after the Pitt game. Fernando's whole family were there except his brother, who was at Indiana. Fernando was often in earnest conversation with his father.
Yeah, that would have been Fernando’s 3rd coordinate change in 3 years. Not a lot of stability on the offensive side of the ball during his career at Cal
There was no pretense in my post. Acknowledging the importance of Fernando's family in his transfer says nothing about his football and monetary reasons.
I agree that there is a shot, but I don't think it's a good shot based upon what we have seen so far.
The issue is that he doesn't have the components around him yet that allow him to make a compelling case for being a first or second round pick, which I think he could someplace else.
I absolutely don't want him to leave, but there are a lot of teams who could use and show him off more effectively.
Not a single dollar of the millions that Rivera has raised has been spent yet. We're going to clean up in the portal this year. What WR would not want to come play w JKS. Only chance that we lose Jaron is everyone keeps speaking it into existence
I don't disagree on the overall point that we might not be able to keep him. But I do strongly disagree with the fatalistic view coming from a fatalistic perspective on Cal. We can be different. We will be different. And it starts with everyone - including those on this site.
This is not 1975. This is 2025. College football is a multi-billion dollar business. Fans talking about things like fatalism in hopes of denying that truth are simply deluding themselves about the current course and speed their team is on.
If you don't think that being shut out by SDSU is a sign that things need to change dramatically *this season* in order to retain a talented QB you are missing the point.
Nobody who is actually making decisions in Eugene, Columbus, Tuscaloosa, Austin, New York, etc. are influenced at all by what we say here. But they are absolutely influenced by what the university does and what the team does on the field. I'm heartened by what the university has done, I am not heartened by what the team has done yet.
Your right that we should not forget the fans or In Cal's case the lack of them. You play at Cal, you have one chance a season for a big crowd at home, when we play Stanford. Most games are 30-35,000 thousand. Contrast that to SEC and Big Ten Schools or the top teams in the ACC, with Florida State leading the way at nearly 80,000. Hard to blame kids for leaving for a bigger stage, more exposure for the NFL and more financial upside.
The world is the world and the college football world has changed so much in the last few years that it is hard not to be worried about losing great players to other schools. And for Cal football fans, we are so used to wringing our hands over everything about football that it seems even harder for us not to fret about the future events we have little control over. But not me, not this season. He is here now; he is a great QB, and I am going to enjoy his presence and all the 2025 Cal football games. If he goes, he goes. I don't think he will; his Dad says he is staying. That is good enough for me. Yeah, enjoy the ride. If you can, get to the Duke game, we need all the fans we can for this one. Go Bears!
This was a BAD British Columbia team. They lost to Stanfturd. Not convinced about this CAL team at all. My guess is our freshman phenom bolts to greener pastures next year.
I woke up happy...that is all.
Felt like it was time to pack it in after going down 14-0, but the effect of having JKS on the team is that you don't think you are ever out of it.
I still don't know what team showed up and wore the Cal uniforms in San Diego last week. That was bizarre.
I literally said to my friends... "we flew all the way across the country to repeat last week?!" right after the 2nd TD. Thank oski they turned it around.
Loved watching the boys battle and come away on top after a bad loss. It showed a lot of character.
Especially when SDSU beat NIU 6-3. Granted SDSU was traveling east and probably a little flat after beating Cal but it is just shocking that Cal lost to SDSU the way we did
If it was a 7 point loss or something that would have sucked but it's understandable. Getting completely worked like that was unthinkable.
If you look just at total yards of that game(321 SDST, 289 Cal) the score should not have been 34-0. Doesn’t excuse it at all but I think it gives it a bit more context.
We're a team right now that depends on big plays to win. We went down 14-0 really because JKS was overconfident and made a terrible read / throw. I'm okay with that considering he's a true Freshman.
Turnovers, large passing plays, etc., are how we barely survived our 2 P4 wins and how we blew out OSU. With SDSU, all the large plays went the other way. We desperately need to figure out how to run long drives without killing ourselves through procedural penalties.
Yeah, that’s exactly how I feel. I went to the SDSU game hoping a for a win and was fully prepared for a close game that we could potentially lose but I never expected the game to be a blowout loss for us
Duke is coming to town with a huge win number wise yesterday. I hope they're overconfident and conversely I hope our Bears aren't. We need to come out of the tunnel and pound the poop out of the Blue Devils from the opening kickoff so they don't know what hit them.
Good point! As a general rule I’d rather have my team coming off a gritty win than a blowout….
After a slow start Duke is rolling. Cal will have to bring it's A game and the fans need to show up and be loud like they did for Minnesota. I'll be there.
See you there. Go Bears!
Such a huge confidence booster for this team knowing they can get blown out one week and then fight through a tough game on the road against what I think is a solid team (on a bad luck streak).
The knowledge that Cal can win a game they weren’t supposed to or lose a game they should have won, will serve this team well in future contests.
Never underestimate mental toughness in a tight conference where one score games will be the norm.
Fat bear week = happy bear week. Go Bears!
Look. I am happy. Simply because we are winning the close ones.
Last year, if we won the close ones, we would have had an incredible record.
This year we have some X-factor players like JKS on offense and Luke on defense just making that one or two plays to take us over the top.
Let's keep improving. Keep grinding.
Two things that stuck out to me:
1. As others have noted, not a single pass dropped the entire game. That's a welcome change! Good job on the WRs. King deserves more plays for sure.
2. Last year, we couldn't win any close games. That alone is a big change - hopefully the team starts to combine humility learned from SDSU with tenacity learned from BC and continues to grow into something special.
Speaking of which: I don't think our team is something special...yet. But we have the ingredients. We don't have breakaway speed. We don't have amazing skill position players. But if the Defense can continue to keep teams at/under 20 points (which they did - I'm not counting the 7 points from the INT), and with a QB in JKS that can make the throws, we have something that can be special. I'm hoping that it all comes together soon.
That was a fun game and fun trip. Go Bears!
Our record in close games last year was 3-4: Auburn and Furd were close wins by any definition, and Wake had the ball down 3 with about 2 minutes left until we got a pick and added an insurance touchdown. FSU, the U, Pitt, and NC State were close losses. Syracuse was not, they were up 33-17 until we score in garbage time.
The problem was more that all the close losses came in infuriating ways.
Great comeback victory for Cal. Hopefully we can continue to build on this momentum and become bowl eligible again this season. Living on the East coast, perhaps my view of the how competitive the ACC is a bit different. I don't think our schedule has an easy game left. It seems likely we will be underdogs in most games, other than North Carolina at home and maybe Virginia Tech, where it is always difficult to win on the road. Big Game, Stanford had a more convincing win against Boston College. Too early to say on that one. Hoping for the best, but realistic on the talent we lost on offense from last year through the portal an on defense to the NFL. I give the coaching team credit for getting us competitive given the number of new players they have had to build around. Go Bears.
Whew, what a comeback! Way too stressful, but a super win. It still pains me to see we can convert on fourth and short. Great resilience, GO BEARS!
What I don't get is that after running misdirection to score on the goalline against Minnesota, those kinds of plays have suddently vanished from the playbook. Are they being saved? Watching Cal trying to move the pile forward in any fashion is embarrassing right now. It's the blemish on a gutty win yesterday, but it's worrisome going forward, I would imagine.
Feels like Wilcox only allows creative misdirection in one game a year and then after that you just gotta bang your head against the wall.
I was hoping for another Tedford special TE leaks out for a wide open TD call.
Those unimaginable play calls on short yardage and especially on the goal line are being called by the OC (offensive coordinator) Harsin. I hope Wilcox gets in his face and orders him to call the stuff he used in the Minnesota game.
We've seen this pattern before under different OCs. The constant is Wilcox.
Good call, agreed we need better solutions, and fix this, score TDs!
I hate to say it, but unless things change dramatically as a team, JKS is reaching the half way point of his Cal career.
or not...with big money here at Cal, and his values, I think we have a shot. Not guaranteed by any means, but a good shot.
I agree ... but then I did think Fernando was going to stay put.
I think Fernando's family and his Mother's illness played a significant part in his leaving Cal for Indiana. Being on the same team, he and his brother can support eachother and the family can be together for each game. You could see the family cohesion at the Cal player's gate after the Pitt game. Fernando's whole family were there except his brother, who was at Indiana. Fernando was often in earnest conversation with his father.
Lets not pretend there weren’t plenty of football related reasons for Mendoza to leave Cal also.
Yeah, that would have been Fernando’s 3rd coordinate change in 3 years. Not a lot of stability on the offensive side of the ball during his career at Cal
And, Indiana offered him a lot more $$$ than Cal. Now with the infusion of said $$$ into our NIL money we can offer enough to keep players here.
There was no pretense in my post. Acknowledging the importance of Fernando's family in his transfer says nothing about his football and monetary reasons.
Also Fernando is from Florida. Going to Indiana would be going closer to his family.
JKS is from Hawaii. Moving east would not help him there.
East isn’t where I’m worried about…..
Yes, he could go to another west coast program. But that does cut down on the likely destinations.
I hope you're right.
I agree that there is a shot, but I don't think it's a good shot based upon what we have seen so far.
The issue is that he doesn't have the components around him yet that allow him to make a compelling case for being a first or second round pick, which I think he could someplace else.
I absolutely don't want him to leave, but there are a lot of teams who could use and show him off more effectively.
Not a single dollar of the millions that Rivera has raised has been spent yet. We're going to clean up in the portal this year. What WR would not want to come play w JKS. Only chance that we lose Jaron is everyone keeps speaking it into existence
I don't disagree on the overall point that we might not be able to keep him. But I do strongly disagree with the fatalistic view coming from a fatalistic perspective on Cal. We can be different. We will be different. And it starts with everyone - including those on this site.
This is not 1975. This is 2025. College football is a multi-billion dollar business. Fans talking about things like fatalism in hopes of denying that truth are simply deluding themselves about the current course and speed their team is on.
If you don't think that being shut out by SDSU is a sign that things need to change dramatically *this season* in order to retain a talented QB you are missing the point.
Nobody who is actually making decisions in Eugene, Columbus, Tuscaloosa, Austin, New York, etc. are influenced at all by what we say here. But they are absolutely influenced by what the university does and what the team does on the field. I'm heartened by what the university has done, I am not heartened by what the team has done yet.
No player is going to make a sweeping decision about Cal as a football program based on one crappy result in September. Let the season play out.
Your right that we should not forget the fans or In Cal's case the lack of them. You play at Cal, you have one chance a season for a big crowd at home, when we play Stanford. Most games are 30-35,000 thousand. Contrast that to SEC and Big Ten Schools or the top teams in the ACC, with Florida State leading the way at nearly 80,000. Hard to blame kids for leaving for a bigger stage, more exposure for the NFL and more financial upside.
His dad said he was going to graduate from Cal. I think that carries a lot of weight. Enjoy the ride, and we’ll see how things turn out
The world is the world and the college football world has changed so much in the last few years that it is hard not to be worried about losing great players to other schools. And for Cal football fans, we are so used to wringing our hands over everything about football that it seems even harder for us not to fret about the future events we have little control over. But not me, not this season. He is here now; he is a great QB, and I am going to enjoy his presence and all the 2025 Cal football games. If he goes, he goes. I don't think he will; his Dad says he is staying. That is good enough for me. Yeah, enjoy the ride. If you can, get to the Duke game, we need all the fans we can for this one. Go Bears!
This was a BAD British Columbia team. They lost to Stanfturd. Not convinced about this CAL team at all. My guess is our freshman phenom bolts to greener pastures next year.