Cal Football boat raced by the reestablished Pony Express

I'll be honest, it's hard to say anything about this game.

Tobias Merriweather’s catch via Cal Athletics

It’s not often you get to the final game of the regular season and have absolutely no real conclusions to make about the specific outcome. Yesterday’s finale against SMU was really over before it started because of Cal starting quarterback Fernando Mendoza being ruled out with an illness. Justin Wilcox stated postgame that Chandler Rogers and CJ Harris only found out the morning of that Mendoza wouldn’t be able to go. All in all, whatever offensive game plan that was conjured up was thrown out the window as the California Golden Bears waltzed into Dallas on Saturday afternoon. SMU pounced from the start and Cal was left in the dust as the Bears barreled to a 6-6 record in a 38-6 loss.

On the ropes before a punch is thrown

If you lose your starting quarterback in any situation, life is going to be difficult. Losing Fernando Mendoza on at most 24-36 hours notice capitulated an already inconsistent offense. Four hours later, and I can’t say what we all saw was a surprise. Chandler Rogers didn’t look good in his limited snaps before going down with a hamstring injury. CJ Harris looked comfortable in parts, but ultimately you can’t ask much of him.

The offense never even had a chance today. Not with this offensive line and lack of running game. The side of the ball that did have a chance at first? Cal’s supposed strength, the defense. But for reasons that I’ve yet to crack, for the third straight game, the Bears were way too late to welcome themselves to the party on that side of the football.

Slow starts out of the gate

There are a lot of discussions and rightfully so about the results this season. Down the stretch of the season, Cal’s starts to games have been anemic. For three straight affairs, the Bears have put themselves in a minimum of 14-0 holes. With how much this teams performance hangs on the margins, that can’t happen. Everyone has to come to play regardless of who you are and where you’re at. Jack Endries stated as much postgame that the energy needs to change coming off the bench.

At the early and mid points of the year, it was all about the Bears inability to finish. Now, Cal can’t seem to roll out of bed and in a bowl game (even if that means anything to you or not), that will only serve to kill any crowd energy that the Cal fans bring.

Whether leaders need to continue to step up, coaches need to rethink their process, or changes occur to pregame routines, whatever the plan is right now isn’t working. And it can’t keep happening.

Thanks captain obvious + conclusions

I’ll be honest, it was a a little difficult to even get to this portion of the story given that nothing of substance really happened yesterday. In a 32 point loss that seems rather confusing and irritating but that’s part of the deal sometimes. However, what it does do is let you focus on the path to 6-6.

And that path was unacceptable.

Relative to expectations and supposed talent injection, this 6-6 record is a failure. It’s possible the evaluation of talent was a little overzealous on our end. Some people may point to the injuries and the near misses and contest that it could have easily been better.

But, when you sing that tune so often you’ll eventually get that door closed in your face after caroling too close to the sun. Under Justin Wilcox, Cal has been a team that lives and dies on the margins. Pre 2020, the Bears did a solid job of being on the right side of that thin line. As we’ve seen in recent years, those types of performances have cratered, resulting in excruciating losses to FSU, Pitt, and NC State. Below is a look at a jarring stat at just how far those performances have fallen:

Next year will be the first season that Cal can realistically look at the financial books and be open to a staff change. Dread from it, run from it, the 2025 season will be here before we know it and we’ll go to bat for the players who suit up in the blue and gold.

But that’s for another story. Whether the bowl game means anything to you or not, we’ll band together one last time (likely in LA, or El Paso) to support the 2024 California Golden Bears.