Cal Football v. San Diego State: Bears No-Show at the Worst Possible Time

On the eve of a critical stretch in the program's trajectory, the Bears came apart at the seams.

Credit: Cal Football

You could choose to look at this emotionally.

A team with a talented freshman quarterback coming off an impressive and important win and a very solid 3-0 start gets a lot of early hype and buzz for being an unexpected West Coast surprise. They get multiple shout-outs by media outlets. There is a lot of looking ahead to an easy ACC stretch that puts them in conference title contention.

Cal appeared to eat up their press clippings in the early hours of Saturday’s game against San Diego State, and committed numerous accidents, mental errors, penalties, and whatever else you can name, and then the turnovers did them in. It felt like an overconfident team getting handled by an underdog that was better coached, more desperate, and ready to play all 60 minutes.

This can be a learning, or an unravelling. Their decision.

You could choose to look at this structurally.

The Bears are still learning how to play with each other. Dozens of Cal’s starters have essentially gotten their start with this team in fall practice. Cal cobbled together a wide receiver room over the last year and replaced their entire running back room post-spring practice, and the replacements have struggled to distinguish themselves as consistent contributors.

Saturday night, the reconstituted Cal offense, which had yet to distinguish themselves since the first half of Oregon State, made mistake after mistake after mistake. The offensive line started losing its battles against an extra defender in the box and an array of blitzes. The defensive line also began getting gashed, the backline started pressing, and made a few crucial mistakes that handed San Diego State its early lead. Then it all dramatically unravelled in the third quarter in a foray of turnovers. The coaching staff couldn’t find any gameplan to counter.

Jaron-Keawe Sagapolutele was forced to press, and his mistakes ended the game, but there will be times when he will look like an 18-year-old still learning how to play college ball. He is being asked to do too much, too early, too soon. He is very talented, but he cannot be demanded to carry the Bears at this juncture in his career. The team needs to perform with him, and yesterday they weren’t up to the task.

It was a complete collapse on all fronts. Which leads us to…

You could choose to look at this historically.

Justin Wilcox has been here nine years. In nearly every season, he has one big stumble against a football team that Cal has no business losing to. See Colorado 2017, UCLA 2018, Oregon State 2019, Arizona 2021 (caveats, I know), Colorado 2022, Florida State 2024. They’re all on record, bursting every possible bubble of hope our fanbase has had every year.

San Diego State probably isn’t quite on that level, but the Bears just cannot seem to get up to play these games they are expected to win. The coaches don’t have them ready to adjust and make comebacks when they get hit in the mouth. Cal generally plays down in these games against Wilcox, and yesterday, they buried themselves below the turf.

I wasn’t joking when I posted the above earlier this week. We knew a game like this could come under Wilcox, and even if they are likely to bounce back, more performances like this could very well happen. For many Cal fans, it’s an impossible thing to sell to them. Why bother getting excited for the Bears when you’re always expecting an anvil to drop on your head?

You could choose to look at this realistically.

I’ve waited awhile to write about these Bears, because I really didn’t know what we had. Minnesota proved we had the mettle, but we’re one punt return fumble from thinking about that game going very differently. Texas Southern showed us the warning signs of a team that could not dominate an overwhelmed opponent. Oregon State displayed flawless execution, but even that came in fits and spurts. All signs were pointing to a team with a lot of ups and downs.

34-0 is a disaster for what was needed this season, as any excitement for a dark-horse conference run is at an end before it even starts. It immediately gives the Cal fans that are so desperately needed to pack Memorial Stadium their opt-out, that this year will be like all the rest of them, and that this coaching staff does not have the mettle to lift them up.

Unlike last year, when Cal came so close to an eight-nine win breakthrough behind a few missed plays, the Bears will be a work in progress. They can definitely win several ACC games, but they’re unlikely to be a contender.

Unless a switch flips, after this result, more games like this feel very likely. They have to make do with a makeshift team rebuilt in a matter of months, with a young quarterback learning how to lead them, with a coaching staff that feels the potential heat of oblivion. It’s too many variables that portend unpredictability.

You could look at this a lot of different ways. But it all adds up to a no-show job at the worst possible time. Given Ron Rivera’s sterner hand on the pulse of the program, things need to change, starting at Boston College next week, or we will almost certainly see change.

Cal is out of time for these sort of games. Realignment clocks are ticking. Everything is on the line for our Golden Bears. Cal has to get serious well before the timer hits zero.