Cal football rejuvenates its mojo at North Texas

The California Golden Bears might have found a tantalizing new formula for success against the North Texas Mean Green.

It’s been a long month Cal fans. Getting to yesterday was a SLOG. We had no idea if we would even be playing significant college football past 2023, so it was hard for many of us to focus our attention to the game in front of us.

Cal is headed toward the ACC, and we’re going to have to adapt to all the new realities that come with it (and we’ll talk about all the feelings that go into that in the coming days and weeks), but it did feel like a lot of anxiety for the entire program got released on Friday morning. There will be no relegation, there will be no death march to oblivion. We’re still in the game.

That being said, based on our new reality, it has never been more imperative for the Bears to be good at football to boost our overall fan support. Three disappointing seasons in a row and a decade-plus have been ebbing support and enthusiasm.

The board couldn’t just be reshuffled on the football field. It had to be tossed off the table. A new game needed to be put in its place.

Saturday gave us a preview of what that potential path to long-term victory could be.

A dream denied, then reborn

When Justin Wilcox and Jake Spavital were being bandied about as the two potential coaches to replace Sonny Dykes in 2017, one potential dream scenario was painted by the California Golden Blogs staff at the time: If one got the job, the other could take the head assistant role. One elite defensive mind paired with one offensive mind could mesh the best of their identities together and produce well-coached football on both sides.

That did not bear fruition as Spavital took toward more Air Raid friendly regions of the world in West Virginia and Texas State. Justin Wilcox would go with Beau Baldwin (whose offenses found ways to squeak out enough to mesh with the elite Cal defenses of the time), then Bill Musgrave (whose offenses produced similar outputs, but usually fell just short of slightly worse defenses).

That type of offense lent itself well to middling football of the 5-7/7-5 variety, eventually bottoming out in 2022. And as Spavital became a free agent, the seeds of this crazy reunion were sown.

Six years later, improbably, the two have found their way back to each other. And what we saw was very promising.

At least for one game, it was wildly successful, as Rob discussed after the game.

Proof of concept happened today. A Wilcox Defense paired with a Spav Offense. The simulations we ran in the fated December/January of 16-17 is unfolding before our eyes. If you believe the world is The Matrix then we might’ve finally altered our source code.

Spavital made his impact felt in the season debut. The Bears schemed around a very thin offensive line by running RPOs to the hilt. They went run heavy to get the football early into Jaydn Ott’s hands. The run-heavy focus set up short 3rd down and distance situations, and then both Sam Jackson V and Ben Finley got the ball out quickly to receivers like Jeremiah Hunter.

On the other side, the Cal defense had some early pains with coverage breakdowns against Ja’Mari Maclin. But Cal’s defensive front behind BRETT JOHNSON, Xavier Carlton and Jackson Sirmon were able to plug up North Texas’s run game. Ethan Saunders and Myles Jernigan created havoc. The secondary started playing more aggressively. Jeremiah Earby and Kaleb Elarms-Orr made huge interceptions. It was an impressive team effort.

After those adjustments, the final 40 minutes belonged to the Golden Bears.

• Cal finished the game outgaining North Texas by 343 to 7 yards.

• North Texas had no first downs in the second half. They had one first down in the final 40 minutes.

• After Maclin’s second touchdown to tie it at 14-14, Cal outgained the Mean Green 479-42, putting up 24 first downs to North Texas's 2.

Plenty of caveats here. North Texas’s defense looks like one of the worst we’ll see all season. They were undersized and didn’t seem to have much depth, so using this as a barometer for future success is foolhardy. Cal also has two former North Texas coaches on our sideline. That had to have helped.

But one game in, and Cal finally looks as it could potentially have competent offensive and defensive production at the same time in the Justin Wilcox era. It took us seven years, but we finally got herre.

The portal is the way

Even if his persona rubs many people the wrong way, Deion Sanders was right about one thing. Prioritizing the transfer portal is the best path forward to a quick rebuild. Find good talent elsewhere, find the NIL funds to make it happen, get them on campus and make it happen.

Several portal players made their impact felt immediately

• Ben Finley came in on relief after Sam Jackson V hurt. After starting slowly (2-6, 10 yards), Finley completed 18 of his next 20 passes for 199 yards to put the Bears back in control.

• Isaiah Ifanse came in and was Cal’s best RB2 in quite some time, hauling passes out of the backfield and putting in a Beast Mode touchdown run that seemed to really break North Texas on defense.

• Cal had inadequate offensive tackle play last season. Barrett Miller came in and made a huge difference in opening up run lanes that weren’t there previously.

• Cornerback Nohl Williams played every meaningful snap and locked down his side of the field.

• Wide receiver Taj Davis became the trusty second option to Hunter, grabbing crucial passes for Finley especially to keep drives moving as well as a TD.

The portal is going to be more critical than ever to keep Cal competitive.

A brief PSA

If you want to help support portal efforts as our entire athletic department shifts its strategy and focus, donate to the Cal Legends NIL (we’re trying to raise $1 million this week, learn more) to ensure football, basketball, and non-revenue sport athletes get the resources they need.

More details on how to donate if you click here, below, or the above links.

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Cal is not going to be bad

I say this as a cautionary tale: I do not think Cal has proven yet whether they are a good team. Jake Spavital’s debut at Cal seven years ago was not as impressive (a 51-31 shootout with Hawaii), but it seemed like we were on the right track, only for Cal to fall apart at San Diego State two weeks later.

Obviously, the health of Sam Jackson V is a concern, even though Finley proved more than capable in relief. There are weaknesses on this team North Texas lacked the personnel to exploit.

That being said, it is very rare for a football team to completely manhandle a G5 team to this degree for an extended period of time and NOT be decent. The only false positive would be is if North Texas was really bad, which isn’t out of the question, but even if that was the case, Cal definitely showed more signs of being a good team than they did of being a bad one.

Barring a slew of injuries, Cal is going to be a game opponents have to gameplan for in nearly every game they play in this year. That is a massive improvement from what Bears fans experience.

Reset what you know about Cal, Bears fans. It’s a whole new game.