Cal football never quit. They got better.
After two months of struggles, the California Golden Bears put it all together in dismantling the UCLA Bruins.
The California Golden Bears stood at 3-6 at the start of November.
They had just been mollywhopped by national title contenders Oregon. They had suffered one of the most brutal losses in the history of their rivalry to USC, and had the one that got away against Auburn. They were relatively not close to competing against Oregon State, Utah, and Washington. And their one conference win against Arizona State was gutted out in the most uninspiring way possible.
All signs indicated another season that would come up just short. It would be another wasted, lost year.
The players had other ideas. They wanted to keep playing.
So they got better.
And after a historic win in their final game against UCLA for awhile, they’ll play on.
This is for the Bears who made it all happen.
After losing his first four starts against a gauntlet of schedule, the earnest Fernando Mendoza called his shot weeks ago with one of the coldest lines in Cal football history.
“Burn the boats. Burn the trees. Burn the city [of LA].”
This level of confidence from Cal’s redshirt freshman quarterback, thrown into the fire midseason, was what the Bears needed, and it wasn’t just talk. Backs up against the wall, Mendoza delivered three wins.
Mendoza is far from a finished product. His two interceptions that nearly dragged UCLA back into it on Saturday were rookie mistakes. And he could not finish many of his drives—the two Cal offensive touchdowns were turnover assisted.
But when called upon, Mendoza delivered some signature throws. Jeremiah Hunter collected most of them, as Hunter maintained his long legacy of torturing the LA schools. Mendoza placed two touchdowns in a place perfectly for Hunter to give Cal the breathing room they needed.
If Mendoza keeps on this upward trajectory, he has a chance to become one of the truly special faces of Golden Bear football. He backs his talk with action. And he always is eager to respond to failure.
Mendoza was the sunshine this Cal fanbase needed. Here’s hoping 2024 allows it to fully burn more than just boats, trees and cities.
Jaydn Ott is fast approaching legend status in Berkeley.
Ott nearly beat USC by himself by marching past that beleaguered defense. With the entire running back room injured after Oregon, he carried the load through this three game win streak. He created a clutch touchdown drive solely comprised of handoffs to him. He authored a signature Big Game performance by carrying the rock 36 times in Palo Alto.
And with UCLA threatening to capture momentum with their lone lead of the game and the Bruins bottling up his run attack, Ott took the field for his only kick return of the season and housed it. The Bears never looked back.
It’s safe to say Cal would not be going bowling without Ott. Priority A, B, and C this offseason for the Bears has to be keeping him here. Everyone will come poaching, looking for that breakaway talent that can put them over the top.
But after a year-and-a-half plus of uncertainty, it seems clear from his words and actions that he wants to be the guy here. If the support his provided, he should be back. It’s on the coaches to ensure the infrastructure is in place for that next upstep, and the fans to keep donating to NIL to ensure that the foundation can be laid.
Everyone in Bear Territory already knows about what Ott is all about. He’s one Cal breakout campaign in the ACC from letting the whole world know what he’s about.
There are too many names and faces to talk about on a Cal offense that authored an impressive one season turnaround.
Cal senior center Matthew Cindric went down early, in what seemed like a devastating blow to an offensive line that could not afford losses. In stepped Brian Driscoll, making the switch from guard to Fitzmagic center, and the Bears offense had its best year in the Justin Wilcox era by miles.
TJ Session and Sioape Vatikani had very difficult first years at Cal. They made vast improvements this season and turned an unwatchable offense into a functional one. Bastian Swinney also continues to look like the next one up and will vie to outright start this season. This entire offensive line mash unit kept Mendoza upright most of the year (only 18 sacks allowed!) and provided enough holes for Ott and company to explode out of.
Walk-on Jack Endries thrived once Mendoza hit the field, and should be the de facto TE1 come the fall. Trond Grizzell exploded for the best Big Game performance since Geoff McArthur.
Nearly every transfer Cal picked from the portal on offense delivered at some point. Sam Jackson V led the Idaho comeback. Ben Finley was huge in relief in North Texas. Isaiah Ifanse had the critical Idaho game. Barrett Miller was a perfectly capable left tackle and Matthew Wykoff was needed at guard. Taj Davis was ever capable in the WR2 spot for a solid performance when needed. Justin Williams-Thomas churned out the clock in Pasadena.
It was a group effort. The Bears had their star and their quarterback, but a top-40 offense doesn’t happen without everyone chipping in, buying in, and committing to getting better everyday.
After putting 40 points on the board multiple times and not getting wins, the offense finally paid off their improvements these final months.
In aggregate, this was not a good year for the Cal defense and special teams There were too many games were they were caught flat-footed, turning competitive games into blowouts.
Something is not quite right there. Tinkering is needed.
But at least these last two weeks against our two major rivals, something started clicking.
Kaleb Elarms-Orr has been the breakout star, plugging gaps and holes as the gauntlet of Pac-12 offenses began rolling through an overmatched Cal defense. Elarms-Orr had a mostly unglamorous job of cleaning up the mess, grabbing some fumbles along the way. Easily Cal’s defensive player of the year.
True freshman Cade Uluave was pressed into action early after the injury to Jackson Sirmon, and in these last few games it’s clear the Bears have found themselves a player. After having the game of his life against Washington State, Uluave was everywhere against UCLA, sacking Dante Moore and picking him off.
The missing piece appeared to be David Reese, who went from nice rotation player to absolute menace during the last three games. Reese piled up 6.5 sacks in Cal’s three game winning streak and his presence had to be accounted for.
Xavier Carlton battled through injuries to finish out the season with an outstanding UCLA performance, breaking up passes, putting Moore on the ground once.
What the Bears couldn’t do on the aggregate, the made up for with big plays. Every key Cal defender seemed to have their moment in these three games. Patrick McMorris broke up Moore’s first pass for Craig Woodson to intercept. Nohl Williams had his huge fumble recovery that was the difference against Wazzu. Lu-Magia Hearns III broke up three Ashton Daniels passes in the Big Game. BRETT JOHNSON punctuated his Cal career with a fumble recovery to set up a quick Bears score. Hunter Barth punched out a kick return fumble to put the Cal win on ice.
But even the defense wasn’t the best unit on the field. Cal’s much maligned special teams unit was the one to put this away.
We’ve already mentioned Ott. After only being entrusted to kick four field goals in eight games, Mateen Bhagani nailed four field goals in Pasadena, including a 43-yarder to start the scoring. Lachlan Wilson boomed punts that placed UCLA at their 19, 12, and 5. The Bears then forced turnovers on all three possessions.
Even Michael Luckhurst got his redemption moment, recovering that last UCLA turnover to set up that final Cal touchdown.
With the offense not at its best in Pasadena, the defense and special teams came through, and made sure they slammed the door shut on UCLA to get Cal back to a bowl game.
We all have our opinions of Justin Wilcox.
For now, I will say this. This team never quits on him.
When Cal was rebuilding from scratch in 2017, they fought to the wire with far superior Stanford and UCLA teams and nearly managed bowl eligibility.
When Cal’s offense fell into the abyss in 2018, the defense ground out seven wins and upset the Pac-12 champs.
When Cal couldn’t seem to score more than four times a game in 2019, the Bears hugged out four one-score wins and got the Axe back.
When Cal went 1-5 in 2021, they battled back to the verge of bowl eligibility, beating up Stanford and USC along the way.
And now, this year. Somehow, after that horrendous October, facing a host of Pac-12 title contenders, it’s a bowl team.
The Bears under Wilcox always compete, they always play hard, and they put themselves in a place where they have a chance to win. If the other team isn’t fully there (like UCLA tonight), they will have a chance to pounce.
Is that enough for Wilcox to be proven as Cal’s coach for the long haul? Not at all. But the Bears will keep playing and producing under him game to game. They do not lose the plot. Which makes them worth watching, even as disappointment comes. The chance for something good happening isn’t remote either. There are worse places to be.
So this last month is why Cal fans hope. It’s why we keep watching.
Because we have these players.
Our amazing, frustrating, hardworking, beloved California Golden Bears.
Cal football is about the hope
Cal fans have to live in hope. Every August, we take a look at our Bears. The team generally is patching together depth issues at multiple positions. With other schools fully engaged in the arms race, Cal is generally being ruthlessly outrecruited by its competitors with future NFL pros littering nearly every opponent’s roster. The Be…
Great article, Avi. Phenomenal.
Every Cal Fan should be on Cloud 9 right now.
UCLA will always be the PRINCE HARRY of Universities.
Insecure, irrelevant, petulant.
But this win was bigger than just crushing the Bruins in historic fashion.
This was heroic. This was The Phoenix rising from its ashes.
Cal Football was in a great place in 2019.
9-4. Great Bowl win. Great Team coming back for 2020.
But then came the Four Horseman of the Apocalypse:
Covid, NIL, The Transfer Portal, and Conference Realignment.
And we barely survived.
Covid was the Death Penalty for us.
Cal, being in the PAC12, The State of California, and The City of Berkeley, got crushed.
We didn't just have all of our momentum suffocated, we almost went off a cliff.
While the SEC BIG-12 and ACC played full seasons, and the B1G and MWC played full conference schedules, Cal barely played 4 games.
And 2021 wasn't much better thanks to draconian protocols no one in the nation had to deal with but us. (Arizona Game was the tip of the iceberg.).
It's impossible to gauge the damage to our teams, our Brand and Pac12 football in general.
And then, just as we were getting back to normalcy... here comes The Transfer Portal and NIL.
The Wild West. A whole new normal.
Once again, Cal rallied. Sure, we lost some beloved players to hated rivals, but we also found incredible players who fit in with our culture and university.
We were going to be ok...
And then the Pac-12 imploded.
It's fun to remind UCLA that they're a "safety school'.
But... we should never forget that what they did.
Sneaking off with $C, desperate to believe that some network cared about them and not just the LA TV MARKET, was an attempted murder of our entire athletic department. Their reckless self absorption could have sentenced us to the same horrible fate Oregon St and Wazzu are suffering right now.
For a few weeks, we were done.
And yet, we survived. WE'RE BACK!
How Coach Wilcox and Jim Knowlton and Chancellor Christ navigated all of these complete disasters, we will never truly know.
But we should be eternally grateful.
These were unprecedented historic calamities.
And yet somehow... Cal is going bowling with one of the most courageous young exciting CAL teams we've had in years.
We are going to THE ACC!
#1 Academic Conference, #1 Basketball Conference, and the 2nd most Successful Football Conference in the last decade. We’ve always had to recruit nationally, but now we have a Bear Paw Print in the Southeast and Texas.
The future has never been more exciting.
So... These players, these Sons of California, are true heroes.
On Saturday night, the stakes had never been higher.
They had played the toughest schedule in the PAC-12. No one else played AT Oregon, UW, Utah, and an SEC Team, and SC and Oregon St.
But, like Avi laid out, they never quit. As tough as some of the losses were, and beat up as they were, they kept fighting.
And as 9.5 point underdogs, with the season on the line, they walked into The Rose Bowl for the last time and punched UCLA in the mouth.
And so did The University of California.
Just like those players won by playing like a team, so did our administration.
And anyone who was at Stanford or the UCLA Game… could feel the fanbase get reignited too.
So now is the time to rally, just like those players and administrators did.
Do everything you can to get to the bowl game.
If we get the GRONK BOWL at SoFi, lets PACK IT!
Buy some new NIKE CAL GEAR. (It’s cyber Monday!)
And hit www.CalLegends.com That’s how we, as fans, fight like our players and administrators did.
Make a one time donation. Set up a monthly donation. Whatever you can afford. Every dollar accounts.
If the last four years taught us anything, it is this:
“The Bear will not quit. The Bear will not die.”
Go Bears
I was waiting for this from Avi to drop. Thank you. Again, the emotion of the players toward Wilcox and by Wilcox speaks volumes to any student of leadership. Quite often leaders can wear out their welcome. Wilcox hasn't done that. Reportedly he told the team after Oregon that they would win their next three and go bowling. They did. And they believed him.
Fernando has been the perfect young man for the moment. Who do you want in times of despair? A person who can inspire hope and back it up with actions. That photo of the huge smile on Woodson's face is just a throw away common shot...or yet another indication of how much this team enjoys Nando.
What got David Reece to play so well? What got Carlton to up his game. The D-Line has been disappointing this year, despite having Johnson back in some reduced capacity. But these last two games were solid.
For Avi to be able to write an article on hope and then follow it up with a palms of victory reflection on having won, that's a grand thing in the world of the Cal blogosphere.