Golden Nuggets: More Rankings, a Mess of Jaron News, and Black Bears
Welcome to Berkeley, JKS.
Hello and welcome to Golden Nuggets! In this weekly write up, we try our best to cover all things Cal, Berkeley, Bearkeley, UC Berkeley, University of Cal Berkeley, University of Berkeley at Cal, BerkeleyInspire, and California Berkeley University that happened more or less in the last week! Let’s dig in!
CAL STANDS ALONE
This past week, Forbes released their 2025 Top Colleges list. Unsurprisingly, Cal kept the #5 spot and is the only university in the Top 10 with the next public university on the list being UCLA all the day down at 15. Bummer.
Across the ACC, Stanford ranks highest at #4 (what do you expect, not all their money goes to embezzlement and white collar crime. Some of it is just straight up bribery!), Duke follows at #22, Georgia Tech at #32, Notre Dame #33, Virginia at #34, UNC at #35 (who is dragging down the conference now UNC?), Boston College #54 (thanks sycasey for the catch), NC State at #66, Florida State at #72, Miami at #76 (one spot above my beloved Highlanders of UCR), Virginia Tech at #81, Clemson at #86, Wake Forest at #98, SMU at #103, Syracuse at #106, Pittsburg at #176, Louisville at #309.
THE BEAR HOLE BLACK BEAR
Early Wednesday morning, word broke of a new seating section at California Memorial Stadium aptly named, the Black Bear that aims to recreate the famed Raiders cheering section, the Black Hole. Calgorithm detectives found that it will be in Section KK and making its first appearance this weekend when Cal takes on Texas Southern. Can’t wait to see it in action. Until then…
Hot Links
SFGATE wrote about Bear Republic’s Oski’s California Golden Beer which is in hot hot demand! To find the beer, follow this link!
Cal Athletics announced that all Men’s Soccer games are Free Admission!
Cal Band announced their big fundraiser for the year, the 2025 NorCal Benefit! Register to attend here! Cal Band Great!
Jon Wilner was disappointed that he couldn’t write something negative about Cal, but he stuck to his guns…Until the Calgorithm bullied Jon into making a better tweet. Read the rest of the piece here talking about Cal’s great financial outlook for the year.
Brett McMurphy announced some unique food offerings around the country, including Cal Potato skins with Cal-branded pork belly
The AP Poll is a cowardly organization and didn’t vote for Cal at all.
Lulu Twidale was mic’ed up for a practice.
GOLD OUT
Alright y’all something special is brewing in Memorial Stadium this year. In case you didn’t watch the game this past week, go ahead and scroll down to the next section and see what you missed. We need your butt, in a seat, at Memorial Stadium this Fall.
More importantly, we have a planned Gold Out against Minnesota (yes, we’re going to show them what real gold looks like). So complain all you want now about how this never works and then get over to Kohl’s and get yourself a gold sweatshirt. You have 10 days to find something. I believe in you. I know you can do it. You have to have something from Homefield? Warriors World? I know this website has given you access to more than enough Gold Gear. Get it if you don’t, or go to Ace Hardware and find some gold spray paint. See you around Memorial.
JKS N3Ws
Listen, I know its early, but we’ll see how this whole thing goes. There was simply TOO MUCH JKS HYPE CONTENT to limit it to Golden Bear Honors and not inundate that section. So without further ado, here’s what I saw online this weekend.
Following the game, the PFF College Football Show named Jaron a Week 1 Standout
Richard Johnson of Split Zone Duo called JKS one of the most impressive performances he saw all weekend
JKS was named to the PFF Week 1 College Football Team of the Week
David Zhou (@wavydz) on Twitter put together a stellar video on the #NEW3RA
SFGATE covered all of the love
Kyle Bonagura called JKS a “[significant?] upgrade over Fernando Mendoza”
Hawaii News Now shouted out the local kid
Brett Kollman (Piotr’s favorite NFL Football guy) shouted out JKS
Locked on College Football on Youtube thinks JKS has superstar potential in the ACC
Dane Miller of Superwestsports.com ranked Cal as the 7th best team in the West (behind Oregon, ASU, USC, Washington, Utah, and BYU) specifically citing “Cal has a QB now”
Bill Connelly mentioned JKS in his Week 1 Overreactions column (I don’t think anybody is overreacting.)
Ari Wasserman of On3 mentioned JKS in his Unfiltered Takes column (ignore the second mention because Ron will deliver the Brinks Truck and more to Jaron)
Jaron was named ACC Rookie Player of the Week by the conference
The Athletic ranked all 136 teams after week 1 and moved Cal up to 63, specifically citing JKS
JKS has been named this week’s Shaun Alexander Freshman Player of the Week
Golden Bear Honors
Liz Klompmaker was named to the National Field Hockey Association’s Coaches Preseason Watch List
Fryderyk Lechno-Wasiutynski (Tennis) won his first pro title by winning the M25 Singles Tournament in Poznan, Poland
Natalie Lau also notched career assist 1,000 over the weekend
Cal Athletics Recap
Men’s soccer lost to San Francisco on a PK (1-2) and drew even with UC San Diego (1-1)
Women’s soccer drew even with Utah Valley (1-1) but beat Arizona (2-1)
Men’s and Women’s Cross Country placed 3rd in the USF Invitational
Volleyball beat San Diego State (3-1) and San Francisco (3-0)
Men’s Water Polo beat University of Redlands (21-4), Air Force (25-10), Salem (27-2), and Mount Saint Mary’s (27-3)
Football beat Oregon State (34-15)
Cal Pros Recap
PGA
Collin Morikawa was selected to the Ryder Cup team
NFL
Next Week in Bear Territory
Women’s Soccer hosts Washington State (9/4) and then travels to Cal Poly SLO (9/7)
Field Hockey hosts Harvard (9/5) and Ball State (9/7)
Men’s Water Polo hosts the Golden Bear Invitational against CN Marseille (9/5) and CN Atlètic-Barceloneta (9/6)
Volleyball plays Wright State (9/6) and Nebraska (9/7) in the Ameritas Players Challenge (9/6) and against Vanderbilt (9/10) in the Showdown at the Net
Football opens the home campaign against Texas Southern (9/6)
Men’s Soccer opens ACC play at Boston College (9/7) and Harvard (9/10)
Men’s Golf competes at the Folds of Honor Collegiate (9/8-9/10)
Women’s Golf competes at the ANNIKA Intercollegiate (9/8-9/10)
Whew. What a week. Surely I missed some JKS content but man, get there to Memorial to watch him live this year. He’s gonna be a good one. Let me know what I forgot in the comments, and until next week, Caloha.
I, for one, hella enjoy the memes created for Golden Nuggets. The age of AI has made memes all too easy to create - but it can't recreate our expansive knowledge of nerdy things with a tart wit all wrapped up in a shitty Photoshop bow that is now the Calgorithm signature.
Nothing against the Raiders, but if the black bear thing works out, it’s only a matter of time before we have a blackout game with black unis