I went through a lot of different sites looking at the ACC power rankings. The above was the best. Others had Cal around 7 or so on average.
I read a few comments stating it was Cal's first win vs SEC since 2019. But it's not like we are an East Coast team that regularly plays an SEC opponent. We did lose to Auburn last year, but we had won the previous 3 games vs SEC prior to that. And those 3 games took a span of 13 years. 2007~2019.
At left tackle, I thought Stoffel held his own alright. Are you talking about when Morrow was in there? Morrow is a freshman, had a false start etc. and didn’t play much after that; it looked to me like Wykoff didn’t have his best game at right guard and Swinney at center struggled at times to provide quality hikes and create push on run plays. I don’t profess to be knowledgeable on offensive line play but it seemed like overall the chemistry was not developed enough to overcome a deficit in speed and talent vs. Auburn’s defensive line. Understandable considering the musical chairs, and to its credit the OL did enough to allow Fernando time to hit on his quick reads and rolls in the first half.
Fair assessment. I thought Cal did well in pass pro during the first half but felt the pressure of stunts and blitzes in the second half. They were terrible in the run game during the entire game.
Well unfortunately after a pathetic performance by the from 4 (TJ was solid) we’re gonna play this same group this week too … no changes no opportunities… sad and undeserved…
This is the type of win you can hang your hat on for the season, especially now that we are in the ACC and have such little history with our new conference mates.
With that said, I don't think this is a good Auburn team. The Auburn fans and media bought into the hype on the new WRs, but it was apparent last year that the QB was a weak link, and better WRs aren't going to make up for that against non-FCS competition. I think they are a 6-6 team again this year. The main difference between this year and last is we have a slightly better QB and seem to have cleaned things up a little bit on special teams. If we can sustain that throughout the season I think we are in line for a 7-8 win season, which would be awesome. I think Wilcox and Co. will manage to lose a game or two that we shouldn't have any business losing (as they seem to do every year). And I think some of the teams on our schedule are going to turn out to be better teams than we expected, as it is a bit early in the season to predict this stuff, and the ACC as a whole seems to be taking football a little more seriously after all this realignment chaos.
I think the one major potential weakness that I see is that it seems Mendoza doesn't handle hits too well. He bulked up a little in the off-season, but it still seems like as the hits pile up throughout the game, he seems to drop off in performance. If we can keep him protected, we should be good, but I worry whether he can make it through the full season intact.
Auburn may be a top half of the sec team if they improve their qb play. That would have been a really close game had they had a better qb than Thorne in there.
I would add that Auburn's first win of the season gave them a false sense of being a "good/great team". Playing a patsy and blowing them out hurts the bully more than the bullied in this instant case.
Excellent points, another positive ramification of the victory could be the impact on recruiting. With wins like this perhaps we get some consideration from recruits, especially some from the South. ROLL on you BEARS!!!!!
Our whole offense was injured. Considering the travel, circumstance, and fact that our offense is set to improve in droves once we get healthy, this is one of the most miraculous wins of the last decade for us.
I think I saw a highlight where he went into the endzone and then re-established and touched. But I think as soon as you're in the endzone it's a touchback if you touch it, even if you reestablish in the field of play.
The apparent interception return for touchdown on the second play of the game reminded me of the Jackson Sirmon fumble return for what looked like a TD on Auburn's first series last year, especially omen wise, but being a very numbers oriented omen kind of guy, when we were driving up 14-7 in the fourth I thought if the Bears could run one in, things would align quite well, as Gary Fowler ran in Cal's final TD I believe in the fourth of the '68 opener at Michigan, and I thought a 21-7 victory at the home of a storied opponent would be a good sign for this season. Ref interference ruined that, but still a great win.
I’m just leaving Auburn now. Every Auburn fan I have met has been effusive in saying we kicked their butts and that Mendoza is special, which is extra satisfying. There is a scenario where that Auburn db jumps that short out and makes that grab for an easy 6 the other way and the game flips. Their crowd could never really get going. Despite more or less dominating them, the margin was still that close.
Am I the only one who was not impressed with how loud their 88k could be? Maybe it’s stadium design, maybe we just bummed them out, but it did not sound as loud as other ~90k stadiums that I’ve been in.
That's what my son and I thought. Rob did say on the field it was loud, so maybe it's just that it's focused on the field and not where we were sitting? But I did think it wasn't as loud as OSU, ND, Texas.
Not who you asked, but I a 100% agree with him. Auburn fans were to a person incredibly nice and gracious. I had so many people come up to at the bars and restaurant saying "congrats you kicked our asses". Side note, how do you respond to that? I just said "thanks" lol.
The food is decent, but not the best I've had. But to be fair I ate the entire time in and around Auburn only. I'm sure there are tons more hole in the wall places that are a must not miss. But I enjoyed the smoked pulled chicken sandwich at Moe's (pulled pork is good but not as good as the chicken) and the lemonade was great at Toomer's Corner but a little too sweet for me. But of course, Atlanta is nearby and I've probably put on the freshman 15 in the 24hrs I've spent here lol.
I’d return for sure. It’s a great college town that swells to the brim on game day. Momma Goldbergs, Big Blue Bagel and Toomers Corner were all as good as advertised. The fans couldn’t have been more welcoming (literally only had one drink college kid that was borderline rude) and it was a very walkable campus/town.
The Auburn blog says we are ACC bottom feeders!!! How can we be bottom feeders before we’ve played a game in the damn league?!?! Count us out, world. The Bear doesn’t care.
Great write up. One question, was #44 consistently not holding the edge purposefully you think or was that too much aggressiveness from him to tackle the RB? Happened 3 times I think.
Cal is #4 in this ACC power rankings
https://www.on3.com/news/acc-power-rankings-updated-after-week-2-of-college-football-massey-ratings/
I want to believe but that ranking having Miami #3 is insane
I went through a lot of different sites looking at the ACC power rankings. The above was the best. Others had Cal around 7 or so on average.
I read a few comments stating it was Cal's first win vs SEC since 2019. But it's not like we are an East Coast team that regularly plays an SEC opponent. We did lose to Auburn last year, but we had won the previous 3 games vs SEC prior to that. And those 3 games took a span of 13 years. 2007~2019.
This is why statistics can be dangerous. It's all in the choices and framing.
Statistics are not dangerous, but some "analysts" are.
Yeah, we could say Cal has lost to an SEC opponent only once in the last 18 years.
At left tackle, I thought Stoffel held his own alright. Are you talking about when Morrow was in there? Morrow is a freshman, had a false start etc. and didn’t play much after that; it looked to me like Wykoff didn’t have his best game at right guard and Swinney at center struggled at times to provide quality hikes and create push on run plays. I don’t profess to be knowledgeable on offensive line play but it seemed like overall the chemistry was not developed enough to overcome a deficit in speed and talent vs. Auburn’s defensive line. Understandable considering the musical chairs, and to its credit the OL did enough to allow Fernando time to hit on his quick reads and rolls in the first half.
I thought Stoffel was a little more successful, but Faulk had his way with most of the left side of the line regardless
Did Nick Morrow lose the position mid game? or was it an injury?
Fair assessment. I thought Cal did well in pass pro during the first half but felt the pressure of stunts and blitzes in the second half. They were terrible in the run game during the entire game.
Well unfortunately after a pathetic performance by the from 4 (TJ was solid) we’re gonna play this same group this week too … no changes no opportunities… sad and undeserved…
damn I think our defense ended payton thorne's career
This is the type of win you can hang your hat on for the season, especially now that we are in the ACC and have such little history with our new conference mates.
With that said, I don't think this is a good Auburn team. The Auburn fans and media bought into the hype on the new WRs, but it was apparent last year that the QB was a weak link, and better WRs aren't going to make up for that against non-FCS competition. I think they are a 6-6 team again this year. The main difference between this year and last is we have a slightly better QB and seem to have cleaned things up a little bit on special teams. If we can sustain that throughout the season I think we are in line for a 7-8 win season, which would be awesome. I think Wilcox and Co. will manage to lose a game or two that we shouldn't have any business losing (as they seem to do every year). And I think some of the teams on our schedule are going to turn out to be better teams than we expected, as it is a bit early in the season to predict this stuff, and the ACC as a whole seems to be taking football a little more seriously after all this realignment chaos.
I think the one major potential weakness that I see is that it seems Mendoza doesn't handle hits too well. He bulked up a little in the off-season, but it still seems like as the hits pile up throughout the game, he seems to drop off in performance. If we can keep him protected, we should be good, but I worry whether he can make it through the full season intact.
Auburn may be a top half of the sec team if they improve their qb play. That would have been a really close game had they had a better qb than Thorne in there.
Mostly agree.
I would add that Auburn's first win of the season gave them a false sense of being a "good/great team". Playing a patsy and blowing them out hurts the bully more than the bullied in this instant case.
deleted
Excellent points, another positive ramification of the victory could be the impact on recruiting. With wins like this perhaps we get some consideration from recruits, especially some from the South. ROLL on you BEARS!!!!!
Yeah if this increases NIL funds, all the better
Cal is best served through the portal ~ which is proving correct over these past 2 seasons.
The portal giveth and taketh away. Depending on it nearly exclusively is a dangerous road, one that we've managed better than most.
We got a close win over an unranked SEC team that played a surprisingly mediocre game. Would not take too much from this win.
Our whole offense was injured. Considering the travel, circumstance, and fact that our offense is set to improve in droves once we get healthy, this is one of the most miraculous wins of the last decade for us.
Well said!
Both Coe's field goal attempts consistently headed to the right goal post, could be an easy correction.
Rewatching the last punt in slow mo, it looked like Cam downed it out of the end zone.
Our entire section was amazed that was called a touchback. Is there some rule we were unaware of? The replay on ESPN didn’t replay it
We were also very confused watching it at home.
I think I saw a highlight where he went into the endzone and then re-established and touched. But I think as soon as you're in the endzone it's a touchback if you touch it, even if you reestablish in the field of play.
Oh, and thanks Nick!
Bill Shannon deleted his Twitter account, so there's that.
Mendoza looked awesome. Nickname suggestion: Nando CalRizzin
Fire Wilcox! Knowlton must go!
Oh, we beat Auburn?
Never mind.
Fire Simon immediately! This kind of defensive performance cannot be tolerated.
Knowlton extending Wilcox an extra 10 guaranteed years on his way out the door.
The apparent interception return for touchdown on the second play of the game reminded me of the Jackson Sirmon fumble return for what looked like a TD on Auburn's first series last year, especially omen wise, but being a very numbers oriented omen kind of guy, when we were driving up 14-7 in the fourth I thought if the Bears could run one in, things would align quite well, as Gary Fowler ran in Cal's final TD I believe in the fourth of the '68 opener at Michigan, and I thought a 21-7 victory at the home of a storied opponent would be a good sign for this season. Ref interference ruined that, but still a great win.
Wow! Gary Fowler, 1968, running back. There's a blast from the past
Also Burrell really stood out to me. Clearly the qb of that line.
I’m just leaving Auburn now. Every Auburn fan I have met has been effusive in saying we kicked their butts and that Mendoza is special, which is extra satisfying. There is a scenario where that Auburn db jumps that short out and makes that grab for an easy 6 the other way and the game flips. Their crowd could never really get going. Despite more or less dominating them, the margin was still that close.
Am I the only one who was not impressed with how loud their 88k could be? Maybe it’s stadium design, maybe we just bummed them out, but it did not sound as loud as other ~90k stadiums that I’ve been in.
That's what my son and I thought. Rob did say on the field it was loud, so maybe it's just that it's focused on the field and not where we were sitting? But I did think it wasn't as loud as OSU, ND, Texas.
I wasn’t at UT, but it was def quieter than ND, tOSU and Tennessee (which admittedly had 20k more)
Oh I did forget about Tennessee. That was loud. And, as I type this, Mecham beat SQT for another TD.
Sad bear.
Thanks for supporting the team. Would you go back to Auburn if we had another game there? Ie was food, hotels etc all good, things to see etc?
Not who you asked, but I a 100% agree with him. Auburn fans were to a person incredibly nice and gracious. I had so many people come up to at the bars and restaurant saying "congrats you kicked our asses". Side note, how do you respond to that? I just said "thanks" lol.
The food is decent, but not the best I've had. But to be fair I ate the entire time in and around Auburn only. I'm sure there are tons more hole in the wall places that are a must not miss. But I enjoyed the smoked pulled chicken sandwich at Moe's (pulled pork is good but not as good as the chicken) and the lemonade was great at Toomer's Corner but a little too sweet for me. But of course, Atlanta is nearby and I've probably put on the freshman 15 in the 24hrs I've spent here lol.
I’d return for sure. It’s a great college town that swells to the brim on game day. Momma Goldbergs, Big Blue Bagel and Toomers Corner were all as good as advertised. The fans couldn’t have been more welcoming (literally only had one drink college kid that was borderline rude) and it was a very walkable campus/town.
The Auburn blog says we are ACC bottom feeders!!! How can we be bottom feeders before we’ve played a game in the damn league?!?! Count us out, world. The Bear doesn’t care.
Scientific logic is not a strength in Alabama.
*goose bumps and tears of joy.
Great write up. One question, was #44 consistently not holding the edge purposefully you think or was that too much aggressiveness from him to tackle the RB? Happened 3 times I think.