Weekly Writer Predictions: Cal vs. Louisville Cardinals Football 2025

Presented by Dokkaebier

Welcome to our weekly predictions post from our writers. You’ll see what they expect the score to be and any wacky or rational predictions they expect to see in each game!

Christopher H

Scoreline: Cal wins 24-21

Nothing would be more Wilcoxian than for Cal to upset an obviously better Louisville team to gain bowl eligibility, only to follow it up with a Big Game loss and limp into another 6-6 bowl game matchup (which we also lose).

---

Callie Wake

Scoreline: Cal loses 21-38

Listen, I want to say that Cal is gonna do something incredible, but… I’m sorry but there has been nothing about the last few games to instill any kind of confidence that we’re gonna upset Louisville. It’s the same keys every week: if our receivers can catch passes, if our backs and penetrate to the second level or further, if our defense can tackle: we’ll win the game. But those have all been big if’s since week 4-ish. I fear instead we are going to get rocked.

---

Rob Hwang

Scoreline: Cal wins 42-33

I know the narratives and the storylines. But this is the one place I come to, where I don’t have to analyze the game. I can just be a fan. We look to win every week.

---

TD_24

Scoreline: Cal loses 17-31

Ok so initially I had Isaac Brown running for a million yards here. But Brown is now out for the Cal game so the calculus changes......or does it? I’m not convinced the Bears have enough firepower against a pesky Louisville defense.

---

Piotr T Le

Scoreline: Cal loses 10-35

Louisville is per OFEI the 10th best defense in the country. Getting to 10 points will be a success for us.

---

Berkelium97

Scoreline: Cal loses 13-38

This one has that “end of an era” feeling, marking the clear end of the Wilcox Era (obviously he’ll coach the final two games--but we all know it’s over).

---

---

Ben

Scoreline: Cal #REF! - #VALUE!

When asked to predict for this game, my brain just kind of made a funny blurblurblurblur eeeeeeeeeeeEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEeeeeeeeeeeeerrrrrrrr konk noise and then factory reset.

---

Nick Kranz

Scoreline: Cal loses 6-30

Louisville happens to be the best team on Cal’s schedule, so already it was going to be a tough game. But I think Louisville is also a particularly bad matchup for Cal. The Cardinal have probably the best pass rush Cal will face all season, and a generally excellent passing defense. They are perfectly set up to take away Cal’s only strengths on offense.

I’m less sure about what will happen when Cal is on defense, but I think that Cal will be unable to move the ball and score such that it won’t really matter all that much.

---

Rex Volcano

Scoreline: Cal wins 28-26

The air feels a little colder around you all of a sudden, and the lights in the room are dimmer? You hear a faint whisper that’s almost like it’s coming from the vents, the cracks in the wall, and the attic? You stop what you’re doing and strain to listen…that can’t be right. You haven’t heard that voice in years. But it keeps repeating itself, over and over…

thissss
issss
a
trap
gameeee
forrrr
Louisville

---

Jesse Miller-Gordon

Scoreline: Cal loses 17-21

I don’t think this is going to be the bloodbath the Vegas line suggests. This Cal team still gets odds dumped on them that don’t properly reflect the parity in the conference. Make no mistake, Louisville might be the strongest opponent since Duke, but Cal is always in the running to be a trap game. If the defense can get the offense more time on the field, and each offensive lineman can 3 seconds of blocking time every single snap, this doesn’t have to be what some people think it could be.