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The California Golden Bearcast 2026 Cal Football Season: An Embarrassing showing against Wake Forest

Wed, 21 Oct 2026 20:01:03 GMT

Andy and Rob discuss the things that went right: Grateful Dead cover band. Dancing grateful bears to open the game. Then everything else…

JKS vs. Brousseau, round two: What changed after last week’s quarterback debate?

Decision making at the 35: The call, the execution, and the questions left behind.

What happened to the defense? How did things get this far out of hand?

JKS enters down 41: What was the plan at that point?

Eight hours that changed the mood: Did this game expose deeper problems?

Where do we go from here? What needs to change, and what would give us Cal fans a reason to believe again?

The Bear Market WF placeholder

Wed, 21 Oct 2026 19:59:03 GMT

Piotr and Nick are back for Write for California’s premium subscription podcast. Give this episode a listen and consider subscribing for the rest of the season!

When a game is that rough, Piotr and Ni…

The Good, the Bad, and the Rockfights: Cal vs. Wake Forest

Wed, 21 Oct 2026 16:01:16 GMT

Welcome back to The Good, the Bad, and the Rockfights, our weekly statistical exercise in trying to categorize the previous weekend’s performance. This week’s analysis feels like overkill, in the same way that using a graphing calculator to calculate 1+1 feels like overkill. We all know what the results of this week’s analysis are going to be. If we get another game like this next week, I’m using an abacus to calculate the results.

Glossary

Want to know what kinds of Cal football games we’re currently identifying or how to read the Good-Bad-Rockfight-Pillowfight chart? This section should answer any questions you have about the plots and analysis. Otherwise, skip ahead to the plots.

Types of Cal football games

Good: Cal moves the ball productively and efficiently, and turns possessions into points. Meanwhile the defense stops the opponent’s drives early and prevents scoring opportunities.
Bad: The opposite of The Good: Cal can’t move the ball well or efficiently and cannot turn possessions into points. Meanwhile the defense surrenders many yards, long plays, and points.
Rockfight: These are led by strong defensive performances where the defense forces the opponent to grind out inefficient drives that usually end in a punt or turnover. Meanwhile, the offense replicates that struggle. These games are usually dictated by the rule of 21: first team to score 21 wins.
Pillowfight: both offenses can do whatever they want while the defenses are powerless to stop them. These are high-scoring shootouts that are usually decided in the waning minutes of the 4th quarter.

Plots

Boxplots: a boxplot illustrates the spread of data points. The plots used in this series highlight the most recent game’s rating in gold while the remainder of the data points are represented in the boxplot. The box captures data between the 25th and 75th percentiles while the horizontal line represents the median, or midpoint of the data. tl;dr: above the box = great, above the line = good, below the line = bad, below the box = turrible.
Cluster diagram: this illustrates our Good, Bad, Rockfights, and Pillowfights clusters. Each data point represents a game, and points closer together received more similar ratings while points farther apart received more dissimilar ratings. We use a k-means clustering algorithm to organize the games into four distinct clusters, which are color-coded in the plot.

BCF Toys Ratings

(the same ratings are used for offense and defense, so I will only define them once)

Game Rating (GR): opponent-adjusted FEI offense rating, capturing the expected scoring advantage the offense had against the opposing defense (and vice versa, for the defensive rating)
Efficiency (Eff): same as Game Rating, but the scoring advantage against an average defense
Points per Drive (PPD): points per drive during regulation, non-garbage time possessions (or opponent’s PPD, for the defensive rating)
Success Rate (SR): percentage of non-garbage time drives ending in a TD or FG attempt
Yards per Play (YPP): yards per play on non-garbage time possessions
Available Yards (AYd): the distance covered on a drive divided by the distance to the end zone when the drive began for non-garbage time possessions (basically, the proportion of the field covered during a possession)

Offense

This was a miserable performance across all offensive metrics.

This is abysmal. Cal could not move the ball in aggregate or with any degree of efficiency, and they could not score. The only useful knowledge to be gained from analyzing this offense is that it gives us an opportunity to learn how BCF Toys calculates garbage time. It’s actually pretty simple and intuitive. Garbage time begins when Cal’s deficit > 8 x the number of remaining Cal possessions. At halftime Cal was down 34 and had 4 possessions over the remainder of the game. Since a 34-point deficit is insurmountable with 4 possessions, the entire second half was considered garbage time. I think this is the only game in our 20-season dataset where the entirety of the second half was garbage time.

Defense

This may be the worst defensive performance in our entire database.

This is pretty much the opposite of the Cal offense: WF drove far, efficiently, and into the end zone with ease. Nothing about this defensive performance was commendable.

Special Teams

Special teams were the only bright spot. Mostly.

The only glimmer of sunshine peeking through the smoke from this raging tire fire was the special teams unit. It was generally a good day for special teams. Except when Cal tried to return kickoffs. I would be pleased if there were no more attempted kick returns for the remainder of the season.

Cluster Analysis

It should be abundantly clear where this one will end up…

Click here for a much larger version. This week’s game fell into a particularly bleak portion of The Bad, alongside the 0-35 loss to Utah in 2019 and the 14-48 Big Game loss in 2010.

The Bad, once again. Not only is this in the bad, but it’s in The Sunken Place alongside the 0-35 loss to Utah in 2019 and the 14-48 Big Game loss in 2010. And yet, neither of those losses devolved into an entire second-half of garbage time.

Deja Vu

Out of morbid curiosity, I calculated which other game had the most similar profile to this one: Cal’s aforementioned 14-48 Big Game loss. Like this game, Cal was utterly destroyed by an extremely efficient QB who also punished the defense with his mobility. LSJU scored on their first eight possessions. Meanwhile the Cal offense was woefully unproductive and scoreless until their first drive of the 4th quarter, which was already garbage time. Like this loss, there was nothing redeemable about this performance (although Bryan Anger’s 54.3-yard punting average was pretty impressive).

DBD 2026-10-21: House

Wed, 21 Oct 2026 09:02:04 GMT

Welcome to the DBD, a Write for California community board where one can talk about anything – Cal-related or off-topic. Comment threads are sorted by topic. Anything is fine, so long as you're generally civil.

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Bear Insider Ultimate Insider Podcast E141: Frederick Williams III

Bear Insider — Wed, 21 Oct 2026 00:08:54 GMT

Cal Football: Tosh Lupoi on Starting QB

Tue, 20 Oct 2026 23:17:43 GMT

Cal fans took to the internet after Saturday night’s sizable loss like hundreds of souls escaping from a cursed tomb, finding only each other to speak to in the empty cemetery that is Twitter at 1 am Pacific time. The post-game press conference did not reassure the faithful.

On the heels of a come-from-behind effort against Virginia Tech, with a satiated fanbase basking in the glow of an unexpected win, the thought process was looking forward to having Jaron Keawe Sagapolutele return to under center, and how he might look in a more legible offense with faster reads. What followed on Saturday night baffled national reporters and Calgorithm burners alike. After an offseason of change and promise, of which the retention of Cal’s standout true freshman quarterback Jaron Keawe-Sagapolutele seemed to be a keystone, fans find themselves questioning everything about the program, stopping just short of the enthusiastic chancellor Rich Lyons.

It is usually hard to say, in the room, how sound bites will fare in public, out of context, to the scrolling reader. Two weeks ago, after Cal’s jarring loss to UNLV, Tosh Lupoi took to the podium the following Tuesday with understanding, and spoke at length about personal responsibility, but worded in a way that left grown-ups with jobs no choice but to argue with one another in sprawling comment sections. In the moment, I had been impressed with the ownership taken over mistakes to that point, and the subsequent faithful freakout felt a little silly, only for the following week to put all questions back on the table.

Tosh began today’s comments taking “extreme ownership” over last week’s loss, continuing that he is “not looking for a way out, not pointing fingers to the staff or players.” For all the confusing decision-making, further complicated by competing narratives and what we can’t see and don’t know, Coach Lupoi has not aired out anyone but himself, and seems to adhere to a player safety protocol much more careful and protective of athletes than many men of his demeanor, (Ian Strong was held out last week because of tweaks during warm ups, etc). This does not always make his answers more appealing in the moment.

The crux of fan frustration comes from last week’s choice to start Jackson Brosseau, a decision that was taken by many in the press to be more gamesmanship than an actual decision. As play progressed, and it became clear Brosseau was the starter and chosen quarterback for the day, online speculation grew around why the jewel of Cal’s roster retention might have been held out of the game, aspersions flying in many directions.

Lupoi addressed this today as follows; “Jaron was available for this last game, that was the first time he was available to play, k? Alright, so the preparation leading into the game plays a big role of (sic) who can play, and put us in the best position for success. After Jackson led us to a victory, who’s available for preparation, who’s available for the week.”

A charitable interpretation of these comments is that Sagapolutele was not out of concussion protocol the Sunday or Monday following Virginia Tech, and had not had adequate time without being somewhat concussed to study the new offense. It does not quell any confusion around his appearance at the end of the third quarter, down 41. The subtext being that it would be hard to find someone beyond the coaching staff who might view Brosseau and Sagapolutele as competing talents.

Something happens when the national media decides that your quarterback is Sunday material. A program no longer has a quarterback, they become stewards of an early first round draft pick who is meant to save the Jets or the Browns. Having been elevated to this status since early last season it is a difficult narrative for a coaching staff to fight. It may be impossible.

Coach Lupoi answered a follow up about next week’s signal caller; “I’m going to put the individual that I think is best for us to go win the game coming up this Saturday, so you’ll see who’s out there based off of my decision.”

For information on where to watch this Saturday’s matchup against SMU check here

The Rodcast: Cal vs LMU

Bear Insider — Tue, 20 Oct 2026 17:50:48 GMT

Wurster Hall: Southern Methodist University of Texas

Tue, 20 Oct 2026 16:00:59 GMT

Hello and welcome back to Wurster Hall, our weekly data-focused article where we try to make sense of the letters and numbers and what exactly they can tell us about the teams on the field! Without further ado, let’s get into it!

Mapquest It

We start this week by examining the distance from each chancellor’s/president’s house to the campus stadium, and interestingly enough….we tie! Both the President’s House at SMU and the Chancellor’s House at UC Berkeley are 0.9 miles away from their respective stadiums! Interesting!

Diving a little deeper now however, Cal has to win this category as the President’s House at SMU is still being built! Point for Cal! But also man oh man I went and looked at the renderings and the SMU President’s House once completed will be 11.039 sqft with a 500 sqft cabana, 4 BR, 7 BA, an elevator, a 62 sqft wine cellar, and a kitchen that can hold 100 people! INSANE, but that’s oil money I guess. This lead me to look into the University House which, while smaller at 4,328 sqft boasts 4 BR and 10 bathrooms! 10!

Everyone’s Favorite Primary Source, Wikipedia

Next, we’ll dive into Wikipedia, the source of many of our statistics, to learn a little bit more. Interestingly, some time in the last week, Cal lost a citation, bringing the total down to 306 while SMU sits at a measly 129! That’s another Cal victory in the all important category. Do some more research SMU.

Dallas to Fort Worth

Next, we’ll look to see where Cal can draw power from locally. Unfortunately, BearPower will be in some short supply as the nearest Black Bear to Dallas is in the Forth Worth Zoo, over 40 miles away from Campus (shame on you Dallas Zoo). UC Berkeley wins of course with our resident Oakland Zoo bears just over 11 miles from campus. While Cal wins the category, I remain concerned about how the distance to the nearest bear will effect the team’s preparation at Gerald J. Ford Stadium (today I learned SMU has a donor name Gerald J. Ford who is different from the president. Imagine introducing yourself by saying, “Hi I’m Gerald Ford. No, not the president. I’m a billionaire.”)

The Grateful Dead Hats Are Sick (thanks for the hookup Rob)

Our final graph of the day will look at the number of hats available in each student store. With the additional of the new Grateful Dead Hats, Cal moves up to 149 total hats (listen I didn’t verify this because I’m tired but vibes wise it feels fine.) On the other hand, SMU only has a measly 74 hats. Kinda shocked to be honest. If I became a billionaire, I wouldn’t be wasting my money building a new vanity stadium. I think I’d make just a ton of hats and stickers so everyone could have cool hats and stickers. Anyways maybe we should that with the Prop 40 stuff. Don’t forget to vote. What was I talking about again?

Bear Power vs. Horse Power

This next section was originally going to be an investigation into the number of Pontiac TransAms present within some radius of each university currently for sale on Craigslist, but alas, there are not many. But that then lead me to an interesting thought, namely, what is Bear Power? Horse Power, as I’m sure we’re all aware, is a unit of measurement of power to calculate work, and is based on how many horses it takes to lift 550 pounds by 1 ft in 1 second. Or if you want to use real units, 250 kg, 30 cm, 1 second. Which is still really weird. What an insane thing to measure by!

Anyways, that lead me to thinking, well how does Bear Power computer? Reddit of course had the answer. Special thanks to u/TokyoBayRay in the r/theydidthemath for describing his math. Take it away TokyoBayRay.

According to wikipedia, "An analogue to a bear for muscle for its size is a dog". For now, let's assume a bear is just a big dog. We're going to scale up a calculation for a dog to a bear, and pretend that there is a linear relationship between size and power.
Sounds reasonable right? (Shut up)
This guy calculated how much force his dog Jimmy exerts when pulling as 50N.
There’s a lot of variation in the size of a bear depending on diet, habitat and time of year. A typical adult male is 180-360kg. Let’s split the difference and say 270kg.
The aforementioned Jimmy weighs 20kg. So a bearpower, by our assumptions, is equivalent to 13.5 dogpower (or, more properly, jimmypower).
From this, a bear could comfortably and consistently pull with a force of 675N.

That seems pretty good! It’s been a minute since I took Physics 8A (went much better for me than Chemistry 1B because Physics actually makes sense and is a real science!), but that math seems to check out. We could probably up that a bit to cover the true weight of a historical California Grizzly Bear, but we’ll stick with the Black Bear for now. Moving on now, how does a Horse Power compare?

Now let’s calculate the power of a bear!
Horsepower was initially calculated by James Watt. It was the power a horse exerted when turning a 12ft mill wheel (wiki).
James reckoned a horse could pull with 180lb of force. This is as close as makes no difference to 800N.
As P = W/t = Fd/t, power is directly proportional to force applied.
1700N/675N = around 2.5 bearpower to a horsepower.
Put another way, a Tesla Model S has the equivalent of 1040 bears under the hood.

Interesting! So it would theoretically take two and a half bears to do the power of one horse. I guess that kind of makes sense given general sizes and convincing a bear to lift up a 250 kg anything is probably a chore. I’m going to take this really as a sign of the Power of Unit, and how Bears operate on a team level. Maybe this will show up on the field Saturday?

Thanks for taking the time to read my insane ramblings. I very much appreciate it and hope I gave you a chuckle in whatever these times are. Always good to have community to laugh with. Hope you enjoy the game this weekend over some good strong coffee! Go Bears!

Cal Football 2026: An Embarrassing Showing Against Wake Forest

The California Golden Bearcast — Tue, 20 Oct 2026 13:00:00 GMT

The things that went right: Grateful Dead cover band. Dancing grateful bears to open the game. End scene.

Then there’s everything else.

JKS vs. Brousseau, round two: What changed after last week’s quarterback debate?

Decision making at the 35: The call, the execution, and the questions left behind.

What happened to the defense? How did things get this far out of hand?

JKS enters down 41: What was the plan at that point?

Eight hours that changed the mood: Did this game expose deeper problems?

Where do we go from here? What needs to change, and what would give us Cal fans a reason to believe again?

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DBD 2026-10-20: Wurst

Tue, 20 Oct 2026 11:46:23 GMT

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Cal v. NC State College Football 2026 Kick-Off Time Announced

Mon, 19 Oct 2026 18:23:32 GMT

The California Golden Bears (3-4, 2-2 ACC) will face off against the North Carolina State Wolfpack (3-3, 1-2 ACC) in Raleigh, N.C., on Saturday, Oct. 31, 2026, at 12 p.m. Eastern Time, Cal Athletics and the Atlantic Coast Conference announced Monday morning.

Post-Game Thoughts: Wake Forest Football 2026

Mon, 19 Oct 2026 11:03:50 GMT

I was naively excited for this game.

Not, like, hey-I-think-Cal’s-likely-to-pull-another-upset excited. I predicted Cal to lose, after all.

You see, there was a sneaky-good-on-paper matchup for Cal/Wake Forest. Believe it or not, but Cal came into the game in the national top 10 in defensive Expected Points Added against the pass. Meanwhile, Wake Forest had nationally excellent passing efficiency.

But neither team had been fully tested. Wake Forest hadn’t faced a team with a nationally above-average EPA/dropback (yes, even Miami), and Cal had faced a bunch of pretty iffy passing offenses. But Virginia Tech was at least an above average passing team that seemed to lend credence to the idea that Cal’s pass rush and secondary were at least solidly above average, and maybe even nationally excellent.

Then the game started:

WF pass for 15 yards
WF pass for 14 yards
Incompletion
WF pass for 31 yards
WF pass for 39 yards, touchdown
WF pass for 29 yards, touchdown

Six offensive snaps, all drop backs, none of which got significant pressure, many of which had blown coverages of varying degrees of severity. A 14-0 lead with 51 minutes of football left shouldn’t be Game Over. But at the time, Wake Forest’s dominance was so comprehensive that it felt over, and that feeling turned out to be 100% correct.

In six plays, Wake Forest had demolished the one strength Cal seemed to possess as a team, and the rout was on.

When Wake Forest scored their 4th touchdown of the game midway through the 2nd quarter on their 4th drive, I watched from a high point on the west side of the stadium as students streamed out of the stadium. The high point of excitement was when Wake Forest committed three penalties on one play (which allowed the mic men to once again remind us all that You Can’t Do That. I keep forgetting!).

The rest of the game was an exercise in the camaraderie of gallows humor for those broken enough to stay until the end.

A warning: I’m going light on ‘analysis’ this week and focusing more on big picture stuff, because you don’t need me to play captain obvious and tell you that Saturday night was one of the greatest no-show performances in the history of Cal football.

Offense

Efficiency Report

7 drives: , 5 punts, 2 turnovers (2 downs), 0 points/drive.

Hey, at least the math gets easy when you put up a goose egg.

Based on the eye test, Cal had exactly one thing going for them offensively against Wake Forest: getting them to jump off sides so that they could throw up a contested pass downfield. It’s not the best source of sustained offense, but it did happen three times!

The quarterback controversy we created for ourselves

On Saturday before the game, all kinds of wild rumors were swirling across social media about Cal’s quarterback situation. I would have preferred not to be exposed to any of them, because they’re all unverifiable, not useful for analysis of the team, and they give a certain segment of the Cal fan base brain poisoning.

Here is what I know:

Tosh Lupoi and his coaching staff decided that Jackson Brousseau was the best quarterback available.
This decision was made despite the fact that JKS was healthy and available to play, which was confirmed when, you know, JKS came in to play.
The opinion that Jackson Brousseau was the best quarterback available evidently persisted throughout the entire non-garbage-time segment of the game. Playing JKS for the final 18 minutes of the game against Wake’s back-ups is not useful data.

I find this . . . utterly baffling. I’d kinda get it if they thought that JKS was too hurt to be effective, but if that’s the case, playing him at all would be insane.

Look - Jackson Brousseau is a really excellent back-up QB for a team like Cal, and I’d bet that plenty of other mid-level ACC teams wish they had a guy like him. But he’s also a 4th year QB who couldn’t break into regular action at Colorado State until year 3. There is ample evidence that he’s just not as talented a quarterback as JKS. Electing to play Brousseau over JKS when both are available is malpractice of the highest order.

The offense is probably too depleted to have sustained success, regardless of the QB

Cal lost their starting center on their 2nd series, was (for unclear reasons) without Ian Strong (amongst other WR injuries), and has basically one healthy running back.

I’ve seen worse injury situations, and I’ve also seen other teams manage worse injury situations and remain productive. But this is already a team running a cobbled together late install offense in the context of their injury issues, so I’m acting on the assumption that Cal will have long periods of offensive doldrums against competent defenses.

Defense

Efficiency Report

8 drives: 6 touchdowns, 2 punts, 5.1 points/drive.

I am defining garbage time in alignment with Jake Dickert, who pulled Gio Lopez and his starters when Wake Forest went up 41-0 midway through the 3rd quarter.

But I do think it’s worth just focusing on the first four Wake Forest drives, when the game was put to bed with alarming speed. The raw, ugly numbers from those first 4 drives:

32 plays for 286 yards
8.9 yards/play
84% WF success rate
Zero havoc plays
Six plays of 29+ yards allowed

At this point, Wake backed off a bit on offense and ran the ball more, then backed off even more when they pulled their starters. It did feel a bit like Wake could nearly name the score based on how immediately dominant they were to start the game.

I cannot even begin to speculate why the apparent strength of this team turned into the team’s biggest weakness . . . unless Wake Forest is truly the #1 passing offense in the country.

Stayed tuned for more next week when we play . . . oh god . . . SMU and Kevin Jennings.

Special Teams

It is a coaching failure that Cal players are allowed to return kickoffs

I want Cal’s kick returners to have all the confidence in the world in themselves and their teammates blocking for them. I want them eager to return every kick.

And I want Cal’s coaches to recognize the fact that 90% of the time a Cal kick returner elects to return a kick, the result is Cal starting a drive from the ~13 yard line. Cal’s coaches should have issued a blanket order to fair catch every kickoff they catch inside, say, the 8 yard line. Failed returns happened THREE more times against Wake Forest, and it’s just another sign of a coaching staff that doesn’t seem to have any particular idea of what their team can and cannot do successfully.

Big Picture

We now have seven games of evidence from the Tosh Lupoi era. In the interest of trying to be both fair and comprehensive, here is a list of positive indicators and negative indicators of future success. Let’s start with the positive:

Positive Indicators

Flashes of production and growth from younger defensive portal recruits, like Kingston Lopa, Jericho Johnson, Solomon Williams, and AJ Tuitele.
A pass rush/secondary combo that seemed legitimately good until Saturday night.
A willingness to re-think Cal’s offensive approach after initial system failure, leading to an unexpected upset win over Virginia Tech.
Special teams trick plays that have been both successful and well timed to help compete in close games.
Willingness and ability to get positive contributions out of newer and/or unheralded players like Tyree Sams and Carson Perry-Smith

Negative Indicators

The installation of, in retrospect, an utterly unqualified offensive coordinator, forcing Cal to scrap and replace his installed offense after five games.
Losing to UNLV, a team with a significantly less expensive roster.
The baffling decision to start Jackson Brousseau (2.8 yards/attempt vs. Wake) when JKS was healthy.
A host of key offensive portal additions who have either barely played (Jimothy Lewis, Dorian Thomas) or have underperformed (Ian Strong, Cooper Perry).
A defense that has given away much of their positive production by bleeding big plays: 19 plays of 30+ yards (132nd in the nation).
A team that is currently 131st in penalties/game and 132nd in penalty yards/game.
Special teams play that has generally had a net negative impact on Cal’s chances of winning games.
Having the team woefully unprepared for Wake Forest, to the point where in the stands I was openly wondering if the team had quit.

Since I started writing for this website, I have attempted to closely analyze and write about the following coaches from the moment they were hired at Cal, in chronological order:

Sonny Dykes, Lindsay Gottlieb, Justin Wilcox, Wyking Jones, Charmin Smith, Mark Fox, and Mark Madsen.

I’ve tried to consider the context of their hire, the situations they were handed, the resources the university provided, and the skills they brought into the role. In that capacity, I’ve seen good hires and bad hires. I’ve been too optimistic and too pessimistic.

Right now, based on the evidence to date, I think Tosh Lupoi has more in common with Wyking Jones and Mark Fox than he does the rest of the list.

That isn’t any kind of final verdict. The whiplash we’ve all experienced together going from the UNLV game to the Virginia Tech game to the Wake Forest game means that you already know that just about anything could happen next Saturday.

But if the seven games of on-field evidence is representative of what Tosh Lupoi will produce across the length of his tenure . . . well, there are going to be some painful conversations about time, money, sunk costs, and the long term future of Cal football and Cal athletics.

DBD 2026-10-19: Water sports school!

Mon, 19 Oct 2026 09:02:01 GMT

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I Don’t Know Where Tosh Lupoi And Cal Football Go From Here

Sun, 18 Oct 2026 23:49:25 GMT

I’m at a loss. What do you even say after that?

Wake Forest was beyond better. It was pretty clear after a few snaps. With Cal mostly playing its backup offense, our paths to victory were limited, and we were going to have to play S-tier football to get an upset.

But Cal might as well have sent up the surrender flag by the second drive. The Bears were outclassed in every phase of the game.

Execution, decision-making, effort, coaching, make up your own phase, Cal was worse. It’s barely worth looking at the micro elements of this game—every warning flag we’ve put up with Cal’s relative lack of experience in coaching was exposed, as the Demon Deacons ground whatever we were doing into powder.

A confusing and pedestrian offensive gameplan? Check.

A bottled run game with no versatility? Yessir.

A defense that lost individual matchups and gave up explosive plays? Well, this was a bit different; it was mostly in the air this time instead of on the ground. I’ve been kind to defensive coordinator Michael Hutchings for incremental improvements through the year, but his unit has made mistakes all year, and this game was a steep regression.

A coaching staff that made questionable decisions that every normie could question? Oh, we will get to that.

This was a demoralizing experience at Memorial Stadium. A barely half-filled Memorial Stadium emptied out half of its fans by halftime, and then another half of the remaining fans left after the Cal Band halftime show. Those who remained booed, yelled, or stewed. We got less than nothing on Saturday, and now who knows how many of us will be back for non-Stanford activities this year.

We’re in a dark place, Cal family. And it feels like nearly all of what happened Saturday night can be traced to the bizarre quarterback management from head coach Tosh Lupoi.

All Golden Bears were relieved to escape with a win against Virginia Tech last week. But just like with Syracuse, there was a concern this might be fool’s gold, and that our very young coaching staff might take the wrong lessons. Cal escaped as much as they won, and there are only so many tricks you can play with a backup group of emergency players.

And it seems as if Lupoi took the wrong lesson by announcing Jackson Brousseau as the starter last week over the recovering Jaron-Keawe Sagapolutele.

Brousseau did very well in the first six quarters he had the reins. He led several very important end-of-game drives and managed the game state. In no world do any serious football minds believe that he is a better long-term option at the signal-caller position than JKS.

This was proven out against Wake Forest, where Brousseau essentially was shut down after his first drive. He averaged a horrific 2.9 yards per pass, which is a worse outcome than Cal’s already bottom-10 FBS rushing attack (3.2). It’s not Brousseau’s fault—he was the backup quarterback for a reason. Facing a playoff contender like Wake Forest, with seasoned defensive minds like Jake Dickert and Scottie Hazelton having actual tape on him to analyze and assess his QB profiles, was always going to be a stark return to reality.

Yet not once in the meaningful period of this game, not at 14-0, not at 21-0, not even at the start of the second half, did Lupoi even consider putting in Sagapolutele. The anemic Cal offense trotted along, threw a dozen passes short of the sticks on long-down situations, picked up a first down here and there, and then punted the ball right back to an unstoppable Wake offense.

So JKS’s eventual appearance in the 4th quarter, against Wake Forest’s backups in meaningless mop-up work, does not make any sense from a football perspective. If he was healthy, why wasn’t he put in earlier, when Cal had a chance to rally? Why was he put in that late, when there was nothing to be gained and the risk of re-injury was always on the table?

My ultimate determination for this logic is that Tosh Lupoi actually believed on Saturday that Jackson Brousseau should stay the starter, will remain the starter against SMU, and Jaron-Keawe Sagapolutele will remain the designated QB2. This is generally how most QB rooms operate—the starter plays until the game is out of doubt, and the backup comes in to protect the starter from injury.

If Sagapolutele is going to earn the starting spot back, it’ll have to come by looking like the better quarterback in practice. Because otherwise I cannot make heads or tails of what we just watched.

Why that is now the determination is beyond me. Whether that calculus changes based on the reaction to that chain of decisions remains to be seen. But it puts this team and program in a place they definitely were not planning for at any point this fall, moving the Wake game from absolute embarrassment to a potential self-immolation event.

All of this underlies the same theme: Tosh Lupoi is making very basic mistakes in his first year at coach, with many of them centered around how the Cal coaching staff has managed their top quarterback talent.

Rookie offensive playcaller Jordan Somerville was Lupoi’s choice to bring Sagapolutele to the next level, and he proceeded to install an offensive scheme that was too difficult for JKS to execute.
Additionally, Somerville was incapable of making the right adjustments in-game, leading to a month-plus of offensive droughts that immediately alienated a Cal fanbase that saw nothing worth seeing.
That scheme led Sagapolutele to take more risks than he needed to in hopes of making plays to make the offense to go, leading to injuries against UCLA and UNLV.
Cal rebooted with a new playcaller with Pat McCann, and the offense appeared to find new life. And for some reason, Lupoi decided a healthy Sagapolutele should not be given the same opportunity with this new playcaller in our last home game for a month.

Cal fans, donors, and leadership have to be a mixture of angry, bewildered and—worst of all—increasingly apathetic to what they’re seeing. After all the expectations going into this year, none of them have come close to being met. This is absolutely not something that can happen in Year One for a program that is in win-now mode before realignment kicks off again.

It’s been a series of escalating disasters this season, and Saturday night was a 10 on the Richter Scale for the Cal football program. I don’t know what the aftershocks will bring for Tosh Lupoi. He will have to learn fast, because the product we’re seeing right now threatens to break this team irreparably.

Cal Plays Dead Against Wake Forest, 41-7

Sun, 18 Oct 2026 06:06:18 GMT

Image Courtesy of @CalFootball

Cal played Wake Forest for the second time today. Both schools are members of the Atlantic Coast Conference. After much smoke around the decision, backup quarterback Jackson Brosseau appeared for his second straight start for the Cal Bears. The night was marked by a celebration of 60 years of the long running relationship between the Grateful Dead and Berkeley, with Cal donning special helmets to mark the occasion.

Wake Forest found the end zone in their first two offensive possessions. The first drive was punctuated by two gashing passes from Demon Deacons signal caller Gio Lopez, both of which found TE Dominick Barry. The second drive was aided by an ill fated decision by Cal to go for it on 4th and 1 in their own territory. Wideout Jack Foley found himself wide open for the second score, another pass that got over 20 air yards, making the score 14 - 0 in Wake Forest’s favor with just over six minutes left in the first quarter.

The second quarter opened with Wake Forest once again at midfield. A shot to WR Kam Shanks brought the drive inside the Bears 5 yard line and RB Jamar Searcy ran it in two plays later to make it 21-0 in favor of Wake Forest after the extra point with well over 12 minutes left in the half. Stuck in their own territory on 3rd and 10 on the next possession, Kam Shanks once again came down with a big yardage pass. Gio Lopez ran for another set of downs before RB Ty Clark III scored the fourth touchdown of the night for Wake Forest with 8:54 left in the first half. Wake unsuccessfully attempted a Philly special for a 2 point conversion, leaving the score to 27-0 in their favor.

Cal’s next possession found them in scoring position once again, but the Bears could not convert on 4th and goal from the four yard line, and Wake took possession once more with under two minutes in the half. TE Dominick Barry reeled in another touchdown with nine seconds left in the half, the extra point brought the score to 34-0.

Wake Forest ate up around six minutes of clock on their scoreless drive to start the third quarter, but Cal could not respond. On the Demon Deacons second drive of the quarter, tight end Dominick Barry scored his 3rd touchdown of the night, with the successful extra point, making the score 41-0 to Wake Forest.

Jaron Keawe-Sagapolutele entered the game late in third quarter. Despite connecting with Chase Hendricks on his first attempt of the evening, Cal punted shortly after. JKS’s second drive took place near the top of the fourth quarter, and bore more fruit. The Bears looked the best they had all night, matriculating the ball down the field, finding Mason Mini for a 28 yard touchdown, making the score 41-7 for Wake Forest. This would be the final score of the game.

Cal vs. Wake Forest College Football 2026: Live Fan Chat - Deacs Rout Bears, 41-7

Sat, 17 Oct 2026 22:30:39 GMT

How to watch Cal v. Wake Forest college football

When: Saturday, Oct. 17, 2026
Kick-Off Time: 7:30 p.m. Pacific
Where: Databricks Field at California Memorial Stadium in Berkeley, Calif.
TV: ESPN2
Radio: KSFO 810 AM; Channel 234 on SiriusXM Radio or Channel 958 on the SiriusXM app and website; The Varsity Network app; or the official Cal Bears YouTube channel

How to watch Cal v. Wake Forest college football online

The Cal v. Wake Forest college football game will air on ESPN2.

ESPN2 can be streamed online on the ESPN app, ESPN website, popular online TV streaming services and major paid cable or satellite TV providers’ online services.

Subscribe now

Cal v. Wake Forest college football first-half stats

Cal v. Wake Forest college football second-half and full-game stats

Non-Cal Football Live Chat - Week 7 Games!

Sat, 17 Oct 2026 16:30:08 GMT

Credit: Cal Football

There’s plenty of action going on today in the world of college football before Cal’s game tonight, discuss it here!

- Charleston Southern at Clemson 9:00 am PT / 12:00 pm ET, ACCN

- Florida at #7 Texas 9:00 am PT / 12:00 pm ET, ABC

- #16 Mississippi State at #21 LSU 9:00 am PT / 12:00 pm ET, ESPN

- #4 Ohio State at #5 Indiana 9:00 am PT / 12:00 pm ET, FOX

- Cincinnati at West Virginia 9:00 am PT / 12:00 pm ET, TNT / truTV

- Kansas at Kansas State 9:00 am PT / 12:00 pm ET, FS1

- Pitt at Boston College 9:00 am PT / 12:00 pm ET, ESPN2

- Virginia at #24 SMU 9:00 am PT / 12:00 pm ET, The CW

- #25 Northwestern at Michigan State 9:00 am PT / 12:00 pm ET, Peacock

- Florida Atlantic at Army 9:00 am PT / 12:00 pm ET, CBSSN

- Georgia State at James Madison 9:00 am PT / 12:00 pm ET, ESPNU

- Ball State at Bowling Green 9:00 am PT / 12:00 pm ET, ESPN+

- Rutgers at Maryland 9:30 am PT / 12:30 pm ET, BTN

- The Citadel at Texas A&M 10:00 am PT / 1:00 pm ET, SEC Network+

- Charlotte at Temple 10:00 am PT / 1:00 pm ET, ESPN+

- UMass at Buffalo 10:00 am PT / 1:00 pm ET, ESPN+

- Western Michigan at Central Michigan 10:30 am PT / 1:30 pm ET, ESPN+

- #6 Alabama at #14 Tennessee 12:30 pm PT / 3:30 pm ET, ABC

- Auburn at #1 Georgia 12:30 pm PT / 3:30 pm ET, ESPN

- #13 Missouri at #9 Ole Miss 12:30 pm PT / 3:30 pm ET, SEC Network

- Arizona State at #10 Texas Tech 12:30 pm PT / 3:30 pm ET, FOX

- Georgia Tech at Virginia Tech 12:30 pm PT / 3:30 pm ET, ACCN

- North Carolina at Duke 12:30 pm PT / 3:30 pm ET, ESPN2

- Penn State at Michigan 12:30 pm PT / 3:30 pm ET, CBS / Paramount+

- NIU at Wyoming 12:30 pm PT / 3:30 pm ET, The CW

- UNLV at Air Force 12:30 pm PT / 3:30 pm ET, CBSSN

- Akron at Miami (Ohio) 12:30 pm PT / 3:30 pm ET, ESPN+

- Toledo at Eastern Michigan 12:30 pm PT / 3:30 pm ET, ESPN+

- Tulsa at Rice 1:30 pm PT / 4:30 pm ET, ESPN+

- Troy at Louisiana 2:00 pm PT / 5:00 pm ET, ESPN+

- Washington State at Oregon State 3:00 pm PT / 6:00 pm ET, USA

- Arkansas at Vanderbilt 4:00 pm PT / 7:00 pm ET, ESPN2

- TCU at Baylor 4:00 pm PT / 7:00 pm ET, FS1

- Florida State at #3 Miami (FL) 4:00 pm PT / 7:00 pm ET, ESPN

- Kent State at USF 4:00 pm PT / 7:00 pm ET, ESPN+

- Nevada at North Dakota State 4:00 pm PT / 7:00 pm ET, CBSSN

- Arkansas State at Southern Miss 4:00 pm PT / 7:00 pm ET, ESPN+

- #15 Kentucky at Oklahoma 4:30 pm PT / 7:30 pm ET, SEC Network

- Elon at Stanford 4:30 pm PT / 7:30 pm ET, ACCNX

- #2 Notre Dame at #8 BYU 4:30 pm PT / 7:30 pm ET, ABC

- #18 Oklahoma State at #20 Houston 4:30 pm PT / 7:30 pm ET, FOX

- Louisville at Syracuse 4:30 pm PT / 7:30 pm ET, ACCN

- Wisconsin at #12 UCLA 4:30 pm PT / 7:30 pm ET, NBC / Peacock

- Navy at UTSA 5:00 pm PT / 8:00 pm ET, ESPNU

- Louisiana Tech at ULM 5:00 pm PT / 8:00 pm ET, ESPN+

- San Jose State at UTEP 6:00 pm PT / 9:00 pm ET, MW+

- Ohio at Sacramento State 7:00 pm PT / 10:00 pm ET, ESPN+

- #11 Utah at Colorado 7:15 pm PT / 10:15 pm ET, ESPN

- #21 Wake Forest at California 7:30 pm PT / 10:30 pm ET, ESPN2

- Fresno State at San Diego State 7:30 pm PT / 10:30 pm ET, CBSSN

- New Mexico at Hawaii 7:30 pm PT / 10:30 pm ET, FS1

- Nebraska at Oregon 8:00 pm PT / 11:00 pm ET, FOX

Weekly Writer Predictions: Cal vs. Wake Forest Football 2026

Fri, 16 Oct 2026 22:34:10 GMT

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!

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Christopher_h

Scoreline: Cal loses 17-33

WF is already talking about the ACC title game and a path to the playoffs, which means they're ripe for some Pac-12 After Dark shenanigans. However, if I predict a Cal victory, then it'll definitely not happen, so I am predicting WF cruises to victory like everyone expects and no weirdness happens at all. Wink wink.

Rob Hwang

Scoreline: Cal wins 40-24

Eff it. Let’s have some fun. If our soul is eternally dead. We might as well be grateful we have Cal Football.

Nick Kranz

Scoreline: Cal loses 20-27

On one hand, in many ways Wake Forest's profile is very similar to Virginia Tech, except with better special teams and close game luck, so it's not hard to imagine another upset of an east coast team travelling 3,000 miles.

On the other hand, Wake has been getting better with each game. It's hard for me to wrap my head around the fact that Gio Lopez has been a good quarterback, but with the way he and Wake Forest has been playing, Cal could play well and still lose this game.

Berkelium97

Scoreline: Cal wins 31-28

I am once again ready to be hurt by my misguided optimism in Cal football.

Piotr T Le

Scoreline: Cal loses 28-31

Cal has the best outing on offense all year long only to have it go for naught as Gio Lopez has his revenge for last year's loss.

Ruey Yen

Scoreline: Cal wins 21-20

JKS has his best (non-Wagner) game of the season with a new playcaller.

The Grateful Bears: 60 Years in the Making

Fri, 16 Oct 2026 21:01:47 GMT

The sun is shining in a hand held video, Tre Harrison is smiling at you through the phone leaning into the camera, pointing to the back of this week’s helmet “See, it’s in the details.”

Stacking good news on top of last week’s win against Virginia Tech, Cal Football unveiled a collaboration over a year in the making earlier this week, with the simple image of the iconic Steal Your Face logo adorning a Cal football helmet, a (nearly) wordless announcement of a collaboration with the Grateful Dead.

The details Harrison refers to indeed include Oski, flanked by the Dead’s dancing Bears. Along the strip is the thunderbolt missing from the steal your face logo (replaced by a script Cal logo, naturally), the white bolt is set on a subtle blue tie dye accenting a largely gold helmet.

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The work on this project began shortly after Chief Marketing Officer Jason Hobar came on board with the university. His team at Nike had assisted Class Trip previously with their on field collaboration with Oregon. “When I got the job at Cal, that was maybe not the first call I made, but I knew I wanted to do something around a theme game, the fact that the Grateful Dead are part of Bay Area culture, they’re from here. I just saw the natural synergy of combining culture and sports together.”

It takes few quick clicks to realize that Class Trip and the Dead have a small offering available to many fan bases around the country, but this expansive and elevated collection celebrates the band’s 60th anniversary of playing in and around Berkeley, from then-named Harmon to the Greek Theater. “The Grateful Dead have played more concerts around UC Berkeley than any other university in the United States” Hobar continued. It’s one of those things that feels true without checking. (It’s true).

Courtesy @CalAthletics

Rich Lyons appears in the photos shot of the collection at the Greek Theater. Members of the team and band had been selected, and it happened that he could make it and was an enthusiastic participant, as he has been since signing on. “This is not just athletics” explained Hobar, “this is athletics working with the chancellor and his office…nobody on this campus should be working in a silo, especially on this campus when you have so many great partners.”

The collection is also a chance to merge the Cal of it all with the Berkeley of it all, with details in the rollout including a PSA about the project on local radio station KALX. The videos continue to roll out as the week progresses. On Thursday, a surreal and self aware video found inside linebacker Kamar Mathudi in full uniform thumbing through the vinyl in the storied original location of Amoeba Records on Telegraph. It feels like Berkeley.

The Bears will don these uniforms this Saturday at Cal Memorial Stadium to face off against the Wake Forest Demon Deacons at 7:30 PSD.

Playcalling against Virginia Tech (and What Comes Next?)

Fri, 16 Oct 2026 19:01:54 GMT

Cal’s offense looked different against Virginia Tech. But how different was the playcalling?

Cal’s offense was already pass-heavy

Overall, the offensive scheme was not more pass-heavy than it had been. In Saturday’s matchup, passes accounted for roughly 62% of plays—almost exactly the same rate as through the first five games of the season.

But the raw pass rate is an ineffective (or at least incomplete) way to evaluate a play caller. Game situations may demand passing plays (e.g., facing third-and-long or running out of time). Or a play caller may prefer to be aggressive.

To distinguish between the two, I estimated a national pass-rate model using approximately 89,000 plays from the first 5 weeks of the 2026 season, excluding Cal. The model predicts the probability of a pass using play-level variables, including down, yards to go, field position, score margin, time remaining, quarter and whether the offense is at home. The difference between a team’s actual pass rate and that prediction is its pass rate over expected (PROE). A positive number means the offense threw more than other teams did in comparable situations.

By this measure, Cal’s offense was already pass-heavy. It’s PROE over the first 5 games was +11.1 percentage points and against Virginia Tech it was +9.7 points. So if anything, Cal’s situation-adjusted pass tendency was slightly less pronounced than its early-season average.

First-down performance improved (and passing was key)

The difference was when Cal chose to pass. Against Virginia Tech, the Bears passed on 21 of 32 plays (65.6%) on first-down. Those throws produced 0.61 expected points added (EPA) per play, averaged 9.6 yards and gained at least 15 yards on 6 of 21 attempts. In contrast, the first-down pass rate over the first five games of the season was only 52.3%.

Other offenses facing Cal’s first-down situations would have been expected to pass about 45.6% of the time. Cal passed 65.6% of the time, producing a first-down PROE of +20 percentage points. Over weeks 1-5, Cal’s first-down PROE was only +8.8 points.

Against Virginia Tech, first-down passes generated:

0.61 EPA per play (compared with 0.11 over weeks 1-5)
9.6 yards per play (compared with 6.7)
a median gain of 4 yards compared to 2; and
a 28.6% explosive-play rate, compared with 13.8%.

This might be some of the strongest evidence that the playcalling improved! Cal did not just throw more on first-down, but it selected and executed first-down passes that yielded both a better floor and higher ceiling: Cal raised the median outcome while nearly doubling the probability of a gain of at least 15 yards.

Cal exploited the middle of the field

Another clear difference in the passing game was where Cal threw.

Among passes whose depth and direction could be parsed from the play description, 15 of 42 targets went to the short middle of the field (35.7%) in the game against Virginia Tech. Over the first five games, only 23 of 205 classified targets (11.2%) went to the same area.

Short-middle targets against Virginia Tech averaged 8.7 yards and 0.45 EPA, whereas earlier in the season, they averaged just 4.2 yards and -0.54 EPA.

Again, the location labels are parsed from the play descriptions…so take them with a big grain of salt. But it raises an important question going forward. Teams now have evidence that Cal can attack inside on early downs. If linebackers and safeties eliminate those windows, Cal needs a plan to counter. Hopefully, Cal can keep Wake Forest’s defense guessing and exploit the adjustment!

Were the calls better matched to the situation?

A second national model provides a rough way to evaluate situational playcalling. I estimated separate expected-EPA models for passes and runs using the same observable game and play conditions. This gives a way to construct counterfactual “gains” associated with passing and rushing.

Against Virginia Tech, Cal chose the call associated with the higher value play 56.3 percent of the time (vs. 48.7 percent weeks 1-5). The average estimated opportunity cost (the estimated gap between the chosen call and the higher-valued option) also declined from 0.075 to 0.060 EPA per play.

While those numbers suggest an improvement, there are lots of factors that the model does not include, so it is worth being more circumspect: Cal’s Virginia Tech calls were more often aligned with choices that had performed better, on average, in similar observable situations.

What to look for going forward…

Will Cal continue to pass early? The purpose of early-down aggression is to avoid predictable third downs or make them manageable. So average third-down distance might be the best diagnostic of whether the sequencing is working.

More importantly, the next defense will have watched the same film. The real test of the play caller will be whether Cal already has an answer for the inevitable adjustments that will be necessary to keep the offense on track.

How to Watch Cal v. Wake Forest College Football: Live Stream and TV Channel

Fri, 16 Oct 2026 17:45:39 GMT

The California Golden Bears (3-3, 2-1 ACC) face their first nationally ranked opponent this season, when they face off against the No. 21 Wake Forest Demon Deacons (5-1, 3-1 ACC) this weekend.

Cal hosts Wake Forest for the first time in a series that dates back only to 2024, the first meeting between the two teams.

Here is how you can watch Cal v. Wake Forest college football Saturday evening.

How to watch Cal v. Wake Forest college football

When: Saturday, Oct. 17, 2026
Kick-Off Time: 7:30 p.m. Pacific
Where: Databricks Field at California Memorial Stadium in Berkeley, Calif.
TV: ESPN2
Radio: KSFO 810 AM; Channel 234 on SiriusXM Radio or Channel 958 on the SiriusXM app and website; The Varsity Network app; or the official Cal Bears YouTube channel

How to watch Cal v. Wake Forest college football online

The Cal v. Wake Forest college football game will air on ESPN2.

ESPN2 can be streamed online on the ESPN app, ESPN website, popular online TV streaming services and major paid cable or satellite TV providers’ online services.

Write for California will have a live fan stream for reactions and discussions about the game. Join the Write for California community in our live game thread and follow @WriteForCal and @WriteForCalLIVE on X for the latest from the Write for California staff.

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Write for California will not have a live online video stream of the Cal v. Wake Forest college football game.

A Write for California subscription never includes live TV streams of college football games, including Cal v. Wake Forest, or any other sports games or events.

2026 Episode 7 - Ashten Emory

Fri, 16 Oct 2026 14:00:00 GMT

In this episode Justin and Greg reflect on the recent victory over Virginia Tech, discussing the team's performance, particularly the offensive line's improvement and the role of special teams. They analyze the fourth-quarter execution that led to the win and look ahead to the upcoming challenge against Wake Forest, emphasizing the need for a strong start and effective play from the defense. Plus a conversation with running back Ashton Emory about his journey and growth as a player, the importance of team dynamics, and the chemistry within the running back room.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

DBD 2026-10-16: Wake Forest

Fri, 16 Oct 2026 08:51:33 GMT

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Bear Insider Podcast: Las Vegas Raiders QB Fernando Mendoza

Bear Insider — Fri, 16 Oct 2026 01:56:05 GMT

Cal Women’s Basketball: 2026-2027 Roster Preview

Thu, 15 Oct 2026 22:01:45 GMT

Photo Credit: Rob Hwang

In my conversation with Coach Charmin Smith from August, Coach Smith emphasized the program’s sense of family and community as a key factor in retaining players;

“We really want this to be a place where people don’t want to leave. It makes it really hard for people to take that step to enter the portal.”

To that end, Cal has four returning starters from last season. Three other returners, four high-ceiling freshman recruits, and three impactful transfer players round out a deep and balanced roster.

Barring injury, Cal’s starting lineup will be;

G Mjracle Sheppard. Senior, 9 points, 5 rebounds, 4 assists, 2 streals per game with 33 starts last season.
G Lulu Twidale. Senior, 16 points, 4 rebounds, 4 assists per game. Amongst nation leaders in 3-points made.
G Gisella Maul. Senior, 10 points, 7 rebounds, 3 assists per game. Carried the team in stretches last season.
F Taylor Barnes. Sophomore, 9 points, 5 rebounds per game with 25 starts.
C Albina Syla. Junior, transfer from Rhode Island, where she averaged 9 points and 7 assists last year. Named A-10 Tournament Most Outstanding Player.

Center

The center position may be a rotational spot between the 6’ 5” Syla, 6’ 1” returnee Naya Ojkuwu and 6’ 4” Freshman Jovana Jevtovic. Ojukwu (7 points, 3 rebounds per game) was the primary backup last season and used when Cal went with a small lineup. Syla earned the start against UCLA, with Jevtovic subbing in midway through the first period. Jevtovic brings FIBA and Euroleague experience, playing for the Serbian Under-20 FIBA team in 2025 and Sopron Basket of the Euroleague in 2025-2026.

Forward

Behind Taylor Barnes, 6’2” Freshman Zara Russell joins Ojukwu in providing size and length on the interior. Russell is one of Coach Smith’s “We love our Aussies!” recruits, representing Australia in the FIBA Under-19 tournament in 2025.

Guard

Freshman Ruby Perkins is the highlight of the incoming freshman class. Perkins was teammates with fellow Aussie Zara Russell on the 2025 U-19 team. Perkins’ is a well rounded player, averaging 4 points, 4 assists and 2 rebounds over the course of leading the U19 team to the sliver medal at the 2025 World Cup. Perkins got the starting nod against UCLA with Mjracle Sheppard resting.

Senior Shannon Dowell transferred in from Missouri, where she averaged 15 points and 6 rebounds per game for the Tigers last season. She turned the ball over 3.5 times per game last season, compared the Sheppard’s 2.5 times per game. If Dowell can limit her turnovers, she will be a major depth piece for the upcoming season and be looked to for off-the-bench scoring spark.

The ten players discussed so far will most likely garner the large majority of minutes this season. Freshman C Anna Lagonikaki, sophomore G Carly Amborn, senior G Anastasia Drousini and junior G Sophia Bowes round out the roster.

Coach Charmin Smith has had her greatest success at Cal with a team of four plus-shooting guards/forwards, joined by an anchor in the center. Two years ago, shooters Lulu Twidale, Ioanni Krimili, Marta Suarez and Kayla Smith were joined by Michelle Onyiah on the interior to lead the team to the NCAA Tournament. Last year, C Sakima Walker was joined by Twidale, Sheppard, Barnes and Puff Morris and nearly reached the tournament.

This year, Cal boasts exceptional guard and wing experience with Twidale, Sheppard, Barnes and Maul. The challenge will be in finding where the interior presence comes from. Syla, and Jevtovic are skilled but slight in build, and Ojukwu is best served as a motion forward. UCLA’s big and strong lineup caused havoc in the center on Wednesday night. If Cal can find consistent interior play, this could be a special season for the Golden Bears.

Player Most Likely to Score 40 Points: Lulu Twidale. Twidale can be a streaky shooter, and can follow a 2-of-12 night with a 10-of-12 night and be unstoppable if she gets a clean look.

Player Most Likely to Record a Triple Double: Tie, Gisella Maul and Taylor Barnes. Barnes is best used as a big wing in Coach Smith’s system. She recorded two double-doubles in points and rebounds last year. As she continues her development, I expect her to be used occasionally as a pivot forward and see an increase in assists opportunities. Gisella Maul recorded five double-doubles in points and rebounds last year, and maxed out at six assists. To reach triple digits in assists, she just needs the right gameflow where her scoring runs provide opportunities for quick passes that lead to scoring opportunities for her teammates

Player Most Important To Team Defensive Identity: Mjracle Sheppard. Sheppard is Cal’s best perimeter defender, and led the team with 71 steals last season, near the top of the conference. able to lock down the top opposing perimeter player one on one. Cal will most likely be using a committee for interior defense. Sheppard’s ability to lock down the top perimeter threat one-on-one grants some freedom to her backcourt and wing teammates to cheat a bit on interior defensive help. Rotations, defensive help and double teams become less risky knowing Sheppard is locking down a top guard or wing threat.

Most Likely Breakout player: Ruby Perkins. She got the starting nod against UCLA. It took her one half of basketball to acclimate to the college game. She was hitting shots, diving for loose balls, and showing all around grit and intensity. She was Cal’s best player in the second half. Her shot form is textbook, as well.

UCLA Observations

The defending national champions may have lost four players to the WNBA, but they reloaded with several high impact transfers and boasted a #13 preseason ranking. This matchup was bound to be a challenge for the Golden Bears.

UCLA boast four large interior players in Sienna Betts, Addy Brown, Amanda Muse and Timinea Gardner, all 6’ 2” or taller. Any drive-and-scoop action from Lulu Twidale’s eurostep or Taylor Barnes drives were quickly stuffed. Cal’s outside shot was not falling, going 0-for-10 in the first half. UCLA led 32-19 at half as Cal was held to 8-of-24 shooting.

Cal woke up in the second half, fueled by Ruby Perkins. The freshman scored 10 points in the quarter on 4/4 shooting, and Cal was able to cut the lead to 7. UCLA closed the quarter on 10-0 scoring run to lead 57-40 entering the final period.

UCLA cruised in the fourth quarter on their way to an 87-53 victory.

Cal did not have a good game. They shot poorly (31% overall, 14% from deep), were outrebounded 46-33, were outscored in the paint 46-30, and allowed too many open 3-pointers (11-of-16 from deep). For this article, I drafted the framework of the roster overview before the UCLA game. This game bore out my comments and concerns about finding consistent interior play, but Cal was outplayed across all three levels on Wednesday.

Lulu Twidale had an off night, shooting 5-of-20, including 3-of-12 from deep. She was the only Cal player to connect from long range.

Bright spots include Ruby Perkins’ hustle and readiness for this level of play. Perkins shot 4-of-8 for the game, 12 points total, and added 5 rebounds. Taylor Barnes showed solid play all around, also shooting 4-of-8 to go with a team leading 6 rebounds.

I am choosing to not read too much into this game. Coach Smith’s comments postgame were focused on the learning opportunities of facing the top options possible in this matchup and next week’s game against USC. She was encouraged by the low number of turnovers (11), and mentioned that Cal needs to execute better and making better choices, like not driving into Sienna Betts and expecting a clean look. “I think we’re a much better shooting team than we showed today. We’ll make shots. But this is what we wanted, to be tested really early and to be challenged. I just think we’ll grow from this and be better going forward.”

ACC Preseason Notes

In the recent ACC Media Preseason Poll, Lulu Twidale was selected to the Preseason All-Conference Team, finishing 10th in voting amongst the over 50 potential candidates. Twidale was the only candidate from Cal.

Cal was predicted to finish in 10th place. On my ballot, I had them in seventh. It’s hard to argue about the top four teams of Duke, Louisville, Notre Dame, and North Carolina. All four teams are in the preseason top 20, and boast a very good mix of returning players and incoming talent.

Cal is in the next tier of six teams who are looking to challenge and potentially move into that top tier. Syracuse, NC State, Cal, Miami, Clemson and Virginia are all in this group of teams that will battle for 5th-10th place. I am surprised but not shocked that Cal was selected tenth. I expect these teams will beat each other up, feed on the bottom tier (Hello, Stanford) and snipe a win or two from the top tier.