Login to view embedded media
m

Login to view embedded media
Login to view embedded media
Cal adds its third 2025 commitment tonight as Texas cornerback Kaden Cook (Round Rock - Stony Point) has announced his pledge to the Bears. He took multiple visits to Berkeley throughout the process including being on campus for the Auburn game. That is shaping up to be a productive weekend for Justin Wilcox's program as he is not going to be the last visitor from that day to make the call for the Bears.

Arizona State and Texas State are his other early offers. He visited ASU, Houston and Baylor before coming to his decision as well. Cal offered him in January and had him on campus in the spring. Tre Watson and Terrence Brown have led his recruitment for the Bears.


Login to view embedded media

After last week's loss against Washington, Cal's quarterback frenzy has been at the forefront of discussion.

While Cal was obviously going to face a tough challenge going up against one of the most prolific offenses in the country, it’s truly impossible to ignore Cal’s play at quarterback. The coaching staff picked NC State transfer Ben Finley to start over TCU transfer Sam Jackson V — and oh, how that backfired.

In a column, I write how Cal's indecision regarding its starting quarterback is hurting the Bears — and a decision needs to be made sooner rather than later.

Lol… Trojans just made my card this weekend

Login to view embedded media

3-3 last week for 14-16-1 for the year, 1-0 for my lock of the week for 3-1 for the year: https://cal.forums.rivals.com/threads/lets-pick-the-pac-12-games-week-4.32250/

Home teams in italics
Oregon State by 3 over Utah - Utah is better.

USC by 22 over Colorado - SC's D is a bad. Colorado covers.

Cal by 12 over ASU - Never bet on a wilcox team with big spreads against shitty teams. ASU covers.

Oregon by 27 over Furd - Who knows? Furd covers.

UW by 17.5 over Arizona - UW rolls.



Non conference lock of the week: Michigan by 17.5 over Nebraska - Michigan covers.

Cal opening at -12 favorite

The Niners signed Tonges to their practice squad today.

Here are today's videos from the Wednesday Cal player media session with QBs Sam Jackson V and Ben Finley plus new starting kicker Mateen Bhaghani. Jackson and Finley provide their thoughts on the continuing quarterback uncertainty for the Bears while Bhaghani discusses his thoughts on replacing Michael Luckhurst on field goals and PATs.

Login to view embedded media
Login to view embedded media
Login to view embedded media

Ducks are skinning some Buffalo's right now..... maybe the shine is off Deion...

On today's new depth chart, Mateen Bhaghani has been moved to the top placekicker position ahead of Michael Luckhurst for the first time. Justin Wilcox says the freshman "deserved" that opportunity. He will handle PATs and field goals while Luckhurst will still be the kickoff man for the Bears.

- Ben Finley did not practice today but Wilcox says the expectation is that he is back at practice tomorrow. Fernando Mendoza took over Finley's reps at practice today. Sam Jackson V remains at the top of the depth chart this week with an "or" separating the two.

- All other top injured players are expected to play Saturday, according to Wilcox. That includes Xavier Carlton, Trond Grizzell and Taj Davis.

- Tennessee transfer RB Justin Williams-Thomas is practicing for the first time with the Bears this week. Wilcox is unsure when he will get his chance to get on the field because he has not yet practiced before this. Still, he is in pads and working with the team this week.

After a tough loss to Washington last Saturday, Cal is looking to bounce back against Arizona State in its Pac-12 home opener. At Tuesday’s media availability, Cal’s coaching staff gave updates regarding the situations at kicker and quarterback, two positions that Cal has been struggling with for the first four weeks.

Heading into Week 5 of the season, head coach Justin Wilcox, OC Jake Spavital and DC Peter Sirmon talked about what the Bears need to adjust heading into the ASU matchup and gave the media some crucial updates including injuries on the team and the state of the running back room, as well as, of course, the dilemma Cal finds itself in at quarterback.

Read about my five takeaways from Tuesday's media availability:

Posting this from Sebastabear's post on TOS:

Cal athletics has survived. More than survived, we have, despite our own missteps over lo these past decades, gotten ourselves into a conference with new and interesting schools in fun places and with excellent academics. I can't wait to visit all of them.

I have thoughts on why this unfolded as it did and what I wish we'd done differently. I also have thoughts on what we need to change. I'm skipping all of that because I know it will just degenerate into "XYZ person is an idiot, hates our revenue sports and his/her/their mother dresses them funny." We can talk about all that later. We need a three-day moratorium on complaining. What we need to do instead is make a loud and emphatic statement to the world that CAL IS HERE TO PLAY!!!

How can we do that? Well we can use the only currency that means anything. Which is actual currency. I want to raise as much money as possible in the next 72 hours for the California Legends Collective (CAlegends.com). As part of that effort, Cal legends Stephanie and Ron Rivera, my wife and I, and Lance Cooper who is our most generous supporter and has been the absolute bedrock of our efforts for multiple Cal sports, have agreed to pool our funds and match up to $500k in whatever additional donations we receive in that time frame. So if you put in $10 or $100,000 the three of us will collectively match it dollar for dollar up to $500,000.

I want the story out there to be talking about how Cal fans raised $1 million in three days (honestly I'm really hoping for more) and how it demonstrates that the ACC didn't make a mistake. That yes, the Cal fanbase is every bit as capable and engaged as we keep saying. That a new day has dawned for Cal athletics and this is just the beginning of our efforts to not only try to be competitive but to actually win championships. Orange Bowl here we come!!!

Stanford, SMU and us moving to the ACC will be national news for 72 hours, but not much more than that. I want every story that gets written starting tomorrow to talk about how much money we raised for NIL immediately after the move was made. It's the best way we fans have to start shifting this narrative, because one thing we've learned through this is that the world believes we have criminally neglected our revenue sports. We need to change that perspective. We can talk about the Certificate program Cal created, and the Caliber Fund to massively bolster our football spending, and the nutrition center, and the academic support, and the recruiting resources, etc., etc. until we're blue in the face but it's an echo chamber in here. No one outside Cal knows about these investments and we have suffered because of that.

Cal fans don't care about sports? They just added $1m to their NIL.

Cal will never be competitive? They just added $1m to their NIL.

Cal fans don't care about being in the ACC? They just added $1m to their NIL.

So this is finally our chance to show the trolls and the media pundits they were wrong in a way that brooks no discussion. We don't need to tell them they were wrong. We need to show them. We fans need to do our part to FINALLY pour some of the needed resources into our major sports to make sure when the realignment carousel comes around again in three years we won't be a "bubble team." Because mark my words, we have gotten a new lease on life but it's temporary. And realignment is absolutely happening again within this decade. If we don't make the necessary changes, no one is picking us up next time. All our glorious history and all our athletes competing against the top competition in one of the most beautiful venues in college sports will be gone. We're not getting another shot at this

If you have ever considered giving to NIL but haven't yet gotten around to it, now is the time. If you've given already (thank you!) but didn't give everything you could, now is the time. If you've never wanted to give to NIL and didn't believe in it philosophically, I hope we've done enough at California Legends to change your mind. To show that we can both do things the right way AND succeed in the transfer portal game (please note our top 20 nationally ranked football portal class and our top 10 nationally ranked men's basketball portal class). But most importantly, if you've become complacent about the state of Cal sports, if you've come to believe nothing will ever change and if you don't see a way to personally impact the outcome, NOW IS YOUR MOMENT! Be part of the solution. Starting now.

https://calegends.com/calegendsdonate/https://calegends.com/calegendsdonate/

This about sums it up.

Thought I start another one of these threads to talk all things NFL.

All I have to say is thank gawd for my Niners for giving me some good football to cheer for… especially after last night’s Wilcox sh*tshow.

Also shout out to Goff for last Thursday’s big win against the Chiefs. Could the Lions be a sneaky pick to win their division?

There were some technical difficulties last night with the postgame video, but Cal has now posted its videos of the press conference. Here's what Justin Wilcox, Jackson Sirmon and Jeremiah Hunter had to say after the loss to Washington.

Login to view embedded media
Login to view embedded media
Login to view embedded media

Game Details

Who: Cal at No. 8 Washington (Huskies lead all-time series 56-41-4)

When: 7:30 p.m.

Where: Husky Stadium | Seattle, Washington

TV: ESPN Dave Flemming (play-by-play), Brock Osweiler (analyst), Kayla Burton (reporter)

RADIO: 810 AM Justin Allegri (play-by-play), Mike Pawlawski (analyst), Kevin Danna (sideline reporter); SiriusXM Ch. 104 or 202 SXM App 965, The Varsity App

It is once again game day! The Bears are back in action with a big opportunity in front them tonight against No. 8 Washington up in Seattle. We'll have updates throughout the game, and we invite you to join the conversation throughout the night as Cal looks to open up Pac-12 play with an upset.

That’s the thread

(except for giving to NIL. We should still do that — especially the really rich people)

Our Week 3 winners were @CaliDrank, @tluv123, and @joni.a with a perfect score on their guess of Cal 31 - Idaho 17.

Here are the updates standings through three weeks. Remember, after Week 4 we’ll drop each person’s two worst scores from the average provided they have participated all four weeks (or drop one score if a week has been missed).

3-3 last week for 11-13-1 for the year, 1-0 for my lock of the week for 2-1 for the year. https://cal.forums.rivals.com/threads/lets-pick-the-pac-12-games-week-3.32227/

Home teams in italics

Oregon by 21 over Colorado - I don't think colorado is great and hunter being out hurts them a lot, but I also don't think oregon is overly amazing either. Colorado covers?

Utah by 4.5 over UCLA - I just don't think UCLA's offense is very good. Bet the under. Utah covers.

Oregon State by 2.5 over Washington State - Oregon State is just better.

Arizona by 10.5 over the Furd - Who the hell knows. The Furd?

USC by 33.5 over ASU - ASU's given up right? USC covers.

UW by 21 over Cal - I don't think our pass D is very good and I think it will be exposed in this game. UW covers.



Non conference lock of the week: Ohio State by 3.5 over ND - ND Covers.

After three weeks of nonconference play, Cal is set for its first Pac-12 opponent: Washington. Facing the No. 8 team in the country will certainly be a test for the Bears, especially after an up-and-down first three weeks.

Cal had a decisive 58-21 win against North Texas Week 1, but slowed down against Auburn and Idaho. Going up against one of the most prolific teams in the country, this will be a chance to see whether the Bears can play ball in what is a very tough conference, especially on the road. Without a set starting quarterback heading into Saturday, the Bears still face many question marks heading into the beginning of Pac-12 play.

With an additional level of sentimentality as Cal begins its conference farewell tour, here are the top storylines heading into the upcoming matchup:

Please justin wilcox do not lose to an fcs team for the first time in cal history.

Jaydn Ott was back at practice today after missing Saturday's game. Justin Wilcox says the expectation, again, is that he will play when the team heads up to Seattle.

That is currently not sounding like the case for defensive lineman Ethan Saunders, who Wilcox says is "week to week" with the injury that kept him out of the game against Idaho.

Starting nickel Matthew Littlejohn is expected back as well. At this point Wilcox says the expectation is he will play against the Huskies.

One interesting note from today's media availability is that the staff is not set on Sam Jackson V as its starting quarterback. The "or" has been moved back up the depth chart between Jackson and Ben Finley, and that wasn't a mistake. Wilcox and Jake Spavital expressed today that they still need to see more consistency from the position to settle on one guy over the other, and both coaches left open the possibility of playing both this weekend.