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The Cal video team has been killing it with these videos lately

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Here's the Week 8 uniform combination for the Bears as they take on NC State on Homecoming weekend in Berkeley

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Either Cal or NC State will come away from Saturday's game with its first ACC win this season, and both are hoping to avoid continuing losing streaks. The Bears are back in Berkeley on Saturday and they will square off with a team that has had some similar issues as of late. It's the first time Cal and NC State will meet one another on the football field, and Ryan and I have a preview of the matchup as part of our discussion in this week's podcast episode.

4-2 last week for 36-26-1 for the year. 0-1 for my lock of the week for 5-3 for the year. https://cal.forums.rivals.com/threads/lets-pick-the-acc-week-7-games.33059/

Home team in Italics

Virginia Tech by 8.5 over BC - BC I guess?

Duke by 3.5 over Florida State - FSU

Clemson by 20.5 over Virginia - Virginia?

Uconn by 1.5 over Wake Forest - What an embarrassment. Wake Forest wins.

Miami by 4.5 over Louisville - They are what we thought they were and we let them off the hook. Louisville.

Cal by 10.5 over NC State - NC State is going to cover. I actually wouldn't be shocked to see a straight out loss by Cal.

Notre Dame by 11 over Georgia Tech - ND?

SMU by 15.5 over Stanfurd - Furd covers.

Non conference lock of the week: Oregon by 28.5 over Purdue - Short week after the upset on the road is easy money. Purdue covers easily.

In our latest Q&A with the opposing reporter, The Wolfpack Central's Jacey Zembal joins me to discuss what Cal should expect this weekend when Dave Doeren brings his NC State squad to Berkeley.

I attended the full and officiated scrimmage today and was impressed with the overall talent that we have and our team's obvious good chemistry. Our coaching staff of Mark, Maz, Ammorow, Ken, Matt and Jarred really teaches our players constantly and seems to be putting in place more complex sets on both ends of the court. The Blue team (presumed starters) were Maddy, Andrei, Rytis, OJ and Jovan. The Gold team was Lee, BJ, Christian, Jeremiah and Spencer. To illustrate our depth, the bench Gold team won the scrimmage in a highly contested match (I was worried about a few players getting hammered by not so friendly fire). We do not have a real go-to player like JT was last season. OJ can get way-way up with a fantastic ability to sky and produced the OMG dunk of the day as he moved like a lightning bolt along the baseline. Jeremiah is a star in the making and does not look like a frosh (and may have the best 3 point stroke of the team). Andrei and Rytis are just solid and hustle constantly. Jovan is a very heady PG at age 25 but is small which could be a problem when he has to match up with much bigger PGs in the ACC, Mady and Lee give us the best rim protection in many years, possibly since Leon Powe was with us. I see an 8-9 rotation with several backups in the event of injuries that will be decent.

USA Today updated its database of coaches salaries and buyouts on Wednesday.

At $4.6 million per year, Justin Wilcox is the 10th highest-paid coach in the ACC and the 45th highest-paid coach in college football. His buyout is currently at $15,912,500 as of Dec. 1. Wilcox has a max bonus of $900,000 and he made $230,000 in bonuses last year.

Georgia's Kirby Smart is the highest paid head coach in football with an annual salary of $13,003,000. If he's fired before Dec. 1, Smart's buyout is currently at $118,083,333 (not a typo).

Clemson's Dabo Swinney is the highest-paid coach in the ACC at $11,008,575 with a $60,000,000 buyout.

And if you're wondering. Yes, many of us did go into the wrong business.

Justin Wilcox speaking about the kicking situation today called it "day to day" as Derek Morris gets his opportunity to try and unseat Ryan Coe as the starter. Wilcox says they are making all the resources available to Coe as he tries to work through his on-field struggles and there will be a determination made late in the week about who the starter will be against NC State.

Our Week 5 winner is @febfeb with a score of 17! Next best was @tluv123 with a score of 18.

Our Week 6 winner is @hwdake with a score of 13! Next best was @CMBear with a score of 16.

Here are the updates standings through six weeks. Remember, after Week 4 we 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). The bold scores are the scores that have been dropped.

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The makings of a big weekend against the Panthers? 🤔

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Cal has been voted to finish 16th in its new league after the ACC preseason media poll was released Tuesday afternoon. The Bears garnered 206 points to finish ahead of Stanford (165) and Boston College (116). Duke earned 42 of 54 first-place votes to finish atop the poll while UNC picked up 11 first-place votes and Wake Forest one to lock up the Nos. 2 and 3 spots in the poll, respectively.

North Carolina's RJ Davis was picked as the Preseason ACC Player of the Year with Duke freshman Cooper Flagg (10 votes), Wake Forest's Hunter Sallis (3) and Stanford's Maxime Raynaud (1) rounded out that group.

In a really surprising move, Cal freshman guard Jeremiah Wilkinson was the only player keeping Flagg from being a unanimous pick for the Preseason ACC Rookie of the Year honor. Wilkinson garnered a single vote for the award while Flagg had the other 53.

None of the new programs in the ACC (Cal, Stanford, SMU) had a player selected to the preseason all-conference first or second teams.

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The California Legends collective has announced it raised $2.5 million NIL funds as part of its ESPN College Gameday campaign.

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Here's Justin Wilcox's press conference from today ahead of this week's matchup with the Wolfpack. I'll have the rest posted in just a little while.

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Cal will have three straight afternoon kickoffs as the Oregon State matchup on Oct. 26 has been set for 1 p.m. in Berkeley. That follows the 12:30 p.m. PT kickoffs against Pitt last Saturday and this week against NC State at home.

The Nov. 8 matchup against Wake Forest on the road we already know will kick off at 5 p.m. PT as a Friday matchup.

Ken Pomeroy has released his preseason rankings and Cal checks in at No. 135 on the list. Pomeroy is not high on the Bears as that is last in the ACC. Cal's new league has five teams in the top 50 — No. 2 Duke, No. 14 UNC, No. 24 Clemson, No. 38 Pitt and No. 44 Wake Forest.

I mean I know nc state sucks but has anyone actually watched our games?

A look at some big names here:

The Bears have now lost three consecutive games by a combined 8 points, and the Bears will continue to have to search for answers as they head back home still looking for their first ACC win.

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Game info

Who: Cal (3-2, 0-2 ACC) at (5-0, 1-0)
When: 12:30 p.m. PT
Where: Acrisure Stadium | Pittsburg(h), Pennsylvania
TV/streaming: ESPN [Dave Flemming (play-by-play), Brock Osweiler (analyst), Stormy Buonantony (sideline)]
Radio: 810 AM | SiriusXM: 371
All-time series: Pitt leads 3-2 (last meeting: Oct. 1, 1966 - Cal win, 30-15)
Odds: Pitt (-3.5), O/U (57.5)

The time has come for the Bears to head back east for a its first meeting against Pitt since 1966. The Panthers lead the all-time series but plenty of things have changed since the last time these two programs met. The Panthers head into the matchup looking to remain unbeaten while the Bears are looking for their first ACC victory following losses to Florida State and Miami by a combined six points.

As always, I invite you to join in the conversation as today's game plays out, and I'll post any pregame notes below once anything pertinent comes up.

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Put your official game predictions here. Currently at Pitt -3.5 with an O/U of 58.5.

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Had some technical difficulties out of my control but finally got this week's podcast posted, and Maria and I dive into this week's matchup against Pitt plus take a look back at a pretty magical Saturday for the Bears with ESPN College Gameday in Berkeley for the first time. Spotify is not playing nice right now with our podcast host so I will swap it out as soon as it uploads there.

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Not sure I would've gone with the bear claw again after a loss, but maybe it gets the bad juju off if they can get a win. Here's this week's uniform combo for Cal for its matchup at Pitt on Saturday.