Some pregame reading for tonight ...


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Here's the Cal visitor list for today's final home game as the Bears host Washington State. A good thing to get Dayton Aupiu back on campus as he's been taking visits to other schools throughout the season, most recently UCLA.

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2025
Login to view embedded media Login to view embedded media Login to view embedded media Login to view embedded media Isaiah Dillon (2025) — WR at Oxnard-Pacifica

Game Details

Who: Cal (3-6, 1-5 Pac-12) vs. Washington State (4-5, 1-5 Pac-12) | All-time series: Cal leads 48-30-5
When: 1:00 p.m. PT
Where: California Memorial Stadium | Berkeley, California
TV: ESPN2 | Beth Mowins (play-by-play), Kirk Morrison (analyst), Stormy Buonantony (reporter)
RADIO: 810 AM Justin Allegri (play-by-play), Mike Pawlawski (analyst), Kevin Danna (sideline reporter);
SiriusXM Ch. 158 or 202 SXM App 966, The Varsity App

Either the Bears or Cougars will break a losing streak today as they play at CMS. Follow along for updates and join the conversation as Cal plays its final home game of the season Saturday.

Cal is up 3 early with Aimaq heading to the line.

Jaylon has a very good feel for the game and can make good decisions so quickly. This is in stark contrast to Askew who wasted two possessions holding the ball up top and missed a wide open Jaylon both times.

Our defense is allowed wide open looks and far too many transition opportunities.

The offense is getting a good look every time Askew doesn’t bring the ball up.

I can’t imagine we are playing the style he prefers. Comments that our defense was our strong suit over the past few years while lamenting our weak offense missed the fact that our defense was “good” because we played a ball control offense that ate up time. Our defense wasn’t on the field that much and the other team had less possessions to push up the score.

Now that we have a faster paced offense, our D is getting rolled, much like it was during Dykes’ days.

Rather than losing boring 23-17 games, we are now losing giving up 40+ points.

Our Week 10 winner is @Fire Starkey with a score of 8! Next best were @UCB4LIFE with a score of 12 and @sppbears and @tluv123 with a score of 13.

Here are the updates standings through ten 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.

I certainly didn't expect USC to fire Alex Grinch on Sunday morning, so the last few days have been unexpectedly chaotic. I apologize sincerely for the delay on the recruiting breakdown -- I have an interview this morning, a Zoom call at 10:30 and then I'm putting it together for you. It will be comprehensive and have all the intel you're looking for.

In advance of tomorrow's basketball game, I'll have a basketball story for you. Matt, Maria and AJ have the rest covered!

AZ in the BIG 12 as a 100% member should be in better shape than Cal as a junior and subordinated member in the ACC when it comes to sharing media revenues

Greetings everyone! It's been a while! Figured I would make more of an effort to swing by with Cal-Stanford content and the like. I'm covering a lot of different sports at Stanford right now, which gives me more opportunities to head up to Berkeley, which is fun!

In men's soccer, Stanford and Cal have a really important soccer match on Saturday. 5:00 PM PT at Stanford. Final match of the regular season for both teams. Stanford is ranked #22 in the nation right now, but has been kinda up and down lately. They lost their most recent match to UCLA 3-1 and Cal played them tough in Berkeley a couple weeks back in a 1-1 draw. If you want to read my recap, click here. Stanford was impressed with the overall environment that Cal had with the band and then just in general, the talent that Cal has on their team. They've got a good squad this year.


P.S. I will set up a thread early next week that is dedicated to my Big Game content, also giving you all a chance to ask me any questions you have on Stanford. I kinda wanted to post something before I dropped that since it's been a while since I posted on here. I figured the soccer might attract some interest. Hope you guys are doing good!

Some thoughts as the season hits the final stretch:

The Corona (Calif.) Centennial offensive linemen remain committed to Iowa State but after a Cal offer, a visit to Berkeley is now expected:

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Cal's lone previous 2024 commit has signed with the program today on the first day of the early signing period for basketball. Jeremiah Wilkinson committed to the Bears in August over offers several other programs including Florida, Mississippi State, Butler, Ole Miss and St. Louis.

"We're very excited to have Jeremiah join the Cal family next year," Bears head coach Mark Madsen said in a statement provided by the program. "He's an explosive and dynamic scoring guard with great vision who will make an impact for us as we transition to the ACC next season. It was evident early in the recruiting process that Jeremiah is aligned with our program's core values. Jeremiah is going to be an outstanding player here at Cal, and we can't wait to have him wearing the Blue and Gold!"

4-2 last week for 28-32-2 for the year. 1-0 for my lock of the week for 7-3 for the year: https://cal.forums.rivals.com/threads/lets-pick-the-pac-12-games-week-10.32347/

Home teams in italics
Arizona by 10 over Colorado - No idea. Colorado?

UW by 9.5 over Utah - I'll take Utah and the points.

Cal vs WSU Pickem - I know WSU has struggled, but I'm going by the theory we just aren't a good football team. Our defense will make WSU's offense look competent and WSU has a much better defense than we do. I get the strength of schedule argument, but we just aren't good and I expect us to lose out. WSU wins.

Oregon State by 21 over Furd - The Furd is non terrible. Furd covers.

UCLA by 17.5 over ASU - I don't think fUCLA has the offense to cover this spread. ASU covers.

Oregon by 15 over USC - I think the rails are going to come off USC this Sat. Oregon covers.



Non conference lock of the week: Iowa State by 7 over BYU - BYU covers.

I just got back from today's practice in Gold's Gym. Due to my desire to keep a lot of what I saw to myself, I will share a few observations. Grant is 100% and showed zero signs of the cramping issues that he experienced during Monday night's game. Keonte is doing a lot of wind sprints and shooting with his uninjured right hand. Jaylon Tyson can sky and is simply the best player I have seen in a Cal jersey since Cuonzo assembled his squad. Coach Madsen acts as a player to show our bigs how to get free in the paint, even throwing a few elbows for emphasis. My buddy, Devon, told me that last Monday was the first game in which he won a game in a Cal jersey. When I said "Devin you must be joking with me", he responded by saying "seriously". I found the team chemistry last season to be very good, especially after the adversity that the players suffered (Sam Aligiki, Kuany Kunay, Lars Thiemann were all good guys and good teammates). But, the chemistry between last year's coaches and the team (and even between the coaches themselves) was lacking IMO. The BIG difference this year is that there is fantastic chemistry between not only the players, but also between the players and the coaches, as well as amongst the coaches. The practices are as intense as the Mad Dog with conditioning obviously being emphasized as well as explosiveness and constant motion on both pick-oriented offense and switching D.

A donor just posted on its Rivals board that Stanford's athletics endowment is now over a $1 Billion. If there's so much money available and there is no need for media rights revenue, why not buy into the Big Ten or go Independent? Why choose to give up money for the ACC? Makes not a lot of sense to me.

Anyway, the post made me wonder how big of an athletics endowment Cal has. Anyone here know? I'm aware of football scholarships being endowed, and maybe for some other sports and coaches, but anything that serves as a fund for the whole athletic department to tap into annually?

@Ryan Young and @Matt Moreno we haven’t heard a peep about current recruits and how they are performing. Can you guys post an update on those players with highlights? Additionally, how about a post with targets and potential class size and positional breakdown?

Cal head coach Justin Wilcox, defensive coordinator Peter Sirmon and offensive coordinator Jake Spavital met with reporters for their weekly media session earlier today looking ahead to Saturday's home finale against Washington State. Wilcox updated the status of Jaivian Thomas and others plus discussed where things stand for the Bears entering this final stretch of the regular season.

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Game Details

Cal (0-0) vs. St. Thomas (0-0)
Time: 6 p.m. PT
Location: Berkeley, California | Haas Pavilion

Watch: Pac-12 Network Bay Area | Kevin Danna (PxP) & Ben Braun (Analyst)

Listen: 810 AM & The Varsity App | Justin Allegri (PxP) & Theo Robertson (Analyst)

The new era begins tonight! Mark Madsen makes his debut as Cal’s new head coach Monday night as the Bears open the season at Haas Pavilion against the University of St. Thomas (St. Paul, Minnesota).

Join the conversation and follow along for updates as the Bears get going in the 2023-24 season.

In my eye, Wilcox is a poor coach with good leadership skills. His inability to recruit at the necessary level, make in-game adjustments, come out with strong game plans, elevate the skills of his players (lack of NFL draftees) and manage the clock (we are the worst last 4 minutes of the half team I’ve ever seen) are evidence to me of a bad coach.

On the other hand, he seems like a good leader…consistent, like-able, relatable, his players typically play hard, communicates with the donors well.

But the power of leadership skills eventually erodes when you consistently lose. His words, his personality for example no longer resonate with the majority of the fan base. The energy is gone, his strength neutered.

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Here is Maria's latest article as she breaks down the top five takeaways from today's press conferences with Justin Wilcox, Peter Sirmon and Jake Spavital.

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Santa Maria-St. Joseph forward Tounde Yessoufou has continued to climb up the rankings for the 2025 class, and he's now a top-10 prospect. The versatile 6-foot-5 prospect can play big and around the basket or step out in the perimeter giving his future coaches some flexibility. I've been watching him pretty steadily since last year, and he continues to make improvements every time I get a chance to see him in action.

Rivals national analyst Rob Cassidy recently caught up with the five-star recruit to discuss where things stand overall, break down some of the contenders and get a feel for his visit plans this season. Cal is one of the schools pushing hardest to get him out on a visit this winter, and the Bears will be a program to watch with him.

Arizona has had the early buzz with Yessoufou but he appears to be open at this stage. There has also been some behind-the-scenes talk about a potential reclassification to 2024, so that will be something to watch as well.

He's No. 24 in these clips:

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Saturday, Cal got blown out 63-19 by Oregon. This was, perhaps, not unexpected. But after games like this, stretches like this, seasons like this, fans learn not to expect the unexpected. Why should they?

The Bears haven’t had a winning season since 2019, when Justin Wilcox went 8-5 in his third year as Cal’s head coach, and haven’t once had a winning conference season under Wilcox. Since the pandemic, Cal has also lost 14 one-score games. So close — but years of close games start to get harder and harder to justify as each week passes by and mediocrity becomes the norm.

Read my column on Cal football's continuous struggles and what various options might look like going forward: