It happened again. Cal allowed a double-digit lead to evaporate in the fourth quarter as the Bears dropped their fourth consecutive game Saturday against NC State. After the game Justin Wilcox expressed plenty of the same frustrations fans have as his team now hits a crucial part of the season with the Bears feeling like they are in a bit of a tailspin to open the second half of the season.

"It sounds like a broken record, everybody's tired of hearing it. I'm tired of saying it," Wilcox said.

4-4 last week 40-30-1 for the year. 0-1 for my lock of the week for 5-4 for the year. https://cal.forums.rivals.com/threads/lets-pick-the-acc-week-8-games.33094/

Home team in Italics

Pitt by 5.5 over Syracuse - They are who we thought they were and we let them off the hook. Syracuse covers.

Louisville by 6.5 over BC - BC covers.

Virginia Tech by 10.5 over Georgia Tech - Virginia Tech?

Virginia by 4.5 over UNC - UNC has quit. Virginia.

Miami by 21.5 over Florida State - Ridiculous line. Florida State covers.

Wake Forest by 2.5 over the Furd - Furd is terrible. Wake covers.

Cal by 9.5 over Oregon State - Ridiculous line. Oregon State covers.

SMU by 11.5 over Duke - Duke covers.



Non conference lock of the week: Texas by 18.5 over Vanderbilt - Vanderbilt covers.

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Cal added a huge commitment on the women's basketball side Sunday as top-25 point guard Aliyahna "Puff" Morris picked the Bears over offers from USC, Yale, Duke, Harvard, Illinois, St. Mary's, Michigan and Mississippi State among others. The 5-foot-5 prospect from Etiwanda High School down in Southern California is currently rated as the 24-ranked prospect in the 2025 class by ESPN. She is the fifth-ranked point guard in the class and is rated by ESPN as the third-best prospect in the state behind only her teammate Grace Knox and Mater Dei guard Addison Deal.

She scored 32 points and had five steals in a showcase game at the Border League event in Las Vegas where she announced her pledge to the Bears on Sunday.

Morris is the fourth commitment in the class for head coach Charmin Smith and the Bears. Cal also holds commitments from point guard Grace McCallop, guard Isis Johnson and Texas wing Taylor Barnes, who is ranked 70th in the class by ESPN. Barnes and Johnson committed to the Bears earlier this month while McCallop gave Cal her pledge back in July.


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GAME INFO

Who: Cal (3-3, 0-23 ACC) vs. North Carolina State (3-4, 0-3)
When: 12:30 p.m. PT
Where: California Memorial Stadium | Berkeley, California
TV/streaming: ACC Network [Jorge Sedano (play-by-play), Orlando Franklin (analyst), Morgan Uber (sideline)]
Radio: 810 AM | SiriusXM: Ch. 138 or 193
All-time series: First meeting
Odds: Cal (-9.5), O/U (45.5) – via BetMGM

The Bears are back in action today as they get another afternoon game at California Memorial Stadium for the first-ever meeting with North Carolina State. The Wolfpack are losers of their last two and also are searching for their first ACC win. Cal, meanwhile, is hoping to avoid falling below .500 after dropping its last three games.

We'll have plenty of coverage for you from CMS today, so as always join the conversation and follow along for updates from today's game.

Pregame notes

• As first reported by ESPN, Cal will be without starters Jaydn Ott and Ryan McCulloch as they both miss their second week in a row with injuries. It sounds like both are at least closer to returning but just couldn't make it back in time for today's game. Tight end Corey Dyches will miss his second consecutive game as well. We'll keep an eye out for Sioape Vatikani during warmups to see if there's any status update there.

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What are our thoughts on today? You got the Bears winning this one?

Last year I predicted 10 out of 12 games correctly. Prior season have been spot on as well. So let's go!

UC Davis - Win - Could be close for a half.
Auburn - Loss - Lots of buzz out that they have a stud frosh WR and the QB is way improved. Generally they have boys up front we can't handle too.
SDSU - Win - We beat SDSU at home traditionally and this isn't a great SDSU team.
Florida State - Loss - Line mismatch
Miami - Loss - Not huge on Miami per se. I could see a victory, but again I think on the lines they are just too superior.
Pitt - Loss - Pitt is good at home and should be improved this year. Coin flip. Wilcox's annual road turd.
North Carolina State - Loss - NC State always has big boys up front.
Oregon State - Win - OSU just has lost too much.
Wake Forest - Win - Like Pitt also concerned about this game, but Wake was terrible last year.
Syracuse - Win - Not a ton of talent at Syracuse.
Stanford - Win - I think the furd will be improved, but not improved enough to win.
Smu - Win - I know they got a lot of NIL, but i will believe a non power 5 team coming in and being good immediately when I see it. Also not an intimidating place to play.

7-5

6 or 7 wins seams like the most likely. Our defense will be improved over last year, but will the offense? I'm not so sure.

It’s clear he’s not having fun. We’re not having fun. How about a mutual parting of ways and he can go fly fishing in the Idaho mountains with all the money he’s made from us already!

Justin Wilcox, Fernando Mendoza and Teddye Buchanan spoke with reporters after Saturday's loss.

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All video from AJ Alany

@Sebastabear , love the work that you and Cal Legends are doing out there. I know you all are as disgusted with the results as the rest of us are. Is there anyway we can leverage NIL pressure to move on from Wilcox ASAP?

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This was reported earlier today by ESPN, but Cal running back Jaydn Ott is in fact out for today's game for the Bears. They will also be without Ryan McCulloch and Corey Dyches again today. At this point, you have to wonder if Cal just holds out Ott until after the bye week giving him extra time to get healthy.

Put your official score predictions here. Currently Cal -10 with an O/U of 46.5.

Sounds like it might be the end of the road for Tyrone Wallace. He’s left BC Zalgiris for personal reasons and is contemplating retirement. Sounds like he’s been dealing with an injury.

Read more about that here.

Cal is back at home this week, and that means another opportunity to host recruits for the Bears.

It was one of the biggest in-season visit weekends the last time Cal hosted a game with Miami in town. It will be a bit more subdued this week, but there are still two important prospects who will be in the stands Saturday when the Bears square off with NC State.

The group is highlighted by one of the top prospects in the 2026 class.

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Columbus (Ga.) Carver junior edge rusher Tristian Givens will be making his way to Cal for the weekend to take in the game and experience the campus environment. The 6-foot-4 prospect is currently rated as a four-star recruit and No. 85 overall in the Rivals100 for 2026. Georgia has not been an area the Bears have dipped into all that often as of late, but it is a talent-rich part of the country.

As you would expect for a top-100 recruit, Givens has a massive offer list with some of the top schools in the country already involved. Recruiting staffer Marcus Griffin has built a connection with the elite edge rusher, and that has helped bring Cal into the picture. Washington and USC are some of the West Coast programs that have offered Givens while he also holds offers from the likes of LSU, Miami, Auburn, Tennessee, Florida, Louisville, Florida State and Texas A&M among others.

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In the 2025 class, College of San Mateo outside linebacker Odera Okaka will also be one of the top recruits visiting the Bears this weekend as he returns to CMS to see Cal in action once again. The 6-foot-4 prospect from Antioch has continued to gain attention from programs around the country since Cal entered with an offer back in August. Penn State, Mississippi State, West Virginia and Boise State are schools on his offer list.

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Here are a few others expected to be in attendance on Saturday

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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.