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An hour after picking up his offer from Cal, 2025 linebacker Kimar Nelson backed off his previous commitment to Purdue. The 6-foot-2, 215-pound prospect from Fort Wayne, Indiana only has three offers but all of them have come in over the last month. He immediately committed to the Boilermakers following that offer and took an official visit to NC State following an offer from the Wolfpack.

Nelson, who goes by Jashawn, is a late bloomer who put together a stellar senior season at Wayne HS with 126 tackles, 25 tackles for loss and 14.5 sacks plus an interception.

He’s got some impressive film and his skill set fits what the Bears are looking for at the position. We’ll see if he’s able to fit in a Cal visit before the early signing period but he’s someone to keep an eye on.

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Jaron Sagapolutele is Cal's top target at the quarterback position and may be the top target overall in the class right now. The Ewa Beach (Hawaii) Campbell standout signal caller is on the rise following a standout performance at the Elite 11 last week, and the Bears have made a big play for him in recent weeks. He wrapped up his June official visit schedule with a trip to Berkeley over the weekend, and the Bears made him feel like a top priority throughout the stay. That sounds to be holding a lot of weight as he now settles in to make a decision.

Sagapolutele doesn't have a set timetable for making his choice, but the Bears have positioned themselves well as he assesses his options. Boise State, Utah State and Oregon State all hosted him on official visits as well, but Cal was able to get him out for the coveted last summer visit potentially putting the Bears in great position to land his commitment that sounds like it will be coming in the not-too-distant future.

"I think the Cal visit overall was an amazing visit. They had everything. They really checked off all the boxes just in terms of their playbook, the coaching, their overall scheme and just how they are as a team. I think it was a really great visit, and I was super blessed to be able to go there."

Admittedly a somewhat random topic, but I thought it worth noting that so many of the former Pac-12 teams are now struggling (at this Week 11 in the season).

Teams without winning records:

• UW 5-5 (have lost 3 of the last 4 games)
• USC 4-5 (have lost 4 of the last 5 games)
• UCLA 4-5 (had a 5 game losing streak, but have won last 3 games)
• Utah 4-5 (on a 5 game losing streak)
• Arizona 3-6 (on a 5 game losing streak)
• Stanford 2-7 (on a 6 game losing streak)

Note: Obviously Oregon, Colorado, ASU are having really positive seasons.

Obviously, Cal has had a disappointing season so far with the four game losing streak (all heartbreaking 1 score losses)....but at least Cal has the best record at 5-4 of all CA schools in the Power 4. FYI G5 school San Jose State is at 6-3 and thus the best record for any CA school.

It also will hopefully mean that Cal (assuming they get at least six wins and qualify) should get a decent bowl game slot for Pac-12 affiliated teams.

Not sure why this has played out like it has so far. Maybe part of a bigger trend and/or each school has some unique circumstances (QB problems, new HC's, etc).

Would be curious if others have thoughts on this...

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Justin Wilcox spent time with reporters Wednesday to discuss the 2025 recruiting class but address what comes next for the Bears after the news Tuesday that Cal will be looking for a new offensive coordinator.

Just a phenomenal piece. I used to be a diehard NFL fan but lost interest over the last 5-ish years. I now wholeheartedly root for the Lions and hope this incredible run they’re on ends in a Super Bowl victory.

Jared is such a great representative of Cal. What a lineage of quarterbacks we have had here who have been counted out at one point or another, picked themselves back up, and proven themselves in the face of adversity. Fernando is next, and maybe JKS after that…

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Fernando Mendoza has claimed his third ACC Quarterback of the Week award today following his standout performance for the Bears against Stanford in Cal's 24-21 win on Saturday. Mendoza totaled 334 total yards and tossed 3 touchdowns in the victory. That included leading the 98-yard scoring drive that put the Bears ahead in the fourth quarter.

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!

Cal freshman Jeremiah Wilkinson scored the most points of any Bears player this season as his 23 points paced Mark Madsen's squad in a 78-69 win over Air Force at Haas Pavilion. Here's the game recap with comments from Wilkinson, Rytis Petraitis and associated head coach Adam Mazarei after Thursday's game.

"It felt great," Wilkinson said of his performance in Thursday's game. "I knew we got guys going down, it was gonna be my chance to step up and have a bigger role. So, I just wanted to take advantage and keep the wins rolling."

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It was a fun press conference today as the Bears now turn there attention to SMU. Fernando Mendoza was definitely trying to keep the focus on this week's game, but we still wanted to talk about the win over Stanford. Fernando plus head coach Justin Wilcox, DC Peter Sirmon, OC Mike Bloesch, DB Miles Williams and WR Jonathan Brady all spoke with reporters Tuesday to look back on Saturday but also look ahead to this week's trip out to Dallas.

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Really good stuff from our reporter AJ Alany here looking back on Saturday's game and the significance of the latest Big Game win for the Bears.

Don't know if any of y'all caught it, but on ESPN's College Gameday this morning, they discussed the play. And Stanford Steve was commenting on the highlight. At the point Dwight Garner had the ball he said "his knee was down." That precipitated a discussion about what would have happened if there was replay back then, because his knee was down.

Of all the times I've seen The Play discussed, this is the first time the commentators seemed to leave no doubt that his knee was down. Every other time, it's always not been mentioned or it was left up for debate, like you could never ever know, and the mystery is part of the mystique of The Play. When did this shift in perception start? There is an old YouTube video that uses graphic animation to show the knee was not down, but I always wondered if that was manipulated.
Login to view embedded media The video evidence seems to show the knee down when slowed. frame by frame.

But replay reviews didn't exist in 1982, and just like Don Denkinger's brutal call in the 1985 World Series, Erik Fischer not being called for holding on Nick Bosa on 3rd and 18 in the Super Bowl, The BS PI against the Bengals that helped the Rams win Super Bowl. or the phantom PI on Miami against Ohio State in the National Championship game, human error and bad calls are part of the deal.

All this said, If you were to poll college football fans over the country, how many would say:

- Cal was the rightful winner
- Stanford was robbed

FWIW, my take is you play by the rules that exist at the time (if there was replay, knee would be ruled down), and Stanford deserved to lose for the band being on the field.

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Cal is breaking out another new look this week for the matchup with Stanford as the yellow bear claw helmet makes a debut. The Bears are going yellow/blue/yellow for the first time since the San Diego State game.


Wk. 1 (UC Davis): 🔵🔵🟡
Wk. 2 (Auburn): 🟡⚪️🟡
Wk. 3 (SDSU): 🟡🔵🟡
Wk. 4 (FSU): 🔵⚪️🔵
Wk. 6 (Miami): 🔵(🐾)🔵🔵
Wk. 7 (Pitt) 🔵(🐾)⚪️🟡
Wk. 8 (NC State): 🟡 (Ⓒ)🔵⚪️
Wk. 9 (Oregon State): 🔵🔵🔵
Wk. 11 (Wake Forest): 🟡 (Ⓒ)⚪️⚪️
Wk. 12 (Syracuse): 🔵🔵🔵
Wk. 13 (Stanford): 🟡(🐾)🔵🟡

4-4 last week for 58-47-1 for the year. 0-1 for my lock of the week for 8-6 for the year. https://cal.forums.rivals.com/threads/lets-pick-the-acc-week-13-games.33204/

Home team in Italics

San Jose State by 2.4 over the Furd - This is a San Jose State home game. WTF? Furd covers?

North Carolina by 3.5 over NC State - North Carolina I guess?

Duke by 4.5 over Wake Forest - No idea. Take Wake Forest and the points.

BC by 4.5 over Pitt - BC rolls.

Miami by 10.5 over Syracuse - Syracuse?

SMU by 13.5 over Cal - I'm not sure we will be up for this game at all. If we are I expect Cal to cover. Otherwise we will get rolled. SMU isn't 2 tds better than cal, but motivation is what matters.



Non conference lock of the week: Oregon by 19.5 over UW - UW covers.

Here's my recap from today's game for the Bears against Sacramento State, which simply wouldn't go away Sunday.