Cal’s next road trip comes with an early alarm.
The ACC announced Monday that California’s October 24 matchup at 24th-ranked SMU will kick off at 9 a.m. Pacific time, putting the Bears on the field at 11 a.m. in Dallas. That means Cal will be dealing with a morning start in local time against a Mustang team that has made life difficult at home.
Cal is 3-3 overall and 2-1 in the ACC after beating Virginia Tech 25-20. Before the Bears even get to SMU, they’ll have a night game of their own this week, hosting 21st-ranked Wake Forest on Saturday at 7:30 p.m.
Then comes the fast turnaround and the shift in routine.
SMU is 4-1 overall and 2-1 in conference play, and the Mustangs have been a force at home. They’re 3-0 in Dallas this season and went 5-1 at home last year, with their only home loss coming in double overtime against Baylor.
Since joining the ACC with Cal and Stanford before the 2024 season, SMU has not lost a conference home game. The Mustangs also haven’t dropped a conference home game in any league since 2022.
Cal did beat SMU 38-35 in Berkeley last season, but the Bears’ last trip to Dallas ended badly. SMU rolled past Cal 38-6 in 2024.
The Mustangs have also settled into their own unusual schedule this week, hosting Virginia on Saturday in an 11 a.m. Dallas-time kickoff. They enter that game on a two-game winning streak after a 41-31 road loss to Louisville on September 19.
For Cal, the immediate focus remains Wake Forest, which moved into the top 25 this week for the first time in four years.
The Bears are also waiting on the status of quarterback Jaron-Keawe Sagapolutele, running back Adam Mohammed and safety Kingston Lopa, all of whom missed the Virginia Tech game. Their availability this week remains uncertain.
In Other News...
Cal Faces One Huge Question Before Another Tough Home Test
Cals upset of Virginia Tech gave the Bears a much-needed lift, but it also set up another difficult home assignment with far less certainty attached to it. Wake Forest arrives ranked No. 21 and carrying the profile of a team that has handled ACC competition well, while Cal is trying to build on one of its best wins of the season and keep momentum from getting lost in the shuffle.
The bigger question for the Bears is whether some of their most important pieces can be back in the lineup. Quarterback Jaron-Keawe Sagapolutele and safety Kingson Lopa were nearly cleared last week and are now being watched closely heading into another test against a team that has been piling up quality wins. Even with the confidence that comes from the Virginia Tech result, Cals margin for error is thin with a 9.5-point underdog standing across from it. [Read more 🡒]
Cal Still Has One Big Problem With A Brutal Stretch Ahead
Cal left Blacksburg with another sign that this season is moving in a different direction than last year, improving to 3-3 overall and 2-1 in ACC play after beating Virginia Tech. There is more stability, better results and a sense that the Bears are at least competing in games they were not consistently handling a season ago, even as the same familiar issues keep showing up in stretches.
The next month will test how real that progress is, because the schedule tightens quickly with ranked opponents and multiple road trips ahead. Cal still has to clean up its rushing offense and hold up defensively against better teams, and the quarterback situation adds another layer of uncertainty as the Bears navigate the stretch run. [Read more 🡒]
Cal Finally Found A Reason For Hope Up Front
Cals offense got a much-needed lift up front in the Bears 25-20 victory over Virginia Tech, where the offensive line drew praise for the way it handled the moment. Center Bastian Swinney and the rest of the front gave quarterback Jackson Brousseau the kind of clean pocket that had been missing, and the payoff was obvious in a passing game that finally had room to breathe.
The improvement carried added weight after the rough outing against UNLV, when the line was under plenty of scrutiny. Swinney pointed to mindset and leadership as the biggest reasons the group steadied itself this week, and for Cal, that mattered as much as anything else in a win that offered some real hope for what the Bears can be with protection holding up. [Read more 🡒]