California is heading east for its ACC opener, and the first conference test brings a rare road trip to Syracuse on Saturday.
The Golden Bears will face the Orange at 12:30 p.m. PT / 3:30 p.m.
ET at the JMA Wireless Dome in Syracuse, New York. It will be Cal’s first game on Syracuse’s home turf in nearly 60 years, and the matchup doubles as the fourth meeting all-time between the programs and only their second conference game against each other.
Syracuse holds a 2-1 edge in the series. The most recent meeting came on November 11, 2024, when the Orange beat Cal 33-25 in Berkeley in the first conference contest between the schools. Before that, the teams had only played a two-game series in 1967 and 1968, with each side winning at home.
Cal comes in at 0-1 overall and 0-0 in the ACC after its season opener against UCLA, while Syracuse is 1-0 and also 0-0 in league play.
The Bears’ offense got a strong start from Adam Mohammed, who piled up career highs across the board in his Cal debut. He carried 28 times for 120 yards and a touchdown, and also caught seven passes for 46 yards. That opening effort put him second in the ACC in average rushing yards per game, behind Duke’s Nate Sheppard, who had 227 rushing yards in week one.
Mohammed arrived in Berkeley with plenty of attention already attached. He was placed on both the 2026 Doak Walker Award Watch List and the Paul Hornung Award Watch List before the season.
In 2025 at Washington, he ran for 523 yards and five touchdowns on 116 carries and added 17 receptions for 138 yards in 13 games. He was also rated as high as the sixth running back in the 2026 transfer portal by both 247Sports and On3.
Quarterback Jaron-Keawe Sagapolutele also wasted no time making noise in his sophomore debut. Against UCLA, he completed 24 of 41 passes for 271 yards and two touchdowns, bringing his career touchdown total to 20.
He also stretched his streak of 200-yard passing games to 14 straight, tying the NCAA record for most consecutive 200-yard passing performances to open a college career. Houston’s David Piland matched that mark across the 2010-12 seasons, though he did not play in 2011.
Cal’s receiving group had its own productive opener. Senior wideout Ian Strong led the way with four catches for 94 yards, including a 49-yard reception.
His yardage total ranked eighth in the ACC after week one. Transfer receiver Chase Hendricks added his first touchdown as a Bear and finished with six catches for 66 yards.
Tight end Mason Mini continued his connection with Sagapolutele, catching four passes for 58 yards and scoring his fifth career touchdown pass while averaging 14.5 yards per catch.
Strong and Hendricks were both named to the 2026 Biletnikoff Award Preseason Watch List, making Cal one of 10 FBS schools with at least two players on the list. The pair were among 45 receivers recognized and were also rated by PFF as the highest-ranked ACC wide receiver duo in preseason.
On defense, senior lineman Derek Wilkins made his presence felt by batting down two passes against UCLA. Those two pass breakups are tied for second-most in the ACC after week one. Wilkins had eight passes defended in 2025, the most by a Cal defensive lineman in recorded history, and he finished last season as the ACC’s highest-ranked defensive lineman in pass breakups while also being the only defensive lineman in the conference’s top 25 in passes defended.
The Bears also added to the stat sheet in other ways. Redshirt sophomore defensive back Kingston Lopa picked off his first career interception in his first game as a Bear. The transfer from Oregon was rated the nation’s No. 8 safety in the 2026 transfer portal by 247Sports.
Senior defensive lineman Nate Burrell notched his first sack since Oct. 5, 2024, against Miami when he got to UCLA’s quarterback in the opener. Burrell now has 5.5 career sacks after missing all of last season because of injury, and he is in line for his 40th game played at Cal this weekend.
Senior defensive back Daniel Harris also made an impact in his Cal debut, recording a sack for an eight-yard loss. It was the first sack of his career. Harris transferred from Georgia, where he appeared in seven games and totaled the same number of tackles as a 2025 junior, and played in 13 games as a sophomore with 22 tackles and three pass breakups.
Saturday’s game will be shown on ACC Network with Jorge Sedano on play-by-play, Rodney McLeod Jr. as analyst and Kendra Douglas reporting from the sideline. Radio coverage will be available on 810 AM with Justin Allegri, Mike Pawlawski and Ben Ross, along with Sirius XM Channel 258, the Sirius XM app, The Varsity App and a YouTube live stream.
In Other News...
Cals Best Grades After UCLA Loss Came From An Unexpected Place
Pro Football Focus review of Cals performance after the loss to UCLA surfaced an interesting mix of familiar and unexpected names near the top of the grade sheet. Running back Adam Mohammed was heavily involved offensively, piling up 120 rushing yards and adding seven catches, but his overall mark came in at 68.3 because of a low pass protection grade. Even so, he was part of a group of five Cal players who finished above 70 in PFFs evaluation, a list that also included safety Kingston Lopa and offensive tackles Frederick Williams III and Jimothy Lewis.
The grading split hints at how uneven Cals night was, with some of the better individual showings coming from spots that dont always draw the most attention. Lopa was among the defenders who stood out in the postgame charting, while the offensive line had at least a couple of players earning solid reviews despite the loss. For a team still sorting through what carried over and what fell apart against UCLA, the film grades offered one more reminder that the most encouraging performances did not always come from the places fans might have expected. [Read more 🡒]
Cal Already Faces Early Pressure To Fix One Troubling Problem
Cals season opener left plenty for Tosh Lupoi and his staff to sort through, and the conversation after the 45-24 loss to UCLA centered less on the final score than on the Bears execution and consistency. Lupoi took responsibility for the performance and made clear the fix has to come from both coaches and players as Cal turns the page toward an ACC matchup with Syracuse.
The concern is bigger than just an opening-night setback, because the Bears now have to show they can clean up the details quickly against a different kind of opponent. California already knows the margin for error is thin, and with Syracuse next on the schedule, the pressure is on to turn the coaching staffs evaluation into something more tangible on the field. [Read more 🡒]
Cal Enters ACC Opener With Rare Outside Respect
Syracuses ACC opener against Cal comes with a little more national intrigue than usual, and not just because it is the first league meeting between the programs. On Monday, Orange coach Fran Brown spent part of his press conference highlighting what Cal brings to the matchup, specifically singling out quarterback Jaron-Keawe Sagapolutele as a talented young player and noting the Bears competitiveness under first-year coach Tosh Lupoi.
Browns comments landed as a reminder that Cal is arriving in the conference with at least one opponent already viewing it through a cautious lens. He pointed to Lupois long coaching background, including his time under Nick Saban at Alabama, and credited the Bears staff for shaping a team Syracuse will need to be ready for right away, especially with a quarterback whose upside has already caught the attention of a league opponent. [Read more 🡒]