Cal faces a steep challenge this Saturday, and the oddsmakers aren’t giving the Bears much room to breathe.
After pulling off a 25-20 upset of Virginia Tech in Berkeley last week, Cal has landed in the underdog role again at home. This time the opponent is Wake Forest, a team that arrived in the AP top 25 on Sunday for the first time since 2022 and is now sitting at No. 21.
As of Sunday evening, both FanDuel and DraftKings had Wake Forest favored by 9.5 points. FanDuel had originally listed the Bears as an 8.5-point underdog earlier in the day before the number moved another point.
Cal enters the game at 3-3 overall and 2-1 in ACC play, and the Bears are coming off what has been the biggest win so far in Tosh Lupoi’s young head coaching run. Even more impressive, they managed it without starting quarterback Jaron-Keawe Sagapolutele, top running backs Adam Mohammed and Carter Vargas, and standout safety Kingson Lopa.
Backup quarterback Jackson Brousseau helped carry the load, Pat McCann’s play-calling stayed sharp, and the defense delivered a strong enough effort to finish the job.
The Bears are hoping for better health this week. Sagapolutele and Lopa could be back against Wake Forest, and both were close to playing against Virginia Tech. Mohammed, who leads the team with 336 rushing yards, was listed as questionable for most of last week and may also be in line to return.
That would matter against a Wake Forest team that has emerged as the ACC’s surprise story in Jake Dickert’s second season. The Deacons were picked to finish 13th in the conference in the preseason poll, but their only loss has come against Miami, and they pushed the Hurricanes harder than anyone else has so far in a 33-20 Miami win.
Wake Forest followed that by beating then-No. 16 Louisville 30-27 on the road, then rolled past Stanford and North Carolina Sate by a combined 95-17 over its last two games.
In Other News...
Cal Faces A Brutal ACC Road Twist Before Ranked SMU Trip
Cals next ACC road assignment comes with a tricky schedule wrinkle, as the league announced that the Bears Oct. 24 game at No. 24 SMU will kick off early in the day. Cal is coming off a win over Virginia Tech and still has a ranked night game against No. 21 Wake Forest ahead of it, so the trip to Dallas will arrive with little time to reset before another major conference test.
SMU has also made itself a difficult place to visit since entering the ACC before the 2024 season, with a strong home record and no conference home loss to date. For Cal, the challenge is not just the opponent but the timing, with the Bears staring at a short turnaround and a road game against one of the leagues tougher home teams. [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 🡒]