Cal’s latest collapse left little room for spin. After seven weeks of flickering hope and false starts, the Golden Bears were hammered 41-7 by No. 21 Wake Forest on Saturday night, a loss that made the situation in Berkeley look as bleak as it has all season.
This was the kind of game that strips away every comforting storyline. Cal is now 3-4, and the Demon Deacons never had to work hard to make that record look worse. The Bears were beaten badly at home, and the gap between where the program wants to be and where it actually is was on full display.
Tight end Mason Mini sounded like a player who knows how fragile the mood has become.
“I mean, it’s very disappointing,” Mini said. “They came in here, it's a home game … No. 21 team in the country, you know, we didn't really have much to lose playing this team, but they got the best of it.”
Even Cal’s best attempt at a silver lining came with a shrug. The Bears matched Wake Forest 7-7 in the second half, which meant almost nothing in a 34-point defeat, but coach Tosh Lupoi still pointed to it as a message the team tried to absorb.
“That was the main message at halftime,” Lupoi said. “We’re not going to lay down.
We’re not going to quit. I appreciate the guys going out there and doing exactly that, putting us at a 7-7 second-half performance.”
The quarterback situation only adds to the mess. Jaron-Keawe Sagapolutele didn’t see the field against Wake Forest until the game was so far gone that the timing raised more questions than answers, and the Bears’ direction from here is anything but clear. Lupoi was noncommittal when asked about the position, saying of Sagapolutele and Jackson Brousseau, “Both the guys did a good job - at times,” and then adding, “So, gonna assess …”
That uncertainty matters now more than ever with No. 23 SMU waiting on Saturday morning in Dallas. Cal upset the Mustangs a season ago, and this time SMU has every reason to be eager for another shot at a disjointed Bears team that looks vulnerable and unsettled.
For Cal fans, this is the hard part. They’ve kept showing up, kept believing, kept waiting for the season to turn. UCLA felt manageable, Syracuse offered a little grit, Wagner was supposed to be a breather, Clemson served as a wake-up call, UNLV looked like a bridge, and Virginia Tech brought a little hope.
But Saturday night erased much of that optimism.
The Bears looked lost, overmatched, and short on answers. There was nothing in the performance to grab onto, nothing that suggested a clean fix is around the corner. And for a fan base that has already given plenty, that is the part that stings most.
Cal fans deserve better.
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Californias recruiting momentum took another jolt when four-star tight end Rahzario Edwards changed course after originally pledging to the Bears in late May. Edwards had been one of the more notable gets in Cals class, so his decision to flip to Mississippi is the kind of setback that stings because it lands before the season even gets going and underscores how fragile these commitments can be.
The unease around the class does not stop there. Four-star quarterback Dane Weber, another Cal commit, also made a trip to UCLA, though he brushed it off as just a visit for now. Even without an immediate change, it is the sort of development that keeps a staff on edge, especially when one highly regarded recruit has already moved on and another is still taking a harder look around the conference. [Read more 🡒]
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A big part of the challenge is navigating SMU quarterback Kevin Jennings, who has already established himself as the focal point of the Mustangs attack and a player who can make a defense pay in a hurry. Cal also has its own questions to sort through at quarterback, which makes this a difficult matchup even before factoring in SMUs recent special-teams change at placekicker. For a Bears team looking for stability, this is the kind of test that can expose every weak spot. [Read more 🡒]
Cal Faces Another Brutal Road Test At The Worst Possible Time
Cal is heading into a stretch that already feels unforgiving, and the timing does not help. After a loss to Wake Forest dropped the Golden Bears to 3-4 overall and 2-2 in ACC play, they now face a pair of road games that will both kick off at 9 a.m. Pacific time, starting Saturday at SMU on The CW.
The compressed turnaround and early start times add another layer to a trip that already demands plenty from a team still trying to steady itself in conference play. Cals next visit, set for Oct. 31 at North Carolina State on the ACC Network, comes with the same early-window challenge, making this a tricky road stretch for a team looking to regroup after last weekends setback. [Read more 🡒]