Cal is headed into another game as an underdog, and this one comes with a new wrinkle on the other sideline.
North Carolina State opened as a 7.5-point favorite over the Bears at FanDuel on Sunday, while DraftKings had the Wolfpack favored by 8.5 points. That comes after NC State fired head coach Dave Doeren on Saturday, one day after the Wolfpack’s loss to Sanford.
What happens next under interim head coach Todd Goebbel is anyone’s guess. Cal, though, has already seen a version of that script play out. The week after Justin Wilcox was fired at Cal last year, the Bears stunned SMU 38-35.
This matchup brings together two teams with the same overall record: 3-4. Cal is 2-3 in the ACC, a better mark than NC State’s 1-3 conference record. Both teams are also coming off back-to-back losses.
NC State dropped a 31-28 game to Stanford on Friday at Stanford’s home field. Cal followed with a 59-20 loss to SMU on Saturday, a result that came before the Mustangs climbed to No. 19 in the AP poll on Sunday.
The setting could matter just as much as the records. Saturday’s game will be at NC State’s home stadium in Raleigh, North Carolina, where the Wolfpack are 3-1 this season.
Their only home loss came against Wake Forest, which is ranked 14th this week. Cal, meanwhile, is 1-2 away from home.
The kickoff time adds another layer for the Bears. The game is set for noon Eastern time, which means Cal will play at 9 a.m. Pacific time for the second straight week.
Cal’s availability is still up in the air after the SMU game. At this point, it’s unclear which players who were unavailable against the Mustangs will be back on Saturday.
Jaron-Keawe Sagapolutele has reclaimed the starting quarterback job for Cal, but the Bears were short-handed against SMU at running back, wide receiver and on the offensive line.
NC State’s top threat is quarterback CJ Bailey, who threw for 265 yards and two touchdowns while also rushing for 56 yards in the loss to Stanford.
In Other News...
Cal's Collapse At SMU Exposed A Much Bigger Problem
The halftime lead at SMU should have given Cal a chance to steady itself, but the night unraveled fast and in a way that points to something deeper than one bad half. The Bears ended up on the wrong side of a 59-20 loss, and the broader picture around this team keeps getting harder to ignore: a defense that has not created takeaways in two straight games and an offense that sits last in the ACC in rushing yards per game.
Discipline has become part of the conversation too, with coach Tosh Lupoi acknowledging the issue as the season has worn on. When a team is giving away field position, struggling to get off the field and failing to run the ball with any consistency, one ugly collapse can start to look less like an outlier and more like a snapshot of the whole operation. [Read more 🡒]