Syracuse will try to keep its fast start rolling Saturday afternoon when Cal comes to town for the Atlantic Coast Conference opener for both teams.
The Orange are coming off a 66-3 rout of FCS opponent New Hampshire last Saturday, a game in which Shavane Anderson Jr. powered the offense with 102 rushing yards and three touchdowns. Syracuse finished with 239 yards on the ground and four rushing scores, and now gets a stiffer test as it looks for its fourth 2-0 start in the past five seasons.
Cal opened with a much rougher assignment and a much rougher finish. In Tosh Lupoi’s debut as coach, the Golden Bears fell 45-24 at home to UCLA after being outscored 21-0 in the fourth quarter. The defense had no answer for the Bruins’ ground game, giving up 277 rushing yards and six touchdowns.
Lupoi said this week that the breakdowns were the kind of issues teams expect to clean up early in the season.
"It's all correctable," he noted. "There's some unfortunate miscues in gap cancellation.
It starts there: Communicating. Applaud the staff as far as the emphasis (in practice) on that.
Just have to do a better job of executing those and making it important to communicate."
Cal did find some production on offense, mostly through Adam Mohammed, who ran for 120 yards and a touchdown on 28 carries. Quarterback Jaron-Keawe Sagapolutele also had a strong statistical line, throwing for 271 yards and two touchdowns, though he was picked off twice. Both interceptions came in the fourth quarter after Cal had battled back to tie the game at 24.
Syracuse coach Fran Brown made it clear this week that his defense is paying close attention to Sagapolutele.
"That kid is a gunslinger," Brown gushed of the southpaw. "At any moment he could rip off four or five touchdowns.
I think he can really play. He does an amazing job of being poised in the pocket, throwing the ball and stuff like that.
We're playing against a future pro."
The matchup is the second between the schools since Cal joined the ACC in 2024. Syracuse won the first meeting on the road, with Kyle McCord throwing for 323 yards in a 33-25 victory over future Heisman Trophy winner Fernando Mendoza, who passed for 225 yards in that game.
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