Cal Defense Gets More Aggressive -- and It Works

During last Saturday’s telecast of the Cal-Syracuse game, the TV broadcasters said Cal defensive coordinator Michael Hutchings had told them he might have been too conservative in his management of the Bears’ defense in the opener against UCLA.

Hutchings changed that in a big way against Syracuse, and it paid off in a big way in Cal’s 21-18 victory. The question is whether that increased defensive pressure through blitzing will now be a pattern for Cal's defense the rest of the season.

The Bears blitzed on 26 of the 54 dropbacks by Syracuse quarterback Steve Angeli, or 56.1% of them, according to Pro Football Focus.

That sounds a lot like the extreme amount of blitzing Brian Flores has been calling since becoming the Minnesota Vikings defensive coordinator in 2023. And Hutchings was a Vikings defensive backs coach the past three seasons.

Against UCLA, with limited blitzing, Cal’s defense achieved just seven quarterback pressures – two sacks, one quarterback hit and four quarterback hurries, according to PFF. The Bears forced one turnover and allowed 45 points in a 45-24 defeat.

Against Syracuse, while blitzing on over half of Angeli’s dropbacks, the Bears recorded 26 quarterback pressures, on two sacks, eight quarterback hits and 16 quarterback hurries. The Bears forced three turnovers and yielded 18 points in a 21-18 victory.

This kind of aggressive pass-rushing can only be effective if reliable defensive backs are in coverage, and the play of secondary members Kingston Lopa, Isaiah Crosby and Daniel Harris, among others, made it pay off against Syracuse with three interceptions (all by Lopa) as well as a pick by Quimari Shemwell that was negated by a penalty.

Angeli had played five games for Syracuse and 19 for Notre Dame before facing Cal, and he had thrown only three interceptions in those 24 games combined before tossing three picks against the Bears.

Presumably, the pressure had an effect.

This tactic is different from what Cal did last season under Justin Wilcox.

Cal had a blitz rate of just 19% in 2025, and that ranked 113th nationally, according to Sharp Football Analysis. the bears had 21 sacks last year, which ranked 13th in the ACC.

Cal generally had pretty good defenses under Wilcox, but the Bears seem to be going in a different direction under Tosh Lupoi, known for his aggressive defenses as a defensive coordinator at Oregon and Alabama.

Now the question is whether Cal's aggressive, blitzing game plan against Syracuse was a one-off or typical of what we will see the rest of the season.

Hutchings wouldn’t tip his hand when he was asked that question this week.

“Week by week, just game-plan things that we come up with as a staff,” Hutchings said. “Always want to have the attacking style and make sure we can dictate the terms of the game. Our players feed off it.

“We’re not going to call any game timid or with any fear, but going to let it rip and trust what we did during the week. We did the work during the week, go ahead and let it rip on Saturday, and call it without any hesitation, and our guys really feed off it.

“We saw it in Week One in just a little bit of the game, and we came in with that same mindset in Week Two, and our guys, they definitely stepped up to that challenge. And I just think that’s kind of our personality as a defense.”

It’s assumed that Cal’s defensive strategy will vary based on the opponent, but in general it seems likely Cal will continue the trend it started against Syracuse to blitz often, hoping to pressure the opposing quarterback into mistakes.

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