Cal Football Game Summary: Virginia Dominates the Bears

Cal suffered its fourth straight defeat in a 36-7 loss to Virginia on Saturday afternoon in Charlottesville, Virginia.

Virginia twice returned interceptions for touchdowns to help the Cavaliers end their three-game losing streak.

Cal went scoreless in the second half for the third game in a row. The Bears have been outscored 83-0 in the second half over the past three games.

The game summary:

VIRGINIA 36, CAL 7

RECORDS: CAL (3-7, 2-5 ACC), VIRGINIA (5-5, 3-4 ACC)

Player of the Game

OFFENSE: Virginia quarterback Beau Pribula. There had been questions this week a to whether Pribula would remain the Cavaliers' starting quarterback, but he started Saturday's game and a 4-for-16 for 142 yards, one touchdown and no interceptions. He also had a team-leading 67 rushing yards.

DEFENSE: Virginia linebacker Kam Robinson. Robinson had 12 tackles, including half of a tackle for loss. He also intercepted a pass and returned it 33 yards for a touchdown.

Turning Point

Virginia took the opening kickoff and drove 80 yards for a touchdown that put the Cavaliers ahead 7-0. Cal never threatened to take the lead after that.

A secondary turning point came when Cal faced a fourth-and-goal from the Virginia 4-yard line trailing 9-0 in the second quarter. Cal opted not to try a field goal and used a trick play with tight end Mason Mini throwing a pass. It was intercepted by Virginia's Brandyn Hillman, who who returned it 100 yards for a touchdown to give Virginia a 16-0 lead.

KEY PLAY 1: Virginia quarterback Beau Pribula threw a 12-yard touchdown pass to Da’Shawn Martin to complete a 12-play, 80-yard drive on the Cavaliers’ opening possession, putting Virginia ahead 6-0 with 9:3 left in the first quarter. Cal blocked the extra-point attempt. The key play on the drive was a 12-yard completion to Dillon Newton-Short on a fourth-and-3 play from the Cal 36-yard line.

KEY PLAY 2: Virginia’s Pribula completed a 30-yard pass to Martin, putting the ball at the Cal 16-yard line. That led to Will Bettridge’s 30-yard field goal that increased Virginia’ lead to 9-0 with 8:07 remaining in the first half.

KEY PLAY 3: Instead of attempting a field goal on a fourth-down play from the Virginia 4-yard line, Cal tried a trick play with tight end Mason Mini taking a shotgun snap and throwing a pass into the end zone. But the pass was intercepted 1 yard deep in the end zone by Virginia’s Brandyn Hillman, who returned the pick 100 yards for a touchdown that gave Virginia a 16-0 lead with 2:02 left in the second quarter.

LONGEST PICK SIX IN UVA HISTORY! 🤯

📺 @accnetwork x @UVAFootball pic.twitter.com/CsN6Ty9mbj
— ACC Football (@ACCFootball) November 14, 2026

KEY PLAY 4: Cal’s Adam Mohammed scored a touchdown on a 5-yard run to reduce the Virginia lead to 19-7 with 14 seconds left in the first half. One play earlier, Virginia was penalized 5 yards for a roughing-the-passer penalty on Virginia’s Matthew Fobbs-White after Jaron-Keawe Sagapolutele had thrown an incompletion on a third-down play from the 10.

.@Adam_Mo24's rumblin' with the rock 🪨😤#GoBears | 📺 @accnetwork pic.twitter.com/GO1wukuTeI
— Cal Football (@CalFootball) November 14, 2026

KEY PLAY 5: Virginia kicker Will Bettridge booted a 29-yard field goal to complete a 50-yard drive and increase the Cavaliers' lead to 19-7 with 8:02 to go in the third quarter.

KEY PLAY 6: Virginia linebacker Kam Robinson intercepted a Jaron-Keawe Sagapolutele pass at the Cal 33-yard line and returned it 33 yards for a touchdown that pushed Virginia's lead to 26-7 with four seconds remaining in the third quarter.

PICK-6, @Kamrenrobinsonn‼️

That's our second pick-6 of the night. 💯

📺 ACCN pic.twitter.com/BjG17Nvazn
— Virginia Football (@UVAFootball) November 14, 2026

STAT OF THE GAME I: Cal committed three turnovers; Virginia committed none. Virginia recorded two pick-sixes -- a 100-yard interception return for a touchdown by Brandyn Hillman and a 33-yard interception return for a touchdown by Kam Robinson.

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STAT OF THE GAME II: Virginia was 3-for-3 on fourth down, converting a first down all three times. Cal was 0-for-1 on fourth down.

STAT OF THE GAME III: Virginia sacked Cal quarterbacks four times for 35 yards in losses. Cal did not sack Virginia's quarterback.

STAT OF THE GAME IV: Virginia had 424 yards of total offense; Cal had 201. Virginia had 201 rushing yards; Cal had 42.

INDIVIDUAL STAT OF THE GAME: Cal quarterback Dominic Ingrassia completed his only pass for 16 yards, and he ran twice for 16 yards.

QUARTERBACK STATISTICS: Cal’s Jaron-Keawe Sagapolutele was 16-for-30 for 141 yards, no touchdowns and two interceptions; Cal's Jackson Brousseau was 2-for-3 for 2 yards. Virginia’s Beau Pribula was 16-for-24 for 146 yards, one touchdown and no interceptions. He also rushed for 67 yards. Virginia quarterback Eli Holstein was 5-for-9 for 77 yards, no touchdowns and no interceptions.

CAL PLAYER AVAILABILITY: Wide receiver Ian Strong was a late scratch and did not play. Tight end Dorian Thomas, running back Carter Vargas, defensive lineman Nate Burrell, inside linebacker JD McKinley and wide receiver Jordan King did not play.

VIRGINIA PLAYER AVAILABILITY: Linebacker Maddox Marcellus, the team’ leading tackler, did not play. Wide receiver Rico Flores Jr. and linebacker Landon Danley did not play.

What It Means

Cal’s fourth straight loss adds to the negative vibes surrounding the Bears’ football program and first-year head coach Tosh Lupoi. It comes on the heels of The Athletic report this week that suggested the Cal football program is in chaos and that there is a rift between Lupoi and general manager Ron Rivera. This loss eliminates any chance that the Bears will finish with a winning record for the second year in a row, and continues Cal’s slide heading into next Saturday’s home game against rival Stanford.

This is the fourth time in five seasons that Cal has had a four-game losing streak. If Cal loses its final two games to finish 3-9, it would be the Bears’ worst season since 2013, when the Bears went 1-11. Justin Wilcox won at least four games every season he was Cal’s head coach (except for the four-game 2020 season).

How people will view Cal’s 2026 season will depend to some degree on how the Bears fare against Stanford, which handed Cal a demoralizing 31-10 defeat last year, leading to the firing of Wilcox the next day.

Cal’s Bowl Barometer

Cal’s bowl chances shrank to about 0.01%. There is a tiny chance that a team or two with 5-7 records will get bowl berths if there are not enough teams with six wins to fill all the bowl slots. Whether a 5-7 Cal team would be in the running to get one of those available berths or if Cal would even want to play in a bowl game in that situation is unclear. Cal would have to win its final two games to get to 5-7 anyway.

Cal’s ACC Title Barometer

That ship has sailed. Even if Cal had defeated Virginia it would have had no chance to get to the last ACC championship game.

Cal’s Next Game

Next Game: Cal (3-7, 2-5 ACC) vs. Stanford (4-5, 2-4 ACC before Saturday’ game at Virginia Tech)

Site: California Memorial Stadium, Berkeley

Date: Saturday, November 21

Starting time: 4:30 p.m.

TV: ACC Network

Most recent Stanford result: Stanford faced Virginia Tech late Saturday afternoon

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