Four Weeks In, Cal Rebuild Not Yet Ready For Prime Time

Cal honored its 1991 team during Friday night’s game against Clemson at Memorial Stadium. Those Golden Bears — with Mike Pawlawski, Russell White. Brian Treggs, Jerrott Willard and so many other good players — overwhelmed the Tigers 37-13 in the Florida Citrus Bowl.

The crowd of 41,778 who watched the “rematch” 35 years later went home disappointed, perhaps even discouraged, after a 24-10 defeat.

But it’s worth remembering that it took coach Bruce Snyder five seasons to construct a 10-2 team that wound up No. 8 in the final AP Top-25. His initial club went 3-6-2 and after three seasons Snyder had a record of 12-18-3.

Rebuilding a program isn’t such a tedious process in the era of the transfer portal, revenue sharing and NIL money. Change can happen faster now. But there still is a process that involves more than merely opening the checkbook.

First-year coach Tosh Lupoi knows what a big-time winner looks like. He was part of two national championship teams on Nick Saban’s staff at Alabama and was defensive coordinator for Oregon teams that compiled a record of 48-8 the past four seasons.

He also knows this team, 2-2 overall and 1-1 in the ACC, is not that. Not yet, anyway.

“The pain we put upon ourselves, we’ve got to execute at a higher level, starting with me, finding those answers,” Lupoi told reporters. “I believe in this team.”

Clemson isn’t the team that dueled Saban, Lupoi and the Crimson Tide for the national title four times over five seasons, winning twice. These Tigers were 7-6 a year ago and lost 51-10 to LSU to open this season.

But Dabo Swinney has a culture of winning that Lupoi hasn’t yet installed in Berkeley.

Over the past 10 seasons, Rivals has given Clemson’s high school recruiting classes an average ranking of 12th nationally. Cal is 50th over that same span. The Tigers’ worst class during that decade was No. 23; the Bears’ best was No. 28.

Even with a solid transfer portal haul playing key roles for the Bears, the difference Friday night was evident. Clemson was better at the line of scrimmage. The Tigers were faster, stronger, deeper.

For now, the Bears will try to control what they can. “The loss definitely sucks,” wide receiver Chase Hendrick said. “It’s a lesson you learn. Correct those mistakes in practice.”

Here are more takeaways from what we saw Friday night:

Challenges on O-line and D-line

Through their first three games, the Bears were among the worst teams in FBS running the ball and stopping the run. Nothing changed against Clemson.

Cal managed just 86 rushing yards, and the prospects going forward will depend in part on the health status of running back Adam Mohammed, who apparently banged up his knee Friday night. Lupoi said he believes Mohammed will be fine, but backup Carter Vargas hasn’t gotten on the field since an injury in the opener. Ashten Emory may need to take on a bigger role.

On the other side, the Bears allowed Clemson to rush for 255 yards, and they are giving up 217 per game against FBS opponents. Subtract Gideon Davidson’s 75-yard TD run with 2:58 left when the Tigers crossed up the Cal defense expecting a pass, and the numbers are a bit more palatable. But those 75 yards count.

Not enough time and space for JKS

Jaron-Keawe Sagapoltele has thrown two interceptions in each of Cal’s two losses and wound up with a career-low 119 passing yards against the Tigers one week after a best of 413 vs. Wagner. The difference was he had time to throw and his targets found space in the secondary against an FCS defense that Clemson did not afford the Bears.

Cal rarely went downfield in the passing game, suggesting a lack of confidence in the pass blocking. More often, the Bears threw quick or horizontally.

Lupoi said he has “full confidence” first-year coordinator Jordan Somerville will effectively attack the issue after the Bears failed to score an offensive touchdown in a home game for the first time since a 12-10 win over Washington in 2018.

One bad punt is `a killer'

Punter Angus Davies averaged 47.5 yards on four kicks, and two of them were downed at the 1- and 2-yard lines. But his flat punt late in the third quarter was snared on the run by Bryant Westco Jr., who returned it 65 yards to give the Tigers a 17-10 lead they didn’t give back.

Lupoi praised Davies otherwise, but called the play “a killer,” adding, “Can’t let that happen.”

Trends or coincidences?

Cal is 2-0 in day games, 0-2 at night. The Bears are 0-2 in front of ESPN cameras, 2-0 otherwise.

So maybe they should feel good that next Saturday’s game at UNLV is a 12:30 p.m. kickoff on the CBS Sports Network.

Follow Jeff Faraudo on Twitter, Facebook and Bluesky

Add us as a preferred source on Google