How Have Tosh Lupoi's Predecessors Fared in Their Debut Games?

Tosh Lupoi is Cal’s 14th head football coach since Pappy Waldorf arrived in 1947 and, aided at least partly by a large influx of newcomers hardened by World War II, produced a record of 38-4-1 with three Rose Bowl appearances in his first four seasons.

No one has approached that crazy level of success since, and it may never happen again.

But as Lupoi prepares to lead his alma mater into their season opener on Sept. 5 against UCLA, we decided it’s time to reflect on how the past 13 fared in their first game and first season.

Here goes:

Justin Wilcox, 2017

Opening game: Cal beat North Carolina 35-30 in Chapel Hill

Grading the opponent: The Tar Heels went just 3-9 that season, including 1-7 in the ACC

Game details: The Bears led 35-24 before Carolina scored on the final play to make the outcome appear closer. Ross Bowers passed for 363 yards and four touchdowns in his starting debut, numbers he never matched again.

Cal’s season record: 5-7. The Bears started 3-0 but lost four of their final five games, including 17-14 at Stanford.

Sonny Dykes, 2013

Opening game: The Bears lost 44-30 to Northwestern in Berkeley, making Dykes the only Cal coach to lose his first game since Roger Theder in 1978.

Grading the opponent: Northwestern went on to a 5-7 season, including 1-7 in the Big Ten.

Game details: Freshman Jared Goff passed for 450 yards with two touchdowns and three interceptions in his college debut. Bryce Treggs caught 13 passes and Chris Harper had 11 receptions. But the defense gave up 40 points for the first of nine times that season.

Cal’s season record: Cal went 1-11, allowing 40 points or more nine times, including in an historic 63-13 loss to Stanford in the season-ending Big Game.

Jeff Tedford, 2002

Opening game: Cal beat Baylor 70-22. An impressive start to an 11-year run that produced a program-record 82 coaching victories.

Grading the opponent: Baylor was 3-19 in 2002, the seventh year in a stretch of 14 consecutive seasons with losing records.

Game details: The Bears led 35-0 after the first quarter, including two pick-sixes, and were up 49-7 at halftime. Kyle Boller passed for 213 yards and three touchdowns and Cal’s defense forced Baylor into five turnovers.

Cal’s season record: The Bears were 7-5, making Tedford their only rookie head coach among the past eight to forge a winning season.

Tom Holmoe, 1997

Opening game: The Bears crushed Houston 35-3 on the road in Holmoe’s debut.

Grading the opponent: Houston, which lost 42-17 at Alabama the week before, went on to a 3-8 season.

Game details: Justin Vedder passed for 321 yards and wide receiver Bobby Shaw had 11 receptions for 204 yards and two touchdowns. Cal held Houston to 165 total yards.

Cal’s season record: The Bears beat Oklahoma 40-36 in their second game but won just once more, finishing the season 3-8.

Steve Mariucci, 1996

Opening game: Cal trekked to the South Bay to beat San Jose State 45-25.

Grading the opponent: The Spartans had a tough season, going 3-9.

Game details: The Bears overcame 202 yards in penalties, led by Pat Barnes, who was 19 for 23 passing for 248 yards and four touchdowns, and Tarik Smith, who rushed for 183 yards.

Cal’s season record: The Bears went on to a 5-0 start, including a 22-15 road win over No. 17 USC. Then they lost six of their final seven games, the exception being a 56-55 four-overtime triumph over Arizona in which Barnes passed for 503 yards and eight touchdowns. It was enough to convince the 49ers to hire Mariucci as their head coach after the season. Cal finished 6-6.

Keith Gilbertson, 1992

Opening game: Cal, ranked No. 19 in the preseason AP poll, beat San Jose State 46-16.

Grading the opponent: The Spartans rebounded from the defeat to post a 7-4 record.

Game details: Russell White rushed for 216 yards and a touchdown and Dave Barr, in his first start at quarterback, threw three touchdown passes to Sean Dawkins. Cal’s defense set a program record, holding SJSU to minus-40 rushing yards.

Cal’s season record: The Bears inched up to No. 17 in the rankings after their win in the opener before coughing up four turnovers in a 41-14 road loss to underdog Purdue. The Bears wound up with a 4-7 final record.

Bryce Snyder | Courtesy of Cal Athletics

Bruce Snyder, 1987

Opening game: The Bears blanked Pacific 42-0.

Grading the opponent: Pacific posted a 4-7 record, its 10th consecutive losing season.

Game details: Chris Richards ran 75 yards for a touchdown on the game’s second play and went on to rush for 154 yards and three TDs. Troy Taylor passed for 245 yards and two touchdowns.

Cal’s season record: Better days were ahead for Snyder and the Bears, but they were 3-6-2, including a 31-7 loss at Stanford, in his rookie season.

Joe Kapp, 1982

Opening game: The Bears beat Colorado 31-17 in Boulder.

Grading the opponent: The Buffaloes wound up with a season record of 2-8-1.

Game details: The Bears led 21-0 in the first quarter and Richard Rodgers, who would be a key participant in The Play in the Big Game, sealed the victory with a 34-yard pick-six in the final minute of the game.

Cal’s season record: The Bears won seven games, punctuated by the wild 25-20 win over Stanford and John Elway in the Big Game. But Cal’s four losses — to Arizona State, Washington, UCLA and USC — came by a combined margin of 154-38. The Bears wound up with a somewhat misleading 7-4 record.

Roger Theder, 1978

Opening game: The Bears lost 36-26 on the road to No. 10 Nebraska.

Grading the opponent: The Cornhuskers went on to a 9-3 final record, including a 31-24 loss in a rematch with rival Oklahoma in the Orange Bowl.

Game details: The game marked the starting debut of quarterback Rich Campbell, who would become a first-round NFL draft pick in 1981. But Campbell was green in ’78, having attempted just three passes the year before.

Cal’s season record: Despite a plague of injuries to key starters, the Bears went 6-5, their first winning record under a new coach since Waldorf in 1947.

Mike White, 1972

Opening game: The Bears lost 20-10 on the road to No. 2 Colorado.

Grading the opponent: The Buffaloes went on to an 8-4 season.

Game details: Quarterback Steve Bartkowski, who would become the No. 1 draft pick in 1975, passed for 261 yards in his sophomore debut.

Cal’s season record: Under White, a former four-star athlete at Cal and one of Pappy’s Boys, the Bears went 3-8 that season but did score a 24-21 win over Stanford in the Big Game when Vince Ferragamo threw an 8-yard touchdown pass to Steve Sweeney on the game’s final play.

Ray Willsey, 1964

Opening game: Cal beat Missouri 21-14 in Willsey’s debut.

Grading the opponent: Missouri went on to a 6-3-1 season.

Game details: Jim Hunt’s two second-half pass interceptions kept the Bears on top.

Cal’s season record: Willsey was the first Cal alum to coach the Bears since Nibs Price in 1930, and he was armed with quarterback Craig Morton, who would go on to finish seventh in the Heisman Trophy race before assembling an 18-year NFL career. But this was a different era at Berkeley, with Mario Savio and the Free Speech Movement dominating the headlines. The Bears were 4-7 overall, winless in conference play, including a 21-3 loss at Stanford.

Marv Levy, 1960

Opening game: The Bears lost 7-3 to visiting Tulane.

Grading the opponent: The Green Wave, who played in the SEC in those days, went on to a 3-6-1 season.

Game details: The result marked the first time the Bears failed to score a touchdown in their new coach’s debut game since Frank Simpson’s 1901 squad tied Reliance 0-0 in the opener on the way to a 9-0-1 season.

Cal’s season record: Levy had earned a Masters degree from Harvard in English history and coached New Mexico to consecutive 7-3 seasons when Cal hired him. But Levy, who decades later guided the Buffalo Bills to four consecutive Super Bowls, never figured it out at Cal, going 8-29-3 in four seasons. Cal was 2-7-1 in his debut.

Pete Elliott, 1957

Opening game: Cal lost 13-6 to SMU.

Grading the opponent: The Mustangs, led by future NFL star quarterback Don Meredith in his sophomore season, did not win again until November and wound up with a 4-5-1 record.

Game details: Elliott cited mistakes as the key to the outcome and the Bears were twice stopped on fourth-down plays that prompted debate in the aftermath of the game.

Cal’s season record: Elliott was 30 years old and the head coach at Nebraska when he was hired to fill Pappy Waldorf’s impossibly large shoes after an endorsement by legendary Oklahoma coach Bud Wilkinson. The Bears scored just three touchdowns in their first four games — all defeats — before a 12-0 win over a USC team that went 1-9. That was also Cal’s final season record, but a year later Elliott guided the Bears to what remains their most recent Rose Bowl bid.

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