Cal Football: Athlon Magazine Projects Bears Will Finish 9-3
The 2020 Cal football team is picked to finish tied for second place in the Pac-12 North by Athlon magazine.
Athlon’s College Football Preview edition predicts that the Golden Bears will finish 9-3 overall and 6-3 in the conference. That wouldn’t get Cal to the Rose Bowl, but it would satisfy most Cal fans. It would also represent the third straight year that Cal’s record would be better than the previous season. That is the kind of progress Cal officials were hoping for when they hired Justin Wilcox as coach.
Of course, the 2020 Golden Bears have not won any games yet, and there remains uncertainty as to how the college football season will unfold amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
Nationally, Athlon predicted the Golden Bears will land a few slots outside the top 25, placing Cal at No. 33.
.
Here is how Athlon picked the Pac-`12 North, with the projected records.
1. Oregon (11-2, 8-1 Pac12)
2. (tied) Cal (9-3, 6-3 Pac-12)
2. (tied) Washington (8-4, 6-3 Pac-12
4. (tied) Stanford (6-6, 4-5 Pac-12)
4 (tied) Oregon State (6-6, 4-5 Pac-12)
6. Washington State (6-6, 3-6 Pac-12)
.
Here are Athlon’s Pac-12 South predictions:
1. USC (9-4, 7-2 Pac-12)
2. (tied) Arizona State (8-4, 5-4 Pac-12)
2. (tied) Utah (8-4, 5-4 Pac-12)
4. UCLA (6-6, 6-3 Pac-12)
5. Arizona (4-8, 2-7 Pac-12)
6. Colorado (3-9, 1-8 Pac-12)
Oregon is picked to win the Pac-12 championship game over USC.
.
You will note that Cal faces the top four projected finishers in the Pac-12 South this season, and it does not play the two teams picked to finish at the bottom (Arizona and Colorado). That makes things a bit more challenging for the Bears.
Athlon cites 12 Pac-12 games as the “Games to Watch” and two of them involve Cal: Oregon at Cal on Oct. 17 and Stanford at Cal on Nov. 21.
Athlon ranks each Pac-12 team in seven position units, and the Bears ranked high at quarterback and linebacker, but low at receiver.
Here is how the Bears ranked among Pac-12 teams in each unit:
--Quarterback (Chase Gabers): Third
--Running back (Christopher Brown Jr., etc.): Sixth
--Wide receiver/tight end (Nikko Remigio, Kekoa Crawford, etc.): 11th
--Offensive line (Jake Curhan, Mike Saffell, etc.): Ninth
--Defensive line (Luc Bequette, etc.): Fifth
--Linebackers: (Kuony Deng, Cameron Goode, etc.): Third
--Defensive backs: (Camryn Bynum, Elijah Hicks, etc.): Fifth
Those rankings seem about right except for the offensive line, which perhaps should be ranked a little higher.
Athlon predicts Cal will play in the Holiday Bowl, where it will face Pittsburgh.
Athlon includes anonymous quotes about Cal from opposing coaches, and one of them is intriguing:
“They could go on a run this season, and with (Justin) Wilcox’s name coming up more and more for other jobs, the window might not be open again for a while.”
We earlier reported Athlon’s preseason all-Pac-12 selections, with no Bears on the first team, but several on the second and third teams.
Three respected experts -- USA TODAY, The Athletic and Jon Wilner of the Mercury-News -- put Cal in their preseason top-25.
CBSSports.com picked Cal to win the Pac-12 North and projected the Bears to finish 11-1, although it did not have Cal in its top-25.
Follow Jake Curtis of Cal Sports Report on Twitter: @jakecurtis53
Find Cal Sports Report on Facebook by searching: @si.calsportsreport
Click the "follow" button in the top right corner to join the conversation on Cal Sports Report on SI. Access and comment on featured stories and start your own conversations and post external links on our community page.
