Cal Football: It's Arizona Game Week - Craziness Awaits
In a perverted way, last year’s Cal game at Arizona fiasco was a reminder of just how weird this rivalry has been: 25 of the 35 meetings between the teams settled by a touchdown or less, including the past seven in a row.
None of them were quite like the 2021 edition, where the Wildcats showed up with a 20-game losing streak and the Bears without 24 of their players and several coaches due to COVID-19 protocols.
But Arizona’s 10-3 victory in Tucson, with all its bizarre trappings, was more like the car wreck you can’t take your eyes off. Compelling, to be sure, but hardly a great game.
“It was a crazy, jumbled-up situation,” said Cal nose guard Ricky Correia, who remained home that weekend after contracting COVID and briefly losing his sense of taste and smell.
A year has passed and while it’s not clear if the bad taste of last year’s game is gone from the mouths of Cal fans, we will not be including it in this discussion of the great Cal-Arizona games.
Here are five that stand out:
Pat Barnes
Photo courtesy of Cal Athletics
1996: Four overtimes and eight TD passes
Steve Mariucci’s one season as head coach began with five straight victories, including a 22-15 upset at USC. The Bears won just once more all season, but it was memorable.
On Nov. 2 in Berkeley, Cal and Arizona went back and forth all afternoon, ultimately playing four overtimes before the Bears emerged with a 56-55 triumph. Pat Barnes passed for 503 yards and a school-record eight touchdowns, three of them in the extra periods.
Arizona answered with its final touchdown, after which coach Dick Tomey decided enough was enough. He called for a two-point trick play, but Andrew Rhodes tackled placekicker Matt Peyton after holder Ryan Hesson pitched him the ball.
Tomey, in a memorable post-game explanation, offered, "Whatever second-guessing there is to do about this game, blame it on the head coach. I've never been a genius, and nobody's ever accused me of being stupid. I was just trying to find a way to win the game."
2014: An impossible comeback in Tucson
Cal forged a seemingly sturdy 31-13 lead after three quarters in Tucson, powered by sophomore quarterback Jared Goff, who wound up with 380 passing yards and three touchdowns.
Perhaps no game typified the Sonny Dykes’ era and the Bears inability to play defense like this one did.
Cal scored two more touchdowns in the fourth quarter . . . and still lost.
Yes, Arizona scored 36 points in the fourth quarter, winning the game on freshman Anu Solomon’s 47-yard desperation heave into the end zone on the final play. Austin Hill somehow made the catch among as many as five Cal defenders and the Cats had a 49-45 victory unlike any other.
“So painful,” Goff said. “We played well, played tough for 59 minutes, 56 seconds. Unfortunately, it wasn’t enough.”
1993: A rally to rescue the season
Coach Keith Gilbertson’s second season — his best season in Berkeley — began with five straight victories, including a rally from down 30-0 at halftime against Oregon to win 42-41.
The Bears followed that with four losses in a row, the last of them a 41-0 rout at Arizona State. So it didn’t look good for the Bears when a week later, back at home, they trailed 20-0 at halftime against 20th-ranked Arizona.
Cal somehow found life in the second half, scoring 24 unanswered points and scoring the game-winner on a 35-yard interception return for a touchdown by safety Eric Zomalt with 3:38 left.
Dave Barr completed 20 of 33 passes for 263 yards and a touchdown, and the Bears went on to win their final four games, routing Stanford 46-17 in the Big Game and overpowering Iowa 37-3 in the Alamo Bowl.
Troy Taylor
Photo courtesy of Cal Athletics
1989: Troy Taylor's big day
Bears seemingly had taken a step backward in coach Bruce Snyder’s third season. They lost three in a row entering a Nov. 4 home game vs. No. 15 Arizona, which built leads of 20-0 and 28-10.
But senior quarterback Troy Taylor, a great player saddled with bad teams, engineered a comeback to a 29-28 victory. He drove the team 83 yards in 12 plays before Greg Zomalt scored on an 8-yard run with 8:56 to play.
Taylor passed for 372 yards and two touchdowns, one of them to Michael Smith, who had eight catches for 177 yards. In the process. Taylor became Cal’s career passing leader.
The Bears split their final two games, but turned things in the right direction a year later. They went 7-4-1 in 1990, then 10-2 in Snyder’s farewell season, becoming the first Cal teams ever to win bowl games in consecutive seasons.
2017: A failed 2-point try in Wilcox’s debut
The Bears opened the Justin Wilcox era with three non-conference wins, including on the road against North Carolina and at home vs. Ole Miss. The Pac-12 turned out to be much tougher for Cal.
After winning just one of their first three conference games, the Bears engaged Arizona in a shootout that felt more like the Sonny Dykes years than what we’ve come to know with Wilcox’s teams.
Ross Bowers passed for 301 yards and two touchdowns and Patrick Laird rushed for 130 yards. Arizona’s Khalil Tate countered with 166 passing yards and two TDs and another 137 rushing yards with one score.
Matt Anderson’s 52-yard field with 1:14 left in the fourth quarter forced overtime. After Vic Enwere piled over from the 1-yard to get the Bears within 45-44, Wilcox rolled the dice and went for two.
Bowers’ pass for Jordan Hunter near the back of the end zone was knocked away by freshman linebacker Colin Schooler and Arizona went home with a win.
"We felt like the overtime two-point was that our best chance to win,” Wilcox said. "It was my call. We were playing to win the game and that's what I felt like was the best.”
Cover photo of former Arizona quarterback Anu Solomon by Casey Sapio, USA Today
Follow Jeff Faraudo of Cal Sports Report on Twitter: @jefffaraudo
