In a High-Scoring College Football Season, Cal Has Company Among Those Struggling

Three other FBS teams with .500 records have scored fewer points than the Bears.

At the halfway point of the college football season, 18 FBS teams across the country are averaging more than 40 points per game. Five of those teams play in the Pac-12 Conference.

Forty-six more teams are scoring 30 points or more each outing. That’s a total of 64 teams — nearly half of all that play in FBS — scoring almost at will.

Then there’s Cal, which is scuffling along at 23.7 points per game.

*** Coach Justin Wilcox discusses Cal's offensive struggles in the video at the top of this story.

In an effort to provide some context to the Bears’ struggles, we reviewed the 47 FBS teams who have fashioned at least a .500 record so far this season.

(We did not include teams with losing records in the survey because they are naturally either going to be scoring too few points or surrendering too many).

To our surprise, it turns out three of other 46 actually are producing fewer points than the Bears.

This probably won’t — and shouldn’t — make Cal fans feel any better. The Bears have been abysmal offensively their past two games, scoring just one touchdown each in losses to Washington State and previously winless Colorado.

And there’s no denying this has been a chronic problem. Here are Cal’s scoring numbers and ranking in the Pac-12 the past five seasons:

2021: 8th at 23.8 points

2020: 11th at 20.2

2019: 12th at 21.2

2018: 12th at 21.5

2017: 10th at 27.8

The Bears were scoring 24 points per game through five games this season. Not great, but far better than the past two weeks when they put up 9 and 13 points.

Even so, there are three teams with 3-3 season records — the same as Cal — who have fared worse offensively than the Bears.

Here are they are:

— RUTGERS (3-3) of the Big Ten: 22.8 points per game. The Scarlet Knights’ numbers are a bit misleading. They opened their season by scoring 66 points against Wagner, an FCS team, and since then they have totaled 71 points in five games. They are averaging 11.0 points the past three games, all losses.

— TEXAS A&M (3-3) of SEC: 21.5 points per game. This is a surprise. Just a year ago, the Aggies averaged 29.3 points. The year before that it was 32.6. These Aggies lost 17-14 to Appalachian State in September, but they are strong defensively and two weeks ago battled Alabama on near even terms before losing 24-20.

And the winner is . . . 

— IOWA (3-3) of the Big Ten: 14.7 points per game. Coach Kirk Ferentz posted winning records in 17 of his first 23 seasons with the Hawkeyes, including a 10-4 record last season. But they have been held to seven points or fewer in three of six games this fall, including a 9-6 loss to Illinois last week in an outing that featured five field goals, no touchdowns and 14 punts.

Cover photo of Iowa coach Kirk Ferentz by Ron Johnson,, USA Today

Follow Jeff Faraudo of Cal Sports Report on Twitter: @jefffaraudo