Cal Football: Notre Dame a Huge Deal for Old Blues; What Do Folks in South Bend Think?

Golden Bears will visit the Fighting Irish in Week 3 for their first meeting since 1967.

Cal football fans are eager for Sept. 17, when the Golden Bears will play Notre Dame for the first time in 55 seasons.

The Fighting Irish are no longer perched atop the college football world where they routinely resided in the 1940s, ‘50s and ‘60s. Those spots belong to Alabama, Ohio State, Clemson, Georgia.

But Notre Dame remains a magical name on the football landscape and it’s been years since Cal played a non-conference game with this kind of fascination.

And, yes, the Irish will be good in 2022. Under first-year coach Marcus Freeman, just 36 years old, and with a defense expected to be elite, Notre Dame is a top-10 pick in virtually every early Top-25 ranking.

But if this game is circled on the calendars of most Old Blues, what does it mean to Notre Dame? What are folks in South Bend thinking about a matchup that hasn’t happened since 1967?

We got a sense of that by tuning into a recent podcast on Irish Breakdown, produced on SI.com's Notre Dame channel.

Bryan Driskell and co-host Vince DeDario provide an in-depth analysis of the first quarter of Notre Dame’s schedule, which begins with a road game vs. Ohio State before home dates against Marshall and Cal.

Needless to say, the Buckeyes are the marquee matchup, but what did Driskell and DeDario have to say about Cal?

“They’re not a good team,” Driskell said of the Bears. “I would argue Marshall’s a better team than Cal. I mean, they are.”

OK, let's look at this from the Notre Dame point of view:

— The teams have met four times, and the Irish have won all four. By a combined margin of 138-27.

— Notre Dame has won at least 10 games each of the past five seasons, totaling 54 wins over that span.

— Cal has just 26 victories over the past five years (including the COVID-shortened 2020 campaign) and has not won 10 games in a season since 2006.

Cal is among the five worst teams on the Notre Dame schedule, argued Driskell, who lumped the Bears with Marshall, UNLV and Navy, with the fifth team to be determined.

But Driskell did call Cal “an interesting team,” armed with a physical defense. Here’s more of what he had to say on that topic:

Cal might be the most physical team they play in quarter one (of the schedule). You watch Cal play, their offense sucks — they are one of the worst offensive teams in college football. But Justin Wilcox, he’s a good defensive coach.

They were one of the better defensive teams in the Pac-12 last year. If you look at Cal on defense last year, they gave up like 23 points a game. They were a decent football team last year on defense. Now, offensively, they’re a hot mess.

The Notre Dame offense that will test that defense returns four starters on the line. But the Irish will have a new quarterback, with either sophomore Tyler Buchner or junior Drew Pyne in line to replace departed senior Jack Coan.

Buchner passed for 298 yards with three touchdowns and three interceptions off the bench last season and averaged 7.3 yards while rushing for 336 yards and three scores. Pyne has thrown for 236 yards with two TDs and zero picks in two seasons.

“The point about Cal is I think that’s going to be a good test for the Notre Dame offense,” Driskell said. “Cal is a team that Notre Dame should thump. You could beat them by three touchdowns and only score 24 points. That’s how bad their offense is.”

Driskell and DeDario debated whether Marshall or Cal will be more of a “trap game” for the Irish, and struggled to find an answer.

DeDario chose Marshall because of the “emotional drain” of facing Ohio State the week before, win or lose.

Driskell went the other way.

“To me, Cal is a team that’s coached well enough and is physical enough . . . they’re good enough to where if Notre Dame is not coached well on offense, if they’re not physical, if they’re not focused, Cal could make them play inconsistently.

“Notre Dame could win like a 27-6 game.”

Neither entertained the possibility the Bears could win.

“If you lose to one of these teams,” DeDario said of Cal and Marshall, “that’s a major problem.”

CAL vs. NOTRE DAME

1959 at Berkeley: Notre Dame 28, Cal 6

1960 at South Bend: Notre Dame 21, Cal 7

1965 at Berkeley: No. 3 Notre Dame 48, Cal 6

1967 at South Bend: No. 1 Notre Dame 41, Cal 8 

Cover photo of new Notre Dame coach Marcus Freeman by Robert Franklin, USA Today

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