Cal Football: Bears' Run Game Wore Down Idaho, But Will It Work at Washington?

Coach Justin Wilcox acknowledges, `Next week's going to be different.'

Cal coach Justin Wilcox wasn’t ready to throw this one back.

But he knows the performance his Bears delivered in a 31-17 come-from-behind victory over an FCS opponent — even a very good FCS team — won’t be good enough now that the schedule transitions to the Pac-12.

Idaho arrived at Memorial Stadium as the No. 5 team in FCS.

Next Saturday, Cal treks to Washington, the No. 8 team in FBS.

The difference is stark.

The Huskies traveled to Michigan State on Saturday and scored the game’s first 41 points in a 34-point victory.

“We’re all going to sit up here and say we’ve got to be better. It’s true. Now it needs to be reflected,” Wilcox said. “The size and explosiveness — and this is not a knock in Idaho — next week’s going to be different.”

The Bears (2-1) beat the Vandals (2-1) by finally wearing them down and running over them. Cal rushed for 256 yards, including 137 by Isaiah Ifanse, who had 17 games of at least 100 rushing yards during his four seasons at Montana State.

“The offensive line was able to re-establish the line of scrimmage and it made our reads definitely a lot easier in the run game.” Ifanse said. “It just opened up a lot of things in our offense.”

For instance, walk-on Ashton Stredick ran for a career-high 77 yards. Quarterback Sam Jackson V added 41 yards as the Bears averaged 6.0 yards per rushing attempt.

“We just kind of overpowered them in the second half of the game,” Jackson said.

Washington’s first three opponents have averaged 3.8 yards per attempt, and Michigan State managed just 2.0 yards each time it ran the ball.

Yes, next week will be different.

The Huskies have scored 140 points in three games, and for the Bears to beat them they’ll need to play better than have yet. They’ll need to throw, block, tackle and kick better than they have through three games.

They’ll also need star running back Jaydn Ott, who was expected to play Saturday but did not dress for the game.

Wilcox told reporters on Tuesday he thought Ott would be ready to face the Vandals after leaving the Auburn game when he hit the turf hard and stayed on the ground for a couple minutes.

“I did think that. I wasn’t being dishonest,” he said. “Then he was just not available to play today. As of this morning, that was what was reported to me. Look forward to getting him back as soon as possible.”

Asked if he believes Ott would be available in Seattle, Wilcox said he doesn’t have the answer.

“I would expect (him back) based on this week, but ultimately that is not my decision.”

What is within the Bears’ grasp is avoiding the 17-0 deficit they experienced Saturday.

“I expected us to start much better than we did. Unfortunately, for a number of reasons we did not, really dug ourselves a hole,” Wilcox said. “Defensively, the third and fourth downs were really poor. And they put the ball in the end zone.

“And offensively we left some plays out there. It was great to see some guys battle through that. We played better throughout the game, (but) it was real streaky it felt like.”

In other words, good enough to beat Idaho but maybe not Washington.

Cover photo of Cal running back Isaiah Ifanse scoring a touchdown against Idaho by Kyle Terada, USA Today

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