Is this a "must win" for the Dykes Program? One of the coolest things about college football is how every game is so important. But some more so than others, right?

Let's say that a reasonable expectation for success under the current regime has us going AT LEAST 6-6 this year. This enables us to keep selling the "program on the rise" line to recruits (maybe a tiny step back this season, what with the personnel losses). Then, we can further stock up on talent (especially on D) and finally make more inroads locally.

But, on this path, we probably should be 3-1 now, not 2-2. If we win tomorrow, I could see us still getting to 6 or 7 wins, but if we lose...

If we're "just not that into Utah", well, we should be.

Huge game: Go Bears!

Agreed. This is a huge game for us

Its a must win because its the next game. This team is a borderline bowl team in our conference. The faster you get to that conclusion the less effective those gut punches will be when you see stuff like the pick at SDSU and the pick(s) against ASU.

There's no tomorrow

hawaii was a must win, what will happen if we lose that?
san diego st was a must win but bc we didn't we learned that this teams just OK
ASU was a must win bc they are on the bottom half of the league we needed that one

It's a must-win because every time Aaron Rodgers has attended a Cal game since leaving, the Bears would lose. (I believe his last visit was vs. Oregon in 2010.)

If Rodgers were to attend Saturday's game (he's on a bye week), and the Bears lose again, he may never come back.

Dbearson;842737170 said:

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hawaii was a must win, what will happen if we lose that?
san diego st was a must win but bc we didn't we learned that this teams just OK
ASU was a must win bc they are on the bottom half of the league we needed that one

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Who knows who is on the bottom half? The PAC looks like a joke this year. Not a single team is unbeatable or will be favored by more than 9 against us.

I'm feeling like it's a very, very important game for the season. A win over another ranked team to move to 3-2 feels huge!!! A pretty decent chance next week against the beavs to move to 4-2. Then some good spirit within the team and the fans for the duck game, a team that is easily beatable this year. Sure feels like their a big opportunity here. Feeling very nervous as again I am having hope...

I am not too annoyed with losing 2 games to a team that will probably run the table and another that might win the PAC-12 South. We only have a single conference loss and threw up 50 (57!) on freaking Texas. Utah is ranked but they are a pretender, if we can't beat them at home then the rest of this season is doubtful. I am still optimistic based on what we did versus Texas but losing to Utah probably ends that.

Maybe it is because of the matchup, or maybe because we're still in September, or just the fact that the team's season has hit a bit of a buzzkill, but this is a really lousy homecoming game, probably gonna have less than 50,000 in the stadium.

Beating Texas goes a long way.

It's not do-or-die for the Dykes program. It's not even make-or-break for the season, since Cal has lots of teams left on the schedule that are at the same level or slightly worse than UT (OR, SC, UW, WSU, UCLA). But if Sonny wants to show the program is on an upward swing and win some recruiting battles this year, yes, he needs this game to keep the team moving upward and avoid stagnation.

But, no, this game isn't going to cost him his career. Or save it. But after the disappointing loss last week, the team could really, really use a good win.

Go Bears!!

okaydo;842737171 said:

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It's a must-win because every time Aaron Rodgers has attended a Cal game since leaving, the Bears would lose. (I believe his last visit was vs. Oregon in 2010.)

If Rodgers were to attend Saturday's game (he's on a bye week), and the Bears lose again, he may never come back.

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Okaydo, you're on drugs. Aaron doesn't do Cal games in person. Unless it's the Rose Bowl (or other BCS) or a Tedford commemoration, it ain't happening.

Uthaithani;842737179 said:

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It's not do-or-die for the Dykes program. It's not even make-or-break for the season, since Cal has lots of teams left on the schedule that are at the same level or slightly worse than UT (OR, SC, UW, WSU, UCLA). But if Sonny wants to show the program is on an upward swing and win some recruiting battles this year, yes, he needs this game to keep the team moving upward and avoid stagnation.

But, no, this game isn't going to cost him his career. Or save it. But after the disappointing loss last week, the team could really, really use a good win.

Go Bears!!

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UW > UT

Maybe I'm just a believer that UW is really good this year. I expect them to beat Stanford tonight. Oh, how glorious that will be.

travelingbears;842737193 said:

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UW > UT

Maybe I'm just a believer that UW is really good this year. I expect them to beat Stanford tonight. Oh, how glorious that will be.

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Furd seems almost guaranteed to win this one. They have the luck of the evil and the experience of winning big games as a ranked team (UW does not). After that game-winning drive against UCLA, it wouldn't surprise me if they don't lose again this year.

It'd be awesome if we follow up our road win against UW by beating them at home.

Of course it's a big game - lose it and the toilet starts to flush faster. A bowl game is a joke without this win. Does anyone think our defense is going to "right" itself? That's like Trump supporters claiming he can [U]still[/U] change his "message" in the next 30 days to win.

510Bear;842737211 said:

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Furd seems almost guaranteed to win this one. They have the luck of the evil and the experience of winning big games as a ranked team (UW does not). After that game-winning drive against UCLA, it wouldn't surprise me if they don't lose again this year.

It'd be awesome if we follow up our road win against UW by beating them at home.

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Bet on, 510Bear! If I lose, well, I lose my money (b/c I put money on UW). We'll find out tonight!

Some combination of 2 wins from among Utah, UCLA, USC, LSJU, UW, OR. I would project the order of likelihood as: OR, USC, Utah, UCLA, UW, LSJU. Then, we also must avoid losing to WSU or OSU.

59bear;842737281 said:

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Some combination of 2 wins from among Utah, UCLA, USC, LSJU, UW, OR. I would project the order of likelihood as: OR, USC, Utah, UCLA, UW, LSJU. Then, we also must avoid losing to WSU or OSU.

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Beat Utah, OSU, UW, WSU, USC, Oregon, Furd, UCLA, and a Big 10 school in the bowl game.

oskirules;842737283 said:

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Beat Utah, OSU, UW, WSU, USC, Oregon, Furd, UCLA, and a Big 10 school in the bowl game.

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You forgot the pac 12 south champ

I still think there's only been 1 must win of the Dykes' era...the 2014 game versus Northwestern. If we lost that game, Dykes should've turned in his resignation.

For a fringe bowl team, every game is a must win.

This may not be a must win but I do think it is a should win. We are favored for a reason. I think we will be favored a lot more this season. Fund looks bad this year, as does Oregon, SC and UCLA, OSU and WSU. Washington looks good. I think we are a better team than the one that beat them last year but they are better as well.

No
If we lose and still sweep Wash., Ore., furd, UCLA and USC, I'll take it.

heartofthebear;842737560 said:

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No
If we lose and still sweep Wash., Ore., furd, UCLA and USC, I'll take it.

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At any point this team could get hot and go on a winning streak get wash at home another ranked team

There is no logic in college football anymore.
Toledo just put up as many points on BYU as UCLA, Utah and Arizona combined and still lost.
So you can't carry over from one week to the next.
However, I'm pretty sure that the team that wins the TO and penalty battles will win tomorrow. If they split those, it will be close, unless the TOs are very unbalanced.
Point is that the team that makes less mistakes is much more likely to win tomorrow.

heartofthebear;842737599 said:

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There is no logic in college football anymore.
Toledo just put up as many points on BYU as UCLA, Utah and Arizona combined and still lost.
So you can't carry over from one week to the next.
However, I'm pretty sure that the team that wins the TO and penalty battles will win tomorrow. If they split those, it will be close, unless the TOs are very unbalanced.
Point is that the team that makes less mistakes is much more likely to win tomorrow.

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I think this is our mantra the rest of the season. With our defense, turnovers are more than likely THE deciding factor.

Didn't want to post it, but this game was plenty big for Cal. We had lost three times in a row to Utah. It's now another 🐵 off our back.

chazzed;842738547 said:

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Didn't want to post it, but this game was plenty big for Cal. We had lost three times in a row to Utah. It's now another �� off our back.

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Do you even 2011, bro?

BerlinerBaer;842738551 said:

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Do you even 2011, bro?

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D'oh! Well, we had lost twice in a row to Utah. I'm more than glad to have overlooked that victory.

BerlinerBaer;842738551 said:

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Do you even 2011, bro?

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That one was at one of the most boring games ever put on by 2 colleges in football history. It was nice to go to AT&T and all that, but that was a snooze fest.