Bears Triumph in Ugly But Ultimately Convincing Fashion, 31-10 Over SDSU

BERKELEY - It wasn’t pretty. In fact at some points it was darn ugly. But in the end, the Bears pulled away from an overmatched but game San Diego State squad and secured their first 3-0 start since 2019 with a penalty-marred 31-10 victory over the 0-3 Aztecs.

“We never minimize winning,” Cal head coach Justin Wilcox said after the game. “Winning is hard...That was not a clean game for us at all. We have to play much better than that.

“It’s all the little stuff that shows up. The penalties were just really bad. We gave up sacks (6 in all). We had two special teams penalties in the first half. There was no rhythm. We made it really hard on ourselves.”

As has so often been the case when facing inferior opponents, the Bears struggled mightily in the first half, eaking out a slim 7-3 lead with only 165 yards of total offense and a lone score going into the locker room.

Penalties contributed to much of the Bears’ struggles on the nationally-televised game on ESPN. The Bears wracked up 12 penalties for 113 yards in total, though to be fair, 30 yards of those penalties came courtesy of an overjealous and likely inebriated handful of fans in the student section who repeatedly threw cardboard onto the field as well as several highly-questionable calls at the hands of the officials.

QB Fernando Mendoza bounced back from a shaky start, completing 21-of-29 passes (72.4%) for 198 yards and 2 TDs with 1 interception on the night, also rushing for 28 sack adjusted yards - a total that would’ve been more than double if not for a long run being called back on a holding call.

Running back Jaivian Thomas had a breakout game, rushing for 169 yards in just 17 carries. He was back by portal transfer running back Kadarius Calloway, who shook off a rough 2-game start to his career to also break out, adding 87 yards in just 9 carries and a TD.

Redshirt frosh receiver Nyziah Hunter continued to turn heads, leading the team with 4 catches for 52 yards and his fourth touchdown of the young season after coming into fall camp fighting for third string reps.

“In the third quarter, the offense picked up it,” Wilcox noted. “Got some scores, which was great. Hit some runs. Created some momentum. You get late in the game and kind of have them on the ropes and the defense, who’d been playing great all day gave up a drive. A guy makes a mistake and doesn’t drop when he should drop. They hit a screen, we miss tackles. Now they recapture a little bit of momentum.”

Overall though, the defense was solid, giving up just 10 points and 276 yards of offense, limited SDSU QB Johnson Tupou’ata to just 13-for-29 for 156 yards and 1 TD and 2 interceptions on the night. They also held SDSU to just 3.1 yards per carry. 

Linebackers Teddye Buchanan and Cade Uluave led the Bears with 11 tackles a piece. Nose tackle Aidan Keanaaina‍ had a solid day up the middle with six tackles and OLB Xavier Carlton had a breakout game with 5 tackles and 2 ½ sacks in the win. Cornerback Nohl Williams grabbed his fourth interception of the season and fellow cornerback Marcus Harris‍ came back in the second half from his targeting suspension in the second half of last week’s win over Auburn to grab his second INT of the year.

The Bears will again hit the road on a cross country trip on Thursday, flying out to Tallahassee, Florida to face winless Florida State at Doak Campbell Stadium Saturday night. If there were a possible 3-0 Cal and 0-3 parlay available before the season, a likely fortune could have been made but that’s where the Bears find themselves in their inaugural ACC opening game.

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