Bears Embracing 'Challenge' After Loss To UCLA

The Golden Bears must pick up the pieces after Saturday night’s puzzling 45-24 Week 1 loss to UCLA.

On Tuesday, Cal’s staff — head coach Tosh Lupoi, offensive coordinator Jordan Somerville and defensive coordinator Michael Hutchings — shared what that process looks like by reflecting on lessons learned against the Bruins and looking ahead to a cross-country road trip to Syracuse.

“Had back-to-back, really good days so far of preppin’ (and) trying to improve here,” Lupoi said in an opening statement. “So, I’m excited to see the guys get after it, and got an awesome challenge ahead of us … in a hostile environment.

(I’m) excited to keep progressing toward the best version of us and trying to get better.” 

The Golden Bears were far from ideal on both sides of the ball against UCLA.

Defensively, they allowed the Bruins to rush for six touchdowns and nearly nine yards per carry while facing minimal resistance on the outside. Offensively, Cal scored 24 points, but questionable play-calling and on-field decision-making left points on the board. Miscommunication haunted all facets, too.

Lupoi was direct about what he saw, adding what Cal is emphasizing in practice.

“Well, we lost the game, so I’ll assess it that way, as far as myself,” Lupoi said. “I thought the coordinators did a great job with the management of the game. We're going to really try to improve … from an offensive standpoint, perimeter blocking (and) protection; (from a) defensive standpoint, tackling and then just being precise, specifically with our alignments. 

“That's what stood out … lose some leverage or some missed tackles that we got to improve for sure.”

Offensively

Somerville himself said his debut as a play-caller wasn’t the greatest.

“How would I grade myself? Not good enough,” Somerville said. “At the end of the day, not good enough to be able to help ourselves out (with) a chance to win. Got to be better.”

The first-time offensive coordinator said he didn’t second-guess any decisions. 

Instead, Somerville pointed to inconsistency across the board as the focal point of the offensive woes.

"Overall, inconsistent, very much highs and lows throughout the game,” Somerville said. “But the strain — the fight — that's what I thought showed up out of our guys. ... The consistency, that's the challenge going forward."

He said virtually the same about quarterback Jaron-Keawe Sagapolutele’s performance, after the sophomore completed 24 of 41 passes for 271 yards, two touchdowns and two interceptions.

Regarding running back Adam Mohammed’s career-high 28 carries, neither Somerville nor Lupoi was concerned.

“I wouldn’t mind it,” Lupoi said.

The offensive line was suspect for much of the game. And after Tuesday, there remain more questions than answers.

“There (are) 100% moments that all these guys are going to want to take back, right?” Somerville said. “And so the next thing, right, is being able to turn the page and move forward; the ability to reset my mind, hone in on my technique and do what is asked of me on my job on that play, right? 

“So, the biggest thing is the mindset.”

There wasn’t much discussion of what Cal will do scheme-wise going into New York, or how to improve struggles on first downs.

Defensively

Hutchings pointed to poor execution — and correctable items — as the culprit for his unit’s unflattering showing on Saturday.

“I thought the guys played hard,” Hutchings said. “But just really, lack of execution on our part wasn't up to our standard, when you go back and look at it. The good thing was just kind of how we all took it in as a staff, as players as well. …

“That's really the great part, is things that we can come back and correct and practice, correct in the film room. And that's the promising piece as well, just the way they responded. Their mindset is great.”

Hutchings mentioned blown coverages, tackling, technique and fundamentals as areas the Golden Bears aim to improve immediately. 

“Not anything that we're not asking, not anything more than what we're asking them to do, no heroic efforts, just the basics,” Hutchings said.

Lupoi was more direct in noting line-of-scrimmage losses.

“It’s all correctable,” the first-time head coach prefaced. “There’s some unfortunate miscues in gap cancellation. It starts there, communicating. Applaud the staff as far as the emphasis on that. Just have to do a better job of executing those and making it important to communicate.”

Hutchings, like Lupoi, liked what he saw when the Golden Bears forced three consecutive Bruins punts to start the second half. 

Moving forward, he hopes that’s the standard.

“It was a really cool segment,” Hutchings said. “Right there, you saw some things come together. (The) sideline was alive, guys were feeding off each other, communication and execution (were) high. You got a little glimpse of what we can be.

“How do we go replicate that? 
How do we reproduce that? How do we keep it consistent? And I think that was the promising piece for our players, our staff — ‘Hey, this is the level we can be at.’”

The first-time play-caller also owned up to the drive before halftime, in which a busted coverage allowed UCLA to squeeze in a last-second field goal.

“We could’ve been in a better play call from my part,” Hutchings said. “Especially in a critical situation like that … ends up being a three-point swing for us there.”

Defensively, Cal played several different players in several different packages and situations, many of which were unpredictable. 

That can still be the case moving forward.

“We want to rotate quite a few guys per package, finding out who is best,” Lupoi said. “We’re going to continue to have an open competition throughout practice (in) certain places. That’s the environment I want. 

“You might see some different guys as far as who runs out first. We’ve got a lot of individuals contributing that haven’t played a lot of football. That’s ultimately how you get better; you bank those reps. At some positions we’re going to be service by committee.”

Injury Updates

Lupoi didn’t share any concrete updates on running back Carter Vargas and center Bastian Swinney.

“Everything will be reflected on the injury report,” Lupoi said, adding that he’d “most likely” tell the media if a player was ruled out for the season.