If you haven’t heard of him Cal’s Sophomore RB Jaydn Ott is 2nd only to Oregon State’s Damien Martinez in rushing yards in the PAC-12 and is in the Top-20 nationally. At home against Arizona State this past Saturday Ott rushed 29 times for 165 of the Golden Bear’s 196 yards on the ground as well as one of their two TD’s, a two yard score early in the 4th Qtr following a pass interception that proved to be the margin in a closely contested 24-21 victory at home in Berkeley, CA.
This one was close from the get-go with the score tied at 7-7 after the 1st Qtr, Cal holding just a 10-7 lead going into the break, and a 17-13 lead after the end of the 3rd Qtr. But early in the 4th Qtr Cal’s starting QB Junior Trenton Bourguet, who had connected for over 60% of his passes for 344 yards on the day, would make his only critical mistake of the game—an interception on the first play after a punt on his own 13 yard line. Three plays later Ott would score that rushing TD to go up 24-13. The Sun Devils would come back quickly in under two minutes to close the score back up on a Bourguet 3 yard TD run and successful two-point conversion to bring it to within a field goal with over nine minutes left to play.
Even though Cal couldn’t score again on their next possession, they took their nice sweet time not scoring—eating up 6:28 of those nine remaining minutes and, after going for it on 4th and goal and not making it, left the Sun Devils at their own 1 yard line with just under three minutes left. But seven plays and three incomplete passes later and unable to move the ball past their own 39 yard line they had to turn it back over to the Golden Bears who ran out the clock with just a minute left in the game.
For Cal, their starting QB Sam Jackson V completed just 12-of-29 for 130 yards, 1 TD, and no interceptions with WR Jeremiah Hunter picking up 89 of those yards and that single score on just six completions. On the ground the Golden Bears rushed 48 times for 196 yards with Isaiah Ifanse picking up 26 yards and the other score to go along with Ott’s total mentioned at the top. The Sun Devils rushed 29 times for 68 yards with Junior RB Cameron Skattebo picking up 59 yards of that along with another score to go along with Bourguet’s.
After the game Ott gave most of the credit to the guys blocking for him and said; “That’s all offensive line, they came out ready to play. They were getting movement on the first level on to the second level. That opened up the holes and we were able to chunk away 4- or 5-yard runs every time.” And even though Arizona State recorded more total yards of offense compared to Cal, 430-to-326, the AP pointed out in their Recap that the Golden Bears got tough when they needed to by holding the Sun Devils to just 3-of-15 third down attempts. Cal stays at home to host Oregon State next Saturday while Arizona State will head home to host Coach Prime and the Colorado Buffaloes.