It’s been five years since the Golden Bears started their season off 3-0. That year they would go 8-5, beating No. 14 Washington on the road in Husky Stadium and the Big Ten’s Illinois in the Redbox Bowl. In this one, after falling behind 3-0 to the Aztecs on a Nick Lopez 29 yard field goal Cal would take the lead 7-3 on QB Fernando Mendoza’s 8 yard TD run with under three minutes left in the 1st Qtr and never give it back. Holding San Diego State scoreless into the half and through the 3rd Qtr, Cal would score two more TD’s and a field goal to make it 24-3 early in the 4th Qtr. Both teams would put up another seven each by the end with Cal prevailing 31-10.
But it wasn’t all as easy as the score would indicate. As noted by the AP in their Recap for ESPN; “Cal overcame six sacks, 12 penalties, a missed field goal and three failed fourth downs to come away with the victory.” As head coach Justin Wilcox said afterwards: “We all got to learn how to win. The team has to learn how to win. The program has to learn how to win. Doing all those little things matters. It just has to be the standard for how you operate. You just can’t play [this unevenly] and expect to sustain success because it will come back and bite you. So we’ve got to demand it from the players and then they have to demand it from themselves.”
Mendoza would end up connecting on over 70% of his throws, 21-of-29, for 198 yards, 2 TD’s and one pick in addition to running one in himself. Sophomore RB Jaivian Thomas and Senior Kadarius Calloway tore it up on the ground in spite of the Aztec’s seven tackles for loss and in spite of Cal’s uber talented RB Jaydn Ott still out nursing an injury, collectively carrying the ball 26 times for 256 of Cal’s 275 total yards with Calloway picking up the other rushing TD. With three sacks and six tackles for loss of their own the Golden Bears intercepted Aztec Freshman QB Javanse Johnson twice and kept their ground game out of the end zone.
Cal led the way with 21 first downs compared to 16 for San Diego State and outpaced the Aztecs on the ground, in the air, and of course total yards of offense, 473-to-276. They were more efficient on third down conversions, had 1 less turnover and led the way in time-of-possession. But both teams were highly undisciplined with a combined 27 penalties for 233 yards which led to an often stopped, sloppy, and frustrating game to watch with Cal getting no help from their fans in this regard either. As noted in the AP’s ESPN Recap with a subtitle of Out of Control; “The Cal students got their own team in trouble by repeatedly throwing cards used for card stunts on the field despite several warnings. The Bears were penalized twice for it in the third quarter with one coming on a kickoff and the other giving the Aztecs a first down. That prompted Wilcox to borrow the referee’s microphone to plead with the fans to stop.” Cal starts conference play next week on the road against a struggling Florida State.