No. 15 Virginia at Cal
In spite of the heart-breaking double overtime loss to Virginia Tech in Week-9 and the 31-21 loss to Virginia this past week, I still believe that with three more games to go Cal can become bowl eligible. If not this coming week against No. 14 Louisville, then in Week 12 or 13 against either Stanford or SMU. The Cavaliers wasted no time taking a lead in this one and found the end zone in less than three minutes on the first possession of the game to go out in front 7-0 on a 25 yard TD run by their Senior RB J’Mari Taylor. After forcing Cal to punt just six plays into their first drive, Virginia would add three more on a 26 yard field goal by their Senior Place Kicker Will Bettridge to make it 10-0 with a little more than five minutes left in the 1st Qtr. Cal would finally get on the board 14 plays and seven plus minutes later on a 2 yard TD run by Junior RB Kendrick Raphael to make it 10-7 with two minutes gone in the 2nd Qtr. The Cavaliers followed that up with their own 14 play seven plus minute drive and 5 yard TD run by J’Mari Taylor—his second of the game—to extend their lead to 17-7. A three-and-out by both teams followed with another punt by Cal after five plays and a missed field goal by Virginia to end the half.
Neither team made any headway on their first two possessions of the third quarter but after Cal held Virginia to a three-and-out and then returned the Cavaliers 50 yard punt 18 yards, Cal Freshman QB Jaron-Keawe Sagapolutele would throw a lateral pass to Sophomore Tight End Mason Mini who would connect with Junior RB Kendrick Raphael on a 42 yard TD pass to get to within three at 17-14 with six minutes left in the third. But Virginia wasted no time getting back down field 75 yards in 11 plays to get the lead back to two possessions on a 3 yard TD run by Senior WR Elijah Wood to make it 24-14. Cal’s last possession of the 3rd Qtr would be intercepted and Virginia’s first of the 4th would result in a three-and-out. A punt of only 14 yards by Virginia would give the Golden Bears great field position at the Cavaliers 25 yard line. A 24 yard no huddle pass from the shotgun and 1 yard run by Raphael—his second of the game—would get Cal back to within three points at 24-21. With neither team adding to the scoreboard over the next five possessions the Golden Bears would finally get the ball back with under a minute left in the game. But rather than a miraculous comeback and major upset, Sagapolutele would throw a pick six and Cal would lose the game 31-21 and still needing one more game to become bowl eligible.
For Cal, Sagapolutele would connect on 19-of-30 for 213 yards, no TD’s, and 2 interceptions. The only TD Cal got in the air was on the flea flicker from TE Mason Mini to RB Kendrick Raphael. On the ground, when you throw in the negative yardage accumulated by Sagapolutele the team collectively rushed for just 8 yards even though Junior RB Kendrick Raphael gained 46 yards and 2 TD’s on 13 carries. For Virginia, Senior QB Chandler Morris connected on 24-of-36 for 262 yards with no TD’s and no interceptions. On the ground Senior RB J’Mari Taylor led the way with 105 of the team’s 194 yards and 2 TD’s on 21 carries with Senior WR Eli Wood picking up the other rushing TD. The Cavaliers led in first downs, 23-14; total yards of offense, 456-263; converted their 3rd downs over 50% of the time compared with just 25% for Cal; had no turnovers compared with two for Cal and had possession of the ball for 11 more minutes. After facing No. 15 Virginia at home the Golden Bears take to the road to take on No. 14 Louisville.
Pittsburgh at Stanford
After the 2020 COVID season Stanford head coach David Shaw had back-to-back 3-9 seasons and got replaced by Troy Taylor who had back-to-back 3-9 seasons and got replaced by Frank Reich who is currently 3-6 and headed for his first 3-9 season. My question is, will they wait for the second 3-9 season before they replace him as well? I just got through reading an article written by Dylan Grausz entitled, “Frank Reich Sparks Stunning Revival of Stanford Football,” huh? Well, before I completely dismissed this notion I thought I should do a little more digging and found out something that maybe some of you, or possibly all of you knew that I didn’t. The former great Stanford and Indianapolis Colts QB Andrew Luck was hired a year ago this month to be the General Manager of Stanford Football with basically unlimited decision making power for the purpose of returning Stanford to the days where players and coaches believed you could win at a high level at one of the greatest academic institutions in the country. They call it a defiant dedication to winning the right way with character and cruelty as Matt Hayes of USA Today put it. One of the first things Luck did was hire his former Indianapolis Colts head coach Frank Reich.
Obviously since Luck was hired in November of 2024 he had zero input into recruiting or transfer portal selections for this season but according to an article in Sport’s Illustrated Andrew Luck and Frank Reich and their recruiting team were hard at it in January of this year and had already landed 11 commits for the 2026 class. According to an article in the Stanford Review by Jon Hartley entitled, Stanford Football’s Urgent Nil Problem, and written exactly a month after the hiring of Luck he wrote; “In spite of the university’s $37 billion endowment and scores of billionaire graduates, Stanford refuses to give school donor mailing lists to Lifetime Cardinal [the Stanford NIL collective] to strengthen NIL recruitment or promote the program at athletic events. As a result, Stanford’s spending on football has fallen behind ACC rival football programs like Clemson, Florida State, SMU and UVA.”
Not sure if Luck has addressed that specific issue yet but as of last month according to Zachary Pereles of CBS Sports; “Stanford Football received a massive, much-needed boost when Bradford M. Freeman, a former Cardinal football player and former university trustee donated $50 million to the program in an effort to aid NIL efforts [and includes] significant support for institutional NIL and creates five new football scholarships for student-athletes.” Andrew Luck had this say about the donation; “With Brad’s incredible gift, we are positioned to win on the field and build a bridge to a sustainable future for Stanford football. The ability to support our players through new scholarships and institutional NIL will reinforce Stanford as the preeminent place in the country to be a football scholar-athlete.” With all this new information I think I can answer my own question. Yes, regardless of how the Cardinal finish this season I believe current head coach Frank Reich will be back in 2026 for his second season and what sounds like an exciting rebirth of a once great program. Can’t wait to see what happens.
Regarding this game—I mean, you already figured out they lost, right? Yeah, they lost 35-20, but it was the first home loss this season—a glimmer of hope. For Stanford, Senior QB Ben Gulbranson—who was harassed all game long by a Pitt defense that recorded five sacks and six pass disruptions—had his worst performance of the year connecting for 17-of-30 for 228 yards, 1 TD to Senior WR CJ Williams, and 3 interceptions. Reich benched him after the first half and brought in his backup, Freshman QB Elijah Brown, who was a lot more efficient while connecting on over 70% of his throws for 108 yards, 1 TD also to Williams, and no picks. On the ground Junior RB Sedrick Irvin picked up 24 yards on 8 carries but once all the negative yards from both QB’s were added in the team rushed 27 times for a negative 10 yards. For Pittsburgh, Freshman QB Mason Heintschel—the ACC’s leading passer—was 23-of-38 for 304 yards, 3 TD’s to three different receivers and 2 interceptions while also picking up another 21 yards on 8 carries. On the ground they picked up 162 yards and a TD by Senior WR Deuce Spann. Stanford had a 10-7 lead after the first quarter, but after that the Panthers outscored them 28-3 in the second and third with the Cardinal picking up 7 more in the 4th. Stanford hits the road to take on North Carolina this Saturday.