Texas Southern at Cal
Last week it was Cal’s Freshman QB, Jaron-Keawe Sagapolutele, who threw for 234 yards and three TD’s in a 34-15 win over Oregon State. This week the Golden Bears Junior RB Kendrick Raphael ran for 131 yards—a career high—and a TD after rushing for just 37 yards against those same Beavers. Cal got off to a slow start in this one with two punts and a fumble to go along with their only points in the 1st Qtr being on an Abram Murray 44 yard field goal. But Texas Southern didn’t get it going at all until the start of the 4th Qtr. And even when they did, it was at the end of an ugly drive riddled with four penalties and three incompletions before the Tigers finally put three points up on the board on a 39 yard field goal by Senior PK Christian Avelar. But by then Cal was already ahead 25-0 and would put up another field goal and TD of their own before it was over to easily win it 35-3.
The second Qtr didn’t start out a whole lot better for Cal as they turned the ball back over on downs on their first possession and threw an interception on their second. But after a 12 play 86 yard drive on their third and connecting on three passes 19 yards or better, Sagapolutele ran it into the end zone for six followed up by a successful 2-point conversion to go 11-0. Texas Southern’s next possession would result in an interception with less than a minute left in the half. The 3rd Qtr got a lot better for Cal who put up back-to-back TD’s while holding the Tigers to back-to-back three-and-outs to go up 25-0 by the start of the 4th.
Collectively, Sagapolutele and Cal’s back-up Junior QB Devon Brown were 29-of-40 for 294 yards, 1 TD by Brown, and 1 interception by the starter. On the ground, in addition to Raphael’s big day, the Golden Bears rushed for an additional 51 yards to make it a total of 173 yards on 33 attempts and 3 TD’s with Sagapolutele and Senior RB LJ Johnson Jr. picking up the other two. For Texas Southern, KJ Cooper connected on 19-of-35 for 137 yards, no TD’s, and one interception while on the ground they rushed 22 times for just 52 yards without ever finding the end zone.
Cal led in first downs, 22-13; total yards of offense, 467-192; and converted both 3rd and 4th down attempts 50% of the time compared with just 20% for Texas Southern on 3rd downs alone. Cal stays home this next week to take on their only Big Ten opponent on the schedule—Minnesota.
Stanford at BYU
Another game, another loss for the Cardinal—not surprising right? The Cougars held Stanford scoreless through three quarters in a 27-3 win that they led from start to finish. As he gets more experience Stanford’s Senior QB Ben Gulbranson seems to be getting worse. His best season was 2022 when he connected for 62% of his passes for 1,455 yards, 9 TD’s, and 5 picks. Last year, he completed 61% of his passes for 943 yards, 4 TD’s and 4 picks. So far this year he has completed just 32-of-62 for 251 yards, no TD’s, and three interceptions including two in this game. As one of the academic power houses of the country you would think that they are smart enough to recognize when they need to completely rethink what they’re doing on the football field or just drop the program.
I mean how dismal and embarrassing can it get. Since 2018 when they were 9-4 they have had six consecutive seasons with four wins or less and I’m not kidding when I say that they could go winless this entire year, except maybe their game again San Jose State in Week-5. Gulbranson completed 17-of-32 for 142 yards, no TD’s and two interceptions. The Cardinal ground game was so non-existent, 24 rushes for 19 yard—minus 18 before half-time— that you have to wonder if Christian McCaffrey and Toby Gerhart are too embarrassed to come back for Home Coming games. Their next loss will be at home this coming week against Boston College.