Cal at Utah is more important to the College Football Playoff race than Miami at Florida State.
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This is where we are in college football this season.
ESPN is bringing “College GameDay” to Salt Lake City on Saturday for a showdown of the only remaining undefeated teams in the Pacific-12 Conference that few people would have predicted.
No. 23 Cal and quarterback Jared Goff are 5-0 for the first time since 2007. The No. 5 Utes (5-0) are getting touted as the top team in the country. Neither team was ranked in preseason.
Pac-12 Networks analyst Curtis Conway says he likes Cal’s chances “a little bit.”
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By season’s end, Cal had surrendered 42 touchdown passes – more than any Football Subdivision team in history.
Dykes brought in longtime Tommy Tuberville cohort Art Kaufman as DC before the 2014 season; that unit, severely constrained by injuries and inexperience, edged up to reach 107th out of 128 teams. Washington, please never fire Mike Leach.
Whether Smith plays or not, this game has all the making’s of a defensive struggle. Duke could only manage to score 19 points in its two games against Northwestern and Boston College, two of the best defenses in the country so far this season.
Rabb and Brown were the two 5-star prospects signed by Cal in the off-season. “They can now focus on how to do it”. Oregon’s defense is 114th nationally, allowing 287.2 yards per game, but the Ducks can still put up big numbers on offense so this could be fun to watch. Sacks and tackles for loss are both way up. “Goff has a tendency to put the ball on the ground when pressured (two fumbles already this year), so if Utah can get any heat on the QB, a game-changing turnover could follow”. Sturdier competition is on the way, and fast.
By November, Utah fans will know whether they prefer the Utes to be the underdog or the top dog. “He might be the first quarterback taken in the [NFL] draft”. “That’s all I’m concerned about”, Goff said. A Dykes collaborator since 2010, Franklin has never before had the same quarterback to work on for three consecutive years in this system.
“He’s just calm – that’s kind of his nature”, Dykes said. Franklin swears Goff is taller than he was as a sophomore. Cal’s run defense has looked better than last year’s and are ranked in the upper 1/3 of the country in rushing yards given up per game. There really wasn’t an underdog I felt great about this week. It’s Week 6, the start of a ferocious gauntlet that will shape the Bears’ season. Boller threw 64 touchdown passes from 1999 to 2002. Time after time after time. Cal is well aware how thin the line can be separating a win and a loss.
After the trip to Utah comes a visit to No. 20 UCLA, a home game against No. 17 USC and a trip to perennial power Oregon. “We played 330 snaps in a three-game stretch”, Kaufman says. #23 California (5-0, 2-0) will travel down to Salt Lake City to take on #5 Utah (4-0, 1-0).
No. 5 Utah hosts No. 23 Cal in a high-profile Pac-12 matchup that will be televised by ESPN Saturday night at Rice-Eccles Stadium.
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A possible Pac-12 championship game preview? “That’s been the thing we haven’t been able to do in the past”. “We had our hands full just trying to be a competitive football team”. This is California’s moment before the moment, and that can be scary, but there’s a grim egalitarianism to what it’s about to attempt.
