The California Golden Bears will begin the post-Jared Goff era as big betting favorites against the Hawaii Warriors at sportsbooks monitored by OddsShark.com in the opener of the college football season on Friday night down at ANZ Stadium in Sydney.
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Both teams were scheduled to hold open practice sessions at the stadium in western Sydney on Thursday, but falls of up 50 to 100 millimeters of rain (two to four inches) late Wednesday and overnight forced organizers to keep the players off the turf.
HELMET TRIBUTE: On Saturday and all season, Hawaii players will wear the initials “KMT” on the back of their helmets to honor U.S. Representative (Kyle) Mark Takai, a Hawaii congressman and former all-American swimmer from the university who died in July of pancreatic cancer at the age of 49. The Bears also lose several key receivers and defensemen, so look for a lot of youth to take the field for Head Coach Sonny Dykes.
“The guys are getting acclimatised to Sydney time, so we had a good, intense practice and the guys worked hard”, he said.
Playing this game in Sydney makes more sense now than the last time two college squads from the U.S. (BYU and Colorado State in 1987) played a game down under in front of roughly 7,000 spectators.
The California Golden Bears’ Davis Webb, second left, and DeVante Wilson, center, walk along the foreshore with cheerleaders with the Harbour Bridge at the back in Sydney, Tuesday, Aug. 23, 2016, ahead of their opening college. They have a first-year coach in Nick Rolovich and a starting quarterback, Ikaika Woolsey, with limited experience. Garcia-Williams should thrive in new defensive coordinator Kevin Lempa’s 4-3 scheme.
For those that want to watch the game on Friday night, it can be seen on TV and online via a live stream. Though it feels a bit obscene to call the 5,000 mile trip from Honolulu to Sydney “close”. It is the first game of Gridiron involving major US teams on Australian soil since the NFL’s Bronco’s and Chargers played a pre-season game here in 1999.
The Golden Bears are on a high after providing the National Football League with its latest No.1 draft pick – quarterback Jared Goff who was taken by the LA Rams.
Coming off one of its best seasons in years, Cal football experienced an offseason shrouded in questions regarding the replacement of crucial players who departed the team. He’s enrolled in Cal’s public health Masters program.
The Rodeo, California-born Woolsey will lead Hawaii’s contingent on Saturday in a familiar pre-game ritual that many Australian rugby fans will recognize.
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Cal had a seven-win turnaround from the past two seasons, going from 1-11 in 2013 to 8-5 a year ago. Once a highly touted recruit out of Southern California, Allen tied for the team lead a year ago with a season grade of 89 percent.
