California Golden Bears

Head coach: Justin Wilcox, 6th season (26-28)

2021 season: 5-7, 4-5 Pac-12

Series with CU: Golden Bears lead 7-4

The Game

Who: California Bears at Colorado Buffaloes

When: Saturday, Oct 15, time TBA

Where: Folsom Field in Boulder

5 Guys to Watch

•DL Brett Johnson: Missed 2021 with a hip injury. In his first two seasons, however, he played in 17 games (13 starts), with 46 tackles, six tackles for loss and three sacks.

•RB Damien Moore: Finished second on the team with 517 rushing yards and led the team with six rushing touchdowns last year. During the four-game 2020 season, he had a team-high 188 rushing yards.

•QB Jack Plummer: A part-time starter at Purdue, he played in 21 games (13 starts) for the Boilermakers over the last three years, completing 64.8% of his passes (319-of492) for 3,405 yards, 26 touchdowns and 10 interceptions. His brother, Will, is a QB at Arizona and played against CU the past two seasons.

•S Daniel Scott: One of the best safeties in the Pac-12, he led the Bears in tackles (82) last year and had 4.5 tackles for loss and three interceptions. In his career, he has 122 tackles and four interceptions.

•LB Jackson Sirmon: The Washington transfer is the son of Cal defensive coordinator Peter Sirmon. In four years with the Huskies, he played in 33 games (16 starts) and recorded 147 tackles. He led the Huskies with 91 tackles last year.

Good to know

•From 2013-16, the Bears had the worst scoring defense in the Pac-12 three times in four years. Wilcox took over in 2017 and the Bears jumped to seventh that year. They’ve finished in the top five in each of the last four seasons, including second last year (22.2 points per game).

•In 2021, the Bears were 96th in the country in scoring

(23.8 points per game), but that was their best average since 2017, Wilcox’s first year. They finished 60th in yards per play (5.9), but 99th in red zone scoring (78.05%) last year.

•Grand Junction native Bill Musgrave is in his third season as Cal’s offensive coordinator/quarterbacks coach. Musgrave, who played quarterback for the Denver Broncos in 1995-96, coached for 16 season in the NFL before going to Cal. Most recently, he was the offensive coordinator for the Broncos in 2017-18.

•Cal was 0-5 in one-score games last year and 1-7 over the past two seasons.

•The Bears are 1-7 in their last eight road games with the only win coming at Stanford last year. Overall, they’ve lost seven straight games outside of the state of California, with the last win coming at Mississippi on Sept. 21, 2019.

•Both teams will be coming off a bye week when they meet in Boulder. Cal is the only team coming off a bye that CU will face this season.

•CU is 4-2 against Cal in Boulder, including wins in the last two Folsom Field matchups, in 2013 and 2017.

•Kicker Dario Longhetto was 11-of-14 on field goals last year and 31-for-31 on extra points. For his career, he’s 15of-20 on field goals and 40-of-41 on extra points.

•Cal hasn’t posted a winning record in conference play since going 5-4 in the Pac-10 in 2009. The Bears have been close under Wilcox, going 4-5 in three of the last four seasons.

•Outside linebackers coach Vic So’oto was originally hired by CU in December to coach the Buffs’ defensive linemen. Two months later, he left the Buffs to take the position with Cal.

Portal movement

Cal has lost 10 scholarship players to the transfer portal, including several contributors from last season. Offensively, leading rusher Christopher Brooks (BYU), starting right guard Mckade Mettauer (Oklahoma), key receiver/returner Nikko Remigio (Fresno State) and tight end Gavin Reinwald (Rice) are all gone. On defense, starting defensive end JH Tevis (Indiana), part-time starting corner Chigoze Anusiem (Colorado State) and part-time starting linebacker Evan Tattersall (UC Davis) all left. There were six additions and they could be significant. Plummer could be the starting quarterback, while Sirmon could be one of the top middle linebackers in the conference. The Bears also added defensive ends Odua Isibor from UCLA (4.5 TFL, 2 sacks last year) and Xavier Carlton from Utah. Tackle T.J. Session (starter at Montana State) and Rocky Mountain High

School graduate Spencer Lovell (part-time starter at Arizona State) bolster the offensive line.