Cal, facing stiff test, hopes to ace its final
With the Axe ensconced in Berkeley for a second straight season but with Cal also without a bowl bid for a second straight season, the Bears play their final game of 2022 against No. 17 UCLA at Memorial Stadium on Friday afternoon.
Cal (4-7, 2-6 Pac-12) overcame an 11-point deficit in the fourth quarter to knock off Stanford 27-20 in the Big Game on Saturday. That ended Cal’s losing streak at six games, but the win took only some of the sting out of that skid.
“We don’t feel great about our record by any means,” Cal head coach Justin Wilcox said Tuesday. “We feel like we could have played much better football and had a chance to win more games and should have won more games. We didn’t get that done, so that’s on me and us as a program.”
Ending the season with wins over the Cardinal and the Bruins would make the Bears feel quite a bit better about 2022 and perhaps give them some momentum heading into 2023.
Safety Daniel Scott said a victory over UCLA (8-3, 5-3) would mean “ending on a good note so they can start next season strong.” Note Scott used “they,” because after six seasons in the program, his Cal career ends Friday.
Scott made two key plays in the fourth quarter against Stanford: He first stripped the ball from quarterback Ashton Daniels on the go-ahead, two-fumble touchdown scored by linebacker Jackson Sirmon. Scott later picked off a Tanner McKee pass and returned it 40 yards to the Stanford 9 with 2:16 left, setting up Jaydn Ott’s clinching TD run.
“Daniel means the world to us on defense,” said Cal defensive coordinator Peter Sirmon, Jackson’s father. “He’s really the epitome of what we believe we are here.” Peter Sirmon then listed some of Scott’s attributes, including toughness, availability and a willingness to learn and progress.
Scott would like to join the list of recent Cal defensive backs playing in the NFL: cornerback Camryn Bynum (Vikings) and safeties Ashtyn Davis ( Jets), Jaylinn Hawkins (Falcons) and Elijah Hicks (Bears).
There’s still the matter of dealing with UCLA and quarterback Dorian Thompson-Robinson. The fifth-year senior accounted for six touchdowns — four passing and two rushing — in the Bruins’ 48-45 loss to USC on Saturday. Thompson-Robinson has accounted for a school-record 110 touchdowns in his career.
“We’ve played some extraordinary quarterbacks throughout the season,” Scott said, “and DTR is another one of them.”
In a three-game stretch, Cal faced Washington’s Michael Penix Jr., Oregon’s Bo Nix and USC’s Caleb Williams. They not only are three of the best QBs in the Pac-12, they’re three of the best QBs in the nation.
Each prevailed against the Bears during their sixgame skid. Wilcox, in his sixth season as Cal’s head coach, has a 30-35 record.
“There are some things that we have to address, whether it’s systematically, our roster, how we do things,” Wilcox said, “but there’s no reason we can’t be very successful here — and I have more conviction in that than I ever have.
“College football is changing. We have to change and adjust with it, but we can still stay true to Cal and who we want to be in doing so.”
Briefly: UCLA linebacker Laiatu Latu, from Jesuit High-Carmichael (Sacramento County), ranks second in the Pac-12 in sacks with 9.5. His younger brother, Keleki, is a tight end for Cal who has 18 receptions for 207 yards and a touchdown this season. … Since going 5-7 in 2014, the Bears have had at least five wins in each full season. … Friday’s game will mark the final broadcast for Cal play-byplay announcer Joe Starkey. He’ll be finishing his 48th season.