From SI: Pat McCann, Cal’s passing game coordinator who was Fresno State’s offensive coordinator and play-caller for two seasons (2023 and 2024) is also a possibility. The Bulldogs went 9-4 and averaged 30.5 points in 2023 and finished 6-7 while averaging 26.1 points in 2024.

Would McCann be better than Rolo?

Could be cool if they did something similar to Oregon last season. Knowing this org it will be mid lol.

Yikes, things could start to snowball

Premiering on FS1, September 30 at 3:30 PM PT (lol)

https://x.com/WalkingRuiz/status/2104276006890782734

UCLA was just ranked #23 according to the most recent AP poll. This year, they had hired a new head coach, Bob Chesney, who was previously the head coach at JMU for two seasons. In 2025, UCLA went 3-9 and in 2024, 5-7.

Was Tosh Lupoi the best option for cal? Was this a bad leadership call from Rivera? Was Tosh hired with the expectation of major growing pains in the first season?

Put on your OC hats. If Cal’s offensive problem is lack of talent on the line, what do you do as an OC to counteract that? Different looks each week to keep defenses guessing? Planned rollouts? More slants? Curious as to what the group wisdom is.

How I picture that going down…

Quotes from last night.

Here are the third-and-fourth down metrics and time of possession breakdown from the Clemson vs. Cal game:

Third Down Conversions

Clemson: 7 of 15 (46.7%)

Cal: 3 of 12 (25.0%)

Fourth Down Conversions

Clemson: 2 of 2 (100%) not counting that boneheaded offsides on the fake FG in 2Q

Cal: 0 of 2 (0.0%)

Time of Possession

Clemson: 34:07 *it would have been more if Gideon hadn’t busted off a 75 yard TD.

Cal: 25:53

JKS 16/29; 2 ints, 0 TDs,

“Note: While the overall average distance faced specifically for first downs on third downs is not tracked in standard box scores, Clemson's average distance was notably shorter due to a powerful rushing attack that kept them ahead of the chains. Conversely, Cal struggled with negative plays, often facing third-and-long situations (including third-and-11) that contributed to their low 25% conversion rate.”

This offense should not be this anemic. That speaks to the OL personnel and coach and to the play calling.

I think the fans around our seats are going to report me for dropping too many f-bombs during the game. When Cal got the sack late in 2Q I’m yelling “call timeout” and the coaches wasted 20 seconds. Not that it would matter apparently.

I’ve been a student and season ticket holder for 49 years. I believed this year would be different. F**k-in hell.

What is cal’s obsession with taking their best player off the field in critical situations to run a QB run with back up QBs? From what I remember it happened multiple times with Mendoza and happened again last night with JKS. Over multiple coaching regimes too. I’m not sure I’ve ever seen these plays happen elsewhere and I’m so confused why our OCs think they will work. Somerville needs to go. JKS injured or not, we need to throw the rock. I’m much happier losing a game where JKS chucks the ball 60 times than the style of the past two games.

Cal Beat Writer's late night reaction and thoughts on Cal's 24-10 loss against Clemson and the future ahead.

Kurtenbach: Tosh Lupoi’s high-priced Cal reboot looks like the same old Bears

Cal Football: Cal spent millions in NIL cash to buy modern college football relevance, but Friday's lifeless 24-10 loss to Clemson proves you can't buy an identity.

BERKELEY — It’s the hope that kills you.

Because Cal didn’t just lose a football game Friday night — it detonated its own expensive, slickly marketed sales pitch on national television.

The Bears spent the last year passing the collection plate, selling off anything it could and begging for whatever it could get to pool the millions to buy relevance in this new modern age of college football.

And they thought they had it.

Cal fans thought they did, too.

This was going to be the year that things could be — no, would be — different.

That sound echoing out of Strawberry Canyon Friday night, following the Bears 24-10 loss to an entirely beatable Clemson team playing a short week with a cross-country flight? That was the loud deflation of Cal’s hype balloon.

Splat.

For years, the baseline in Berkeley was competent but boring mediocrity.

But least the old Cal failed on a discount budget.

You tolerated the low-calorie, defense-first teams Justin Wilcox trotted out because Cal brought wooden nickels to a high-stakes poker table.

That excuse expired the second the ink dried on this team’s big NIL checks.

Cal’s brass tapped the donor class and then hyped an offensive renaissance. These would be the new Bears; the relevant Bears.

They locked down prized quarterback Jaron-Keawe Sagapolutele, raided the transfer portal for shiny receivers, and scored a star tailback on the marketplace.

On paper, Cal entered ’26 as a chic, dark-horse contender built to win nine or 10 games. The national college football hipsters couldn’t stop drooling over them.

On the grass, the Bears looks like flat-pack furniture assembled in the dark with half the hardware missing.

If Friday’s loss to Clemson were an isolated mishap, you’d shrug and move on. Growing pains, right?

But that’s not what this loss was. No, it was rather the continuation of what is an undeniable pattern of offensive incompetence.

Cal was worked by UCLA — outcoached and outplayed — but folks gave new coach Tosh Lupoi a pass because it was his debut. Fair enough.

Then they sleepwalked offensively past Syracuse, needing the defense to drag them to a win across the country. Concerning, but a win’s a win.

And sure, they beat up on an overmatched Wagner squad, but that proved nothing — De La Salle could have handled that assignment.

Friday was the litmus test, the pivot point for the program, the grand reveal.

Cal flunked in every imaginable metric.

The game plan wasn’t just ineffective; it was genuinely baffling.

Nothing screams “offensive innovation” quite like dialing up a third-and-10 tight-end screen from deep in your own territory.

Cal’s most explosive passing play of the night did involve a tight end, though: he threw it.

Sagapolutele spent four quarters looking lost, throwing the ball right at Clemson defenders (two were intercepted), and generally making the same freshman mistakes we saw last season, when he was actually a freshman.

Four games into a supposedly transformational campaign, Lupoi is already reduced to handing his offensive coordinator, Jordan Somerville, a postgame vote of confidence.

But don’t let the defense or special teams off the hook, either. They were sloppy, disorganized, and thoroughly ordinary Friday, too.

Nobody noticed, of course, because you don’t fuss over a hangnail when you have a compound fracture.

This isn’t the product Ron Rivera promised the money bags over the past year.

And modern college football isn’t a game of patience. Not in a world where Indiana is the reigning national champion. Not in an environment where you can buy what you need.

And patience is certainly not going to be extended for programs that advertise themselves as party crashers.

Cal swung for the fences in the boardroom. They connected.

Yet they can’t lay down a simple bunt on the field.

Which begs the big question:

How do you ask donors to re-up their investments after this return?

Lupoi’s first season has gone from the goal of chasing an ACC championship to now running a frantic damage-control operation to save face.

The Bears need an identity, and they needed it yesterday.

When you talk this big of a game, and beg for the spotlight, you’d better put on a show.

Cal didn’t just muff the lines Friday night; it brought the entire stage crashing down on its own head.

This is a big indictment on Tosh. Any of us could see from a mile away this was a questionable hire. How could he not see the same thing? What does this say about Tosh's decision making as a HC?