Cal Football Preview: Bears Host No. 8 Miami Saturday Night

Cal hosts ESPN GameDay Saturday morning, then expects a big crowd for the ESPN game Saturday night

Fernando Mendoza is from Miami and attended he same high school as Miami head coach Mario Cristobal / Darren Yamashita-Imagn Images

Cal is hosting ESPN’s College GameDay for the first time ever on Saturday morning, and Saturday night’s home game against No. 8 Miami might be a sellout and could be Cal’s first non-Big Game crowd of 50,000 or more in eight years.

The key facts for Saturday night's game:

CAL (3-1, 0-1 ACC) Vs. MIAMI (5-0, 1-0 ACC)

SITE: Cal’s Memorial Stadium, Berkeley, California

WHEN: Saturday, 7:30 p.m. Pacific time (10:30 p.m. Eastern time)

TV: ESPN -- Dave Flemming (play-by-play), Brock Osweiler (analyst), Sherree Burruss (sideline)

RADIO: 810 AM and Sirius XM Radio (Sirius XM 113 and 202) -- Justin Allegri (play-by-play), Mike Pawlawski (analyst), Kevin Danna (sideline reporter)

BETTING LINE: Miami is favored by 10.5 points. Over/under is 53.5 points.

WEATHER FORECAST:  Berkeley is expected to have a high of 94 degrees Saturday afternoon, and that will fall to about 83 degrees by game time at 7:30 p.m. By the end of the game the temperature will go down to about 77 degrees.  There is no chance of rain.

CAL-MIAMI HISTORY:  The teams have met four times and each team has won twice. The most recent meeting was at the 2008 Emerald Bowl when Cal defeated the Hurricanes 24-17 at San Francisco’s AT&T Park (now Oracle Park). The last time the teams met in Berkeley was 1990, when 10th-ranked Miami defeated the Golden Bears 52-24.

CAL PLAYER AVAILABILTY: Cal’s projected starting wide receivers Tobias Merriweather and Kyion Grayes will miss their fifth straight games because of injuries. Guard Sioape Vatikani will probably play despite being taken to the hospital during the Florida State game.

CAL STORYLINES:

---This will be Cal’s first ACC home game ever and Miami’s first ACC road game this season.

---The last time Cal beat a top-10 team was 2017, when the Bears upset eighth-ranked Washington State 37-3 in Berkeley on October 13, 2017. The Cougars were 6-0 at the time, including a win over No. 5-ranked USC. Cal has not defeated a ranked team since it upset No. 21 Oregon 21-17 in the Bears’ final game of the four-game 2020 season.

---Cal quarterback Fernando Mendoza is from Miami and attended the same high school (Christopher Columbus High School) that Miami head coach Mario Cristobal attended.  In fact, Cristobal said he was a high school football teammate of Mendoza’s father, Francisco Mendoza Sr., at Columbus. Mendoza Jr. attended football camps at the University of Miami while in high school and was hoping to get a scholarship offer from the Hurricanes, then coached by Manny Diaz. A possible walk-on opportunity was all he got, but Mendoza said he would never disrespect the University of Miami.

---Mendoza has been sacked 13 times in the past two games combined and 16 times for the season. Only two FBS teams have averaged more than the 4.0 sacks per game that Cal has allowed. Miami has recorded 18 sacks, which rank third in the country.

---Cal is hosting ESPN’s College GameDay for the first time ever on Saturday morning starting at 6 a.m. It will take place at Memorial Glade at the heart of the Cal campus. The clever tweets of Calgorithm, the Cal online community, are given much of the credit for Cal landing the popular college football pregame show. Cal had been one of just six Power Four schools that had never hosted GameDay and was the only 2023 Pac-12 team that had never hosted the show.

Click here for information about attending GameDay

---Cal is coming off a bye week following its 14-9 loss at Florida State on September 21 when the Bears failed to score a touchdown despite getting inside the FSU 15-yard line on five occasions.  The Bears must take advantage of red-zone opportunities against Miami.

--It remains to be seen who Cal’s place-kicker will be on Saturday.  This week’s depth chart lists Ryan Coe or freshman Derek Morris as the Bears’ kicker. Coe has been Cal’s kicker through the first four games but is just 5-for-11 on field goal attempts his season.

---Cal leads the nation in interceptions with 10, and the Bears are third in the country in urnover margin at plus-8 (11 takeaways, 3 turnovers). Cal cornerback Nohl Williams is tied for the national lead in interceptions with four.

---Cal is hoping for a breakout game from preseason all-ACC running back Jaydn Ott, who has been slowed by an ankle injury.  He had his best game of the season against Florida State, when he rushed for 73 yards and caught four passes. He is averaging 3.3 yards per carry over the three games he has played. The Bears’ leading rusher of Jaivian Thomas, who has run for 267 yards and averages 7.0 yards per attempt.

MIAMI STORYLINES

---Miami is coming off a 38-34 victory at home against Virginia Tech, which nearly pulled off an upset before a video review overturned what had been ruled a Virginia Tech touchdown on the field on the final play.

---Miami is hoping to improve to 6-0 for the first time since 2017, when the Hurricanes won their first 10 games. Miami has won five national championships, the most recent one coming in 2001 under head coach Larry Coker.

---This will be the Hurricanes' sixth game ever in the state of California and their first in the regular season since their 52-24 win at Cal in 1990.  Miami will fly nearly 2,600 miles for this game, which will start at 10:30 p.m. Miami time.  Miami played all of its five previous games in the state of Florida.

---Quarterback Cam Ward leads the nation in touchdown passes with 18, and he ranks fourth in the country in passer rating at 195.09. He turned the ball over three times against Virginia Tech (two interceptions and a fumble). Cal faced Ward last year when he played for Washington State, and he had a big game with 354 passing yards, three touchdowns and one interception, which came on a Hail Mary pass on the final play of Cal’s 42-29 victory. Cal sacked Ward six times that day, but this year he has been sacked just six times in the Hurricanes’ first five games combined.

---Ward is one of three key Miami players who faced Cal as members of Pac-12 teams. Miami’s leading rusher, Damien Martinez, was an all-Pac-12 running back for Oregon State last year, and he ran for 89 yards in the Beavers’ 52-40 victory over Cal in 2023. Miami’s leading tackler, linebacker Francisco Mauigoa, played for Washington State two years ago, and he had four tackles, including a sack, in the Cougars’ 28-9 win over Cal in 2022.

---Miami has recorded 18 sacks this season, and that ranks third in the nation.  And Hurricanes defensive end Rueben Bain Jr. is expected to return for Saturday’s game after being sidelined since the opener.  Bain was the ACC defensive freshman of the year in 2023 when he had 12.5 tackles for loss and 7.5 sacks.  Cal has allowed 13 sacks in its past two games combined.

---A Miami beat writer answers five questions about the Hurricanes---

CAL PLAYERS TO WATCH: QB Fernando Mendoza (5 TD passes, 2 interceptions); RB Jaydn Ott (73 yards vs. Florida State); RB Jaivian Thomas (7.0 yards per attempt); CB Nohl Williams (4 interceptions, tops in the nation); ILB Teddye Buchanan (40 tackles, 4.5 tackles for loss, 2.5 sacks); WR Nyziah Hunter (4 TD receptions)

MIAMI PLAYERS TO WATCH:  QB Cam Ward (18 TD passes); RB Damien Martinez (250 rushing yards, 6 receptions); WR Xavier Restrepo (5 TD catches); DE Tyler Baron (7.5 tackles for loss, 4.5 sacks this season); DE Rueben Bain Jr. (12.5 tackles for loss in 2023); LB Francisco Mauigoa (18 tackles for loss in 2023)

Click here for a detailed look at Miami’s football and basketball programs and the school’s history

CAL STATISTICS: Click here

CAL GAME NOTES AND DEPTH CHART: Click Here

MIAMI STATISTICS: Click here

JAKE'S PICK: Miami 28, Cal 20

JEFF'S PICK: Miami 30, Cal 21

JUSTICE SANDLE’S PICK (Miami Hurricanes on SI): Miami 34, Cal 21

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