Cal Needs a Strong Bowl Showing to Erase Saturday's Performance

The Bears don't want the 32-point loss to SMU to be the last thing people remember about their 2024 season

Cal quarterback Chandler Rogers / Jerome Miron-Imagn Images

A college football team’s performance in its final game of the season often determined how its season is perceived.

At least that is what Cal is hoping after Saturday’s 38-6 loss to ninth-ranked SMU. Ending with that showing would have cast a shadow over the entire 2024 season.

Cal must cleanse the palate of Saturday's bad taste with a strong performance in its final 2024 statement. That closing argument will come in a bowl game, probably be the LA Bowl, although that remains uncertain.  Quarterback Fernando Mendoza presumably will be available for that game after sitting out the SMU loss with flu-like syptoms, so the Bears should look more like a quality team than they did on Saturday.

The Bears’ chances of beating SMU on the Mustangs’ home field with SMU fighting for a berth in the College Football Playoff were slim to begin with.  But when the Bears found out Saturday morning that Mendoza would not play, already knowing that leading rusher Jaivian Thomas would not play because of an upper-body injury, the Bears’ chances went from slim to none.

Cal (6-6, 2-6 ACC) played perhaps its worst game of the season.  Its six points were the fewest since it scored just three against Arizona in 2021, and this was the first time this season that the Bears were blown out.  None of Cal’s previous five losses this season was by more than eight points.   But only twice since 2016 has Cal lost by more than the 32-point margin of Saturday’s defeat.

“Obviously, we didn’t give ourselves a chance to win,” Cal head coach Justin Wilcox said.

This game was over two minutes into the second quarter, when SMU took a 21-0 lead and Cal’s offense offered no hint that it would mount a serious threat.

Obviously, it’s a challenge to restructure an offensive game plan overnight for a quarterback (Chandler Rogers) whose style as a dual-threat quarterback is completely different from Mendoza’s classic drop-back approach.

“Totally different from Chandler, just the way they play,” said Cal tight end Jack Endries.

Still, a team guided by a backup quarterback – especially one that challenged Mendoza for the starting spot in preseason – is expected to be able to move the ball.

“On offense today, we just weren’t, at any position, good enough to put points on the board,” Wilcox said.

Plus SMU plowed through a Cal defense that began the day leading the ACC in scoring defense, yielding 20.7 points per contest. Cal knew that with its player absences on offense, it had to have a big game on defense. It didn't happen.

So Cal needs a happy ending – or at least a tolerable ending – to add a positive look to the season. 

Mendoza should be back. Maybe Thomas and offensive linemen Sioape Vatikani and Nick Morrow will be back as well after missing Saturday’s game as well.

Maybe Cal can dust itself off and put a positive spin on 2024 with a strong postseason showing, making it the last thing people remember.

The Bears certainly don’t want Saturday’s performance to be the one that sticks in people's minds.

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