Chandler Rogers Has Seen Crowds Like The One Cal Faces at Auburn

The senior quarterback played at Alabama, LSU and Texas and says Bears must weather the storm early

Chandler Rogers / Darren Yamashita-Imagn Images

Auburn drew a sellout crowd of 88,043 fans to its opening game vs. Alabama A&M last Saturday. That’s exactly the crowd size that filled Jordan-Hare Stadium for all seven home games last season.

Cal quarterback Chandler Rogers has seen it before.

While at Louisiana-Monroe in 2021 and ’22, he played in front of 92,790 fans at LSU as a freshman. The next season, in a span of three weeks, his team visited Texas (94.873) and Alabama (98,433).

None of those games went well for the Warhawks, but Rogers expects Saturday to be different.

“I’ve played in very similar stadiums —I’ve been in these environments before. Really not worried about it,” he said. “The one thing I definitely know is the defense and their team feeds off the crowd.

“At first, it’s going to be loud. We know that. Just weather storm early just go play football.”

Rogers played for North Texas last season so he wasn’t around for the Bears’ 14-10 home defeat to Auburn. But he knows all about it.

"Been hearing about the Auburn game since I got here in January,” he said. “The biggest thing is we had missed opportunities. Our defense played really well against them last year. 

“Field goals were a thing. It was a low-scoring game. Cal was leading at halftime. It just came down to those opportunities that were missed. Make those opportunities and Cal wins the game.”

Cal outgained the Tigers 273 yards to 230 and had a 19 to 12 edge in first downs. The defense forced four Auburn turnovers.

The missed opportunities?

Quarterback Sam Jackson, now a wide receiver at Auburn, threw a pair of interceptions. Michael Luckhurst made a 39-yard field goal in the first quarter, then missed three subsequent attempts. 

Cal converted just 4 of 18 third downs and cashed in only one of four red-zone trips inside the Auburn 20-yard line, in the final 2 minutes when Jackson was picked off in the end zone.

Both teams will be substantially different in the rematch. 

Cal is expected to once again play both Fernando Mendoza and Rogers at quarterback. Mendoza got the start in the 31-13 win over UC Davis while Rogers saw action in the second, third and fourth quarters.

Neither player was good enough to wrestle the position away. Mendoza was 15 for 22 for 158 yards with one touchdown. Rogers was 3 for 6 for 21 yards. Neither player turned the ball over.

“Right now it’s whatever’s best for the team,” Rogers said.

Rogers talks in the video above about his debut performance with the Bears against UC Davis and his even-keel approach to playing the game.

He said he’s received positive feedback from the coaches about his performance and is excited to play at Auburn.

“Our confidence level is very high,” said Rogers, who added that a victory would mean so much to the Bears.

“It’s Auburn and after last year . . . so definitely want to come out victorious,” he said. “It’s an SEC opponent . . . this is very similar to what we’ll see in conference. It will be a great measuring stick for us.”