Liam Johnson Halts Cal's Agonizing Run of Late-Game Doom

Former Ivy League linebacker Johnson makes an interception that prevents a fifth straight painfully close ACC loss for the Golden Bears

Cal linebacker Liam Johnson / Darren Yamashita-Imagn Images

When Fernando Mendoza threw a third-down incompletion with a little over two minutes left Friday night, forcing Cal to punt with a 39-36 lead, every Golden Bears fan – and probably Cal players and coaches as well, although they would never admit it – had to have the same sickening thought:

Here we go again.

Cal would wind up with 500 yards of offense.  But it appeared the Bears were going to let a 15-point lead entering the fourth quarter dissolve into a disheartening defeat, just like the loss to Miami when Cal had a 20-point lead in the fourth quarter before losing by a point when Miami scored with 26 seconds left.

Cal quarterback Fernando Mendoza would complete 40 passes for a career-high 385 yards and complete passes to 11 different receivers. But it looked like Cal would let it all his good work get away, like it did against North Carolina State, which overcame a 23-10, fourth-quarter deficit to beat the Bears by a point after Cal kicker Derek Morris missed a 28-yard field goal attempt with 1:34 left.

Cal had 31 first downs and ran 87 offensive plays against Wake Forest in the Bears’ second straight impressive offensive performance.  But it seemed Cal would let those impressive numbers become insignificant, like they did against Florida State, when the Bears allowed a 9-7 lead entering the fourth quarter to get away, ultimately failing to score the go-ahead touchdown after getting to the Seminoles’ 12-yard line with 1:20 to go. The Bears dominated that game statistically, but lost by five points.

Cal would finish Friday’s game with seven sacks and four takeaways, would go 4-for-4 on field goals, including a pair of 54-yard field goals by Ryan Coe, linebacker Hunter Barth would have an outsanding game, and wide receivers Tobias Merriweather and Kyion Grayes would make their Cal debuts. But somehow, some way, the Bears seemed destined to let another important victory escape their grasp, like it did against Pitt when Coe missed a 40-yard field goal with 1:50 remaining in a two-point loss to the Panthers.

Surely it would happen again.  And when Wake Forest quarterback Hank Bachmeier completed a 10-yard pass on the first play after the Cal punt before the clock stopped for the two-minute timeout, Cal seemed doomed again as it tried to cling to its three-point lead.  Somehow the Demon Deacons surely would score the game-winning touchdown in the final seconds or at least kick a tying field goal, then win in overtime.

“I didn’t see anyone panic on our team,” Cal cornerback Nohl Williams said.

But history is hard to ignore.  Four ACC games, four losses by a combined margin of nine points, with Cal holding fourth-quarter leads in three of them. Friday’s game would make it five conference losses, maybe by four points, maybe in overtime, after Cal had a 15-point lead in the fourth quarter. The one Cal play that would turn the game in the Bears' favor had been absent in each of the four conference losses, and there was nothing to suggest it would happen this time either.

Then something odd happened.  Something that didn’t follow the script. Something that wasn’t even in the Bears’ plans.

Inside linebacker Liam Johnson, a transfer from Princeton, missed most of preseason camp and the first three games of the season with an injury.  And he wouldn’t have been in Friday’s game in the closing moments if Cade Uluave had not left the game in the second quarter with an injury.

However, with Uluave on the sidelines in street clothes, Johnson was on the field with two minutes remaining when Bachmeier launched a 13-yard pass intended for Taylor Morin at the 40-yard line. But instead of a reception that would have put Wake Forest a little closer to a game-tying field goal, Johnson cut in front of Morin and intercepted the pass at the Wake Forest 42-yard line.

It was Johnson’s first interception of the season and third of his college career after picking off two passes in his three seasons at Princeton.

Oh, yeah, Cal scored a touchdown after that to make the final score 46-36 in favor of Cal, which made a difference to gamblers since the Bears were favored by 7.5 points. But the game really ended when Johnson pulled in the pick to avoid another late-game disappointment.

Mendoza suggested those late-game losses became a subject of conversation and added motivation.

“Oh, yeah, we talk about it all the time,” Mendoza said. “We said this is blank not going to happen again.”

That’s a player talking. Now here’s a coach talking, and you will notice the difference.

“When you start concerning yourself about what might happen in 15 minutes or 30 minutes or the end of the game, you’re not really focusing on what you need to be focusing on,” Cal head coach Justin Wilcox said.

“It’s really [a matter of] taking the focus off the result of the game and putting it on the right here right now, not what happened last play or last week or a month ago, or what might happen in 30 minutes or 40 minutes. It’s literally being in the moment.”

Cal fans were not “in the moment” when Bachmeier was launching that pass toward Morin.  They were thinking, “Here comes that late-game agony again.”

Coaches always say that one play does not win or lose a game, but luckily for Cal, Liam Johnson was in the moment, and the complexion of Cal’s season changed in that moment.

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