Still More Questions Than Answers After Cal's Win over UC Davis

The Bears will face a far more formidable opponent next week when they travel to Auburn

Cade Uluave celebrates after making a tackle. / Darren Yamashita-USA TODAY Sports

How much should we read into what we saw from Cal football in its season-opening 31-13 victory over UC Davis?

Perhaps no more than we can take from Auburn’s 73-3 win over Alabama A&M in a game that was such a mismatch the teams agreed to play 10-minute quarters in the second half.

The Bears and Tigers meet at Auburn, Ala., next Saturday, and the game is unlikely to reflect much of what either team did in its debut.

Cal will certainly need a better performance against an SEC opponent than it delivered while pulling away from a FCS-level team it has now defeated 12 times without a loss dating back to 1932.

The Bears trailed late in the second quarter and took a shaky 14-13 lead into halftime after losing by nearly every other statistical measure in the opening 30 minutes.

Total yards: Davis 234, Cal 109. 

First downs: Davis 16, Cal 4. 

Total plays: Davis 48, Cal 21.

“I’m proud of them for not panicking and screaming at each other in the locker room,” Cal coach Justin Wilcox said of the halftime mood. “It didn’t feel great. It didn’t feel great on offense, didn’t feel great on defense.”

The Bears outscored the Aggies 17-0 in the second half but rarely seemed to find sustained rhythm offensively. They finished with just 281 yards of offense.

Cal provided more questions than answers in this one:

— Where do things stand at quarterback?

Fernando Mendoza started and alternated with Chandler Rogers. Mendoza was more productive but Wilcox noted Rogers’ small sample size and gave no indication how he plans to utilize them next week.

“We’ll see where that all shakes out,” he said.

”It’s not ideal for either of us,” Mendoza said of the arrangement, “but if it helps the team I know we’re both very open to it and I think it’s really (keeping us) engaged.”

— Where was the deep pass the Bears talked about so often during fall camp?

Cal threw downfield just once or twice and had no completion all day longer than 26 yards. Wilcox reiterated the Bears do want to stretch the field, but we didn’t see it.

Perhaps some of it was personnel-related. Two starting offensive linemen — guard Sioape Vatikani and center Will McDonald — sat out the game with injuries. So did two new wide receivers — transfers Tobias Merriweather of Notre Dame and Kyion Grayes of Ohio State — who were expected to be deep threats.

— What’s the health status of star running back Jaydn Ott?

He limped off the field, without help, late the third quarter after apparently suffering an injury to his foot or ankle, and did not return. Wilcox had no immediate report on his health.

Backup Kadarius Calloway also is banged up and Wilcox confirmed he didn’t play again after a fumble Davis turned into a touchdown partly because of injury and partly because of the mistake.

Nohl Williams had one of three Cal interceptions / Darren Yamashita-USA TODAY Sports

— Has the Bears’ ability to pressure the quarterback improved?

It took Cal more than half of last season to develop a consistent pass rush, and on Saturday the Bears never sacked Aggies quarterback Miles Hastings, who attempted 48 passes. 

But they did get enough pressure on him to force three interceptions — one each by cornerbacks Marcus Harris and Nohl Williams and one by linebacker Cade Uluave.

Next week’s trip to Auburn will bring Southern heat and humidity and SEC-level athletes.

“Auburn’s going to have an extremely talented roster. The size and speed and quickness, all that’s going to be a level up,” Wilcox said. “And that’s not at all a shot on UC Davis. UC Davis has some dang good players. Auburn, they’re just going to be bigger and they’re going to have some really fast guys.”

The Tigers, who beat Cal 14-10 in Berkeley last season, obliterated their FCS opponent on Saturday.

Auburn generated 628 yards of offense in just 13 minutes, 26 seconds, scoring six touchdowns of 34 yards of more. Quarterback Payton Thorne passed for 322 yards and four touchdowns, all in the first half when Auburn mounted a 52-3 lead.

Thorne’s former high school teammate in Naperville, Ill., Cal defector Sam Jackson V, had a productive debut with Auburn. The Bears’ starting quarterback in their opener a year ago, Jackson is a backup wide receiver for the Tigers and caught a 37-yard TD pass in the fourth quarter.

Second-year coach Hugh Freeze, whose team scored the largest margin of victory for Auburn since a 77-0 win over Erskine College in 1932, acknowledged none of it carries over to future games on the schedule.

“I wish they were all kind of like that,” Freeze said. “They won’t be.”