Cal Football: Bears Never Lost Belief - The Reward Will Be a Bowl Game
Cal’s 33-7 victory over UCLA on Saturday night was all about belief.
The Bears never stopped believing they would win three straight games after a 3-6 start to their season and ultimately secure bowl eligibility.
The belief came from coach Justin Wilcox and was embraced by his players, including quarterback Fernando Mendoza.
But at the Rose Bowl on Saturday, with the Bears trailing 7-6 in the second quarter, Jaydn Ott stood in the end zone ready to try something he’d never done before. And his belief was tested.
“That was he first time I’d ever done a kickoff return in my life . . . I ain’t done it in Pop Warner, I ain’t done it in high school,” Ott said. “First time back there, first time ever catching it.”
He received the ball at the goal line and took off. One-hundred yards later he was in the opposite end zone, untouched by the Bruins’ coverage team. The Bears had the lead and they never gave it back.
“I was scared as hell and I couldn’t believe it,” Ott said. “It was crazy.”
The Bears put Ott at kick return a week ago at Stanford but he never saw the ball. Wilcox’s explanation for why he gave his star sophomore the ne assignment was simple: “We wanted to find maybe another spark.
Maybe Cal (6-6, 4-5) would have won history’s final regular-season Pac-12 game anyway. But the spark Ott lit only strengthened the Bears’ belief and they responded with their best all-around performance of the season.
Cal will find out next Sunday where and against whom it will play in its first bowl game since 2019. The consensus seems to be the Dec. 16 Independence Bowl against a Big 12 opponent.
What’s next was not the point on Saturday. The Bears began their recovery from near elimination with wins over Washington State and Stanford.
Mendoza referred to them burning the boats and burning the forest. At Pasadena, he said, they burned the city.
No one outside the program saw this coming, not after the Bears lost 63-19 at Oregon on the first Saturday of November.
“In times like that when things aren’t going well, coming off a really bad loss, it’s human nature for a lot of folks to seek shelter in the storm.,” Wilcox said. “I didn’t see anybody doing that.”
Outside linebacker David Reese, who had three sacks against the Bruins, said, “At the end of the day, you can either turn around and walk away or walk toward the fight. Everybody believed.”
Mendoza, who became the starter in Week 6 and provided a fresh boost of optimism, said the UCLA game was the Bears’ most complete performance.
“The offense and defense kind of came together. And the special teams did an amazing job today,” he said.
In fact, it’s hard to remember a game during Wilcox’s seven seasons where Cal performed at a higher level in all three phases.
The defense was disruptive throughout, collecting six sacks, including one that sent starting quarterback Ethan Garbers to the sidelines, and squeezing three turnovers out of his backup, Dante Moore.
UCLA had three drives of at least 10 plays that resulted in no points — the first on an interception in the end zone by safety Craig Woodson, the second when linebacker Cade Uluave made a fourth-down stop, the last one when Xavier Carlton knocked down a fourth-down pass.
Jeremiah Hunter hauls in one of his two touchdown catches.
Photo by Kirby Lee, USA Today
Mendoza threw a pair of first-half interceptions but he and the offense were otherwise productive against one of the nation’s top defenses. Cal’s 33 points were the second-most UCLA allowed this season (twice their average) and the Bears rushed for 124 yards against a vaunted defensive front, 105 in second half when the offensive line took over.
Needing only to expedite the game's conclusion, Cal ate up 8 minutes with a 10-play drive. “Just chopping away at the clock,” Ott said. “It was over at that point. You could see they were defeated. It was fun.”
Ott’s final total of 80 rushing yards — which pushed his season total to 1,260 — were tougher sledding than his kickoff return.
Kickoff man Michael Luckhurst celebrates after recovering a UCLA fumble.
Photo by Kirby Lee, USA Today
That wasn’t the only big contribution from special teams. Punter Lachlan Wilson averaged 52.7 yards on three kicks (including a 73-yarder), all of them settling inside the UCLA 20.
Freshman Mateen Bhaghani was 4-for-4 on field goals and the player he beat out for the job, Michael Luckhurst, recovered a fumble on kickoff coverage after big hit by Hunter Barth.
It added up to an opportunity the Bears haven’t had since 2019. Many of them have never experienced the postseason as college players.
“It means the world,” Mendoza said. “I don’t know what a bowl game feels like. But last year was pretty heartbreaking when football practice stopped and you saw other teams still practicing and playing in a bowl.”
Cover photo of Jaydn Ott's 100-yard kickoff return for a touchdown by Al Sermeno, KLC fotos
Follow Jeff Faraudo of Cal Sports Report on Twitter: @jefffaraudo
