College Football News Preview 2021: Previewing, predicting, and looking ahead to the Cal Golden Bears season with what you need to know.
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– What You Need To Know: Offense | Defense
– Top Players | Key Players, Games, Stats
– What Will Happen, Win Total Prediction
– Cal Schedule Analysis
– Cal Previews
2020 | 2019 | 2018 | 2017 | 2016 | 2015
2020 Record: 1-3 overall, 1-3 in Pac-12
Head Coach: Justin Wilcox, 5th year, 21-21
2020 CFN Final Ranking: 72
2020 CFN Preview Ranking: 38
2019 CFN Final Ranking: 61
Cal College Football Preview 2021: Offense
– Cal just can’t get this O dog to hunt. The coaching staff has been tremendous, there have been plenty of good parts, and the support has been there from the D, but it’s been way too hard for the Bears to score points over the last few years.
Scoring has been an issue. Cal has managed to hit the 30-point mark just five times over the last three seasons after getting there five times in 2017 and averaging 37 a game in 2016. Now for the positive …
– Chase Garbers is back for yet another season. The senior quarterback didn’t have a lick of luck last season, but the team has been better over the last three years when he’s in and healthy.
The receiving corps returns leading target Kekoa Crawford for his super senior year, and he’s not along with six of the top seven receivers/tight ends returning. Second-leading man Makai Polk is the only key loss – he left for Mississippi State.
– The ground attack has been a positive at times under Wilcox, but it sputtered last year with no push from the line that got destroyed by even the slightest semblance of a pass rush.
Damien Moore and Marcel Dancy are big, versatile backs who each averaged over five yards per carry, but the hope is for 234-pound senior Christopher Brown to can get back to form after health issues held him to just 65 yards. Four of the five starters return up front with senior C Michael Saffell the best of the bunch.
– What You Need To Know: Defense
– Top Players | Key Players, Games, Stats
– What Will Happen, Win Total Prediction
– Cal Schedule Analysis
NEXT: Cal College Football Preview 2021: Defense
4. Cal College Football Preview 2021: Defense
– There’s no excuse for the Cal defense to be anything less than a killer. Head coach Justin Wilcox is a big-time defensive mind, and defensive coordinator Peter Sirmon is a good one. The D was fine, but it needs a lot of tweaking. It finished third in the Pac-12, held up reasonably well, and despite the lack of a pass rush and almost no takeaways, it wasn’t bad. It should be a whole lot better in 2021.
– 11 of the top 12 tacklers are expected to be back starting with the linebacking tandem of Kuony Deng and Cameron Goode. They’re 245-pound big hitters who can move, and they’re getting help from a veteran front line that gets almost everyone back to anchor the 3-4. Now the pass rush needs more more help outside of Goode.
– The loss of CB Camryn Bynum is the one big issue. The rest of the secondary is loaded with experience and size, starting with 6-2, 205-pound Daniel Scott and 5-11, 200-pound senior Elijah Hicks at safety. These two can pop, but the secondary needs another corner to emerge on the other side of Josh Drayden with Bynum done.
– What You Need To Know: Offense
– Top Players | Key Players, Games, Stats
– What Will Happen, Win Total Prediction
– Cal Schedule Analysis
NEXT: Cal College Football Preview 2021: Top Players
Cal College Football Preview 2021: Top Players
Best Cal Offensive Player
QB Chase Garbers, Sr.
After throwing 28 touchdown passes and running for 643 yards and five touchdowns in his first two seasons, he was all set to have a massive 2020 and then … 2020.
He was hardly bad – he completed a career-best 63% of his throws with six touchdowns in the four games – but he struggled to lead the team to big plays in key moments. He’s got the size, experience, and ability to very, very quietly be – maybe – the best quarterback in the Pac-12.
2. RB Christopher Brown, Sr.
3. WR Kekoa Crawford, Sr.
4. C Michael Saffell, Sr.
5. WR/KR Nikko Remigio, Sr.
Best Cal Defensive Player
LB Kuony Deng, Sr.
The numbers don’t do him justice in a shortened season. The 6-6, 245-pound senior can play inside or out, making 121 tackles in 2019 and following it up with 31 stops in four games last year. While he’s built to do more as a pass rusher on the outside, he’s quick enough to be a factor as a pass defender, too – he broke up eight plays in 2019.
2. LB Cameron Goode, Sr.
3. CB Josh Drayden, Sr.
4. S Elijah Hicks, Sr.
5. DE JH Tevis, Jr.
Top Incoming Cal Transfer
S Raymond Woodie, Jr.
Cal isn’t doing much in the transfer portal with so much talent returning on both sides, but getting the 6-0, 205-pound former Florida State Seminole is a nice boost. The former star recruit only made 34 tackles with a broken up pass in his two years as FSU, but he’s got the size and range to be an instant part of the rotation.
NEXT: Cal College Football Preview 2021: Keys To The Season
Cal College Football Preview 2021: Keys To The Season
Cal Biggest Key: Offense
The offensive line has to improve. To be fair, the front five wasn’t healthy or quite right in the short four game season. There wasn’t any continuity, less production, and the shortcomings led to a rough run for a Cal O that finished dead last in the Pac-12.
The it-was-only-four-games caveat has to keep being thrown in there, but not hitting 125 rushing yards in three of them and averaging 3.4 yards per carry isn’t going to work. Cal doesn’t have to be Army on the ground, but as long as it’s around four yards per pop – and as long as the O line can keep Chase Garbers from getting killed – it’ll be fine.
And on the other side …
Cal Biggest Key: Defense
The run defense has to be even more of a rock. It was able to hold down Oregon last year, and it stopped Stanford’s running game because everyone stopped Stanford’s running game, but UCLA and Oregon State each tore off 200 yards and ran too easily.
With this team, this coaching staff, and this linebacking corps, be mad if the Bears allow 200 yards on the ground to anyone this season.
Cal gave up over 200 just once in 2019 – to Utah against that steamroller of a team – and now the program is 0-9 in its last nine games against teams hitting the mark since opening the season with a win over North Carolina in 2017.
Cal Key Player To A Successful Season
RB Christopher Brown, Sr.
It’s not like Cal is missing running back options, but Brown is the potential star who can solve a whole slew of problems. The big back was banged up a bit in 2019 and still ran for 914 yards and eight scores with 22 catches and four receiving touchdowns.
But last year he was never right, did what he could, and only ended up with 65 rushing yards on 21 carries. It he’s close to 100%, he’s the balance and steadying force the O needs.
Cal Key Game To The 2021 Season
Washington, Sept. 25
The meaning of this depends a bit on how good Cal is to start things off. It has to sidestep a Nevada landmine to open things up, and then it has to deal with TCU in Fort Worth. Washington is the Pac-12 opener on the road – it’s a problem with a date at Oregon two weeks later.
Lose any of those non-conference early games, and Washington might be a make-or-break moment early on. The Bears missed the Huskies last season, but they won the previous two seasons.
– Cal Schedule Breakdown & Analysis
2020 Cal Fun Stats
– Cal 2nd Half Scoring: 27 points
– Average Rushing Yards Per Game: Opponents 169.3 – Cal 125.3
– Sacks in 4 Games: Opponents 15 for 81 yards – Cal 7 for 31 yards
NEXT: Cal College Football Preview 2021: What Will Happen, Season Prediction
Cal College Football Preview 2021: What Will Happen, Season Prediction
The pieces are there in Year Five of the Justin Wilcox era for Cal to make a move, but they were there last season and they didn’t come together.
Of course, a global-crippling pandemic had something to do with that, but this year’s version should be able to roll past that and at least go bowling for the third time in four years.
The Bears might not have a slew of household names, but as long as the lines aren’t bad – not necessarily a given, even though they’re experienced – there’s a shot at a good year.
Set The Cal Regular Season Win Total At … 6
Here’s the big issue: at TCU, at Washington, at Oregon, at Stanford, at UCLA – at Arizona might not be a layup this year – with dangerous dates at home against USC, Colorado, Washington State and Nevada, too.
If this thing is working under Wilcox there shouldn’t be a problem getting to six wins. It might be a bit of a battle to get there with this sneaky-tough schedule, but Cal has the upside to be a sneaky-tough team.
– What You Need To Know: Offense | Defense
– Top Players | Key Players, Games, Stats
– Cal Schedule Analysis
