Cal and Stanford set to square off in the Big Game

Even in the face of a hostile crowd, the Utes hope to pull off a win or two on their last trip to the sunny shores of California this week.

“I’ve seen so many clips, and everybody talks about it, ” McCaffrey said. After spending his first four years at Cal, Scarlettt transferred to Stanford this offseason and will play in his first Big Game after being plagued by injuries.

California is 8-3 ATS in its last 11 games against Stanford in November, but … They’re getting closer, but closer doesn’t really hold much meaning.

Recent meetings have been less competitive.

For the Cal, their first night game in Berkeley since 2012 when they last hosted Oregon State was a good omen.

With Stanford wrapping up the PAC 12 North title, the Cardinal will look for a little revenge next week when the Fighting Irish of Notre Dame come to The Farm for a Saturday evening matchup of two squads looking to remain in the College Playoff picture.

Though the Big Game will not carry the implications that it appeared it would after Cal started the season 5-0, there is still significance on both sides, especially for a Bears team hoping for a strong finish.

“It’s a huge honor to establish ourselves as the Pac-12 North champions”, McCaffrey said. There’s no way you could convince me that McCaffrey shouldn’t at least have an invitation to NY for the Heisman ceremony, but he should also receive a hefty number of first place votes.

“Kickoff returner, runner, receiver, blocker – the kid’s just truly special, ” Stanford coach David Shaw said. He leads the nation in all-purpose yards with 2,418 – already a Stanford record with two regular-season games to play – and has strung together eight straight 100-yard rushing games.

Cal reduced the deficit to 21-16 in the third quarter on Anderson’s 25-yard field goal and Goff’s 3-yard touchdown pass to wide receiver Darius Powe. “Otherwise they will exploit it. And they’ve got athletes, and they’ve got more speed this year; they’ll take it the distance”. OR scored on big plays of 49, 75, 47, 33 and 49 yards, which could be a concern as the Cardinal prepares for an explosive Cal offense.

-QB Kevin Hogan (No. 12 quarterback, 179th overall) – The fifth-year senior quarterback recorded the third 300-yard passing game of his career in the loss to OR, throwing for 304 yards on 28-of-37 passing. “Every game’s a big game, honestly, but now we know we can beat one of the best teams and we have been knowing that so now we got to go out and just do our thing and focus on us and stop worrying about all the outside things going on”.

-WR Kenny Lawler has caught a pass in all 33 games he has played at Cal. He had just two catches for four yards against Oregon State, although one of them was a touchdown reception. And Goff will seize the opportunity through the air. “It’d be big, though”.

But Stanford will be in Levi’s Stadium for a chance to win the conference championship.

LSU +6.5, over Ole Miss: The Tigers didn’t come through for me as big underdogs vs. Alabama a few weeks ago, then had the letdown last week… but I’ll still grab all these points with Les Miles & Leonard Fournette. The series began in 1884, but is the most played because the teams met twice a year from 1884-1901 – and three times in 1891. The Bears (6-4, 3-4) want that trophy, but first they needed to earn their sixth win to become bowl eligible for the first time since 2011.

“I told the guys, I thought we played very hard”, said Cal head coach Sonny Dykes.

“When I got hurt past year, it was somewhat of a wake-up call that football is not going to last forever”, he said.

He got great blocking, but also shook off one tackler and eluded two others while running diagonally across the field for the TD with 4:12 left in the half.