College Football Odds & Trends: Under strong for Cal vs. Utah

– Cal coach Sonny Dykes, following a 34-28 victory over Washington State.

But none of that registered. Despite Dykes installation of a more balanced approach, Cal still does most of it’s damage through the air. “Those things are minimized because we give them context in advance: This might happen”.

“When you get your coffee in the morning, maybe those people are a little nicer to you than they used to be”. “Really, in that moment”, McClure said on Sunday after practice, “it’s blank”.

“If you let Goff go through progressions, he’ll probably get a completion”, Whittingham said. “We had our hands full just trying to be a competitive football team”.

Hawai’i, which reached the Big West title game in March, returns most of last season’s rotation and under first-year head coach Eran Ganot can hit the ground running as they look to start a new era.

“We’re being more consistent”.

This is just one focal point for second-year Cal coach Cuonzo Martin as he tries to best prepare his players for anything that might come up during college or later on — from a hard family or personal matter to an unforeseen crisis or world event. “How to become a man, dealing with tough times, family crisis. If we’re catching the ball we’re giving ourselves a chance for big plays”.

The schedule won’t get much easier after the Utah game. “That’s our focus, because a exhausted player’s no good”. There’s been more interest in the program from recruits recently. “They can now focus on how to do it”.

Mamadou Ndiaye, UC Irvine: Ndiaye averaged 10.5 points, 5.1 rebounds and 1.7 blocks per game in 15 games last season. One of his two tackles against Oregon was a sack. Sturdier competition is on the way, and fast.

Heading into Week 6 of the college football season, the Utes are 4-0 Straight Up (SU) and 3-1 Against The Spread (ATS). The defense has improved immensely from last season and yet the offense has been about the same or worse then it was previous year. A Dykes collaborator since 2010, Franklin has never before had the same quarterback to work on for three consecutive years in this system.

Per ESPN’s Todd McShay, Cal junior QB Jared Goff has been “by far the most impressive QB prospect so far this season”. “I imagine you could trace it back several years”. Franklin swears Goff is taller than he was as a sophomore. Wilson has 513 yards passing in four games, 227 of which were against Oregon. This is familiar territory for Dykes, who went particularly loose on the reins with Graham Harrell during his time coordinating for Mike Leach at Texas Tech, but for Franklin it’s a first, and the adjustment process has been harrowing, like the parent of a student driver mashing a phantom brake pedal from the passenger seat.

QUOTE TO NOTE: “I’ve never heard of unsettled turf”. Eight of those have been caught by Kenny Lawler, who appears to have that kind of alchemical mind-meld with Goff that springs from countless hours of summer reps.

“We haven’t talked about (the national ranking) much”, Dykes said. Always is. He can be the guy who didn’t throw a touchdown pass in the first two games before sitting out versus Fresno State. “It’s really fun to watch”. “When you do all those things, you have a chance to win, and our guys believe in that”.

In 2014, flying high at 4-1, Cal promptly went over the precipice when they faced a similar type schedule.

Utah won easily over Oregon 62-20 in their last game.

“I mean, we were dead”, Franklin says.

It’ll be a battle of the unbeatens Saturday night when the Cal Bears (5-0) invade Salt Lake City to play the Utah Utes (4-0). Will Kaufman’s unit be able to hold its own against a sustained barrage of Pac-12 offenses? However, this is a different Cal team because the defense is finally carrying a few of the weight. The bears must take care of the ball this weekend so that the crowd doesn’t get behind the Utes early and subsequently have things unravel on offense for the bears.

“We’re so insulated”, he said, referring to coaches in general. “We know what we want to accomplish and know how good we can be, so it’s up to us to determine how we do it with all the potential we have”. “They know how to carry conversations past basketball”.

“The signs of an immature team are finding a way not to get over that hump”, Treggs said. Four of those teams are ranked and two others, Oregon and Arizona State, are among others receiving votes in The Associated Press poll. This is California’s moment before the moment, and that can be scary, but there’s a grim egalitarianism to what it’s about to attempt.