Scouting Report: California Golden Bears

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The Deacs have entered the top 25 for the first time in 4 years, but to stay there, they are going to have to beat California on the entire opposite side of the country. Traveling to the west coast sounds like a bigger obstacle than it is—in 3 years of ACC play, California and Stanford are just a combined 7-11 in conference play against teams making the journey west. There is evidence that the west coast trip has a bigger negative impact on a team’s next game, but the Deacs are on bye, so that really shouldn’t bother them at all.

The first thing that jumps out to me about the Cal offense is just how much they throw the ball—Cal is 1 of 8 teams in the nation throwing the ball on over 55% of their plays, and only Hawaii attempts more passes per game than the Golden Bears. Even with backup quarterback Jackson Brousseau in last week against VT, Cal threw the ball 43 times for 321 yards.

I imagine a big part of that is simply that the Golden Bears haven’t been successful running the ball at all this season. With last season’s leading rusher Kendrick Raphael now at SMU, the Golden Bears are managing a meager 3.3 yards per carry on the ground, good for 123rd in the nation. Outside of their game against FCS Wagner, Cal has run for 100+ yards 1 time this season (UCLA) and has not surpassed 3.2 yards per carry in a single game. The Wake Forest defense just held the Wolfpack to 15 total rushing yards on 24 carries (0.6 avg) last weekend, so they should have no trouble slowing down a less than stellar Cal rushing attack.

The other reason to throw the ball that much is having a QB like Jaron-Keawe Sagapolutele (JKS). After his freshman season at Cal, where he threw for 3,454 yards and 18 touchdowns, JKS entered the 2026 season as one of the most hyped quarterbacks in the country.

Despite that, he has had a pretty slow start to the season this year. In his 4 FBS games in 2026, JKS is completing 61% of his passes for just 767 yards, 5 touchdowns, and 5 interceptions. The left hander still has a massive arm capable of throwing frozen ropes 50 yards down the field, but it seems like he may be experiencing a bit of a sophomore slump. It doesn’t help that the Bears started the season with a 30 year old offensive coordinator with 0 play-calling experience, who was recently replaced at halftime of the UNLV game after the Golden Bears fell behind 24-7.

After making the switch, the Golden Bears scored 24 second half points against UNLV and put up 400 yards of offense and 25 points with a backup quarterback to beat 4-1 Virginia Tech last week. Wake fans should know the impact the the right offensive coordinator can have on quarterback play watching Gio Lopez this season, so as JKS likely returns from a concussion this week to take on the Deacs, Wake should be prepared for him to look much more like the freshman phenom of last year with McCann calling the plays.

A team that throws the ball over 40 times per game is obviously going to need some good receivers. Unlike the Deacs, who have 1 receiver with almost more catches than the rest of the wide receivers on the team combined, Cal spreads the ball around a lot more. The Golden Bears have 6 players with 10+ receptions and 9 different players with at least 1 touchdown catch so far this season. Ohio transfer Chase Hendricks (39 catches, 361 yards, 2 TD) and Rutgers transfer Ian Strong (28 catches, 396 yards, 1 TD) are the two most targeted players, but tight ends and running backs are also integral in the Cal passing attack—backs have caught a combined 32 passes for 318 yards and 3 touchdowns this season, while tight ends have added 26 catches for 329 yards and 2 touchdowns.

Defense has been the stronger unit for the Bears this season, which makes sense considering Cal has a former defensive lineman as a head coach and former NFL linebacker Ron Rivera as a GM. Most of the strength of the defense lies in the secondary—Cal is currently 10th in the nation in EPA/play on passing plays, and they have only allowed over 200 passing yards in 2 of their 6 games this season. A big part of that was Cal’s focus in the transfer portal this offseason. The Golden Bears brought in 5 defensive backs in the portal, including Kingston Lopa from Oregon, Daniel Harris from Georgia, Ricky Fletch from Ole Miss, and Marquis Groves-Killebrew from Arizona. Lopa is currently leading the nation with 5 interceptions this season and is the highest graded safety in the ACC per PFN.

With his ability in coverage and run support at 6-5, 200 pounds, I don’t see how Lopa is not an early round NFL draft pick next summer. He did miss Cal’s last game with a concussion, so whether or not he is good to go on Saturday will likely significantly change the Wake’s ability to throw the ball down the field.

While the pass defense has been exceptional for Cal, the run defense has left a lot to be desired—the Golden Bears are currently 127th in the nation in EPA/rush and are giving up 4.9 yards per rush (118th). Again, the transfer portal may be a main culprit here. Cal lost both of their starting linebackers—1st Team All-ACC selection Cade Uluave (BYU) and Luke Ferrelli (Ole Miss)—from last season, and that duo combined for 191 tackles, 17 tackles for loss, and 4 sacks last season. USC transfer AJ Tuitele (33 tackles, 4 TFL, 3 sacks) has done a solid job trying to fill the void, but he was ejected for targeting in the 4th quarter of the Virginia Tech game—since that was his 2nd targeting ejection of the season, he should be out for the first half of the Wake game.

Another guy that could give Wake some trouble establishing the run is Oregon transfer Jericho Johnson. At 6-4, 345 pounds, Johnson is tough man to block and is currently 2nd on the team with 3.5 tackles for loss this season.

The Deacs have not been great on the ground this season, averaging just 144 rushing yards per game and 4.2 yards per carry this. Hopefully Wake can find a way to get the rushing attack going against the Golden Bears, because when Cal allows over 150 yards on the ground, they are 0-3 (UCLA, UNLV, Clemson). When they hold their opponent to below 150 yards rushing, they are a perfect 3-0 (Syracuse, Wagner, VT).

One final note on this matchup: expect a lot of flags. California is the first team Wake will play that currently averages more penalties and penalty yards than the Deacs this season. Wake is 10th in the nation in penalties and 7th in yardage, averaging 8.7 penalties for 79.8 yards per game. The Golden Bears are 4th and 2nd in the same categories respectively, averaging 9.5 penalties for 89.7 yards per game. Wake has only had fewer penalty yards than their opponent 1 time this season (against Louisville by 5 whole yards), so it would be nice to do that again.

I think Wake has proven to be the better team so far this season, but Cal appears to be improving with the shakeup to the coaching staff. Assistant Head Coach Nick Rolovich gave Jake Dickert his first Power 5 job when he hired him as the defensive coordinator at Washington State in 2020, so he could have some trade secrets on how to stop the man who eventually took his job in 2021. Hopefully the Deacs can survive the west coast trip and get to the bye week with a win.

Go Deacs!

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