Cal Looking for Another Big Game Win on Stanfurd’s Turf
Bears excited to return after extended COVID break
BERKELEY, Calif. -- — The level of excitement for Big Game week is always high at California, with the opportunity to beat archrival Stanford and take back The Axe among the top goals for the Golden Bears.
When the Bears hit the practice field Monday for the first time this week, it was at an even different level for good reason.
After playing one game without 27 players (13 of them starters) and having another postponed because of a COVID-19 outbreak, Cal was more than ready to resume their winning momentum and get another victory, especially against Stanford.
“As excited and as motivated as they've been since I've been here," fifth-year coach Justin Wilcox said “Going into that team meeting (Monday), just the energy in there, it felt like the first day of fall camp. There's been some adversity and some things out of our control. ... They’re very, very eager to practice and play and focused on moving forward and not necessarily talking about what has happened and what hasn’t happened.”
What happened is Cal had a single player test positive for COVID-19 leading up to the game at Arizona on Nov. 6. Due to the Berkeley Covid protocols the team has had to follow (among the strictest in the nation) that led to program-wide testing on a group that was 99% vaccinated, forcing Cal to keep quarterback Chase Garbers, six other full-time starters and over a dozen other players home in an extremely frustrating 10-3 loss to Arizona, a game that was a terrible display of football with Cal’s second- and third-stringers unable to take advantage of an inept Wildcats squad (the worst in the Pac-12). The contest should’ve been the Bears third win in a row.
Additional testing the next week raised the total of positives among players and coaches in the program, leaving Cal with so few at certain positions and leading to the postponement of last week's game against Southern California. It was beginning to have the feel of last year’s disastrous Covid-depleted season, where Cal usually had far fewer players and would lose a game by a single score or less, with several games cancelled.
But the good news for this season is that nearly all those players are back this week for the Big Game. The only starters not listed as being available are left tackle Will Craug, who has an ankle injury, and right guard McKade Mettauer.
That includes Garbers, who threw for 285 yards and a TD and ran for 72 yards and a score in Cal's 2019 win at Stanford.
“I have all the respect in the world for the quarterback who has just been a terror on us,” Stanford coach David Shaw said. “His athleticism, his mobility, his game management and stepping up and making big plays in the pass game or taking off running is a challenge.”
Garbers put on a clinic against Oregon State in his last game, which Cal thoroughly dominated. This past weekend, that same Oregon State team crushed Stanford 35-14. So the Bears like their chances.
