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PROVO — The Cougars put up 64 points on Saturday in a confidence-building shutout over Savannah State. Now with three-straight wins under their belt, the Cougars set their sights on a 5-6 Cal team that has one of the strongest offenses in the country.
Cal has scored 30+ points in all but two of its games this year. It's 15th nationally in scoring offense, averaging 38.5 points per game. BYU isn’t far behind at 24th in scoring offense; it averages 35.6 points per game, so the possibility for a shootout is high. Head coach Bronco Mendenhall says he hopes it doesn’t come to that on Saturday.
“I’m not sure how many teams have kept up with Cal in term of scoring,” Mendenhall said. “I think we have to play good enough defense to make sure it’s not just that alone — in terms of a scoring match only. We have to play good enough defense to where it just doesn’t become that.”
However, with increased confidence in starting quarterback Christian Stewart, the offensive players said they’re ready for the challenge of a shootout if it comes to that on Saturday.
“Christian is an unbelievable fighter,” said sophomore wide receiver Mitchell Jeurgens. “We’re completely behind him, and going into this last game before our bowl game, we’ve got a lot of seniors that have a lot of heart, so however many points [Cal] puts up, we know we need to put up at least one more, so it’s going to be a fight, that’s for sure.
BYU is the only thing standing between this five-win Cal team and bowl eligibility. The Cougars say they’re expecting the Bears to come out with everything they’ve got to reach a bowl game.
“Cal’s a solid team, and just by looking at their record doesn’t reflect how great of an offense and defense they have,” Jeurgens said. “They come out fighting every single game, and they’ve had some tough losses, but we know that to go against a Power-5 team like Cal, we’ve go to come out strong. … They will come out fighting, clawing, just doing everything to get the win."
One of Cal’s real strengths this season has been its ability to pass the ball. Sophomore quarterback Jared Goff has the third most passing yards in the nation and has accounted for nearly 70 percent of the Bears' offense.
The Cougars, on the other hand, have struggled to defend against the pass all year. The last time they faced a top-20 passing offense was against Boise State — which ended being BYU’s biggest loss this season. It gave up a season-high 410 passing yards against the Broncos, something it can’t afford to do on Saturday.
“We have a lot better identity of who we are defensively starting from Middle Tennessee on, and we have some momentum going, so I think that, ultimately, will determine the outcome of the game,” Mendenhall said.
Junior running back Adam Hine said he knows Cal will be a tough matchup, but that it’s also a great opportunity for the team to prove itself.
“We want to make statement that we’ve had a tough season, but we are coming back hard and strong,” Hine said. “We are BYU football players, and we aren’t going to give up despite a winning record right now and despite going to a bowl game, we wanna make a statement that we’ve come to play.” Sydney Carlson is a KSL sports radio intern and producer at BYUtv Sports. You can follow her on Twitter @sydneykayc
