Clemson’s first visit to Cal a big challenge and opportunity for Bears

BERKELEY — In a college football regular season that is just 13 games, every one of them matters. But some matter more than others.

Cal had one of those games two years ago, when ESPN’s Game Day program arrived on campus before the sun came up, the Golden Bears stormed to a 35-10 lead over No. 8 Miami that night in front of a capacity crowd at Memorial Stadium, then collapsed in a crushing 39-38 defeat.

What a victory might have meant to the Cal program is unknowable, but two years later the Bears are being presented with another tantalizing opportunity on the national stage.

Cal (2-1, 1-0 ACC) welcomes a first-ever Berkeley visit on Friday night by perennial ACC heavyweight Clemson (2-1, 1-0). ESPN will be here again, and first-year Cal coach Tosh Lupoi is campaigning for the Bears’ second sellout of the season.

“Obviously, we treat every game as super-important, we treat every game like the Super Bowl, as our head coach likes to say,” fifth-year wide receiver Jordan King said. “But this is an exciting game for us.”

King is among just seven Golden Bears still on the roster who played against Miami two years ago. You wonder if pain from that night still lingers.

“Obviously, we have had some struggles in the past with bigger games,” King said. “This group, how together we are and how much work we’ve put in, I think we’re built for this moment. We’re excited to let it rip and just play free.”

If Cal, led by star sophomore quarterback Jaron-Keawe Sagapolutele, is a different team than it was in 2024, so is Clemson. The Tigers, who won national championships under Dabo Swinney in 2016 and ’18, made it to the College Football Playoff again two years ago.

But Swinney has resisted some of the game’s recent changes — the transfer portal, NIL payments to players — and Clemson stumbled to 7-6 last year. The Tigers opened this season with an eye-opening 51-10 loss to LSU.

“Don’t know a whole lot about what’s going on over there,” said Lupoi said, declining to dissect the current state of the Clemson program.

But Lupoi, who will coach his fourth game on Friday, makes it clear the respect he has for Swinney, who will guide the Tigers for the 244th time.

“I think him as a leader, he’s obviously doing a lot of things right,” Lupoi said. “I don’t have an intimate personal relationship with him. Shaken his hand a number of times and had a few quick conversations and his resume and his body of work speaks for itself.”

The two coaches squared off four times in national title games from 2015 through ’19, when Lupoi was an assistant and ultimately defensive coordinator for Nick Saban at Alabama. Each side won twice.

Quarterbacks on both sides will command attention Friday night.

Tait Reynolds earned his first start for the Tigers last week, and did enough — 20 for 29, 215 yards, one touchdown, one interception — to help Clemson overcome a 17-3 deficit on the way to a 28-20 victory over North Carolina.

“The kid’s a baller, regardless of being a true freshman,” Cal linebacker Kamar Mothudi said.

“I think they’ve got a new energy rocking with Tait Reynolds,” Lupoi said.

Sagapolutele, who started every game last season for Cal as a freshman, is coming off a career-best 413-yard performance in the Bears’ 49-7 win over Wagner College.

“This is a dude, now. If you want to know what an NFL quarterback looks like playing college ball, that’s this kid,” Swinney said this week. “He is an elite passer, he can make every throw from every angle, every area on the field.”