{"id":8464,"date":"2026-09-05T11:35:20","date_gmt":"2026-09-05T11:35:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nextcitydigest.com\/?p=8464"},"modified":"2026-09-05T11:35:20","modified_gmt":"2026-09-05T11:35:20","slug":"what-to-know-before-cal-and-ucla-resume-their-rivalry-in-berkeley","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nextcitydigest.com\/?p=8464","title":{"rendered":"What to know before Cal and UCLA resume their rivalry in Berkeley"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<div>\n<p><strong>UCLA at Cal<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Records:\u00a0<\/strong>UCLA 0-0; Cal 0-0<\/p>\n<p><strong>Kickoff:\u00a0<\/strong>7:30 p.m. Saturday at Memorial Stadium, Berkeley<\/p>\n<p><strong>TV:<\/strong>\u00a0ESPN<\/p>\n<p><strong>Radio:<\/strong> 810-AM<\/p>\n<p><strong>Series history:\u00a0<\/strong>UCLA leads 58-35-1. The series began in 1933 but the teams have not met since 2023, when Cal prevailed 33-7 prior to the breakup of the Pac-12 Conference<\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/nextcitydigest.com\/?p=8462\">DePetris: Six months of war with Iran, and what exactly have we achieved?<\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>UCLA storylines:\u00a0<\/strong>The Bruins made a coaching change after a 3-9 record last season, hiring Bob Chesney from James Madison, where he led the Dukes to a remarkable run into the College Football Playoff . . . Chesney assembled a strong transfer class, led 11 players who followed him from JMU. The headliner of that group is running back Wayne Knight, a second-team AP All-American, who rushed for 1,397 yards and racked up 2,039 all-purpose yards . . . Returning dual-threat quarterback Nico Iamaleava passed for 1,928 yards and 13 touchdowns and rushed for 505 yards and four TDs a year ago.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Cal storylines:<\/strong>\u00a0Tosh Lupoi becomes the first Cal alum to coach the team since Joe Kapp (1982-86). Lupoi will try to become the eighth Cal coach among the past nine to win his debut game . . . QB Jaron-Keawe Sagapolutele returns after an impressive freshman season in which he passed for at least 200 yards in every game and had 18 passing TDs, most by a true freshman in the country . . . Lupoi\u2019s transfer class includes four offensive skill position players expected to take on significant roles: RB Adam Mohammed (Washington), WR Ian Strong (Rutgers), WR Chase Hendricks (Ohio U) and TE Dorian Thomas (New Mexico).<\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/nextcitydigest.com\/?p=8460\">Opinion: Of course Flock cameras are being attacked. Congress has failed to regulate them.<\/a><\/p>\n<div>\n<\/div>\n<p><strong>Stats that matter:<\/strong>\u00a0Chesney\u2019s JMU teams outscored their opponents by an average margin of 15.9 points over the past two seasons. Chesney and Lupoi dueled last season when JMU scored 34 points in a first-round CFP loss to Oregon, with Lupoi serving as the Ducks\u2019 defensive coordinator . . . Cal played in a bowl game for the third consecutive season in 2025 but has not won as many as eight games since 2019 and has not posted a winning conference record since 2009 . . . Sagapolutele did not throw an interception in his final 178 pass attempts last season.<\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/nextcitydigest.com\/?p=8458\">Horoscopes September 5, 2026: Michael Keaton, socialize to rediscover<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The series began in 1933 but the teams have not met since 2023, when Cal prevailed 33-7 prior to the breakup of the Pac-12 Conference<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":8463,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8464","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>What to know before Cal and UCLA resume their rivalry in Berkeley - Next City Digest<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/nextcitydigest.com\/?p=8464\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"What to know before Cal and UCLA resume their rivalry in Berkeley - 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