Ten California Golden Bears that Minnesota football fans need to know ahead of Saturday
The true freshman signal-caller has been very impressive through his first two career starts, completing 47-of-68 passing attempts for 501-yards and three touchdowns with one interception. He throws a tremendous deep ball and the Golden Bears aren’t afraid of letting the Hawaii native from airing it out.
Over two games, Sagapolutele has attempted 12 passes of 20+ yards, completing five of those attempts for 154 yards and a touchdown.
With Jayden Ott, Raphael has emerged as Cal’s No. 1 running back this season. He leads the team in carries with 26, totaling 159 yards and one touchdown in the process. While not a home run hitter, with just one run of 15+ yards this season, Raphael can pick up large chunks of yardage quite consistently. So far this season, just under 25% of his total carries have gone for at least 10 or more yards.
A gadget wide receiver, Cal will use De jesus in a variety of ways looking to create mismatches. He leads Cal with 10 receptions, totaling 95 yards. Previously, De Jesus had two productive seasons with UNLV, totaling 96 receptions for 1,118 yards in 27 games played. The Golden Bears will utilize him mostly in the short and intermediate game though he absolutely has the ability to make an impact downfield as well.
Grizzell has been one of Sagapolutele’s favorite downfield targets this season. He has seven receptions for 115 yards and one touchdown. He’s been productive now for multiple seasons with 66 receptions for 991 yards over the 2023 and 2024 seasons, though his role within the Cal offense this season appears to be quite a bit bigger
WR Mark Hamper
Hamper has emerged as another big play threat early this season for Cal. In two games, he has six receptions for 104 yards, an average of 17.3 yards per reception. When used in the short game, Hamper has great yards after the catch ability, averaging eight yards per catch on short passes this season.
McCulloch may only have five tackles this season but he’s made them count with three tackles for loss and 1.5 sacks. However, his most impressive stat is leading Cal’s defense in pass pressures with 14. He will be a strong test for the Gophers’ tackles on Saturday.
DE TJ Bush Jr
Another defensive end, Bush has 10 tackles this season and is a bit more involved in stopping the run than McCulloch. The former Liberty standout also has two tackles for loss and one sack this season. Last season with Liberty, Bush Jr had 58 tackles, 10 tackles for loss and 5.5 sacks.
LB Cade Uluave
Uluave is Cal’s top player defensively. After entering the season with over 130 career tackles in 22 games including 10 tackles for loss and three sacks, Uluave is off to a fantastic start this fall with 15 total tackles, and three tackles for loss. The standout linebacker is a threat to get to the passer and will rush the passer quite a bit. He has eight quarterback pressures already this season including four quarterback hits. It’s only a matter of time till he gets there on time.
Ferrelli isn’t as dynamic of a linebacker as Uluave but through two games has shown to be a key member of the Cal defense. He has already recorded 16 tackles this season with one tackle for loss.
An FIU transfer, Masses has made his impact felt in the secondary already this season for Cal with six tackles, four pass deflections, and two interceptions. Opposing offenses have not been afraid to target Masses either, with 16 passes targeting him already this season, by far the most of any Cal cornerback. Of those 16 targets, five have resulted in receptions for a total of 60-yards.
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