Two teams at opposite ends of the college football emotional spectrum go head-to-head Saturday night in Berkeley, Calif., when 21st-ranked SMU hopes to take another step toward an Atlantic Coast Conference championship at the expense of a Cal team more concerned about its next coach.
The Mustangs (8-3, 6-1 ACC) and Golden Bears (6-5, 3-4) have both clinched bowl invitations, but streaking SMU is seeking the best of the bunch — one they’ll still have to earn — while staggering Cal is no sure thing to accept.
Among six teams still alive for two spots in the ACC Championship Game, SMU and Virginia are sitting prettiest. Each can advance simply by winning its regular-season finale Saturday.
Virginia wraps up at home against Virginia Tech in a game that is scheduled to kick off an hour before SMU’s game on the West Coast.
While others in the logjam will have to win and get help, the Mustangs can be single-minded in Berkeley.
“I mean, we just have to do our job,” senior wide receiver Jordan Hudson assured reporters. “It’ll play itself out.”
Part of playing itself out includes the ramifications of a win next Saturday in the ACC title game, which does not assure a spot in the 12-team, season-ending playoffs, and hoping for a bid from the selection committee the next day.
SMU has put itself in the conversation with an impressive three-game winning streak against Miami (Fla.), Boston College and Louisville. The first and third wins of the run were at home.
Kevin Jennings was the star of last week’s 38-6 blitzing of Louisville, throwing for 303 yards and three touchdowns.
Jennings had similar success — 225 yards and two scores — in, coincidentally, a 38-6 home win over Cal last November that propelled the Mustangs into the ACC title game against Clemson.
Jennings caught a break that day when Cal star Fernando Mendoza, the hero of the previous week’s rivalry win over Stanford, came up ill and missed the quarterback showdown. Mendoza has since transferred to Indiana, where he is considered a Heisman Trophy candidate.
This time around, Cal freshman Jaron-Keawe Sagapolutele is coming off a shaky effort in a loss to Stanford and now finds himself engulfed in questions about his future at the university.
The Golden Bears brought that upon themselves when they fired coach Justin Wilcox one day after their 31-10 debacle at Stanford.
Instead of possible freshman records for Sagapolutele and seizing a seventh win that could provide greater incentive to accept a bowl bid, Cal has seen the attention of fans, students and even football general manager Ron Rivera this week focused on possible coaching candidates and the process for selecting one.
Rivera took time to address why an in-season decision was made on Wilcox, and why the Golden Bears would go into the regular-season finale — and potentially a bowl game — with an interim coach, Nick Rolovich.
“This is hard what we’re doing,” the former Washington Commanders head coach admitted at a press conference Tuesday. “It’s hard on Justin, it’s hard on the players, it’s hard on the staff, coaches, everybody, because there is a big question mark for all of us.”
Cal has lost three of its last four games, including 31-21 to Virginia in its only home date since Oct. 17.
