JEFF ALLEN GAME PREVIEW: CAL at SAN DIEGO STATE
The college football late show ends on an interesting note as the Cal Golden Bears head south to take on the San Diego State Aztecs in San Diego. Cal kicked off the 2016 schedule with an early game in Sydney, Australia which saw the Bears routinely dismantle Hawaii 51-31. SDSU was an easy 31-0 winner over New Hampshire which saw the Wildcats run just 51 plays for only 140 total yards. This is the back end of a home and home with Cal …. the Bears winning 35-7 last year in Berkeley behind 321 total passing yards by last year’s No.1 pick in the April football draft. SDSU opened as a -7 point underdog with the total 59 1/2. As of this writing, SDSU is now -8 with the total bet up to 61. Weather is expected to be a bit cool in the high 50s with zero chance of precipitation . The 10:30 PM EST kickoff can be seen on CNBC.
Cal returns just nine total starers but still features Sonny Dykes run and gun offense. Davis Webb had a big day against the Warriors throwing for 441 yards and four touchdowns. Webb takes over for the No.1 overall pick in last year’s NFL draft and looked up to the task albeit versus a bad Hawaii team. The Golden Bear defense was awful last year and didn’t show much improvement if there performance vs. Hawaii is any indicator.
San Diego State returns seven starters on each side of the ball and is projected by most pundits to be the main threat to Boise State in this year’s Mountain West Conference race. Rocky Long’s bunch got off to a slow start last year opening 1-3 including the loss to Cal. They ended the year winning ten straight including a Bowl blowout of Cincinnati. MWC POY Donnell Pumphrey returns off a year that saw him rush for 1653 yards and 17 touchdowns. He should do some business against the poor tackling Bears. The Aztec defense is off a shutout and should be ultra confident here.
Our first inclination would be to look at San Diego State but … the Aztecs have been terrible in September the last three years and are just 7-16 ATS vs. non conference opposition. By the same token, SDSU is +170 points ATS in it’s L10 games and can really make a statement with a win in revenge here. The home team has won seven straight in the series but off a less than inspiring debut vs. a middle of the road FCS school, not sure we’re ready to lay this type of number against Cal. It’s a long year and you after pick your battles. We’ll pass here and look to play on Sunday.