For the second week in a row Cal is an underdog by more than a touchdown at home. Last week, the Bears were 10-point underdogs against Virginia Tech in Berkeley, and Cal upset the Hokies 25-20 on Saturday.
This coming Saturday, the Bears (3-3, 2-1 ACC) will host red-hot Wake Forest, which on Sunday entered the AP top 25 for the first time since 2022. Wake Forest (5-1, 3-1 ACC) is ranked No. 21 this week, and as of Sunday evening the Demon Deacons are favored over Cal by 9.5 points, according to both FanDuel and DraftKings. Cal was just an 8.5-point underdog on FanDuel earlier Sunday, but that site’s spread has increased by a point since then.
Cal is coming off its best win of Tosh Lupoi’s young head coaching career, and the Bears did it without their starting quarterback (Jaron-Keawe Sagapolutele), their top two running backs (Adam Mohammed and Carter Vargas) and their best defensive player (safety Kingson Lopa).
The Bears pulled out the win with a standout game by backup quarterback Jackson Brousseau, the efficient offensive play-calling of Pat McCann and a strong defensive effort.
Cal is hoping Sagapolutele and Lopa will be ready to play against Wake Forest, and that seems possible since both were nearly cleared to play against Virginia Tech. Mohammed, the team’s leading rusher with 336 yards, was listed as questionable for most of last week, so he might be able to return against Wake Forest too.
The Bears will need all their weapons against Wake Forest, which is the surprise team of the ACC in Jake Dickert’s second season as the Deacons’ head coach.
Wake Forest was picked to finish 13th in the ACC in the preseason poll, but its only loss came against Miami. And the Demon Deacons gave the Hurricanes their biggest challenge of the season so far in a 33-20 Miami victory.
The Demon Deacons then defeated then-No. 16 Louisville 30-27 on the Cardinals’ home field, and Wake Forest won its past two games against Stanford and North Carolina Sate by a combined margin of 95-17.
Wake Forest is 3-0 in road games this season.
- Game odds refresh periodically and are subject to change.
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