Washington @ California preview
FTX Field at California Memorial Stadium
Last Meeting ( Dec 5, 2009 ) California 10, Washington 42
Jake Locker and the Washington Huskies kept their slim bowl hopes alive with an easy win over UCLA last week. They’ll have to get by a California team which was humiliated last week by its rival Stanford to stay in the picture.
The Pac-10 has six bowl spots slotted for the postseason but the conference may not have enough teams qualify. Both teams in Saturday’s game at Berkeley, Calif., are still in the race.
The Golden Bears would like to forget about last week’s loss against Stanford.
Andrew Luck and the Cardinal scored the first eight times they had the ball in what was nearly the biggest blowout in the long history of the Big Game. Only a meaningless touchdown by Isi Sofole in the game’s final seconds kept it from being the largest deficit in the series.
The Cardinal took the red ax back from the Bears by shutting them out for three quarters to avenge a 34-28 loss a year ago. Luck threw two touchdown passes in the game and also ripped off a 58-yard run to silence the rabid fans.
Cal (5-6, 3-5 Pac-10) will go with backup quarterback Brock Mansion for the fifth straight game on Saturday. Mansion replaced Kevin Riley who was off to a monster start but suffered a knee injury against Oregon State and has not played since.
Riley had thrown 13 touchdowns in six games before the injury. Mansion, who appears to be a capable backup, has just two scoring passes in the four games and Cal has struggled generate offense.
The Golden Bears nearly shocked the nation in a 15-13 loss against top-ranked Oregon.
But while its defense was sharp, Cal managed just 193 total yards of offense in the game.
Locker played his home finale with a broken rib and although he threw for just 68 yards in the Huskies’ 24-7 win over UCLA, he managed the game with a professional demeanor.
Locker had lofty, even Heisman aspirations, when he decided to forgo the NFL draft to return to Seattle for his senior season. While the season hasn’t gone anything like he had hoped it would Locker still remains in some NFL team’s draft plans. He’s just not as high as he was a year ago.
Running backs Chris Polk and Jesse Callier carried the Huskies’ offense against the Bruins. Polk lugged the ball 25 times for a career-high 138 yards. Callier had 107 yards and also scored a touchdown for Washington as the Huskies had two back go over the century mark in the same game for the first time in three years.
The two teams have split the past four meetings with each team winning at home.
The last two meetings have been blowouts as Washington (4-6, 3-4) hammered Cal 42-10 last year. Locker was 19 for 23 in that game with three touchdowns.
Washington finishes the season at rival Washington State next week. Cal must win Saturday to earn a berth in a bowl game, most likely the Las Vegas Bowl.