With the 8th ranked Miami Hurricanes coming to town, the California Golden Bears had the attention of the nation with ESPN College Game Day in Berkeley.
For head coach Justin Wilcox it does not get better then that for the first time in a while there was national media attention aimed at Cal along with a sold out crowd of over 54,000.
Yet Wilcox once again proved Cal fans wrong with the choke job for the ages. Even worse with a little over eight minutes left in the third quarter, the lead for the Bears was 35-10. Seemingly a blowout correct? Wrong.
Cam Ward led Miami’s offense on a 75-yard drive that took up a little over five minutes and went for 12 plays. It was capped off by a Damien Martinez touchdown run. More importantly the two point conversion was good.
California responded with a field goal on an eight play drive.
Another 75-yard touchdown drive by Ward and the Hurricanes offense, made it a two score game. Time was on the Bears side unfortunately the offense even aided by a facemask penalty was not able to get anything going, which resulted in a punt.
Momentum was now on Miami’s side. In relatively quick fashion with a tired California defense, Ward ran it in from 24 yards out to cut their deficit to six.
On the ensuing possession for the Bears, Jaivian Thomas came up with what seemed like the biggest play of the game. A 19-yard run to pick up a first down and run clock. His next two carries went for no gain, three yards, and a false start backed the offense up to a third and 12 situation.
Quarterback Fernando Mendoza took off with the football and picked up four yards. The play was reviewed for targeting, which seemingly it was. Unfortunately for Cal, the ACC officials deemed that it did not warrant a flag, which resulted in a punt.
This meant Miami needed to go 92 yards with one minute and 42 seconds on the clock. Once again, California’s defense was spent. First play from scrimmage, Ward found Xavier Restrepo for 77 yards.
Now the Hurricanes only needed 15 yards for a touchdown to win the game. It did take a few more plays and more importantly time off the clock so the Bears did not have time to drive down the field for a game winning field goal attempt.
On second and goal from the five, Ward found Elijah Arroyo for the game winning touchdown. There also was controversy as it appeared several offensive linemen were illegally downfield at the time of the throw. Still no flag was thrown.
Still that likely prevented the inevitable game winner from Ward. At least Wilcox gave the national media something to talk about when it comes to choking.