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)…