This weekend, UNC football will return to the field after a bye week. Ideally, the break will have given Bill Belichick and the team time to iron out some of the team’s issues, although any feelings of pessimism
on that front are warranted so far. While we’ll have — and have had — plenty of time to unpack what’s going on with the Tar Heels this season, let’s take some time to focus on the game this weekend. With UNC making their first ever trip to California for an ACC game, let’s take a look at what the Cal Golden Bears will bring to the table.
Cal comes into this matchup with a 4-2 record. Other than their 27-14 win over Minnesota, none of the Golden Bears’ wins are overly impressive, while they’ve lost to San Diego State and Duke, getting blown out by the Blue Devils two weeks ago.
On the offensive side of the ball, Cal is averaging 351.7 yards per game, which is pretty middle-of-the-road nationally. They have actually struggled somewhat to run the ball, as their rushing game accounts for just 96.7 yards of that average, while they’re only averaging 3.1 yards per carry on the ground. The best of those rushers, Kendrick Raphael, is going for a perfectly solid 4.5 yards per carry and has four touchdowns, but no one else on their team is accounting for even 20 yards per game to this point.
On the other side of things, their passing game under quarterback Jaron-Keawe Sagapolutele has been good, but not overwhelming. So far on the season, Sagapolutele has completed 62.2% of his passes, and has 1487 yards and nine touchdowns. The Golden Bears’ main issue on that front is that they have turned the ball over a number of times; Sagapolutele’s seven interceptions are the most in the ACC so far.
As you might expect with a head coach that used to be a defensive coordinator, Cal’s defense is pretty solid. Opponents are scoring just 22.5 points per game against the Golden Bears to this point. If UNC can even do that, though, it would actually raise their scoring average on the season. The 329.8 yards per game that Cal is allowing is the 42nd best figure nationally so far.
One thing that may be a big issue for UNC’s less-than-sturdy offensive line is that Cal can get after the quarterback. While they’re not the national leaders in the sacks category or anything, their total of nine for the season is decent. More than that, they have seven different players who have at least a half a sack, so it’s not as if it’s just one player racking them up who you could theoretically focus on.
Another thing that the Tar Heels have to be actively wary of is defensive back Hezekiah Masses. I touched on this in our “Three things to watch” post yesterday, but Masses has a conference-leading four interceptions, and more than that, he’s then taken those interceptions for a total of 91 yards the other way. For an offense that’s struggled as much as UNC’s, the last thing you want to do is throw an interception that then leads to easy points for the other guys.
Cal are hardly an unbeatable force, but there’s also little doubt that they’ve been far better than UNC so far in 2025. The Tar Heels could win this game, they just have to not shoot themselves in the foot — and that’s been easier said than done.
