California vs. Hawaii

Last year

Cal: 8-5, 4-4 Pac-12, Won Armed Forces Bowl over Air Force, 55-36

Hawai’i: 3-10

Where: ANZ Stadium, Sydney Australia (83,500)

Kickoff: 10 PM ET/9 PM CT, Noon, Saturday, in Sydney

ESPN

Broadcasters: Allen Bestwick, Mike Bellotti, Warren Smith

Refs: Pac-12, Michael Mothershed, lead whistle

Weather: 66, sunny. Wind 7-12 MPH. It’s winter in Australia, but it’s still nice. Game time there is 12 PM on Saturday. They are 15 hours ahead of Central Time and 14 ahead of Eastern Time.

Analysis

The Golden Bears of Cal lost their starting quarterback, Jared Goff, to the NFL as the first pick of the Los Angeles Rams. They are replacing him with Texas Tech transfer Davis Webb, who, in 2014,  completed 211-of-345 passes, 61.2%, for 2,539 yards, 24 TDs and 13 ints. He had limited play last year due to an ankle injury and due to Patrick Mahomes emerging as one of the Big 12’s best quarterbacks. So Webb comes to Cal as a graduate transfer and is immediately eligible to play and will start against the Rainbows tonight. He threw for 5,557 yards and 46 touchdowns in his career at Texas Tech, so Sonny Dykes and his Golden Bears team are expecting big things from Webb. Cal lost six of their top wide receivers off last year’s highly explosive offense. But they’ve got some young guys including five star freshman Demetris Robertson, a 6’0, 175 Savannah, Georgia native. Below, I’ve included an amazing video of Robertson.

Hawaii has a new head coach in Nick Rolovich, who takes over from Norm Chow. Chow, known for his offensive coordinating acumen, really struggled with the Rainbows going 11-39 in four years, and 4-28 in the Mountain West Conference. Rolovich has fifth year starting quarterback Ikaika Woolsey, who will try to take better care of the ball this year than last, as, in part time duty, he threw five TD’s and 6 ints. The Cal defense tied for 13th in the country in turnovers recorded with 27, so Woolsey will have to be better in 2016 starting tomorrow in Sydney, tonight in the U.S. But the Rainbows have an outstanding running game led by senior Paul Harris, who rushed for 1,132 yards last season on 197 carries (5.7 yards per carry), with 6 TDs. They’ve got a couple of others who can tote the rock pretty well.

Prediction

This could be a closer game than thought. Vegas has the line at 19 1/2, but it started off at 22 1/2. I see the Rainbows giving the Golden Bears a tougher opener than expected. Sonny Dykes is doing an excellent job at Cal, and is known for his offenses. But he does have Jake Spavital as his first year offensive coordinator. Spavital was let go by Kevin Sumlin at A&M after last season, so I don’t know if he’s the right guy for Dykes. Maybe he’ll be fine with Dykes, who is known to be an offensive guru. Webb is a pretty solid quarterback. I see the scoreboard getting lit up in this one and the Rainbows’ running game keeping them in it for a while.

California 49, Hawaii 31

Here’s the video of Cal five star freshman wide receiver Demetris Robinson.