Cal football: Bears reveal secret weapon in Big Game victory

As it turns out, the Cal Bears carried a little extra “juice” into the 126th Big Game.

It was provided by Cal offensive lineman Barrett Miller. Miller, who came to Berkeley last spring after four seasons as a starting offensive lineman at Stanford, gave his Cal teammates some inside information leading up to the Bears’ 27-15 victory Saturday.

“Players like Barrett, that have been on the other side . . . they kind of taught us what’s going on over at Stanford, about how they look down upon us,” said Bears running back Jaydn Ott. “So that just fueled us going into this game. Made us want to come out and throw the first punch.”

Miller, a fixture at left tackle this fall, certainly has made the full transition from Stanford to Cal.

“At Stanford all four years we had a couple big games with Cal but we always played Notre Dame. That’s something we always looked forward to,” said Miller, believed to be the first Stanford player to defect across the Bay. “So it’s like, `Cal or Notre Dame.’ I know here at Cal, we’ve got Stanford and that’s the one and only (big game).

“At Stanford, we have so many. It’s hard to really say who’s our rival at that point. But here, it’s Stanford, no matter what. That type of juice is what I gave the team.”

The Bears shouldn’t need extra juice next Saturday in the regular-season finale. At 5-6 overall, they will be playing for bowl eligibility when they face UCLA at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena. It’s win, or go home.

“Real big deal,” said Cal coach Justin Wilcox, whose team’s last bowl game was in 2019, a 35-20 win over Illinois in the defunct Redbox Bowl at Levi’s Stadium.

“If we were to beat UCLA, I’d be at this podium and I’d be crying,” said redshirt freshman quarterback Fernando Mendoza, who was at the podium after throwing three touchdown passes against Stanford.

UCLA (7-4, 4-4) manhandled rival USC 38-20 on Saturday, bouncing back from a perplexing 17-7 loss to last-place Arizona State.

Cal has lost the past three years to the Bruins, including in 2021 when a defeat in Week 11 killed the Bears’ bowl hopes.

This time, the Bears will take on a UCLA offense led by Ethan Garbers. The younger brother of ex-Cal quarterback Chase Garbers had three touchdown passes against the Trojans, a boost for a position that has been unsettled much of the year.

Cal has had its own ups and downs but the Bears certainly were the better team against Stanford.

Ott, who rushed for 166 yards and a touchdown, delivered his fifth game this season with more than 150 rushing yards. He carried the ball 36 times — more than he ever had in a game in high school or college.

“We knew we wanted to get Jaydn the ball,” Wilcox said. “He was ready for it. He welcomes that. He makes a lot of things happen. I’m proud of him.”

Ott has 1,183 rushing yards this season and pushed his career total to 2,079 yards, moving to 13th on the Bears’ all-time list in just 22 games. He ranks No. 4 nationally in rushing yards per game at 118.2.

Ott said he owed it to Cal fans, for whom the Big Game means a lot. “We’ve got grown men coming down on the field crying real tears,” he said.

Mendoza, making just his sixth start, threw for a season-high 294 yards, prompting praise from Stanford coach Troy Taylor, a one-time star quarterback at Cal. “Played well beyond his years,” Taylor said.

Sophomore wide receiver Trond Grizzell, a non-scholarship walk-on, caught seven passes for 136 yards and first-half touchdowns of 9 and 54 yards.

“Dare you say, ‘Big Game hero?’” Wilcox said. “He’s going to be in the conversation.”

NOTE: Wilcox had no update on the status of freshman linebacker Cade Uluave, the reigning Pac-12 defensive player of the week who left the game with an ankle injury in the first half.