Cal Looks For Bowl Eligibility Saturday vs. BYU

• Cal faces BYU on Saturday for the first time since defeating the Cougars in the 2005 Las Vegas
Bowl, 35-28. The Golden Bears will become bowl eligible for the first time since 2011 with a victory.

• Six of the last seven times Cal has won its final regular-game of the season the Bears have been bowl eligible with the last occurence in 2011 when Cal won its regular-season finale 47-38 at Arizona State.

• Cal is 2-0 against nonconference opponents in 2014 with wins in the first two games of the campaign at Northwestern and against Sacramento State.

• BYU will be the seventh bowl-eligible team the Bears will face this year. Northwestern and Oregon State still have a chance to be bowl eligible.

• With five wins in its first 11 games of 2014, Cal has already enjoyed a four-game turnaround from last year when the Bears were 1-11. The program’s largest turnaround in the modern era happened in 1947 when Cal won seven more games than the season before by going 9-1 after a 2-7 campaign in 1946. Cal’s improvement in 2014 is its best since the Bears went 7-5 in 2002 after finishing 1-10 in 2001.

• Through 11 games this season, Cal ranks in the top 20 nationally in seven offensive categories – passing offense (5th, 341.7 ypg), first downs offense (8th, 285), fourth-down conversion percentage (10th, 68.0%), scoring offense (12th, 38.5 ppg), total offense (15th, 488.7 ypg), kickoff returns (17th, 24.07 ypr) and red zone offense (T18th, 89.1%).

• Cal has set a single-season school record for touchdown passes (33) and kickoff return touchdowns (2) and is on the verge of reaching several others. The Bears have scored 424 points to move within 33 points of the modern-era record of 457 set in 2003 and are within 86 points of the all-time record of 510 set in 1920. Cal’s 54 touchdowns are five short of the modern-era record of 59 (2003, 2004) and 18 shy of the all-time record of 72 set by the 1920 team. Cal’s 51 extra points are five short of the modern-era mark (56, 2004) and 16 shy of the all-time record (67, 1920). Cal’s 3,759 passing yards are 218 from the record of 3,977 set in 2013. The Bears are averaging 488.7 yards per game with the record 492.4 set in 2004.

• National honors candidate Jared Goff has brokenhis own single-season record for passing yardage from last season with 3,580 in 2014, while he has tied the single-season record with 31 touchdown passes. Goff ranks among the nation’s top 10 in five individual categories including passing yardage (3,580, 3rd), passing yards per game (325.5, 5th), touchdown passes (31, 5th), completions per game (25.27, 6th) and points responsible for (188, 10th).

• Daniel Lasco is on pace to become Cal’s first 1,000-yard rusher since Isi Sofele had 1,322 rushing yards in 2011 with his current total of 985 through 11 games. He has added career highs of 30 catches for 343 yards to combine for 1,328 rushing and receiving yards, which is the most since Keenan Allen (1,398) and Sofele (1,355) both went over 1,300 in 2011. Lasco has scored in each of Cal’s last 10 contests and has 10 rushing touchdowns in his last seven games with at least one in each contest and nine of the last 10. His 12 rushing touchdowns on the season are tied for second in the Pac-12, tied for ninth on Cal’s single-season list and three short of the school record of 15. Lasco’s two receiving scores give him a team-high total of 14 touchdowns, two shy of the school’s moden-era record and four shy of the all-time mark. He leads the team with 86 points.