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Cal Kicks Off 2021 Season Against Nevada

by calbears.com
Aug 31, 2021

The 2021 season gets underway on Saturday night when Cal hosts Nevada for a 7:30 p.m. kickoff at FTX Field at California Memorial Stadium. The game will be televised by FS1. The contest serves as Cal's Gold Out game, with fans encouraged to wear gold. The first 10,000 fans through the gates will receive a free Cal swirler flag.

The Golden Bears lead the all-time series, 32-6-1. All but three of the games were played in 1945 or earlier, including the first - a 24-0 Cal win in Berkeley on Nov. 15, 1899. Cal won, 33-15, in Berkeley in 1996, but Nevada has claimed the last two meetings - 52-31 in 2010 in Reno and 31-24 on Sept. 1, 2012, in Berkeley.

The Bears are 87-46-5 all-time in 138 season openers and won six in a row before falling, 34-10, at UCLA last Nov. 15. Over the last 17 seasons starting in 2004, Cal is 13-4 in season-opening games. The Bears won six consecutive home openers from 2014-19 and are 18-3 in home openers this century.

Carrying Success into 2021

  • Cal has defeated the reigning Pac-12 champion in three consecutive years (2018 vs. USC, 2019 vs. Washington, 2020 vs. Oregon) and that season's eventual champion twice (2018 vs. Washington, 2020 vs. Oregon).
  • Cal has defeated a ranked team during every season of Justin Wilcox's tenure (2017 vs. No. 8/9 Washington State, 2018 vs. No. 15/13 Washington, 2019 vs. No. 14/12 Washington and 2020 vs. No. 23/21/20 Oregon).
  • Cal is 9-0 in regular-season non-conference games, including 6-0 against Power 5 teams, during Wilcox's tenure with wins over BYU (away), Idaho State (home), North Carolina (H&A), North Texas (H), Ole Miss (H&A), UC Davis (H) and Weber State (H). 

Welcome to FTX Field at California Memorial Stadium

  • On Aug. 23, Cal Athletics and Learfield's Cal Bears Sports Properties, and West Realm Shires Services Inc., owners and operators of FTX.US, a leading U.S.-regulated cryptocurrency exchange, announced the first-ever collegiate cryptocurrency naming rights sponsorship. 
  • As part of the $17.5 million, 10-year deal, Learfield will accept the full payment in cryptocurrency on behalf of the university.

9 Super Seniors 

  • Nine members of the Cal roster are "super seniors" - student-athletes who took advantage of an extra year of eligibility granted by the NCAA due to COVID-19. All were set to finish their final seasons last fall, but decided to return for one additional year.
  • The group features Trevon Clark, Kekoa Crawford, Valentino Daltoso, Marcel Dancy, Kuony Deng, Josh Drayden, Cameron Goode, Elijah Hicks and Luc Bequette.
  • Crawford, Daltoso, Dancy, Deng, Drayden and Goode are all in their sixth years of eligibility. 
  • Bequette played at Boston College last year, then returned to Cal for 2021. He is a seventh-year senior.

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