NC State is badly in need of a win with the bye week looming, but California is also winless in ACC action.
The Bears, who have their second bye week of the season Nov. 2, are 3-3 overall and 0-3 in the ACC, with the three losses by a combined eight points this season.
NC State (3-4 overall, 0-3 ACC) travels to play California at 3:30 p.m. ET Saturday at Memorial Stadium on the ACC Network.
Five California players to watch
Senior linebacker Teddye Buchanan
The 6-foot-2, 235-pound Buchanan played his first three years at California-Davis before making the move to California this season. It has paid off and Buchanan has racked up 56 tackles, four sacks and one forced fumble. He had a season-high 11 tackles against both Auburn and San Diego State in back-to-back weeks in September. Buchanan tallied 208 tackles and eight interceptions in his four years at Cal-Davis.
Redshirt sophomore tight end Jack Endries
The 6-4, 240-pound Endries has emerged as a force at tight end. He has 19 catches for 265 yards and two scores this season, and had 35 receptions for 408 yards and two touchdowns last year as a freshman. He caught eight passes for 119 yard and a touchdown in a 17-15 loss at Pittsburgh last week. Rivals.com had Endries as a three-star prospect in the class of 2022 coming out of Danville (Calif.) Monte Vista.
Sophomore quarterback Fernando Mendoza
The former Miami (Fla.) Columbus two-star prospect by Rivals.com has seized control of the California offense. The 6-5, 225-pounder has gone 121-of-182 passing for 1,449 yards, eight touchdowns and three interceptions this season. He isn't a scrambler and has 48 carries for two yards and one score. He threw for a season-high 303 yards and had an interception in the 14-9 loss at Florida State on Sept. 21. He has throw for over 233 yards in four of the six games, and at least two touchdowns in three of the six this seaosn.
Sophomore middle linebacker Cade Uluave
Uluava is a tackling machine for California and a fearsome blitzer. He has 55 tackles, half a sack and one interception this season. He's had three games of over 10 tackles this season, including 15 in the stunning loss against Miami. That eclipsed his previous high of tallying 14 tackles in a 63-19 loss at Oregon last year Nov. 4, 2024. He was a Rivals.com three-star prospect in the class of 2023 coming out of Herriman (Utah) Mountain Ridge.
Senior cornerback Nohl Williams
Williams has proven to be the ultimate ballhawk with six interceptions this season already, including two against Auburn. The 6-1, 200-pounder played at UNLV his first three years, where he had five interceptions and 97 tackles. He made the move to California last year and added two more picks and 53 tackles.
What to watch for from California
1. Mystery at running back. California junior star running back Jaydn Ott has been injured off and on this season.
If he's out, then sophomore Javian Thomas will pick up the load. The 5-10, 190-pound speedster has 62 carries for 359 yards and two touchdowns, and he has caught five passes for 80 yards this season. He ran 17 times for 169 yards in the 31-10 win over San Diego State on Sept. 14. Rivals.com had him as a three-star prospect in the class of 2023 coming out of Oakland (Calif.) McClymonds.
Ott has 47 carries for 135 yards and three touchdowns, plus 11 catches for 115 yards and a score in four games played this season. His lone big play was a 66-yard catch against Miami and he missed the Pittsburgh loss. The 6-0, 210-pound Ott rushed 245 times for 1,305 yards and 12 touchdowns last year, and caught 26 passes for 196 yards and two scores.
2. Defense has been up and down. California's defense did enough in losses against Florida State and Pittsburgh, giving up a combined 31 points.
The Bears defense fell apart after taking a 35-10 lead with 8:06 left in the third quarterback against Miami at home two weeks ago. The Hurricanes outscored the Bears 28-7 to pull out the stunning 39-38 win.
A few breakdowns on defense really stood out. Miami receiver Xavier Restrepo kick-started the game-winning drive by getting wide open and running 77 yards to the California 15-yard line with 1:28 left in the game.
Miami eventually faced third down and 20 at the Cal 25-yard line, and a swing pass to running back Damien Martinez went for 22 yards and a first down. That set up the touchdown and the win.
On the series before, Miami converted on a huge fourth down and 10 at its own 43-yard line with 5:35 left.
Opponents are averaging just 17.8 points per game, along with 117.2 rushing yards and 216.5 passing yards a contest. California has picked off 13 passes, created 15 sacks and recovered one fumble.
3. Kicking woes. Senior kicker Ryan Coe kicked in two games for North Carolina last year before suffering an injury.
Coe has had quite a college journey, starting off at Delaware, where he went 26 of 34 on field goals in two years, and then he transferred to Cincinnati in 2022. Coe went 19 of 23 on field goals with a long of 52 for the Bearcats, and made all 44 extra points, and he transferred to UNC.
Coe made the move to California this season, and it has been a struggle. He is 7 of 14 on field goals, made all 16 extra points and has a long of 51. However, he missed two field goals against Florida State in a five-point loss, and missed one field gal against Pittsburgh in a two-point loss.
Freshman Derek Morris is the alternative to Coe.
Three keys to the game for NC State football
1. The key for NC State is to avoid making costly mistakes.
The Wolfpack had four trips in Syracuse territory and had the drives end with three turnovers and a missed 41-yard field goal.
NC State’s margin for error can’t overcome that this season. Freshman quarterback Cedrick Bailey got crushed from the blindside and fumbled, and then he threw an interception to Syracuse safety Justin Barron. NCSU sophomore running back Kendrick Raphael also had a costly fumble.
California cornerback Nohl Williams has six interceptions this season, and the rest of the defense has seven for a total of 13. The Bears have only recovered one fumble this season.
NC State has thrown six interceptions between freshman quarterback Cedrick Bailey (four) and injured senior Grayson McCall (two).
2. California has allowed 24 sacks this season.
NC State’s blitzing scheme has 13 sacks on the season after getting after a slow start. The Wolfpack have had nine sacks the last three games.
Pittsburgh dominated the trenches last Saturday in a 17-15 win. The Panthers had an impressive six sacks, with sophomore defensive end Jimmy Scott getting three of them, and sophomore linebacker Braylan Lovelace netting two.
Pittsburgh also held California to 40 carries for 63 yards and one touchdown rushing, so the game plan for success was shown to NC State.
Florida State had an astonishing seven sacks in a 14-9 victory. Lanky junior pass-rusher Patrick Payton had three sacks, and junior Georgia defensive end transfer Marvin Jones Jr. had two.
San Diego State also had six sacks in a 31-10 loss, with sophomore edge rusher Trey White getting 2.5 of them.
Miami (Fla.) and Auburn both had two sacks apiece, so the offensive line was better.
3. Bailey and the NC State offense took some shots downfield and that is always a good thing.
Defenses need to get some scares at times and understand how fast the Wolfpack skill position players are at running back, tight end and wide receiver.
NC State had six players of at least 15-plus yards, that resulted in 251 passing yards. The Wolfpack finished with 329 passing yards.
NC State found redshirt freshman wide receiver Noah Rogers, who slipped behind the Syracuse defense for a 75-yard touchdown. The Wolfpack also dumped a 3-yard pass to redshirt freshman running back Daylan Smothers, who seemingly ran through the entire Orange defense for a 72-yard gain.
NC State also went deep to junior wide receiver Wesley Grimes, but the pass was overthrown.
Three numbers of note
12 The only retired jersey for California football — former quarterback Joe Roth. The former junior college transfer played for the Bears in 1975 and 1976, and was an All-American his senior year, which he played while dying of melanoma. He passed away at age 21 on Feb. 19, 1977.
24 Bowl games for California football, going 12-11-1 in the contests.
474,000,000 Dollars spent to renovate Memorial Stadium ($321 million) — which was built in 1923 — and build the High Performance Center ($153 million). The reopened 63,186-seat Stadium occurred Sept. 1, 2012, in a game against Nevada, and the Wolf Pack won 31-24.
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