How Cal's 2026 Football Opponents Fared This Week

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Syracuse, picked to finish 14th in the ACC in the preseason media poll, won its season opener by beating up on FCS opponent New Hampshire.

Quarterback Steve Angeli, who suffered a torn Achilles tendon in the Orange's fourth game last season, threw three touchdown passes, and freshman Shavane Anderson ran for three touchdowns. The Orange piled up 32 first downs and 514 yards in a result that proved nothing. Saturday result: Wagner 31, Southern Connecticut State 7 Following its 28-7 loss to Robert Morris last week, Wagner evened its record at 1-1 with a convincing victory over its Division II opponent, Southern Connecticut State.

Redshirt freshman quarterback Benjamin Newman threw three touchdown passes in a game dominated by the Seahawks.. LSU humiliated Clemson in every way possible in Clemson's ego-crushing season-opening defeat.

"Incredibly disappointing performance," Clemson coach Dabo Swinney said. LSU had 644 yards of offense, including 309 yards on the ground, while getting 38 first downs to Clemson's eight. Six of Clemson's first downs came in the second half after LSU took a 31-3 lead at halftime.

UNLV evened its record at 1-1 with a strong defensive effort that featured five sacks, seven tackles for loss, two forced fumbles, one interception and seven pass breakups to the disappointment of a sold-out crowd of 15,014 in Honolulu. It was the first time since October 28, 2023 that Hawaii failed to score a touchdown.

UNLV, the preseason favorite to win the Mountain West Conference, got a big game from Ja'Den "Jet" Thomas, who rushed for 143 yards on 20 carries, averaging 7.2 yards per attempt.. Saturday result: Virginia Tech 73, VMI 3 In the Hokies' first game under new coach James Franklin, they piled up 619 yards of offense and 30 first downs in a beat-down of FCS opponent Virginia Military Academy.

The 73 points were the most points scored in a game by Virginia Tech in 31 years, since they beat Akron 77-27 in 1995. Thursday result: Wake Forest 38, Akron 16 Wake Forest quarterback Gio Lopez, a transfer from North Carolina, threw for 350 yards and three touchdowns against an Akron team picked to finish 10th in the Mid-America Conference. The Zips were forced to start freshman quarterback Cibastian Broughton because of eligibility problems with North Texas transfer Reese Poffenbarger..

Wake wide receiver Carlos Hernandez had five catches for 165 yards and a touchdown. The 19th-ranked SMU Mustangs open their season on Monday night in an ACC game against Florida State. North Carolina State had a bye this week after losing its opener to Virginia 34-8 last week. The Cavaliers also had a bye this week after beating NC State last week.

After pulling out a 37-27 victory over Hawaii in Tavita Pritchard's debut as Stanford's coach last week, the Cardinal felt the full might of the Miami machine this week. Miami quarterback Darian Mensah, a transfer from Duke, was 27-for-30 for 401 yards, five touchdowns and no interceptions, and Hurricanes wide receiver Malachi Toney had 12 catches for 234 yards and three touchdowns. Stanford quarterback Davis Warren was 21-for-41 for 214 yards. Pitt sophomore quarterback Mason Heintschel tied a school record by throwing seven touchdown passes in the Panthers' season opener. Heintschel passed for 453 yards with zero interceptions while tying the touchdown record set by Pete Gonzalez in 1997 against Rutgers. Heintschel threw his seven TD passes to seven differeent receivers. Find California Golden Bears on SI on Facebook by going toLoading recommendations...

Please wait while we load personalized content recommendationsJake Curtis worked in the San Francisco Chronicle sports department for 27 years, covering virtually every sport, including numerous Final Fours, several college football national championship games, an NBA Finals, world championship boxing matches and a World Cup. He was a Cal beat writer for many of those years, and won awards for his feature stories.

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