Besides for Marshawn Lynch (who I've always thought was overrated and they have a suitable backup in Justin Forsett) Cal has all their returning starters on offense. Although their defense was stripped by the draft, it still has many good players from last year (Thomas DeCoud with 45 tackles, Greg Van Hoesen and Justin Moye with 23 tackles each, and Bernard Hicks with 2 Interceptions).
I think they will have a runaway victory to open the season against Tennessee in Berkeley because of their embaressing loss to open last year's season in Knoxville.
I see them at least challenging (if not beating) USC in Berkeley and besides that they should win out at home (only other potential challengers would be Oregon State who they beat by 28 points last year in Corvallis, and Arizona who they will be fired up after they cost them a Rose Bowl last year).
I think they can win all their games on the road but more realistically they will probably lose one. Washington and Stanford should be easy. I think they will rise up to the challenge and win in the Rose Bowl and at Sun Devil. However the one game that really concerns me is their game in the Auzten Zoo against the Ducks. Eugene has a reputation that is much deserved of high ranked teams coming in there and for whatever reason (noise and weather are the main ones) playing terribly. They will be coming off 3 easy games (Colorado State, Louisiana Tech, Arizona) and will be looking forward to big games the next three weeks (Oregon State, @ UCLA, and @ Arizona State). Oregon will be pumped for their first big out of home game (remember how energetic they were against Oklahoma?).
Even if they do drop one in Eugene, Oregon will likely lose at least two games. Therefore I think in the end it will come down to USC and Cal, hopefully Cal will finally be able to get over the hump.
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