Predicting ceiling, floor for California in 2024 season

In their first season transition from the ruins of the Pac-12 to the bizarrely-spread-out new ACC, California cross-country schedule provides quite a challenge.

In their discussion detailing the floor and ceiling for every ACC team, Andy Staples and Roddy Jones broke down California and their window of outcomes on an On3 YouTube live stream Memorial Day morning, with Jones coming in slightly more optimistic than Staples on the Golden Bears.

First, the guys examined Cal’s best case scenario.

Ceiling

Jones pointed out that he loved promoting former offensive line coach Mike Bloesch to offensive coordinator and Staples agreed, touting the talent of the offensive unit as a whole.

“Mike Bloesch did a really good job last year putting this line together. He’s got a lot of experience coming back on it, too,” said Staples of the front. “And like, Jaydn Ott led the nation in all-purpose yards per game. It wasn’t all Jaydn Ott, there were people blocking for him too.”

Staples is just a fan of this program and what it has on the offensive side of the ball.

“I enjoy this team, and I think promoting Mike after you lose Jake Spavital to Baylor is very helpful, because you want some continuity in that offense. I like Fernando Mendoza.”

Jones is right there with him, and believes if all luck goes their way, perhaps nine wins isn’t out of the realm of possibility.

“I love the offensive line, I love Jaydn Ott, I think that defense should be better. That was a Cal defense that was not vintage Justin Wilcox. I like this Cal team. If you’re generous, you could go 9-3 as the ceiling, but I think 8-4 is more realistic.”

Staples was more subdued on his expectations, predicting: “I had 7-5 as the ceiling just because I think the schedule is so hard.”

Speaking of the schedule, let’s take a look at it as we head into the “Floor” section:

Floor

For Roddy Jones, the major concerns for Cal is just how tough that schedule is from start to finish.

“At Florida State, Miami, NC State, go to SMU who I think is going to be good, go to Auburn early in the year,” he listed. “Like, I think that Auburn game is really important. I don’t know if you’re getting Florida State, NC State I like a lot, and Miami.”

Andy Staples is right there with him, agreeing that those ACC matchups will be tough as well as the non-conference trip to Auburn to add one extra trip to the eastern time zone to the mix.

“The at Auburn thing, if you watched our SEC ceiling and floor shows, you know I think Auburn is going to be quite a bit better. Then you’re at Florida State, you got Miami, NC State. 3-9 is the floor just because, again, the schedule is so hard.”

That’s a pretty low floor, but Roddy Jones agreed that missing a bowl is certainly on the table for this group with that slate of opponents.

“I had 4-8 as the floor and I agree with you, man, if it goes wrong for Cal, it could go really wrong. There’s not a lot of places you can hide, there’s no weeks that you’re going to roll it out there and likely get a win if you don’t play well.”

A very challenging year is coming up for a solid Cal program.