Cal Football Countdown: 13 Days, The Last Time Cal Played UC Davis

For this edition of the Cal football countdown, we're going away from some of the fall camp thoughts, and taking a look at the last time Cal played their Opening Day opponent, UC Davis.

The year was 2010. California Memorial Stadium was beginning the renovation process, one that would force the Bears to play at AT&T Park in 2011 and practice at Witter Field (and Contra Costa College in the spring of 2011).

The Cal roster had several guys who'd go on to the NFL, like Cam Jordan, Shane Vereen, Mike Mohamed, Marvin Jones, Chris Conte, Jeremy Ross, Bryan Anger, and Giorgio Tavecchio. This was also the debut game for the highest rated recruit in Cal history, WR and current LA Charger, Keenan Allen.

Allen, who was listed as a safety by Rivals coming out of Northern Guilford HS in North Carolina, had earned a starting receiver job opposite Jones in camp, and showed the kind of special player he was against the Aggies (the first time Cal played them since 1939).

Allen finished with 4 receptions for 120 yards and a score through the air, as well as an 18 yard rushing touchdown on what was supposed to be a wide receiver pass. Allen took the ball, dropped back to throw, saw nobody open, reversed field, and ran past a bunch of UC Davis defenders for the score(at 1:12 in the video above).

After a fumble on the first drive, Cal smashed UC Davis the rest of the way, allowing a field goal in the 3rd quarter, but otherwise steamrolling their way to a 52-3 win. Quarterback Kevin Riley threw for 258 yards and 3 TDs, Vereen ran for a couple scores, along with catching one of Riley's touchdown passes, and then-coach Jeff Tedford earned his 68th win, the most in Cal history.

This was my first game as a student at Cal at the time, working for the football team as a video assistant. Everyone knew Allen was a star already, from how he dominated practice, and this was his coming out party. The dominance he showed, albeit against an FCS team, was incredible. You look at some of the clips in the video above, and you see a guy that's bigger, faster, and stronger than the guys guarding him.

Now, 2010 feels miles away from now. Two coaches later, and Cal has a completely different identity in 2019. So does UC Davis. Dan Hawkins (who was coaching a Colorado team that Cal would beat 52-7 in 2010), rebuilt the Aggies into an FCS playoff team. Hawkins is another coach that Justin Wilcox coached under that he has the opportunity to beat, as Wilcox beat former bosses Chris Petersen and Clay Helton in 2018.

As fall camp will come to a close after Tuesday, their attention will turn to Davis, as they look to start of 2019 strong.