In the aftermath of Cal's 10-3 loss in Arizona, I took a walk. There was plenty to reflect on during that six mile trek, about how Cal got into a situation where 24 players, 12 coaches, and numerous support staff members were out for the game against Arizona, with the vast majority testing positive for COVID despite a 99% vaccination rate. Sources have previously told Cal Rivals that the vast majority of these cases are asymptomatic, but there's a need to figure out the timeline of how it came to this point.

Here's what has been pieced together so far:

- Last Wednesday is when QB Ryan Glover found out he'd be starting for the Bears on Saturday. The timeline for returning is 10 days after the first positive test per UC Berkeley/City of Berkeley rules, regardless of vaccination status or subsequent vaccine status, which, if the positive tests happened Tuesday, would have most of Cal's players available for the USC game, but without practice.

- A report from ABC7's Larry Biel noted that several of the players who had initially tested positive subsequently tested negative twice, but still could not travel. There was obvious frustration from families, players, and coaches at this.

- Testing hasn't been a point of emphasis across the NCAA/Pac-12/etc as it was last year, and Cal wasn't being tested weekly. A positive test from a couple of players led to the full team being tested (this is apparently a City of Berkeley rule, which doesn't apply to anyone else in the conference), which led to Cal having 63 total players on the trip to Arizona. Cal was down eight starters and a number of other depth players, along with five assistants, pretty much all of the GAs and QC guys, members of the support staff, you name it.

In short, Cal was down a lot more than just a bunch of players. There is a small ecosystem that keeps a football team running, whether it's GA/QC guys charting plays or keeping track of opponent formations during games, people making sure headset frequencies are stable prior to gametime, and a regiment of equipment/training staff/hydrotechs/video staff all putting in time to make sure things run smoothly. A good chunk of that group wasn't there Saturday.

Let's be clear, Cal had chances to win Saturday. Glover was consistently high on a number of throws, and the Cal offense had no rhythm to it, no matter what was called. Glover was pressured on nearly half his throws, as Don Brown sent a number of different pressures. Defensively, a number of new faces played well, particularly Ryan Puskas and Gunnar Rask, both of who may have earned more time moving forward, but the Bears couldn't convert any of Arizona's three turnovers into points.

There are a lot of 'what ifs' for Cal in the loss, if Kekoa Crawford didn't lose a deep ball in the sun, if Kai Millner would've been better, if more run plays had been called, but on paper, Cal lost to an 0-8 team, one that hadn't won in over two years. It makes the Bears' job to getting to a bowl game reliant on doing something they haven't done since 1958. It makes a lot of fans angry with the loss, the play calling and how the public health situation was handled (though the first two are always prevalent).

This week is pivotal, as who's available to play and if anyone else tests positive during the week will be a big issue as the Bears hope to beat USC in Berkeley for the first time since 2003.

That all said, my pet phrase in the past year has been 'we don't know what we don't know.' The full scope of how many people this affected is unknown at the moment, and there will obviously be more to learn in the coming week. Cal had multiple people coaching new units during the Arizona game, as Mike Saffell and Addison Ooms coached the offensive line for example, with Ooms being flown in after spending last year as a QC guy for the Bears. How that affected the team isn't clear, we don't know what we don't know.

This is all from the football lens as well, as there's a whole issue of public health to be raised here. That's not something I'm going to touch on, as I lack the expertise to truly get to the heart of that angle.

The clearest thing right now is that an already uphill battle to bowl elgibility in the wake of a rough season just went more uphill.