{"id":491711,"date":"2026-10-10T16:36:11","date_gmt":"2026-10-10T16:36:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/491711\/"},"modified":"2026-10-10T16:36:11","modified_gmt":"2026-10-10T16:36:11","slug":"cal-virginia-tech-preview-what-to-know-before-kickoff","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/491711\/","title":{"rendered":"Cal-Virginia Tech preview: What to know before kickoff"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.mercurynews.com\/2026\/10\/09\/cal-bears-college-football-acc-sagapolutele-lupoi\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">VIRGINIA TECH AT CAL<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Records: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mercurynews.com\/tag\/cal-bears\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Cal<\/a> (2-3, 1-1 in ACC); Virginia Tech (4-1, 1-1 in ACC)<\/p>\n<p>Kickoff: 12:30 p.m. Saturday at Memorial Stadium, Berkeley<\/p>\n<p>TV: ACC Network<\/p>\n<p>Radio:\u00a0810-AM<\/p>\n<p>Series history: Tied 1-1; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mercurynews.com\/2025\/10\/24\/cal-falls-to-virginia-tech-42-34-in-double-overtime-misses-chance-to-become-bowl-eligible\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Virginia Tech won 42-34 in double-overtime<\/a> last year at Blacksburg, Virginia<\/p>\n<p>Cal storylines: The Bears return to ACC play after closing their nonconference schedule with a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mercurynews.com\/2026\/10\/03\/mistake-prone-cal-loses-sagapolutele-lopa-to-injuries-then-loses-39-31-to-unlv\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">39-31 loss at UNLV<\/a>. Cal has dropped its past two games . . . <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mercurynews.com\/2026\/10\/06\/cal-made-offensive-coordinator-switch-at-halftime-last-week\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Pat McCann takes over as offensive play-caller<\/a> after assuming the role for the second half vs. UNLV and helping the Bears post 24 points . . . QB Jaron-Keawe Sagapolutele is listed as questionable after sustaining a concussion at UNLV. If he cannot go, junior Jackson Broussseau will get the call. He passed for 200 yards with two TD passes in the second half against UNLV . . . Also listed as questionable are RB Adam Mohammed (knee), safety Kingston Lopa (head), ILB Kamar Mathudi, WR Chase Hendricks and DB Aiden Manutai.<\/p>\n<p>Virginia Tech storylines:\u00a0The Hokies are coming off a 35-33 loss to Pitt in which they turned the ball over four times, outgained the Panthers 499 yards to 295 and missed a 36-yard field goal on the game\u2019s final play . . . Tech is coached by James Franklin, who was fired by Penn State at mid-season last fall when the Nittany Lions after winning nearly 70 percent of his games. He led the Hokies to their first 4-0 start since 2017 . . . Quarterback Ethan Grunkemeyer, who came with Franklin from Penn State, has been dynamite, completing 74 percent of his passes, with 11 touchdowns and just two interceptions . . . Jeffrey Overton Jr. ranks third in the ACC with 455 rushing yards and Luke Reynolds leads all tight ends nationally with 37 catches.<\/p>\n<p>Stats that matter:\u00a0Cal ranks 16th among 17 ACC teams in both rushing (95.0 yards per game) and rushing defense (187.4) . . . Virginia Tech is the ACC\u2019s second-leading scoring offense, averaging 41.2 points. The Hokies opened their season with a 73-3 win over VMI and have scored fewer than 33 points just once . . . With wins at Maryland and Boston College, Tech is among just seven teams nationally with at least two road victories over Power Four teams.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"VIRGINIA TECH AT CAL Records: Cal (2-3, 1-1 in ACC); Virginia Tech (4-1, 1-1 in ACC) Kickoff: 12:30&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":491712,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[389,184,764,31257,7,9,8,1321,1327,332,402,181,127],"class_list":["post-491711","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-california","tag-alameda-county","tag-bay-area","tag-berkeley","tag-cal-bears","tag-california","tag-california-headlines","tag-california-news","tag-college-football","tag-college-sports","tag-east-bay","tag-inside-sports","tag-latest-headlines","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/491711","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=491711"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/491711\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/491712"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=491711"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=491711"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=491711"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}