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Cal football 2016 schedule: Oregon a Friday game, USC a Thursday game, UCLA ends season

What does it look like?

By Avinash Kunnath
Thearon W. Henderson/Getty Images

The Pac-12 released their schedule this afternoon! Here's the schedule below for Cal.

  • 8/27: Hawaii (ANZ Stadium, Sydney, Australia)
  • 9/3: Bye week
  • 9/10: at San Diego State
  • 9/17: Texas
  • 9/24: at Arizona State
  • 10/1: Utah
  • 10/8: at Oregon State
  • 10/15: Bye week
  • 10/21 (Friday): Oregon
  • 10/27 (Thursday): at USC
  • 11/5: Washington
  • 11/12: at Washington State
  • 11/19: Big Game
  • 11/26: UCLA
  • 12/3: Pac-12 championship

Home: Texas, Utah, Oregon, Washington, UCLA, Stanford
Road: USC, San Diego State, Arizona State, Oregon State, Washington State
Neutral: Hawaii

A quick overview of each game.

Hawaii in Australia. Cal sacrificed their home game against South Dakota for a cross continental trip against Australia a week before college football begins! That's exciting for CGB since we get an extra week to cover college football and we can jump right into this!

Bye week. Bears recover from their Australia road trip. I have to imagine this was one of the conditions for Cal getting this.

At San Diego State. Cal starts their season on the continent in San Diego. The Bears whipped San Diego State this season but the Aztecs went onto become the Mountain West champs. This figures to be a hard game if Cal isn't careful.

Texas. Texas is always a scary matchup, since you figure Longhorn fans will travel well and Berkeley could be filled with burnt orange. Texas finished 5-7 last year but beat college football playoff finalist Oklahoma and top-25 squad Baylor. After how last year went, never take the Horns for granted.

At Arizona State. A lot of talent is back for ASU on the defensive end, but they lose nearly their entire offensive line, receiving corps, and Mike Bercovici. Can the Sun Devils be a run-first team and succeed in 2016?

Utah. The Utes lose Travis Wilson, Devantae Booker and half their defense, so the Bears should feel like this is the most winnable of their tough games. It'll be nice to get the Utes at home, but always expect a tough game with this group.

At Oregon State. Oregon State was truly terrible last season. They had a few flashes but were for the most part still way behind the rest of the conference. The Beavers should take a nice leap into competitive, but this is a game Cal should and must win.

Bye week. Have a good feeling here.

Oregon. Always assuming a loss here until Cal can prove they can contain mobile quarterbacks. Dakota Prukop (or whoever wins the job) figures to be no different.

At USC. The Trojan offense is pretty much all back. All they need is the right quarterback to lead them. Their defense is still a question mark: Su'a Cravens likely departing with all the seniors could leave the Trojans with a very young front seven. Is this the year Cal ends the streak?

Washington. The Huskies are on the rise in 2016. So much young talent returning, and already boasting one of the elite defenses in college football. This will not be an easy game for the Bears, who better hope Jake Browning doesn't make a leap.

At Washington State. The Paul Wulff riff-raff is all gone, so that's encouraging for the Cougars. They also have their gamer in Luke Falk. Looks like the days of the Washingtons being irrelevant in the Pac-12 picture are nearing an end. Can Dykes best Leach again?

Stanford. Kevin Hogan, gone. Four of five offensive linemen, gone. Starting wide receivers, gone. Four of starting front seven, gone. Starting safeties, gone. It's a transition year in Palo Alto. If Sonny Dykes wants to prove he's Cal's head coach long-term, he wins this football game.

UCLA. Now or never for the Bruins. Almost all of their starters are back and Josh Rosen will finally have a year under his belt. If UCLA is going to make the leap to win the Pac-12, it has to happen this season. But can they overcome the Berkeley vortex?

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