First look: What to know about Duke football’s game at California
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Duke rides two ACC wins into California matchup with offense showing balance.
- Quarterback Darian Mensah returns home leading turnaround after Tulane loss.
- Cal’s resurgence includes key transfers and late-game heroics in ACC debut win.
Duke’s Darian Mensah has another homecoming game coming up — this one to his home state.
The Blue Devils, buoyed by two straight ACC wins, will go west to face California on Saturday. And while it’s more than 200 miles from Mensah’s hometown of San Luis Obispo to Berkeley, he’ll have a lot of family, friends and kin on hand at Cal’s Memorial Stadium to welcome him back.
Mensah transferred to Duke from Tulane after last season, aware that Tulane was on the Blue Devils’ 2025 schedule. The redshirt sophomore said he would not make the Sept. 13 game — that “homecoming” — bigger than it was, but it proved to be more emotional than he expected being back in the Green Waves’ Yulman Stadium.
Neither Mensah nor the Devils played that well, taking a 34-27 loss. Tulane quarterback Jake Retzlaff, a transfer from BYU, was the star that night in New Orleans as Mensah passed for 313 yards but had an interception and two fumbles.
But the Blue Devils — and Mensah — have regrouped and rebounded strongly. Duke (3-2, 2-0 ACC) has not had a turnover in beating N.C. State and then the 38-3 romp at Syracuse on Saturday. He has completed 41 of his 56 passes for 537 yards and five touchdowns and has not turned the ball over in the two wins.
The Duke offense hummed along nicely at Syracuse, finishing with 503 yards and the defense contributed three turnovers — coaches call that “complementary football,” an over-used phrases.
Cal traveled East for its ACC opener, at Boston College. The Bears (4-1, 1-0) turned back the Eagles in the final seconds Saturday for a 28-24 victory sealed by an end-zone interception by freshman linebacker Luke Ferrelli off quarterback Dylan Lonergan.
The Bears quickly fell behind 14-0 but patiently worked their way back into the game. Cal twice took the lead in the fourth quarter, scoring the winning TD with 1:30 left on Jaron-Keawe Sagapolutele’s 51-yard pass to tight end Mason Mini.
The Blue Devils plan to fly out Thursday to better acclimate themselves to West Coast time. Cal’s homecoming game has a 7:30 p.m. start in Berkeley (10:30 p.m. ET).
“Cal’s got a pretty good squad and they’ve got a quarterback I’ve been watching,” Mensah said Saturday. “I’m from California, so I’m extremely excited to go back home and play for my family.”
Key game matchup: A duel of coordinators
Duke’s Jonathan Brewer doesn’t have a uniform or helmet. He’s the Devils’ offensive coordinator and he has a plethora of offensive options at his disposal.
Against Syracuse, the Blue Devils had 235 yards rushing and 268 passing. Brewer’s play calls allowed freshman Nate Sheppard to get 15 carries for 168 yards and two TDs and had eight players catch passes – wide receiver Cooper Barkate, another California native, scoring twice. The offensive line did its part, making Brewer’s job easier.
“Their offensive coordinator did a really good job today and he was dialing it up the right way,” Syracuse coach Fran Brown said Saturday. “He called it the right way and everything went well for him.”
Every game is a chess match for coordinators —Cal has co-defensive coordinators in Terrence Brown and Vic So’oto, once an assistant coach at Virginia from 2016-19. But Brewer has a lot of weapons to filter into his game planning and a reliable trigger man in Mensah.
Cal impact players: Raphael, Masses
Cal’s leading rusher is one who got away from N.C. State: Kendrick Raphael, a 5-11 junior running back who decided to leave Pack after last season. Raphael has 347 yards this season with two 100-yard games for the Bears, going for 113 yards and a touchdown Saturday in the win at BC.
Raphael, from Naples, Florida, played two years for the Pack and was the third-leading rusher last season, picking up 5.4 yards a carry. The emergence of the Wolfpack’s Hollywood Smothers, in part, led him to enter the transfer portal in April and look elsewhere for 2025
Senior defensive back Hezekiah Masses will be tested by Duke’s passing game, but the Blue Devils also will notice that has a team-leading four interceptions, getting the fourth Saturday at BC, and a team-best six pass breakups this season.
Masses, another Florida native, was at FIU for three seasons before the transfer to Cal.
Vegas betting odds
FanDuel Sportsbook has the Blue Devils as 2.5-point favorites and sets the over/under at 55.5. The moneyline: Duke -140 and Cal +116. Other betting services have Duke a 2.5-point favorite.
Duke vs California game info
What: Duke Blue Devils (3-2, 2-0 ACC) vs Cal Bears (4-1, 1-0) When: Saturday, Oct. 4, 10:30 p.m. ET Where: Memorial Stadium, Berkeley, California. TV: ESPN Stream: fubo TV, Hulu + Live TV, YouTube TV, DIRECTV Stream, Sling TV. Series history: Duke and Cal have played just twice, in 1962 and 1963. Duke won 21-7 in the ‘62 game in Durham and the 1963 game in Berkeley ended in a 22-22 tie.
This story was originally published September 29, 2025 at 5:00 AM.
