The Ten Best and Ten Worst Cal Football Teams of the Last 67 Years

What are the ten best and ten worst Cal teams of the last sixty-seven years? I’m glad you asked because I’ve endeavored to provide a list of ten for both categories. (Why the last sixty-seven years? Because they are within my lifetime.)

To simplify the process, the main criteria I used was won-loss record. I did not excuse teams for injuries nor reward them for impressive statistics nor ding them for particularly unimpressive statistics nor take into consideration teams having a lot or a dearth of future NFL stars. Blow outs one way or the other were similarly not part of my criteria. Someone else might use a different methodology factoring strength of schedule and point differential, though I think the results would be roughly the same as mine.

In the event of ties in records I gave more weight to the following (in order): winning the Big Game, winning a bowl game, wins against our other rivals (U$C and UC, Los Angeles), other conference wins, home wins. I would fully expect many disagreements with my rankings from Bear fans who place importance on other factors. I further acknowledge that a hearty debate could be held over my selection for the number one spot.

The Ten Best

1. 2004 11-2. It was really a virtual tie between this team and the ’91 squad. Both lost close games to the team that beat them out for the conference title (U$C in ’04 and UW in ’91) and both suffered late season face plants. The 2004 team lost badly in their bowl game and the 1991 team lost by seventeen in the Big Game. I went with the ’04 team because of their Big Game win, but really this is a dead heat. Best wins:  45-28 over UCLA, 38-0 over Arizona and 41-6 in the Big Game. 
2. 1991 10-2. I’ve pretty well covered this team in the comments above. This was a terrific group that was the last Bear team to play on New Year’s Day. Best wins: 27-24 over UCLA, 52-20 over U$C and 37-13 over Clemson in the Citrus Bowl.
3. 2006 10-3. Such is the state of recent Cal football that the third best team lost three times. One of those defeats was a whipping in Tennessee in the season opener, another an upset loss at Arizona. The third was a respectable defeat against U$C, with whom the Bears shared the conference title. However this was one of the most entertaining  Cal teams of any era that culminated their season with an impressive bowl win. Best wins: 45-24 over Oregon, 38-24 over UCLA and 45-10 over Texas A&M in the Holiday Bowl.
4. 1975 8-3. The other team from this time period to share a conference title, they stumbled out of the gates losing their first two before making Joe Roth their starting quarterback and going 8-1 the rest of the way. They had one of Cal’s greatest ever offenses amassing identical totals of  2,522 yards rushing and passing. 1975 was the first season that a Pac-8 team could go to a bowl game other than the Rose, but U$C was selected over the Bears despite Cal having beaten them and finishing with a better record. Best wins: 28-14 over U$C, 27-24 over Washington and 48-15 in the Big Game.
5. 1958 7-4. Cal’s last Rose Bowl team. Like the ’75 team they lost their first two games but then went on a tear. I’m no authority on the Rose Bowl but I would guess that at 7-3 and suffering a whipping to Iowa in the Rose Bowl, the ’58 Bears has to have been one of the weaker teams ever to appear in the grandaddy of all bowl games. Still they made it and that’s more than any subsequent Bear teams can claim. Best wins: 14-12 over U$C, 20-17 over UCLA and 16-15 in the Big Game. (The last season in which the Bears beat all three of their rivals.)
6. 1968 7-3-1. Cal’s only good team of the Sixties featured a stellar defense — The Bear Minimum. They racked up some impressive victories while (how Cal of them) suffering a few ugly losses including in the Big Game. Best wins: 39-15 over UCLA, 43-0 over Syracuse and 36-8 over Oregon.
7. 2008 9-4. They were the last Cal team to win both the Big Game and a bowl game until 2019. In terms of records they’re even with ’93 squad but had a better conference record. Best wins: 41-20 over UCLA, 37-16 in the Big Game and 24-17 over Miami in the Emerald Bowl.
8. 1993 9-4. A classic what-if team. If QB Dave Barr hadn’t gotten injured and the Bears, at 5-0, hadn’t blown a 4th quarter lead against UW….The Bears had an ugly four game stretch of losses but prior to and after the streak, they were an awfully good. Best wins: 42-41 comeback win over Oregon, 46-17 in the Big Game and 37-3 over Iowa in the Alamo Bowl.
9. 2005 8-4. Sandwiched in between the excellent ’04 and ’06 teams was this very good team that had three close losses and suffered a blow out to a #1 ranked U$C team. They rebounded from that loss to wallop the Lobsterbacks in the Big Game and then win the Las Vegas Bowl. Best wins: 56-17 over Washington, 28-0 over Arizona and 27-3 in the Big Game.
10. .1974 7-3-1. This team suffered the most heart-breaking Big Game loss I’ve ever witnessed (yes, worse than ’90) and played U$C to a 15-15 tie in LA. Their 28-3 loss to the Bruins was the only bad performance in what was otherwise a very good season. Best wins: 31-14 over Illinois, 40-10 over Oregon and 52-26 over UW.

Seasons also considered: 1990, 2003, 1977, 2009.

Sad note. None of the top ten teams from the past 67 years would crack a top ten of best Cal teams from 1915-1952. In that era there were nine teams that went undefeated in the regular season and three others with just one loss. Meanwhile only the ’46 team could conceivably crack the modern era bottom ten.

The Ten Worst

1. 2001 1-11. Last because their only win was against a non conference foe and it wasn’t even at Memorial Stadium. 
2. 2013 1-11. The only edge they have over the ’01 squad was that they had the decency to win a home game.
3. 1962 1-9. On a par with the above two teams, their only win was at home against San Jose State. This is the first of Marv Levy’s two teams to make the list.
4. 1957 1-9. Pete Elliot’s first team was truly awful. Their saving grace being that the one win was at home against U$C.
5. 1961 1-8-1. The second Levy team here. To their credit they beat Washington at home and managed a tie at Missouri.
6. 1984 2-9. The worst of Joe Kapp’s teams won at ASU and at  home game against UOP.
7. 1981 2-9. Roger Theder’s last team beat Arizona away and Oregon State at home and otherwise stunk. (See Davis, Mouse.)
8. 1959 2-8. On the bright side this post Rose Bowl team won the Big Game, along with a victory at WSU to start the season. On the other hand they lost everything in between including all their home games.
9. 1986 2-9. Another Kapp squad, however the saving grace of this group was that they managed the biggest Big Game upset in history.
10. 2012 3-9. The only three-win team on this list (but out of 12 games, many others teams won three but only played 10 or 11games) they did boast an impressive win over UC, Los Angeles but the only other wins were against Southern Utah and a weak WSU team. Meanwhile the losses were ugly, especially towards the end of this, Tedford’s last season. 

Also considered: 1960, 1995, 1998, 2000

Notes of interest: All three of Cal’s Pete Elliot coached Cal teams made a list. His Rose Bowl team was of course in the top ten, while the teams preceding and following that squad made the bottom ten. Surely Elliot had one of weirdest three-year coaching tenures in college football. Ray Wilsey coached at Cal for eight years and managed one top ten team (’68) but none in the bottom ten. He had losing teams, but none were truly awful. Marv Levy, on the other hand, had two teams from his four years in the bottom ten with another also considered. Jeff Tedford has the most top ten teams with four, all from the five-year-period of ’04 - ’08. He had but one bottom ten team, his last. Tom Holmoe only had one bottom ten team but three of his other four teams were also considered. Joe Kapp placed two in the bottom ten. Mike White had two top ten teams in his six years, along with a third team that was considered while having none in the bottom ten. Bruce Snyder had a top ten team and a second that was considered but none in the bottom ten.