By Morris Phillips

Cal’s opportunity to end their regular season in a rarified manner fell apart before Saturday’s 12:30p.m. kickoff.

Quarterback Fernando Mendoza, Cal’s offensive catalyst, was ruled out due to an illness. Massive offensive linemen Nick Morrow, Fred Williams, and back Jaivian Thomas couldn’t go either due to injuries. Then, national-title contender SMU appeared as scheduled. And boy, were the Mustangs motivated.

“We wanted to go 8-0,” coach Rhett Lashlee said. “We wanted to win the regular season outright and not share it. And we were playing for a lot because the College Football Playoff still comes out with rankings for two more weeks. … We didn’t need to stumble. Have a setback.”

SMU glided to a 21-0 first half lead and won 38-6, the near-perfect lead-in to their ACC Championship game date with Clemson. The Bears spent more than half the game trying to score their first three points and struggled to run their offense for much of that stretch.

The Mustangs’ offensive line pushed Cal’s front around in their touchdown drives. That activity bought Kevin Jennings time to throw, or the zone blocking scheme opened lanes for Brashard Smith to run. Both had big games, and rarely did SMU run a poor play in the sequence. The home team’s failing was 17 penalties for 137 yards that limited their time of possession but didn’t negatively impact the scoreboard.

“I thought Kevin quietly played one of his better games of the year,” Lashlee said. “I think we scored on three of those first four drives. I know we didn’t score on the first one. We had 21 points pretty quick on their defense.”

Jennings was 20 of 30 for 225 yards passing, and Smith has 134 yards running and receiving. For Cal, the running game had too few explosive plays.

“Not good enough at any position to put points on the board,” coach Justin Wilcox said. “It was an offensive issue today, not just quarterback.”

Chandler Rogers completed 8 of 15 passes for 84 yards, but he left injured in the third quarter. C.J. Harris finished the game for Cal and was 6 of 8 passing. In the first half, Cal gained 45 yards in 20 rushing attempts. The closest thing to success was Derek Morris’ 38-yard field goal miss.

Cal did have its full list of pass catchers, but they weren’t sharp or productive. Nyziah Hunter led with five catches, but he had a key procedural mistake pre-snap when Cal was driving before the break. Seven others caught a pass, but the total passes caught was only 14.

After taking their 21-0 leady early in the second quarter, the Mustangs went more than half the game before scoring again in the fourth. A field goal, a second touchdown pass from Kevin Jennings, and a 40-yard touchdown pass from Preston Stone capped the scoring.

The Bears may wait 10 to 14 days to find out what their bowl destination will be as the 13th of 17 conference teams to reach bowl eligibility.