Cal has been an underdog in every game against FBS opponents this season, and that did not change this week, even though North Carolina State, the Bears' opponent this coming Saturday, is coming off a loss to Sanford on Friday, which led to the firing of head coach Dave Doeren on Saturday.

FanDuel installed the Wolfpack as a 7.5-point favorite over Cal on Sunday while DraftKings listed
North Carolina State as an 8.5-point favorite over the Bears.

It’s unclear how the Wolfpack will respond under interim head coach Todd Goebbel, but the week after Justin Wilcox was fired at Cal last year, the Bears responded with a 38-35 upset of SMU.

Cal and North Carolina State both have 3-4 overall records, while Cal’s 2-3 ACC record is slightly better than the Wolfpack’s 1-3 conference mark.

Both teams have lost their last two games, including disappointing performances this past weekend. North Carolina State lost to Stanford 31-28 on the Cardinal’s home field on Friday, while Cal lost 59-20 on Saturday to SMU, whose AP ranking rose to No. 19 on Sunday

The biggest difference is that Saturday’s game will be played at the Wolfpack’s home stadium in Raleigh, North Carolina.  Cal is 1-2 in road games this season, while NC State is 3-1 at home, with the only home loss coming against Wake Forest, which is ranked 14th this week.

Saturday’s game will start at noon Eastern time, which means that for the second week in a row Cal will play a game that begins at 9 a.m. Pacific time.  

At this point it’s unclear which, if any, of the Cal players who were unavailable against SMU will be available against NC State.

Jaron-Keawe Sagapolutele has re-established himself as Cal’s starting quarterback, but Cal was thin at running back, wide receiver and offensive line against the Mustangs.

NC State’s star is quarterback CJ Bailey, who passed for 265 yards and two touchdowns and also ran for 56 yards in the loss to Stanford.                                         

• Game odds refresh periodically and are subject to change. 

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