Records: Cal 7-5 overall, 4-4 in ACC; Hawaii 8-4, 5-3 in Mountain West
Kickoff: 5 p.m. PT Wednesday at Clarence T.C. Ching Athletics Complex, Honolulu, Hawaii
TV: ESPN
Radio: 810-AM
Series history: Cal leads 3-2. The Bears won the most recent matchup, 51-31, at Sydney, Australia on Aug. 27, 2016. Davis Webb passed for 441 yards and four touchdowns in his debut and Chad Hansen caught 14 passes for 160 yards and two TDs. The teams met for the first time on Jan. 1, 1935 in Honolulu, with Hawaii claiming a 14-0 victory.
Cal storylines: The Bears, playing in their third consecutive bowl, are hoping to achieve their first eight-win season since 2019. … Cal will be led going forward by new head coach Tosh Lupoi, hired after Justin Wilcox was dismissed in his ninth season following Cal’s 31-10 Big Game loss at Stanford. But for one more game Nick Rolovich will serve as interim head coach after leading the Bears to a 38-35 victor over No. 21 SMU in the regular-season finale. … Freshman Jaron-Keawe Sagapolutele has passed for 3,117 yards, most by a Cal quarterback Webb totaled 4,295 yards in 2016. … Junior running back Kendrick Raphael, who needs 118 rushing yards to reach 1,000 for the season, has scored 13 touchdowns, trailing only Jahvid Best, Justin Forsett and J.J. Arrington, each with 15, among Cal players this century.
Hawaii storylines: The Rainbow Warriors are in their fourth season under coach Timmy Chang, a former Hawaii star quarterback. He has directed the team to its best season since 2019, when Hawaii was 10-5 under Rolovich, who was Chang’s backup QB at Hawaii. … Hawaii has wins over San Diego State and Stanford, which both beat Cal. … The offense is spearheaded by 5-foot-10 redshirt freshman quarterback Micah Alejado, a Honolulu native who passed for 2,832 yards and 21 touchdowns, including a five-game stretch where he had three TD passes in each game. At Bishop Gorman High School in Las Vegas, Alejado threw 125 TDs and just four interceptions in four years. … Alejado’s most productive receiver, Jackson Harris, entered the transfer portal and is not with the team. But junior wide receiver Pofele Ashlock has 62 catches for 704 yards and six TDs.
Stats that matter: Cal wide receiver Jacob De Jesus needs one catch to match Dameane Douglas’ 1998 single-season program record of 100 receptions. De Jesus, who was named to the All-ACC team at three positions, is third nationally with 99 catches. … Hawaii senior placekicker Kansei Matsuzawa, a native of Japan and nicknamed the “Tokyo Toe,” earned a spot on the AP All-America first team after converting 25 of 26 field goal attempts, including 11 for 11 from 40 yards or longer. … Fans can expect a lot of passing as Hawaii ranks 125th nationally in rushing (104.0 yards per game) and Cal is 134th and last (76.5).
— JEFF FARAUDO
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