For much of 2020, the Cal football program thought it had a chance to play in Friday night’s Pac-12 Conference championship game. It thought it had a chance to win its first outright conference title in more than 60 years. It thought it had a chance to play in a major bowl game.
Instead, after only four games, Cal’s season ended just the way it started — with back-to-back game cancellations linked to the coronavirus, and a lingering question:
Was that even worth the time, risk, energy and money?
“It wasn’t ideal, how it all went,” Coach Justin Wilcox said earlier this week, summing up a 1-3 season.