Will the Cal offense be better, worse or about the same?

Better. I should preface this by saying that the Cal offense was pretty damn good last year (13th in total offense, 10th in scoring), and they return almost every significant contributor at the skill positions (except Chris Harper – WR, and place kicker James Langford) – and that’s another year of stability in the Tony Franklin offensive system.

The points of improvement they’re looking forward to are Goff’s natural improvement, a stable of back-up running backs behind starter Daniel Lasco (Vic Enwere, Frosh Lonny Powell and Khalfani Muhammad look to emerge) as well as another year of seasoning for a young offensive line. If they do take a step back, it would be due to an offensive line that struggled to run block in 2014.

Will the Cal defense be better worse or about the same?

Better: Unlike the Cal offense, the Cal defense ranked near the bottom of the NCAA last year (121st in total offense, 120th in scoring defense) – so there’s really no where to go but up (hopefully).

Significant player losses including oft-injured defensive lineman Brennan Scarlett (transferred to Stanford) and oft-injured safety Avery Sebastian (transferred to Notre Dame, so while the Bears will miss them – they often had to play without them all last year anyways. 

Cal has been able to add some significant talent through return from injury (Kyle Kragen returning from a bout with mono) and position changes (Luke Rubenzer moving to safety from last year’s back up QB position), but the defensive secondary remains a major major area of concern as many of the projected rotation players were unable to participate in Spring practices due to injury.

You buying or selling this team in 2015? (How many games they winning this year?)

I’m definitely buying this team. A very good 2014 offense, led by an NFL caliber QB, should continue to improve and the defense – the Pac 12’s worst in 2014 – should at the very least, take a small step forward. 

I’ll take 8 wins this season.

Leon Powe of California Golden Blogs provided the information for our California Football 2015 Spring Wrap Up.  For more Golden Bear  football information, commentary and analysis, you can follow California Golden Blogs 0n Twitter @GoldenBlogs.