The 2015 California Golden Bears football team represented the

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant u ...

in the

2015 NCAA Division I FBS football season The 2015 NCAA Division I FBS football season was the highest level of college football competition in the United States organized by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA). The regular season began on September 3, 2015 and ended on D ...

. The Bears were led by third-year head coach

Sonny Dykes Daniel "Sonny" Dykes (born November 9, 1969) is an American football coach, and a former college baseball player. He is currently the head football coach at Texas Christian University (TCU), and previously served in the same role at Southern Meth ...

and played their home games at Memorial Stadium. At the beginning of the season, Cal jumped out to a 5–0 start, their best since 2007. In Week 3, the Bears defeated

Texas Texas (, ; Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2020, it is the second-largest U.S. state by ...

45–44 in Austin, marking the program's first-ever victory over the Longhorns. The following week, Cal beat

Washington Washington commonly refers to: * Washington (state), United States * Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States ** A metonym for the federal government of the United States ** Washington metropolitan area, the metropolitan area centered o ...

30–24, earning their first victory in Seattle since 2005 and snapping a six-game losing streak to the Huskies. Cal then went on to lose five of its next six games, including losses to rivals UCLA, USC, and Oregon, and a 13-point loss to arch-rival Stanford for their sixth consecutive Big Game defeat. The Golden Bears rebounded with a 54–24 win over last-place

Oregon State Oregon State University (OSU) is a public land-grant, research university in Corvallis, Oregon. OSU offers more than 200 undergraduate-degree programs along with a variety of graduate and doctoral degrees. It has the 10th largest engineering col ...

, in which Cal gained a school-record 760 yards while becoming bowl-eligible for the first time since 2011. With a 48–46 win over

Arizona State Arizona State University (Arizona State or ASU) is a public research university in the Phoenix metropolitan area. Founded in 1885 by the 13th Arizona Territorial Legislature, ASU is one of the largest public universities by enrollment in the ...

on Senior Day, Cal finished the regular season with a 7–5 record, clinching their first winning season since 2011. They finished the year 8–5 including a 55–36 victory over Air Force in the Armed Forces Bowl. Nevertheless, at 4–5 Cal finished with a losing Pac-12 the record for the third consecutive season. The 2015 season was the last at Cal for three-year starting quarterback

Jared Goff Jared Thomas Goff (born October 14, 1994) is an American football quarterback for the Detroit Lions of the National Football League (NFL). He played college football at California, where he set the Pac-12 Conference season records for passi ...

, who entered the program at the same time as Dykes and set 26 team records during his time in Berkeley. Following the Armed Forces Bowl, Goff declared for the

2016 NFL draft The 2016 NFL Draft was the 81st annual meeting of National Football League (NFL) franchises to select newly eligible American football players. As in 2015 NFL Draft, 2015, the draft took place at the Auditorium Theatre and Grant Park (Chicago), ...

. He was selected first overall by the Los Angeles Rams, and went on to lead the Rams to Super Bowl LIII. Following the season, Sonny Dykes' contract was extended until 2019, owing to the team's athletic and academic improvements during his tenure.

Schedule

Conference opponents not played this season:

Arizona Arizona ( ; nv, Hoozdo Hahoodzo ; ood, Alĭ ṣonak ) is a state in the Southwestern United States. It is the 6th largest and the 14th most populous of the 50 states. Its capital and largest city is Phoenix. Arizona is part of the Fou ...

Colorado Colorado (, other variants) is a state in the Mountain states, Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It encompasses most of the Southern Rocky Mountains, as well as the northeastern portion of the Colorado Plateau and the wes ...

Personnel

Coaching staff

Roster

Recruiting

Incoming class 2015

SCOUTRIVALSESPN
as well as the officia
roster
are the primary sources. The incoming class was ranked #25 b
Rivals
#36 b
Scout
and #53 b
ESPN

Commitments for 2016

SCOUTRIVALS
an
ESPN
are the primary sources. As of 10/9/2015 the 2016 class is ranked #25 b
Rivals
and #38 b
Scout

Rankings

Game summaries

Grambling State

San Diego State

Texas

Washington

Washington State

Utah

UCLA

USC

Oregon

Oregon State

Stanford

Arizona State

Air Force

References

{{California Golden Bears football navbox

California California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the m ...

California Golden Bears football seasons Armed Forces Bowl champion seasons California Golden Bears football