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Senior Spotlight: Cal's Seniors Have Chance To Go Out A Winner

This week, Cal will wish their 14 seniors the very best as they play their final regular season game in a Golden Bears uniform. Fortunately, there will be one more game to play as Cal is eligible for the bowl season, but Cal's senior class will look to do something no Cal senior class has done since 2008. Cal will look to win its first regular season finale with a win for the first time since the 2008 season, when the Bears took down Washington in a 48-7 blowout.

Cal's 14 seniors expected to graduate this semester are Todd Barr, Nathan Broussard, Jeffrey Coprich, Trevor Davis, Brian Farley, Jalen Jefferson, Jonathan Johnson, Trevor Kelly, Kyle Kragen, Daniel Lasco, Puka Lopa, Stefan McClure, Jordan Rigsbee and Joel Willis. Cal head coach Sonny Dykes said last week in a featured story on Cal's athletics website he was eager to see what paths these 14 seniors will follow after they finish playing football in Berkley.

"I'm excited to see what they're going to do with their lives after getting a degree from this university and what it means to them," Dykes said. "They've had to work incredibly hard to do this. To balance football and academics at a place like Cal is really impressive. I can't say enough great things about their work ethic, their level of commitment, their unselfishness and their character."

In the past four years, Cal's senior class has played through a coaching change, a death of a teammate, three losing seasons and struggled to reach the postseason. This season the senior class finished the job that went incomplete a year ago by clinching bowl eligibility. Though they will move on without having a win against Stanford, these Golden Bears will have an opportunity to end their Cal careers on a high note at home in front of their fans to conclude the regular season and then again in whatever bowl game may be lining up for the program. Football is one things, but some Cal's seniors also know the value of the education they are receiving as well.

"I don't know what it was like before, but now it seems like it's a given that everybody is going to get their schoolwork done and everybody is going to graduate," Kragen said in the featured story on Cal's website last week. "There's just a real focus on academic success here."

Cal hosts Arizona State on Saturday, November 28 at 7 p.m.

Kevin McGuire is a Philadelphia area sports writer covering the Philadelphia Eagles and college football. McGuire is a member of the FWAA and National Football Foundation. Follow McGuire on Twitter @KevinOnCFB. His work can be found on Examiner.com.

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