Canes head west to face Cal in the ACC showdown

That maturity and business-like mentality Miami has adopted all season will come in handy when the Hurricanes (5-0, 1-0 ACC) head to the West Coast for the first time since meeting the Bears in the Emerald Bowl traveling to San Francisco in 2008.

Cal, which joined the ACC earlier this year, will host its first conference game Saturday when Miami comes calling.

The Bears (3-1, 0-1) will also host ESPN's College GameDay, expect a frenzied evening crowd and will enter Saturday's game rested and trying to rebound from a loss to Florida State in the conference's opening game to recover in September. 21.

The Hurricanes know all of these things will be challenging.

Cal's stout defense, which leads the nation with 10 interceptions and ranks 12th nationally in scoring defense at 12.8 points per game, will be another test.

“They definitely have their own scheme. “They’re not like every other team, but what they do well is they play really, really hard,” said wide receiver Xavier Restrepo, who leads the Hurricanes with 25 catches, 422 yards and five touchdown receptions. “They don't do anything exotic, but they do their work at a very, very high level and they execute their work at a very, very high level. They play together and when the ball is on the field and between the whistles, they are 100 percent committed. We have to do very, very much [highly] to beat them.”

While their last game may have required a fourth-quarter comeback, the Hurricanes have proven to be one of the most effective offenses in the country, thanks in large part to Ward and Restrepo.

Ward, who was named ACC Quarterback of the Week after throwing for 342 yards and four touchdowns against the Hokies and scoring another touchdown and 57 yards, is the nation's all-time leader in touchdown passes with 18 this year.

And earlier this year, Restrepo became just the 10th receiver in program history to eclipse the 2,000-yard mark for his career. Overall, the Hurricanes average 585.6 yards per game, a number that leads the ACC and ranks second nationally among FBS programs.

Cal, meanwhile, will counter with an offense led by a quarterback with deep ties to Miami.

Fernando Mendoza, a redshirt sophomore, is a Miami native who played high school football at Christopher Columbus High School, where Cristobal once starred – and played alongside Mendoza's father, Fernando Sr.

“We know the quarterback very well,” Cristobal said of Mendoza, who has completed 67.5 percent of his passes and thrown for 892 yards and five touchdowns. “Obviously there’s a backstory. The Mendoza family I played with [his] Dad, high school teammates and so on. [He’s] He's an exceptional player, an exceptional family and he's complemented by some really good players and he's a running back that was once committed to us at Oregon when I was out there [head coach].”