This Saturday's Cal football game will feature a battle of Northern California against Southern California. This time the opponent won't be traditional Southern California foes like UCLA or USC. This week's oppponent is a little further south - San Diego State. CalBears.com caught up with three of the team's players who grew up in the San Diego are – Mustafa Jalil, Brian Farley and Stefan McClure – to chat about the differences between Berkeley and San Diego. 

Mustafa Jalil 

On the cultural differences
It's more laid-back down there. It's a lot more business-like in the Bay Area.

On which place has better food
Definitely San Diego. I'm not talking about Southern California in general, I mean San Diego specifically.

On which place has better weather
It's the same kind of weather year-round in San Diego. You get a little bit of the cold up here. In San Diego, you're just wearing a t-shirt and shorts every day it seems like.

On a pleasant surprise about Berkeley when he first arrived from San Diego
You can't really walk to places in San Diego. You can walk everywhere in Berkeley and the Bay Area, or just hop on BART. You have to have a car in San Diego.

Stefan McClure

On the cultural differences
A lot of people use public transportation up here, and the car pool lanes are better here. You have a lot of environmentalists here, and in San Diego, you have a lot of people driving big trucks by themselves on the freeway every day.

On which area has better weather
San Diego has nice weather, but I really like the Bay Area weather. I like the morning fog, the heat during the day and then when it gets chilly at night. I actually like how the winters are a little colder here than in San Diego. In San Diego, you just get sunshine all day long, so you never get to wear any jackets or a hoodie.

On one thing you can do in Berkeley that you can't do in San Diego
Hopping on BART to go downtown. Everything is accessible through public transportation here. In Vista, you have to drive almost an hour to get to downtown San Diego. You have more options here.

On one aspect of San Diego that he would bring to Berkeley
The beaches. The beaches down there are nice. The beaches in San Diego have a lot more sand area. You can play beach volleyball. In the Bay Area, there's less sand and more rocky areas, or it's just cliff to beach. So you can't hang out on the sand.

On one thing he would tell somebody they have to do in San Diego
You have to get some Mexican food and go to the beach. 

Brian Farley

 

On the cultural differences
Berkeley is like Mars compared to San Diego. It's a lot more of an alternative style up here. Everybody is more calm and relaxed in San Diego. In Berkeley people are always protesting or eating weird foods. They're two very different cultures.

On one thing you can do in Berkeley that you can't do in San Diego
Take BART into San Francisco and check out the Golden Gate Bridge.

On a pleasant surprise about Berkeley when he first arrived from San Diego
I like how close everything is around here. It's more spread out in San Diego.

On one thing he would tell somebody they have to do in San Diego
Get a California burrito, go to Mission Beach and then head out to Coronado. 

Cal faces San Diego State on Saturday, Sept. 12, at 2 p.m. from Kabam Field at California Memorial Stadium. The game can also be seen live on the Pac-12 Networks. Single-game tickets for the game are available now by calling the Gold Standard Sales and Service line at (800) GO-BEARS (462-3277) or visiting CalBears.com. 

CalBears.com along with the Cal football Twitter (@CalFootball), Instagram (cal_football) and Snapchat (CalFootball) social media accounts are providing extensive coverage of the 2015 season. Fans can join in the conversation using the hashtags #2015calfootball, #gobears and #calfamily.