California coach Sonny Dykes hasn’t spent much time deciding how to judge his second year in Berkeley and said he wasn’t sure how making a bowl would play into that. The truth: Neither really matters.

What matters to him is building for the future, which is why the Golden Bears' regular-season finale against BYU on Saturday is their most important game of the season. It's important not necessarily because of the bowl game that would come with a win, but the additional practices that would come with it.

“Certainly [playing in a bowl would] make a difference on how quickly we can develop as a program,” Dykes said. “Those extra practices, playing an extra game are critical for a young team.”

Dykes has seen it before. He likened Cal’s (5-6) situation to when he was in his second year as the offensive coordinator at Arizona.

“[We were] starting to become a team that had a chance to win every single Saturday and played a bunch of competitive ballgames,” he said. “We were able to sneak into a bowl game and played pretty well in the bowl game and I think it changed our team. Offensively [the following year] I think we were a different team because we had all those practices and some additional time to prepare and it carried over.”

At Cal, that extra time to develop -- on defense specifically -- is greatly needed. While the Bears rank No. 12 in the country and No. 3 in the Pac-12 in scoring at 37.8 points per game, only four teams in the country are allowing more per game (39.5).

Coming off a poor performance in a 38-17 loss to Stanford on Saturday, Dykes admitted he was a little concerned with how his players would respond in practice on Sunday. He said a loss like that could have been mentally and physically draining, but didn’t notice a hangover effect in practice.

“I was really pleased with the way we practiced,” he said. “Our guys were excited. They were focused. I didn’t see any let down in their mentality.”

BYU comes in having won its last three games against Middle Tennessee State, UNLV and Savannah State, but is nothing like the team it was before quarterback Taysom Hill was lost for the season in the fifth game of the year. The Cougars (7-4), who have accepted an invitation to the inaugural Miami Beach Bowl, were a trendy playoff sleeper before he went down and a four-game losing streak followed.

“Any time you play, we’re excited to play,” Dykes said. “The more we play the better it is for our team, clearly. Need the experience, need the reps.”

One interesting facet to watch on Saturday is how often Dykes and offensive coordinator Tony Franklin decide to use quarterback Luke Rubenzer. The true freshman served as more than just a change-of-pace running option for the Bears against Stanford – he was 5 of 9 for 49 yards with a pair of interceptions – after starter Jared Goff also struggled. Goff, who has thrown for 3,580 yards with 31 touchdowns and six interceptions, is among the national leaders in almost every major passing category.