Bears Bureau: The Massacre on Folsom Street
Yeah I still haven't gotten over this and I'm going to let you know about it
The Mile High. What is my home away from home in the Bay Area. A place that allows me to watch my hometown team in the California Golden Bears face off against my adopted city and the Colorado Buffaloes. During the bye week and as I made my trek to Boulder, I told anyone and everyone I knew that facing Colorado at this time was a recipe for disaster. A new coach that would unquestionably motivate the Buffs 1000x better, a game where both Cal and Colorado fans knew that the result could possibly swing on a pendulum, and a crowd that wiped the floor with anything else I’ve seen in person this season.
And yet, this wasn’t a surprise. I was firmly in the boat that Cal would open the game strong and turtle to end of the game in the vein of a 27-17 game. Then I found out the Golden Bears traveled to Boulder only 20 hours (????) before the game. In my 12 years I’ve been traveling to Boulder, this was the most the altitude has ever gotten to me, let alone a football team running hard and often. I was perplexed yet I bit my tongue because maybe there was something I was missing here. I told Avinash about the Bears travel plans in the Folsom Field pressbox as I sat there for the first time professionally covering a game on the road and he looked at me as if I was from an asylum. Yet after all that, it was far from the most insane thing to happen that day.
Where to Buy: No One
This isn’t Pullman. This isn’t facing Notre Dame in South Bend. And hell, it isn’t even Arizona last season. This was a self deprecating and embarrassing, massacre. Everything we have come to know about this season was flipped on its head and it is imperative that the proper people be held accountable and the proper people are praised. More on that later. But it is crucial to stress that there are no cutting corners here. No excuses. Nobody played well enough to win the game. No one coached well enough to win the game. And that’s how you get the results and pictures of Saturday. It’s time to show up or go home. Does Cal want to be a bowl team? Well they better show me. Are they going to wilt and spiral, and go down quietly with a 3-9/4-8 record? It’s time to show me.
The ball is in the Bears court. A lot of people after this game know Cal’s identity and trajectory. I myself have been one of the most patient people in the Justin Wilcox era but this does it. It’s time for them to prove to me and the rest of the fans who they are and what the future holds. It’s reality check time and there is zero breathing room for everyone.
Where to sell: The Coaches
I’m just going to make this blunt instead of going coach by coach. The Cal coaches didn’t put the players in spots to maximize their opportunities. Bill Musgrave insisted on the short passing game and empty sets in the early goings against a defense that had given up over 300 rushing yards per game. And yet there were two plays that told me everything I needed to know about what the California Golden Bears are. Cal tries an angle toss, Jaydn Ott is blown up in the backfield for what feels like the millionth time. What was peeving was that Jermaine Terry II came on the counter to block and had loads of space to block, but blocked thin air. The other play was Jack Plummer rolling on play action on 4th&2 from the Colorado 39. The play was successful and Cal got a first down. The problem? On the play action there was no one in the backfield to fake it to, no deception. Two weeks of preparation and where are the assignments?
Angus McClure didn’t prepare the offensive line well enough. Colorado continuously shot the A and B gaps throughout the day and Cal had no answers. The sideline from the box was quiet, more passive instead of active. Is there something more to this? It’s hard to say but Colorado had their crowd and sideline rocking and no coaches had to come around to fire them up. Every coach simply needs to be better.
Pac 12 Quick Hits
Dalton Kincaid: Buy
One of the most impressive performances from the weekend came from Utah Tight End Dalton Kincaid. I was skeptical of how Kincaid would rise up as the Utes premier pass catcher after the season ending injury to Brant Kuithe, simply because Kyle Whittingham uses his wide receivers in a unique way that sheds more of a light on tight ends down the seam. I thought Kincaid would have too much of a focus on him to produce at a consistent level but he’s proven me wrong and certainly proved USC wrong. Not convinced? Take a look at the records he broke and got close to against the Trojans.
Kincaid: 16 rec, 234 yards, 1 TD
Cam Rising was 16/16 when passing to Kincaid. I mean what the hell. Kincaid put his name among the Utah greats with the second most receiving yards in a game in school history and the most of any tight end in a single game (Carl Harry had 255 receiving yards in a game as a wide receiver). He’s stepped up to the plate in numerous ways since Kuithe went down and is now becoming a NFL target.
Michael Penix Jr: Buy
Cal fans, it is time to get scared. The only thing that was stopping the Washington offense was Michael Penix Jr’s health and here he is in one piece and seizing the opportunity like no other. Him and Kalen DeBoer are a match made in heaven, from Indiana in 2019 to Washington this season. It couldn’t be anymore obvious than after the game vs Arizona this past weekend, where he obliterated UW’s previous school record for passing yards in a single game with 516 through the air (the previous record was held by Cody Pickett with 455 yards in 2001). The combination of Penix and his receivers of Ja’Lynn Polk, Jalen McMillan, and Rome Odunze are one of the deadliest combinations in the whole country let alone the West Coast. They don’t really run the football and honestly they haven’t really had to yet, because they haven’t put up anything less than 32 points in a game so far.
Mike Sanford, Montana Lemonious-Craig, and Folsom Field’s atmosphere: Buy
In what is probably the most indirect way of saying this, Colorado went out and seized the moment against the Bears. Here are the three people/groups responsible for the Buffs coming out on top and I was impressed with every last one of them. Mike Sanford, the interim HC for Colorado came out and had CU reenergized and refocused, with a commitment to the little things. His passion was evident, his desire to bring up his players was evident, and the buy in from said players was night and day compared to Karl Dorrell.
As for Montana Lemonious-Craig, he was Colorado’s MVP for the game. He had a bit of a quiet first half but once the second half came and JT Shrout came into the game, he came alive and gave the Cal defense all kinds of trouble on the perimeter. From screens to deep passes on trick plays to the eventual game winning touchdown, Lemonious-Craig was a one man wrecking crew for the Buffs offense and essentially kept them afloat after Deion Smith’s injury.
His final statline was 8 rec, 119 yards, 1 TD.
The last compliment goes to the Folsom Field crowd and mostly the students, who showed up and showed the hell out for the game. It may have been parents weekend in Boulder, but the crowd didn’t need any additional motivation. Folsom Field was over 50 thousand people strong, with a white out theme that had all of the Flatirons rocking. It was continuously loud, continuously bothersome for the Cal offense, and was far and away the best college football crowd I’ve seen this season in person. I mean just take a look at how packed it was. Imagine had Cal been in an 0-5 position.
Cam Ward and the Washington State offense: Hold
Probably the most disappointing performance of the weekend other than Cal goes to Washington State and their offense led by Cam Ward. Nakia Watson is still out with an injury but they simply didn’t get anything going in Corvallis. They ended with one yard of offense after the first quarter. You can’t have that on the road in conference play. And Cam Ward is the leader of the offense, so the responsibility falls on him and the offensive line to perform better. Oregon State had five sacks through six games and ended up sacking Ward six times in the game. Not good at all from the Cougars and it remains to be seen what their identity exactly is for the rest of the season on offense.
That’s all for the week 4 of conference play as everyone regroups and focuses towards the back half of the season. Here’s to hoping Washington isn’t as chaotic with me present once again.
Everything about the Cal approach was wrong. They came out flat though Ott's first run was 12 yards. Why not establish the run? Then we moved to an empty set offense where it's obvious that Plummer was going to pass. That failed. They tried a screen or two, those failed except for the 5-yard TE screen to Terry where he looked pretty good. Why the heck can't we utilize our tight ends? Musgrave never adjusted and kept running low percentage plays. The D was OK and good enough to win, but of course the first team to 20 points (Colorado) ended up winning the game. This is 2 contests in a row where we were manhandled at the line of scrimmage. If you look at the size and weights of our O-linemen they should be successful instead of whiffing all the time.
Great stuff TD. Had this game pegged as a must win, yet fully expected it to be a dog fight, with an L a likely possibility. The 15 point spread was baffling for a Wilcox offense. Wasn’t the least bit surprised with the loss, given all the reasons you mentioned. Wilcox teams don’t travel well, are often unprepared, and Musgrave fails to make in game adjustments. Then he comes out with a pass heavy game plan v. the 129th ranked rush D in the land? Laughably bad - this coaching staff is doing a disservice to the kids.
Sigh.