First: I feel bad for Bloesch but he was not ready for this assignment. He needs to go to a smaller school and hone his knowledge and develop a system where the scheme works. I am happy Wilcox made the hard choice to do this. Now we need to recruit a top 10 OC from either FBS or FCS who runs a simple, easy to learn spread or air raid system, preferably with tight ends. Paraphrasing something that Bill Yeoman formerly at Houston once said when someone asked him about running a simple veer system: if you do something better than anyone else why change? The two best OC's we've had in recent history are Tony Franklin and Spav, and we had better talent this year than Dykes ever had. Time for a good OC. A great OC will help keep current top offensive players and will attract new ones.
Second: O-Line. Interesting that Wykoff will be transferring as a grad. He was demoted to 2nd team but what I did not realize is that he was CAL's highest paid NIL player. Go figure. He was a big dude, but never really lived up to his promise. We do need some studs up front and we need to pay for them. And we need an o-line coach who will teach our boys to be nasty and physical, go to the whistle and finish blocks, and drive muthafuckas into the dirt! We don't have that attitude right now. Tough is one thing and we have tough kids, but having the attitude to dominate and own your opponent is a completely different mindset. When you have that then you have guys with big balls hanging to to ground and everyone knows, both your teammates and opponents. We need the latter.
Bloesch seemed like a perfectly good OL coach; he got done dirty with this "promotion."
OL is apparently surprisingly hard to pay for via NIL. The top programs know how valuable a good fully-formed OL player is. What Cal really needed to be doing all of these years was prioritizing OL in recruiting and development, something that Wilcox has (characteristically) been late to the party on.
He turned a bottom-feeder line in 2022 into a perfectly serviceable line in 2023 with either the same players or replacement-level transfers. Seems like if he could focus on OL, we'd be able to develop (and recruit) even better play in the trenches.
And I couldn't agree more about an Air Raid system. Dykes / Franklin said it could be taught in 1 day and then the rest of the time it's about perfecting precision!
I don't know if "big balls"hanging to the ground is a good attribute. At my age it's happening each year I get older and it's really uncomfortable. Especially when I sit down fast. Ouch!
If you want to fix things you must start at the top (Knowlton & Wilcox). A new OC is just a flimsy band aid that will fall off and we will be right back where we are presently one year from now. Time to clean house!
Maybe, but Knowlton presents a Gordian Knot just now.
One can't just slice the knot without upsetting ongoing investigations.
It must be carefully unraveled.
The thinking is admin must wait for the Women's Swim coach investigation to conclude, then, if he acted badly enough, he could be fired with cause and negate all or much of his buyout Christ generously granted him.
What if Christ must have loved his FCS view of football as a glorified intramural activity, so she gave Knowlton a long contract extension to preserve the middling of the FB program.
Nohl Williams and Teddye Buchanan were selected first team All ACC. They were only here for a year or two, but that's college football now. Let's get more of these top level contributors in the portal, but on offense, especially OL.
It's awesome when players stay at Cal for their entire careers - like Craig Woodson and Miles Williams, but the reality is that those will now be exceptions. Happy to have players even for a single season if they buy in and contribute to the team and Nohl was a huge part of the defense the last two years and Teddye was a passionate team leader. We need more Teddyes and Nohls!
Craig Woodson, Miles Williams, Mavin Anderson, Nate Rutchena, Lu Magia Hearns, Ricky Correia, Derek Wilkins, Akili Calhoun, Collin Gamble, Stanley McKenzie, Myles Williams, Jeffrey Johnson, Trond Grizzell, Bastian Swinney, Dylan Jemtegaard, Jake Arguello, Hunter Barth have played all 4+ years at Cal.
Only Woodson is a multi year starter. It was nice Miles Williams earned starting spot in his final season. Anderson, Rutchena, Hearns, and Gamble appeared early but lost starting positions to incoming transfers. Anyway, I like everyone who come to play for Cal, but I tend to forget a lot of the transfers who were only here for a year or two, but I will not forget Nohl and Teddye. I already forgot about Patrick McMorris who, even though he was good enough to be drafted, I have no memory of any play.
issue isn't play calling / OC. The issue for the past 8 years has been poor OL play due to poor hiring choices for OL coach and an overall lack of talent and depth at OL. It is no more complicated than that. Years ago, I noted that Wilcox's hiring of Greatwood would doom Cal's offense ~ little that I knew it would be for 8 fcking years!!
GEAT, its a combo of both with Bloesch. True that our failures started with terrible o-line play and lack of a run game, but when I think about the Miami game, there were some good play calls early and some really bad ones late. I will say a team cannot thrive on gimmick plays, you gotta be able to pound the rock on critical downs, and we could not do that. But I have also watch great play callers mix and match and have D-beaters for down and distance situations. Bloesch did not have those plays in his bag.
Another incremental step that will get the program absolutely nowhere as long as Wilcox and Knowlton are still hanging around Berkeley. Someone good at math plz tell me how much it will take to dump them both so I can go out and 'raise' the $$! [by raise I mean dig through couch cushions after I win the lottery]
I honestly didn't mind him as an OC. Or as an OL coach last year. The problem was that he cannot do both. Ideally, I'd have kept him as OC and hired an OL coach, but c'est la vie.
To be fair our OL did improve last year. But I still didn't sense that the group had the attitude necessary to be dominant. You have to force the work ethic into the big guys. When you do you build a unit that is unstoppable. I don't see that under Bloesch.
I agree with Rugbear. Probably the best offensive line coach Cal has had in the past thirty years or so has been Jim Michalczik. We could benefit by a hire like him or Michalczik himself!
Totes agree. While he has a lot of room for growth, I feel like Bloesch has improved as an OC. But that has comes at the expense of attention to the OL. I'm less concerned with replacing him than I am with adding resources (dedicated coach + NIL) to fix the OL.
All these comments are about Offense. Our Defense was pretty vulnerable in key situations pass D wise. Sirmon is a good DC but he gets conservative in crucial situations.
No. We need a proven OC. No more testing guys without a resume to see if they are the right guy for the job. I'll give you an example: a guy like Kenny Dillingham when he was Oregon. I watched one of the games he called in his last year at Oregon and swear he called the perfect game. It was flipping brilliant. Now in two years at AZ State he's taken a dumpster fire and they may be the Big12 rep in the Natty playoffs. We need someone that good:
Been on the Brennan Marion trail for a while, I would love to see the “Go Go Offense” in Strawberry Canyon. Also love the Mike Shanahan pick, what Cig and Mike have done at IU is nothing short of impressive. Need to watch film on the other coordinators. Idk about Dirk Koetter, having a sensational, heisman running back can mask an offense’s deficiencies, but it can also assist having Ott stay for one more year.
Also, a dark horse pick would be Eric Bieniemy from UCLA. His contract might be up this year, which makes for an easier transition (no buyout or penalties). He has extensive NFL knowledge and was the OC for Kansas City’s championship run.
Serious question: is a decent to good coordinator going to come to Cal given the eight years of Wilcox mediocrity? We’re all aware of the abysmal record against conference opponents, teams with winning records, etc. This is another staff change that doesn’t solve the underlying issue. Best guess is any marginal offensive improvement next season will be offset by defensive regression due to all the graduations. Who knows, maybe he’ll finally prove us all wrong in year nine.
We have a proven QB, RBs, WRs and TEs, and we have a 5-star QB verbally committed (knocks wood and says three Hail Oskis that he signs tomorrow). Any good coordinator should be drooling at the opportunity. We just need a major upgrade at OL.
With the talent we have and the lifestyle available in Kalifornia, yes, if we pay them enough. Spav left because he was from Texas, got a raise and his cost of living where he is in Texas is half of what it was in CA.
well, also he and Wilcox didnt see eye to eye and he was effectively demoted. Our late season offensive boom was with Bloesch and Plough doing the same planning and play calling. Spav was a disaster last year and a move away made sense for both parties. All allegedly of course
For sure CA is expensive. I'm not sure the woke issue would keep coaches away. CAL is a P4 program and is the top public university in the world and our facilities are high quality. It's a good spot for a coach to land, and an OC looking to pad his resume won't shy away from working at CAL for the right money. I see the cost of living and high income taxes as the big hindrance. Right out of the box we need to be half a million higher than virtually any other program for an OC to be able to move here, buy a home and pay his taxes and end up in the same place as elsewhere. An OC that comes to CAL and help turn our program into a winning machine would have no shortage of head coaching offers down the road.
1) Can we pay them enough? Most good jobs in college football are in areas with a significantly lower cost of living. Are our donors willing to pony up for Wilcox offensive coordinator number… what… five?
2) You would know this much better than me, but from statistical and scheme perspectives, how much better were we under spavital last year?
we paid Spav almost $1M. That'll get you an offensive genius from the FCS HC ranks or a solid to very good, or young but very talented, co-ordinator in FBS
Yeah, but, as your example shows, that's not comparable to programs in the Top Ten most years and not enough to get and keep a coordinator for our deep need to rebuild brand and quality.
Side note: Furd hiring Luck as GM could be genius. Could we do the same?
Side note 2: "Fire Starkey" still? Or has it become your W4C identity and people may not recognize you if you updated your handle?
A couple of thoughts: if we want to win we have to pay the piper. There is no other way. It's reality.
When you look at the talent we had this year as compared to last year, the level of QB play last year compared to this year, and the competition, last year was a much tougher haul. And yet our production was better. Ott shined.
Total offense this year was almost identical to last year (yards/game) - passed better this year but rushed better last year (yards/play were 5.5 vs. 5.6). Scored more last year, which, without doing a deep dive, I’d chalk up to completely ass red zone play calling and execution this year.
As far as talent, a lot of these guys were on the roster last year. And Jeremiah Hunter, who we lost, was probably as good or better than any receiver this year. Also, what did spav not see with Fernando last year? We were looking at a 3 win season til Nando led us to bowl eligibility.
How much of last years schedule strength was swayed by oregon and Washington which both boatraced us?
Nando was the savior this year. Without his play we would have been terrible. What is also interesting is that Bloesch is 9 points away (in four games) from being a solid OC. But, only the W's count. With our talent this year, Nando's huge leap and weaker schedule, we should have way out produced last year.
As to the schedule strength, I'd say that last year from top to bottom, the PAC12 was the best conference in FBS. (Yes better than SEC) Why? We didn't just have UW and Oregon. OSU balled out, WASU was no slouch, USC was solid (with Caleb), AZ was solid and was Utah. I think the PAC12 was better last year than the ACC.
So far for OC's we've had a pro style guy (Musgrave), a spread guy (Spav), an o-line specialist (Bloesch), and a "multiple" guy (Baldwin). The only thing that they have in common is shitty results, though Spav's showed flashes of competence.
Interestingly, Spav has two O-line coaches and a TE coach at Baylor. Baylor is top 30 in yards and points per game this year, after being 73rd/100th last year.
I'm happy to hear this but skeptical Wilcox will do what Rugbear says. We need a top flight OC, not necessarily a big name, but a proven system guy. Bloesch was a great OC coach last year, but like Rug says there was something really missing this year. I don't know if retaining him will be the best or even an option with a new OC. Come on, Wilcox, since we are unlikely to fire you yet, at least make a big move that gives people reason for some hope next year.
I'm still mad over Bloesch's hiring in the first place. It was risky and a MASSIVE step backwards for the program. Wilcox was not in a position to take that kind of a risk - and Knowlton and the Cal backers should have killed that concept from the get go.
We need a name with recruiting skills, and an understanding to not continually run Ott between tackles EVERY FRIGGIN PLAY!
First: I feel bad for Bloesch but he was not ready for this assignment. He needs to go to a smaller school and hone his knowledge and develop a system where the scheme works. I am happy Wilcox made the hard choice to do this. Now we need to recruit a top 10 OC from either FBS or FCS who runs a simple, easy to learn spread or air raid system, preferably with tight ends. Paraphrasing something that Bill Yeoman formerly at Houston once said when someone asked him about running a simple veer system: if you do something better than anyone else why change? The two best OC's we've had in recent history are Tony Franklin and Spav, and we had better talent this year than Dykes ever had. Time for a good OC. A great OC will help keep current top offensive players and will attract new ones.
Second: O-Line. Interesting that Wykoff will be transferring as a grad. He was demoted to 2nd team but what I did not realize is that he was CAL's highest paid NIL player. Go figure. He was a big dude, but never really lived up to his promise. We do need some studs up front and we need to pay for them. And we need an o-line coach who will teach our boys to be nasty and physical, go to the whistle and finish blocks, and drive muthafuckas into the dirt! We don't have that attitude right now. Tough is one thing and we have tough kids, but having the attitude to dominate and own your opponent is a completely different mindset. When you have that then you have guys with big balls hanging to to ground and everyone knows, both your teammates and opponents. We need the latter.
Booesch did have some OC time at North Texas. But agree that his emergency appointment to replace Spav did not result in adequate success.
Really interesting that Wykoff was a big NIL guy. Shows that we recognize that OL is a priority but it didn't translate into on field success.
He had really slow feet as did Sessions and Sweemy
A lot of slow feet is coaching. Coaching scheme, position, and where to be can overcome a lot of the flaws that slow feet create.
So, Rugbear, don't balls hanging that low get rug burn on Astro Turf?
Some, not so happy memories of Kleeberger.
JK
Yes, we need Grizzlies, not Care Bears.
Good luck to Wykoff, but that clears some room for ball-draggin', er, ballers.
Bloesch seemed like a perfectly good OL coach; he got done dirty with this "promotion."
OL is apparently surprisingly hard to pay for via NIL. The top programs know how valuable a good fully-formed OL player is. What Cal really needed to be doing all of these years was prioritizing OL in recruiting and development, something that Wilcox has (characteristically) been late to the party on.
He was ok. Our o-line was never dominant under him. He was brought in partly because of his recruiting and connection to Texas.
He turned a bottom-feeder line in 2022 into a perfectly serviceable line in 2023 with either the same players or replacement-level transfers. Seems like if he could focus on OL, we'd be able to develop (and recruit) even better play in the trenches.
Very true, but I am not satisfied with a serviceable line. I want other teams to fear CAL's o-line. ;-)
You have to be realistic though. We first have to get to serviceable, then maybe hope for fearful Line.
Or leapfrog to fear and be aggressive. It can be done. No baby steps.
And I couldn't agree more about an Air Raid system. Dykes / Franklin said it could be taught in 1 day and then the rest of the time it's about perfecting precision!
Go Bears!
I don't know if "big balls"hanging to the ground is a good attribute. At my age it's happening each year I get older and it's really uncomfortable. Especially when I sit down fast. Ouch!
LOL.
And let's not talk about toilets that may have high water marks. ;)
Per player NIL payments are publicly available?
If you want to fix things you must start at the top (Knowlton & Wilcox). A new OC is just a flimsy band aid that will fall off and we will be right back where we are presently one year from now. Time to clean house!
Maybe, but Knowlton presents a Gordian Knot just now.
One can't just slice the knot without upsetting ongoing investigations.
It must be carefully unraveled.
The thinking is admin must wait for the Women's Swim coach investigation to conclude, then, if he acted badly enough, he could be fired with cause and negate all or much of his buyout Christ generously granted him.
What if Christ must have loved his FCS view of football as a glorified intramural activity, so she gave Knowlton a long contract extension to preserve the middling of the FB program.
4th OC in 4 years. Nothing to see here folks.
The optics are so poor it’s really just comical at this point.
The OC firings will continue until offensive production improves
Hey GSD and P, you guys heading to LA if they get the Gronk?
Nah, mid-week is too tough. Also, I’m ready to turn the page on this football season and devote my anguish full-time to bball.
Fair!
Speaking of BB.
WTF was up with the officiating?
Shitbird Robinson was charging and flopping all night- and it turned the game.
I more than likely will go if they play in the Gronk.
Cool let’s meet up. Booked a room at La Quinta Inn on W Century.
Well, if we are not firing Wilcox .. this is at least something to be excited about.
Maybe Mike Montgomery and Jay John can weigh in and override Wilcox’s hire like they did with Knowlton on Madsen!
So that would be Tedford and Ron Gould in football terms.
Tedford would have to dummy down that playbook…can’t have guys taking 2 years to learn it. Ha.
No, he's just going to help hire the right HC or OC.
Yes! That suggestion is right t down the page to getting a General Manager. One who is a Golden Bear. Rivera maybe?
Nohl Williams and Teddye Buchanan were selected first team All ACC. They were only here for a year or two, but that's college football now. Let's get more of these top level contributors in the portal, but on offense, especially OL.
It's awesome when players stay at Cal for their entire careers - like Craig Woodson and Miles Williams, but the reality is that those will now be exceptions. Happy to have players even for a single season if they buy in and contribute to the team and Nohl was a huge part of the defense the last two years and Teddye was a passionate team leader. We need more Teddyes and Nohls!
Craig Woodson, Miles Williams, Mavin Anderson, Nate Rutchena, Lu Magia Hearns, Ricky Correia, Derek Wilkins, Akili Calhoun, Collin Gamble, Stanley McKenzie, Myles Williams, Jeffrey Johnson, Trond Grizzell, Bastian Swinney, Dylan Jemtegaard, Jake Arguello, Hunter Barth have played all 4+ years at Cal.
Only Woodson is a multi year starter. It was nice Miles Williams earned starting spot in his final season. Anderson, Rutchena, Hearns, and Gamble appeared early but lost starting positions to incoming transfers. Anyway, I like everyone who come to play for Cal, but I tend to forget a lot of the transfers who were only here for a year or two, but I will not forget Nohl and Teddye. I already forgot about Patrick McMorris who, even though he was good enough to be drafted, I have no memory of any play.
issue isn't play calling / OC. The issue for the past 8 years has been poor OL play due to poor hiring choices for OL coach and an overall lack of talent and depth at OL. It is no more complicated than that. Years ago, I noted that Wilcox's hiring of Greatwood would doom Cal's offense ~ little that I knew it would be for 8 fcking years!!
GEAT, its a combo of both with Bloesch. True that our failures started with terrible o-line play and lack of a run game, but when I think about the Miami game, there were some good play calls early and some really bad ones late. I will say a team cannot thrive on gimmick plays, you gotta be able to pound the rock on critical downs, and we could not do that. But I have also watch great play callers mix and match and have D-beaters for down and distance situations. Bloesch did not have those plays in his bag.
Another incremental step that will get the program absolutely nowhere as long as Wilcox and Knowlton are still hanging around Berkeley. Someone good at math plz tell me how much it will take to dump them both so I can go out and 'raise' the $$! [by raise I mean dig through couch cushions after I win the lottery]
$20M for both, but no one wants Knowlton making a FB hire so that domino needs to fall before they can move off Wilcox.
So frustrating.
And this was his do-or-die year.
I honestly didn't mind him as an OC. Or as an OL coach last year. The problem was that he cannot do both. Ideally, I'd have kept him as OC and hired an OL coach, but c'est la vie.
I like him as OL coach but I question his play calling abilities.
Not sure he's that good of an OL coach either.
If Rugbear says so, then I guess so.
I thought our OL made improvements under Bloesch last year, so that was my reasoning.
To be fair our OL did improve last year. But I still didn't sense that the group had the attitude necessary to be dominant. You have to force the work ethic into the big guys. When you do you build a unit that is unstoppable. I don't see that under Bloesch.
I agree with Rugbear. Probably the best offensive line coach Cal has had in the past thirty years or so has been Jim Michalczik. We could benefit by a hire like him or Michalczik himself!
Coach M is at Michigan State now. Interesting as he had been at west coast all his coaching life.
He’s brutal.
Totes agree. While he has a lot of room for growth, I feel like Bloesch has improved as an OC. But that has comes at the expense of attention to the OL. I'm less concerned with replacing him than I am with adding resources (dedicated coach + NIL) to fix the OL.
All these comments are about Offense. Our Defense was pretty vulnerable in key situations pass D wise. Sirmon is a good DC but he gets conservative in crucial situations.
Davis Webb
No. We need a proven OC. No more testing guys without a resume to see if they are the right guy for the job. I'll give you an example: a guy like Kenny Dillingham when he was Oregon. I watched one of the games he called in his last year at Oregon and swear he called the perfect game. It was flipping brilliant. Now in two years at AZ State he's taken a dumpster fire and they may be the Big12 rep in the Natty playoffs. We need someone that good:
Mike Shanahan - Indiana - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mike_Shanahan_(tight_end)
Dirk Koetter - Boise State - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dirk_Koetter
Brennan Marion - UNLV - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brennan_Marion
Ben Arbuckle - WSU - https://wsucougars.com/staff-directory/ben-arbuckle/5725
Tim Leger - Lousiana Ragin Cajuns - https://ragincajuns.com/sports/football/roster/coaches/tim-leger/1664
There are plenty more...
I really like Marion. We failed to hire him twice already. Maybe 3rd time's the charm?
Brennan Marion is the ideal candidate! He has developed an innovative offense that would work well with Cal’s athletes.
Arbuckle already snatched up by Oklahoma. WSU also losing Mateer....so lucky Cal got the ACC lifeline.
Yes, it could still be us in a few years.
I heard Arbuckle is probably going to OK.
Marion, is this just an air raid variant with his Go-Go?
We need a big hire for sure.
I wish Ron Rivera was our AD or GM (like Furd)
Yes we need a GM of football operations. It's going to happen everywhere with this awful NIL crap we have in college athletics now.
Rivera would be a good choice. He's already very familiar with NIL.
I would like to see Ron and Stephanie Rivera take over as Co-ADs.
Imagine it into reality.
Dirk Koetter would be good.
I think he would be a great choice. I'm just not sure at 65 years old that he would leave Boise State for Berkeley. He already retired once.
Been on the Brennan Marion trail for a while, I would love to see the “Go Go Offense” in Strawberry Canyon. Also love the Mike Shanahan pick, what Cig and Mike have done at IU is nothing short of impressive. Need to watch film on the other coordinators. Idk about Dirk Koetter, having a sensational, heisman running back can mask an offense’s deficiencies, but it can also assist having Ott stay for one more year.
Also, a dark horse pick would be Eric Bieniemy from UCLA. His contract might be up this year, which makes for an easier transition (no buyout or penalties). He has extensive NFL knowledge and was the OC for Kansas City’s championship run.
Though he couldn’t change Wisconsin into an air raid team, I think Phil Longo could do better at a place like cal
Serious question: is a decent to good coordinator going to come to Cal given the eight years of Wilcox mediocrity? We’re all aware of the abysmal record against conference opponents, teams with winning records, etc. This is another staff change that doesn’t solve the underlying issue. Best guess is any marginal offensive improvement next season will be offset by defensive regression due to all the graduations. Who knows, maybe he’ll finally prove us all wrong in year nine.
We have a proven QB, RBs, WRs and TEs, and we have a 5-star QB verbally committed (knocks wood and says three Hail Oskis that he signs tomorrow). Any good coordinator should be drooling at the opportunity. We just need a major upgrade at OL.
I hope you are right. I will say my hail Oskis.
Oski.
Wow wow
Show us a sign.
*Hayward Fault triggers
With the talent we have and the lifestyle available in Kalifornia, yes, if we pay them enough. Spav left because he was from Texas, got a raise and his cost of living where he is in Texas is half of what it was in CA.
"Kalifornia"? Are you a secret Furdie?
He went from RugDawg to RugTree
I have heard our state referred to as "Commiefornia."
IMHO, somewhat accurate.
Only I ain't no "Commie."
well, also he and Wilcox didnt see eye to eye and he was effectively demoted. Our late season offensive boom was with Bloesch and Plough doing the same planning and play calling. Spav was a disaster last year and a move away made sense for both parties. All allegedly of course
Plough was the big loss. See UC Davis.
Interesting that he was fired by Boise State and replaced by Koetter. But yes, he did a great job at Davis and he was a big loss.
Bring him back as OC!
He can be OC/TE coach and we get a real OL coach. (Sorry Saffell)
Curious where you heard this? Look what he did at Baylor this year.
I didn't know that
CA is very expensive and perhaps this "woke" keeps coaches from bringing their families?????
For sure CA is expensive. I'm not sure the woke issue would keep coaches away. CAL is a P4 program and is the top public university in the world and our facilities are high quality. It's a good spot for a coach to land, and an OC looking to pad his resume won't shy away from working at CAL for the right money. I see the cost of living and high income taxes as the big hindrance. Right out of the box we need to be half a million higher than virtually any other program for an OC to be able to move here, buy a home and pay his taxes and end up in the same place as elsewhere. An OC that comes to CAL and help turn our program into a winning machine would have no shortage of head coaching offers down the road.
Ok so two questions:
1) Can we pay them enough? Most good jobs in college football are in areas with a significantly lower cost of living. Are our donors willing to pony up for Wilcox offensive coordinator number… what… five?
2) You would know this much better than me, but from statistical and scheme perspectives, how much better were we under spavital last year?
we paid Spav almost $1M. That'll get you an offensive genius from the FCS HC ranks or a solid to very good, or young but very talented, co-ordinator in FBS
Yeah, but, as your example shows, that's not comparable to programs in the Top Ten most years and not enough to get and keep a coordinator for our deep need to rebuild brand and quality.
Side note: Furd hiring Luck as GM could be genius. Could we do the same?
Side note 2: "Fire Starkey" still? Or has it become your W4C identity and people may not recognize you if you updated your handle?
I mean, if Joe can last 20 years past his sell by date, "Fire Starkey" can LIVE FOREVER
I also thought of him as sounding like an enthusiastic amateur.
A couple of thoughts: if we want to win we have to pay the piper. There is no other way. It's reality.
When you look at the talent we had this year as compared to last year, the level of QB play last year compared to this year, and the competition, last year was a much tougher haul. And yet our production was better. Ott shined.
Total offense this year was almost identical to last year (yards/game) - passed better this year but rushed better last year (yards/play were 5.5 vs. 5.6). Scored more last year, which, without doing a deep dive, I’d chalk up to completely ass red zone play calling and execution this year.
As far as talent, a lot of these guys were on the roster last year. And Jeremiah Hunter, who we lost, was probably as good or better than any receiver this year. Also, what did spav not see with Fernando last year? We were looking at a 3 win season til Nando led us to bowl eligibility.
How much of last years schedule strength was swayed by oregon and Washington which both boatraced us?
Nando was the savior this year. Without his play we would have been terrible. What is also interesting is that Bloesch is 9 points away (in four games) from being a solid OC. But, only the W's count. With our talent this year, Nando's huge leap and weaker schedule, we should have way out produced last year.
As to the schedule strength, I'd say that last year from top to bottom, the PAC12 was the best conference in FBS. (Yes better than SEC) Why? We didn't just have UW and Oregon. OSU balled out, WASU was no slouch, USC was solid (with Caleb), AZ was solid and was Utah. I think the PAC12 was better last year than the ACC.
So far for OC's we've had a pro style guy (Musgrave), a spread guy (Spav), an o-line specialist (Bloesch), and a "multiple" guy (Baldwin). The only thing that they have in common is shitty results, though Spav's showed flashes of competence.
Interestingly, Spav has two O-line coaches and a TE coach at Baylor. Baylor is top 30 in yards and points per game this year, after being 73rd/100th last year.
It's official. Wilcox confirmed it apparently.
https://x.com/MattRMoreno/status/1864120717064991142
I'm happy to hear this but skeptical Wilcox will do what Rugbear says. We need a top flight OC, not necessarily a big name, but a proven system guy. Bloesch was a great OC coach last year, but like Rug says there was something really missing this year. I don't know if retaining him will be the best or even an option with a new OC. Come on, Wilcox, since we are unlikely to fire you yet, at least make a big move that gives people reason for some hope next year.
Reminds me of the drummer position in Spinal Tap.
The offense has been a real Shark Sandwich.
Smell the glove!
We need a major upgrade in OL talent. Hello NIL.
More than anything we need competent coaching.
and talent. We need talent and coaching. haha
True. But good coaching can elevate the unit to at least something near average, and you probably have 8-wins with even average…
If we wanna contend for an ACC Championship, you also need a talent upgrade, but Wyckoff made good NIL $ and was benched…
I'm still mad over Bloesch's hiring in the first place. It was risky and a MASSIVE step backwards for the program. Wilcox was not in a position to take that kind of a risk - and Knowlton and the Cal backers should have killed that concept from the get go.
We need a name with recruiting skills, and an understanding to not continually run Ott between tackles EVERY FRIGGIN PLAY!