36 Comments
author

Great hire imho. He comes in as a first-time bonafide DB coach and it's not like he's being dropped into hot water, he has an abundance of support from Wilcox, Heyward, and Conry when it comes to coaching, he's young, already got a strong track-record with the Oregon secondary and be a boon in recruiting due to his age and story as a walk-on. 10/10

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Mar 5, 2021Liked by Avinash Kunnath, Piotr Le

What more could Cal do to prove they're the best place for DB recruits? The staff has coached up players such as Jaire Alexander, Camryn Bynum, Adoree' Jackson, Kevin King, Marcus Peters, Ashtyn Davis, and Jaylinn Hawkins. Not to mention even the secondary staff themselves get picked up the NFLand turn players into First Team All-Pro.

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author

One of the great limiting factors is money. We have a small budget due to Cal-specific dynamics. We can't pay assistants a lot of money.

Cal's 2020 assistant coach base salary pool totalled $3.655m (average 365.5k/per 10 assistant coach). This is compared to:

$5.2m for Washington,

$5.1m for Oregon

$4.3m UCLA

$4.3m Utah

$3.9m WSU

$3.7m ASU

$3.655 Cal

$3.5m OSU

$3.4m Colorado

$3.4m Arizona

n/a: Stanfurd

After adjusting for the cost of living, Cal pays the lowest salary in the Pac-12 (albeit with some great perks of being in the Bay Area).

So if we're looking to hire a new coach, we can't offer a lot of money. We have to offer other opportunities - a pathway to DC by giving a position coach a new assignment (Heyward), a chance (Browning, Watson, Thompson, Tosh Lupoi), or a place to rebound after a recent flop/purge (DeRuyter, Sirmon, Ragle, Yates, Greatwood).

Anybody can ask why we can't get a great, experienced, proven coach and the answer is because we can't afford them. Although this is amateur sports, it's still a business and we're the Tampa Bay Devil Rays in the uneven, unfair world of college football.

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author

LOVE this hire, mainly for the fact that he's someone who can relate to the kids not only on an athletic level but also personally. That's crucial for the college experience and I value that a lot with the coaches, as opposed to older coaches where time passed them by.

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Mar 5, 2021Liked by Avinash Kunnath, Piotr Le

I was confused at first because he has the same name as a former Cal running back that transferred to Texas

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Mar 5, 2021Liked by Piotr Le

Wow. Really feels like Wilcox is building a Pac12 winning coaching staff. Between recruiting and coaching. He seems to really know what Cal needs to be at the top. We've already been beating Oregon, UW and U$C. A bit more consistency and we are Pac12 champions. Other than ST, I like all our coaches across the board. This will be a year of many new coaches though, and time will tell if the combination of recruiting chops and coaching chops can take us to the Roses!

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Mar 5, 2021Liked by Avinash Kunnath

I'm happy with any DB coach that can, apparently, jump as high as Coach Alexander could.

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I looked up alma mater of all the assistant coaches under Wilcox.

Wilcox - Oregon

Musgrave - Oregon

Sirmon - Oregon

Greatwood - Oregon

Alexander - Boise State

Browning - Boise State

Thompson - Boise State

Yates - Boise State

Tuiasosopo - Washington

Watson - Washington

Baldwin - Central Washington

Edwards - Easterm Washington

Toler - Cal

McClure - Sacramento State

DeRuyter - Air Force

Ragle - Eastern New Mexico

Tuioti - Hawaii

Azzinaro - American Indian College

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Based on him having a giant beard, I'm already in favor.

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Like the two new hires. It’s great to have young recruit-relatable guys like Watson in the mix, particularly because he’s at the young apprentice stage where hopefully he’ll be developing his chops and stick around for a couple of years.

I’m excited about Chryst’s deep background in analytics. Should provide some MUCH NEEDED help in game management. Plus he and Musgrave have worked together recently, and so hopefully can form a brain trust like the one that has worked so well on the defensive side.

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Sounds like a great hire!!!

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