With Sonny's teams (aside from his year 1), there always seemed to be a chance of Cal scoring a bunch of points quickly and making a game of it, even when the game was out of hand. Now, as soon as Cal is down by 10, it feels like being down 35.
Unfortunately this is not true, as I attended nearly every single one of those games. The CA schools were a guaranteed loss every year, and when games got close, Sonny kicked field goals.
Sonny won a total of one game against CA schools in his tenure at Cal. One.
The coach he is now and the coach he was at Cal are not the same.
I'm not debating that USC, UCLA, and Furd were better than Cal while Dykes was here. The gap closed a bit under Wilcox, but now seems to be widening again. Judging a coach on his record against CA teams is not the best metric (not the worst either); it depends on how good those teams were during his tenure. Stanford in particular has not been a constant; they were much better for a run of years during peak Harbargh-Shaw than they were before or after.
Never boring???? Did you see any of our games against California schools in that era? Boring as hell and blowouts to boot
With Sonny's teams (aside from his year 1), there always seemed to be a chance of Cal scoring a bunch of points quickly and making a game of it, even when the game was out of hand. Now, as soon as Cal is down by 10, it feels like being down 35.
Unfortunately this is not true, as I attended nearly every single one of those games. The CA schools were a guaranteed loss every year, and when games got close, Sonny kicked field goals.
Sonny won a total of one game against CA schools in his tenure at Cal. One.
The coach he is now and the coach he was at Cal are not the same.
Wilcox may have broken the streak against USC, but not because of his ability of a coach. Specifically because of Helton's lack thereof.
I'm not debating that USC, UCLA, and Furd were better than Cal while Dykes was here. The gap closed a bit under Wilcox, but now seems to be widening again. Judging a coach on his record against CA teams is not the best metric (not the worst either); it depends on how good those teams were during his tenure. Stanford in particular has not been a constant; they were much better for a run of years during peak Harbargh-Shaw than they were before or after.
Excluding his 1-11 season, here are your results:
USC 0-3.
Closest loss: 27-21
Biggest loss: 45-24
Stanford, 0-3.
Closest loss: 35-22 ЁЯШЦ
Biggest loss: 38-17
UCLA, 1-3.
Closest loss: 36-34
Win: 36-10
Biggest Loss: 40-24 (Cal ranked #20)
That was the biggest mark against Sonny: the games against Furd were never close.
Yes, Furd was much better in those years. But still, there was just never any hope in a Big Game.