Have to do something about the kicking game - short kick offs are really a problem and are going to bite us at some point. Combine that with poor kick off tackling and it's really a big problem that must be addressed ASAP.
We gave up a ~60 yard return to Wagner and two massive returns to Syracuse that got called back. The return coverage looks really out of sync right now.
Those three kicks would definitely cost us a game against ANY ACC team. Haven't watched Tosh post-game yet, but man, that and Mason Mini's holdings would be first and foremost in the "we need to clean things up"
Nobody gonna mention that Brousseau came in and went 8/10? I thought he looked sharper than JKS on the short passing game (he gets rid of the ball faster)....obviously, not tough competition, but I think we have a promising back up.
Also, JKS is so good when he rolls out. Why don't we have more play action that feeds into one of his great strengths. Is it that he has been hobbled a bit?
This was not an impressive win. The offense still does not have what it takes to play with the best in the ACC. JKS is still having trouble with his supporting cast of WR’s and it was Mohammed who was again the bright spot on offense. And if they can’t actually play consistently well against an obviously overmatched Wagner when the final score is really irrelevant, how will they ever beat an ACC contender. Thank God we don’t play Miami this year; or Ohio State or Notre Dame, etc. This team is not at the level of P4 teams and would be demolished by any of the top contenders in the SEC and the BigGodKnowsHowManyTeams conferences.
This is a building year for coaches and players not an “Indiana Miracle” year or even a UCLA turnaround built on wholesale transfers of coaching staffs, players and systems. I’m now just hoping for incremental improvements from week to week and a win over Stanford.
Rather than the unrealistic immediate transformation we fans hoped for during the preseason, this program is a work in progress and will just take a lot more time to get where we impatient fans want it to be. Until then, CMS will remain pretty much like it was today, whether the tarps are on or off will make no difference.
I thought the same thing and the video of the concert afterwards was glorious. Saw it suggested that they always do this for our lower tier games. Great idea.
Cal won against a team that Cal should have beaten.
We are not looking at a Cal team that threatens to lose to an inferior team.
This Cal team has enough skill and talent to be able to make the right plays at the right time.
The question that everyone wants the answer to is:
Will Cal make the right plays at the right time, enough times, to be a force in the ACC?
With the number of players that were inhaled through the transfer portal, scattered across different teams with different coaches with different football identities, it would seem that the 2026 problem that most P4 teams face is, "How do we get all these players on the same page fast enough to make a difference?"
QB: Money.
O-Line: Needs more push
D-Line: Mostly serviceable at this level of talent. Against bigger guys we need more beef.
WR: Fewer drops than last 2 weeks. Seeing flashes of cohesion, but not De Jesus levels. I would say they need to learn how to do more perimeter blocking, but without an elite O-line, they'd just be doing pushing drills.
RB: Looks nice. Could use a little more elusiveness.
Secondary: More Lopa. If our safeties can lock down just a little better, we can throw more linebackers toward Run support - MLB just has to watch for misdirection plays at an elite level.
Kicking: Where is Tavecchio? I'm sure he can come back from the NFL for one season right?
Two ways to think about it I suppose. 1) It's boring, not creative, and going to be an issue all year or 2) We ran a vanilla offense against an FCS opponent and put stuff on tape to run wrinkles off of later.
The reality is that its probably somewhere between those two. We definitely need to stretch the field more.
Oh well, I guess 36 years of being a Head high school coach in California and winning 12 League Championships and 4 CIF section Championships and the being a ILB coach in college makes me know what I'm talking about.
YES! UCLA was creative and exploited all of our weaknesses -- we were just boring and ineffective. We got lucky in Western NY. And Wagner? Does it mean anything?
BTW, Ian Strong became my favorite player on the team this week with his TWO downfield blocks! Remember Kevin Riley's block for Jahvid @ UCLA on that 93 yarder? Was such dedication! Nothing more exciting (to me) than a legal downfield block!
the score would have been higher but Lupoi's staff put in a lot of 2nds and 3rds in the 2nd half which slowed down the offense pretty much and weakened the defense also. I applaud Tosh for not trying to run up the score and to build moral by giving a lot of players actual game experience
I agree we did not look sharp until the Grayes play -- and even then... Mohammed looked great, but the blocking did not. His big runs came after he beat a defender at or near the line of scrimmage when we should be opening gaping holes for him to walk through against a team like this. I don't know enough about scheme to talk intelligently about what we should change, but I do know what we're doing ain't it. We make getting five yards or a first down look incredibly hard. Even last year I had more faith that our O could move the ball consistently. Please, Rolo, please, simplify the offense and learn how to sequence the play calls -- scheme for successful first downs with many fewer slow developing zone read runs. Why no RPO? Why cannot we not scheme receivers free in the middle of the field in the short to medium deep part of the field? Everyone knows we are looking deep and to the sidelines -- every freakin' time. The offense so far is a coaching junk-show. And special teams??? For the birds. I dearly hope that we see a different show Friday night but I'm dearly worried we could end up blowing what should be a win against a pedestrian Clemson team travelling cross-country on a short week.
Why revert back to using British syntax and grammatical conventions? Next will we be using British English spelling conventions?
I prefer singular verbs for single team names--"Cal flattens Wagner" or "Cal rolls past Wagner". Plural verbs are for plural team names--"The Bears flatten Wagner".
Happy we flatten Wagner for a nice win and a 2-1 record. However, I don't see receivers getting open, or on the same page as JKS... Can we get Jacob DeJesus back from KC's practice squad? The D is looking better, but the GBs will struggle from here on out with the overall O weaknesses and questionable play calling. Even the announcers on the ACC Network pointed this out... GO BEARS.
The game was essentially a scrimmage for us. The O-line showed improvement which is the most important takeaway. Friday will reveal where we really are -- it will be fun to watch. Go Bears!
Very nice to get a laugher…honestly can’t remember the last time we had one like this.
Wagner was simply overmatched….a De La Salle/Seahawks matchup likely would’ve been competitive.
Big picture, there are still plenty of things to work on…namely special teams and the OL…until those become passable units v P4, fear our ceiling may be limited. A still developing coaching staff has the right to improve, but they’re probably gonna have to if this club is to hit 8 or 9 W’s.
But it was certainly a glorious day at CMS and this was a quality, decisive win.
Hmmm, did we play Plough last year? I thought it was the year before and that game was way too close and Ott got hurt in 2H when ideally he would have been watching a blow out.
I agree. But Clemson is not that. They have looked worse than Cal this year and bottom of conference statistically. This is a game Cal should win, and has to win, especially at home.
Maybe I don't expect us to win against anyone anymore. I just see Muhammed getting tackled for short gains, JKS getting pressured, and us giving up huge yards on punts and kickoffs.
Like, isn't Syracuse at the bottom of the conference, and we only pulled off an historically improbable win?
I don't disagree with you. Cal hasn't shown it can be trusted to win any ACC game this year. Until they get some consistency, every game is a crap shoot.
"Cal’s offense did not look productive until Kyion Grayes took a short passing concept 80 yards for a touchdown assisted by a cracking block by Ian Strong."
I really hope Tosh plays this tape and rather than praising Ian, he points out how we almost lost the TD because he was too busy staring at Kyion celebrating rather than looking for someone to block. Almost gave me a heart attack. He only blocked him because he happen to look and saw him just in time. Every time a player does this where he runs down the sideline looking at his teammate celebrating while an opposing player has an angle - it makes me go crazy.
Have to do something about the kicking game - short kick offs are really a problem and are going to bite us at some point. Combine that with poor kick off tackling and it's really a big problem that must be addressed ASAP.
We gave up a ~60 yard return to Wagner and two massive returns to Syracuse that got called back. The return coverage looks really out of sync right now.
Do you think the coaching staff was practicing something with those kick offs? Like can we get close being out of bounds but die a few yards inbound?
They can try that out at practice.
As many times as they want
Those three kicks would definitely cost us a game against ANY ACC team. Haven't watched Tosh post-game yet, but man, that and Mason Mini's holdings would be first and foremost in the "we need to clean things up"
Nobody gonna mention that Brousseau came in and went 8/10? I thought he looked sharper than JKS on the short passing game (he gets rid of the ball faster)....obviously, not tough competition, but I think we have a promising back up.
Also, JKS is so good when he rolls out. Why don't we have more play action that feeds into one of his great strengths. Is it that he has been hobbled a bit?
This was not an impressive win. The offense still does not have what it takes to play with the best in the ACC. JKS is still having trouble with his supporting cast of WR’s and it was Mohammed who was again the bright spot on offense. And if they can’t actually play consistently well against an obviously overmatched Wagner when the final score is really irrelevant, how will they ever beat an ACC contender. Thank God we don’t play Miami this year; or Ohio State or Notre Dame, etc. This team is not at the level of P4 teams and would be demolished by any of the top contenders in the SEC and the BigGodKnowsHowManyTeams conferences.
This is a building year for coaches and players not an “Indiana Miracle” year or even a UCLA turnaround built on wholesale transfers of coaching staffs, players and systems. I’m now just hoping for incremental improvements from week to week and a win over Stanford.
Rather than the unrealistic immediate transformation we fans hoped for during the preseason, this program is a work in progress and will just take a lot more time to get where we impatient fans want it to be. Until then, CMS will remain pretty much like it was today, whether the tarps are on or off will make no difference.
The attendance was actually quite good for an FCS opponent
I thought the same thing and the video of the concert afterwards was glorious. Saw it suggested that they always do this for our lower tier games. Great idea.
I think the urgency to be great was the product of having a generational talent at QB who is effectively wasted by being on a rebuilding team.
With that said, the Indiana Miracle came in season 2 not season 1.. but it's still called miraculous for a reason.
But yeah, this is a multi year process for the program, looking ahead to 2030+ conference realignment, well beyond JKS (if he's even here next year).
Let's get this out of the way first.
Cal won against a team that Cal should have beaten.
We are not looking at a Cal team that threatens to lose to an inferior team.
This Cal team has enough skill and talent to be able to make the right plays at the right time.
The question that everyone wants the answer to is:
Will Cal make the right plays at the right time, enough times, to be a force in the ACC?
With the number of players that were inhaled through the transfer portal, scattered across different teams with different coaches with different football identities, it would seem that the 2026 problem that most P4 teams face is, "How do we get all these players on the same page fast enough to make a difference?"
QB: Money.
O-Line: Needs more push
D-Line: Mostly serviceable at this level of talent. Against bigger guys we need more beef.
WR: Fewer drops than last 2 weeks. Seeing flashes of cohesion, but not De Jesus levels. I would say they need to learn how to do more perimeter blocking, but without an elite O-line, they'd just be doing pushing drills.
RB: Looks nice. Could use a little more elusiveness.
Secondary: More Lopa. If our safeties can lock down just a little better, we can throw more linebackers toward Run support - MLB just has to watch for misdirection plays at an elite level.
Kicking: Where is Tavecchio? I'm sure he can come back from the NFL for one season right?
Offensive play calling is so bad
The running offense in the playbook is way too generic. No deception at all. reverse?, counters? draws? QB boots? and more. . .
Two ways to think about it I suppose. 1) It's boring, not creative, and going to be an issue all year or 2) We ran a vanilla offense against an FCS opponent and put stuff on tape to run wrinkles off of later.
The reality is that its probably somewhere between those two. We definitely need to stretch the field more.
Yes you're right. I surmise that they didn't want to show too much for Clemson to see and prepare for.
We’ve run a vanilla offense for 3 games. What’re you talking about ?
Oh well, I guess 36 years of being a Head high school coach in California and winning 12 League Championships and 4 CIF section Championships and the being a ILB coach in college makes me know what I'm talking about.
YES! UCLA was creative and exploited all of our weaknesses -- we were just boring and ineffective. We got lucky in Western NY. And Wagner? Does it mean anything?
We’re saving it for the ACC championship game.
BTW, Ian Strong became my favorite player on the team this week with his TWO downfield blocks! Remember Kevin Riley's block for Jahvid @ UCLA on that 93 yarder? Was such dedication! Nothing more exciting (to me) than a legal downfield block!
the score would have been higher but Lupoi's staff put in a lot of 2nds and 3rds in the 2nd half which slowed down the offense pretty much and weakened the defense also. I applaud Tosh for not trying to run up the score and to build moral by giving a lot of players actual game experience
glad grayes got a TD, he was one of the wilcox transfers that stuck with us
I remember his rub was that he lacked toughness. Glad he's pushing through
“Cal’s offense did not look productive until Kyion Grayes…”
Were we watching the same game? Cal had already put together two 75-yard *scoring* drives to open the game. That was pretty productive.
I agree we did not look sharp until the Grayes play -- and even then... Mohammed looked great, but the blocking did not. His big runs came after he beat a defender at or near the line of scrimmage when we should be opening gaping holes for him to walk through against a team like this. I don't know enough about scheme to talk intelligently about what we should change, but I do know what we're doing ain't it. We make getting five yards or a first down look incredibly hard. Even last year I had more faith that our O could move the ball consistently. Please, Rolo, please, simplify the offense and learn how to sequence the play calls -- scheme for successful first downs with many fewer slow developing zone read runs. Why no RPO? Why cannot we not scheme receivers free in the middle of the field in the short to medium deep part of the field? Everyone knows we are looking deep and to the sidelines -- every freakin' time. The offense so far is a coaching junk-show. And special teams??? For the birds. I dearly hope that we see a different show Friday night but I'm dearly worried we could end up blowing what should be a win against a pedestrian Clemson team travelling cross-country on a short week.
It appears with headlines we’ve gone all in on European football style and syntax: “Cal flatten Wagner”, “Cal win handily”.
Why revert back to using British syntax and grammatical conventions? Next will we be using British English spelling conventions?
I prefer singular verbs for single team names--"Cal flattens Wagner" or "Cal rolls past Wagner". Plural verbs are for plural team names--"The Bears flatten Wagner".
I like this comment -- and also like the Euro syntax. Especially because it really could be more fuel for the WokeMobCalgorithm.
Happy we flatten Wagner for a nice win and a 2-1 record. However, I don't see receivers getting open, or on the same page as JKS... Can we get Jacob DeJesus back from KC's practice squad? The D is looking better, but the GBs will struggle from here on out with the overall O weaknesses and questionable play calling. Even the announcers on the ACC Network pointed this out... GO BEARS.
The game was essentially a scrimmage for us. The O-line showed improvement which is the most important takeaway. Friday will reveal where we really are -- it will be fun to watch. Go Bears!
Thanks JMG!
Very nice to get a laugher…honestly can’t remember the last time we had one like this.
Wagner was simply overmatched….a De La Salle/Seahawks matchup likely would’ve been competitive.
Big picture, there are still plenty of things to work on…namely special teams and the OL…until those become passable units v P4, fear our ceiling may be limited. A still developing coaching staff has the right to improve, but they’re probably gonna have to if this club is to hit 8 or 9 W’s.
But it was certainly a glorious day at CMS and this was a quality, decisive win.
We scored 51 points on UC Davis last year. But they also scored 21 points.
Last time we held an FCS opponent to single digit score was in 2010, also against UC Davis. 52-3. That was Keenan Allen's debut for Cal.
Hmmm, did we play Plough last year? I thought it was the year before and that game was way too close and Ott got hurt in 2H when ideally he would have been watching a blow out.
You were completely right. We did not play Davis last year. In 2024 it was 31-13.
I dunno. I used Google to tell me past fcs opponent records. Not sure how accurate it was.
On our second touchdown, #74 RT did not block anybody. It was all Mohammed single person effort
https://youtu.be/5InDpzUuS9c?t=68&si=f0uM33lIwvEalOcV
Cal must beat Clemson at home. No excuses. Clemson is not a very good team, with an inexperienced QB.
I'm not liking our chances against anyone in the top half of the conference.
We have a mid-major offensive line and special teams are a disaster.
I think this Wagner game, if nothing, really highlighted the fact that those problems are indeed very real, and they are here to stay this year.
But I hope to be wrong!
I agree. But Clemson is not that. They have looked worse than Cal this year and bottom of conference statistically. This is a game Cal should win, and has to win, especially at home.
So Florida St 2 years ago then?
Maybe I don't expect us to win against anyone anymore. I just see Muhammed getting tackled for short gains, JKS getting pressured, and us giving up huge yards on punts and kickoffs.
Like, isn't Syracuse at the bottom of the conference, and we only pulled off an historically improbable win?
I don't disagree with you. Cal hasn't shown it can be trusted to win any ACC game this year. Until they get some consistency, every game is a crap shoot.
Hopefully they will at least be entertaining!
"Cal’s offense did not look productive until Kyion Grayes took a short passing concept 80 yards for a touchdown assisted by a cracking block by Ian Strong."
I really hope Tosh plays this tape and rather than praising Ian, he points out how we almost lost the TD because he was too busy staring at Kyion celebrating rather than looking for someone to block. Almost gave me a heart attack. He only blocked him because he happen to look and saw him just in time. Every time a player does this where he runs down the sideline looking at his teammate celebrating while an opposing player has an angle - it makes me go crazy.