The Cal cognoscenti have talked about the two-year window of this season and next before the next big wave of conference realignment. Cal is putting its chips on the table. It's all-in time. Cal either succeeds in a major way and becomes relevant to big-time college football or Cal will find itself on the outside looking in, which would essentially be the end.
With the Lyons, Ron, Tosh alignment and the positive changes, Cal is mounting its best efforts to succeed. Failure is not an option.
One of the things that caught my attention in a recent interview with Coach Lupoi was him saying that he hired coordinators that were smarter than himself. He is focused on building a winning program, not his own ego. Pumped for Saturday, and then Cal has another Golden After Dark opportunity against Clemson a few weeks later. Get out to Memorial and get crazy with me and your fellow Bear fans!!!
The VIBE is SO different under Tosh, thank goodness! Recruiting, NIL $$, and keeping existing players are so key to the college game today, and Tosh has proven so far he has the ability to execute on these vectors (RR too)! With upgrades at key talent positions, and experience coaching line play (esp Dline play), one hopes the team and coaching gels in 2026. I don't want field goals in Q4 deciding games for Cal, rather I went the GBs to step on the necks of their competition and choking them out, starting with the Baby Bruins. Oh to see a Cal team that executes like the 1984 49ers! GO BEARS!!!
Well said, Daniel. You captured the essence of 2026 Cal Football. It starts at the top (Chancellor Lyons) then to the CEO (GM Rivera) and then to the HC (Tosh). People want to invest where there is strong leadership and a good product and the NIL money is following (thanks Kevin Kennedy, for your leadership).
The dominoes are all lined up. Let’s Play! Go Bears
Excellent assessment. The fan base expectations of this team and coaching staff are through the roof. A strong showing against UCLA is a crucial piece of the puzzle that Lyons, RR, and Tosh have put together. And, yes, I think the UCLA game is a must win, the bigger and more decisive the better as it will set the tone for the season. It’s hard to believe that JKS with his new WRs and, for once, a potentially lethal running game, won’t be able to guide the offense to multiple TD’s while the defense causes havoc in the UCLA backfield. September 5th is a big day for the football program to demonstrate that Cal is no longer content to field a “representative team” but is fully committed to this new era of NIL syndicates, portal transfers, and Power 5 football. Buckle up, Bears. We’re in for one hell of a wild ride!
"the natural aura and energy brought in by a coach who understands how to win, how to recruit, how to fundraise, and specifically, how to embrace Berkeley and the Bay Area – is the breath of fresh air that only a walk through Strawberry Creek in October can match."....beautifully said. Now lets go effing win!
I bought season tickets back in January as soon as Coach Lupoi managed to retain our QB. I am so looking forward to the new regime with the University in alignment of how important it is to succeed in Football. We experienced our existential crisis a few years ago and we’ll see where we can go from here.
"The coach wants to host concerts at California Memorial Stadium, a huge middle finger to the NIMBYs in the Panoramic Hill Association."
I firmly believe that most of the people on Panoramic Hill love UC Berkeley (and Cal football) dearly, and several probably attended the 1990 McCartney concert. Let's try to keep in mind the horrifying loss of life a year and a half after that show when the 1991 Oakland firestorm erupted.
Panoramic Hill is a treasure of a neighborhood and, despite being filled with elderly curmudgeons, doesn't deserve to be trapped in the unlikely yet potentially deadly event of a fire, especially if that occurred simultaneously to an event in Strawberry Canyon. As annoying as PHA can be, they spend an enormous amount of time worrying about disaster preparation and how to keep people safe.
While PHA may or may not be NIMBY, they've become an easy target for football fans who have forgotten about the 3,400 homes destroyed in an instant and the 25 people burned alive in their cars when 10,000 neighbors couldn't evacuate fast enough. Thank god there weren't 70,000 more evacuees. Not all of their lawsuits are designed to annoy football fans, some are designed to save lives. Let's not point too many middle fingers at fellow Cal fans.
Otherwise, great article, thank you for Writing for California.
“I wear the blue and gold with a lot of pride and I really do believe UCLA is the best public university in the country,” Bhaghani said. “I really do put a lot on that game, and everybody on our team will, as a season opener, two schools with brand new head coaches. It’s going to be a shootout, and we’ll come out on top.”
I am not intending to be a D Downer, as I am highly caught up in this wave of optimism and renewal. I do, however, want to know my esteemed fellow commenters and the WFC contributors’ thoughts on the recently released CTE study in the NYT.
Here’s a brief recap from a followup story, in which I would replace the context of “parents” with college football fans who love the sport and always have:
“According to that study of hundreds of cases over a recent six-year period, at least one in four of all the people who have played in the N.F.L. might expect to end up with chronic traumatic encephalopathy, the degenerative brain disease thought to come from repeated hits to the head in contact sports. The disease, known as C.T.E., can cause behavioral changes, rage, memory loss, depression and advanced dementia.
The new information added yet another layer of fear, uncertainty or guilt — sometimes all three — to parents who have, sometimes reluctantly, let their children play tackle football.”
This (CTE) has been known and often discussed for 15 - 20 years. The biggest change to this have been rules on tackling (targeting). This rule has changed a lot ~ but not all ~ of the dangerous tackles. Football, at every level, could do better by changing/enforcing tackling. That is to say, tackles must be like rugby tackles. No hitting (shoulder only) but must be wrapped up (arms). I know several NFL teams have brought in rugby coaches to discuss these topics.
Certainly this will not solve all the problems. I myself received a brutal concussion while playing rugby at Cal when an opponents knee smashed the side of my skull. So, concussions will still happen in both sports.
I personally prefer to watch teams that display good form tackling. I think the game has "cleaned" up quite a bit but has a ways to go.
Been seeing for a while the extra helmet padding that college players have been using in practice. Not sure if the NFL is using it. I also wonder how much CTE damage is due to the actual games, or is a sizable contribution due to rigors of practice.
I’m really hoping that there are solutions that save the excitement of the games while giving the players a decent degree of safety.
Thank you, Wiata78. I’m feeling some guilt for supporting something so dangerous, yet I also understand these are adults making adult choices. It’s also true that human brains are not fully formed until mid to late 20s. So this is a critical time for the players. If everyone wore the big puffy helmets in practice and in games, maybe that would be a start.
Searches on this topic, like many searches these days, yield plenty of people expressing opinions with no basis provided; also opportunities to spend money.
The Cal cognoscenti have talked about the two-year window of this season and next before the next big wave of conference realignment. Cal is putting its chips on the table. It's all-in time. Cal either succeeds in a major way and becomes relevant to big-time college football or Cal will find itself on the outside looking in, which would essentially be the end.
With the Lyons, Ron, Tosh alignment and the positive changes, Cal is mounting its best efforts to succeed. Failure is not an option.
One of the things that caught my attention in a recent interview with Coach Lupoi was him saying that he hired coordinators that were smarter than himself. He is focused on building a winning program, not his own ego. Pumped for Saturday, and then Cal has another Golden After Dark opportunity against Clemson a few weeks later. Get out to Memorial and get crazy with me and your fellow Bear fans!!!
The VIBE is SO different under Tosh, thank goodness! Recruiting, NIL $$, and keeping existing players are so key to the college game today, and Tosh has proven so far he has the ability to execute on these vectors (RR too)! With upgrades at key talent positions, and experience coaching line play (esp Dline play), one hopes the team and coaching gels in 2026. I don't want field goals in Q4 deciding games for Cal, rather I went the GBs to step on the necks of their competition and choking them out, starting with the Baby Bruins. Oh to see a Cal team that executes like the 1984 49ers! GO BEARS!!!
Well said, Daniel. You captured the essence of 2026 Cal Football. It starts at the top (Chancellor Lyons) then to the CEO (GM Rivera) and then to the HC (Tosh). People want to invest where there is strong leadership and a good product and the NIL money is following (thanks Kevin Kennedy, for your leadership).
The dominoes are all lined up. Let’s Play! Go Bears
Excellent assessment. The fan base expectations of this team and coaching staff are through the roof. A strong showing against UCLA is a crucial piece of the puzzle that Lyons, RR, and Tosh have put together. And, yes, I think the UCLA game is a must win, the bigger and more decisive the better as it will set the tone for the season. It’s hard to believe that JKS with his new WRs and, for once, a potentially lethal running game, won’t be able to guide the offense to multiple TD’s while the defense causes havoc in the UCLA backfield. September 5th is a big day for the football program to demonstrate that Cal is no longer content to field a “representative team” but is fully committed to this new era of NIL syndicates, portal transfers, and Power 5 football. Buckle up, Bears. We’re in for one hell of a wild ride!
"the natural aura and energy brought in by a coach who understands how to win, how to recruit, how to fundraise, and specifically, how to embrace Berkeley and the Bay Area – is the breath of fresh air that only a walk through Strawberry Creek in October can match."....beautifully said. Now lets go effing win!
I bought season tickets back in January as soon as Coach Lupoi managed to retain our QB. I am so looking forward to the new regime with the University in alignment of how important it is to succeed in Football. We experienced our existential crisis a few years ago and we’ll see where we can go from here.
"The coach wants to host concerts at California Memorial Stadium, a huge middle finger to the NIMBYs in the Panoramic Hill Association."
I firmly believe that most of the people on Panoramic Hill love UC Berkeley (and Cal football) dearly, and several probably attended the 1990 McCartney concert. Let's try to keep in mind the horrifying loss of life a year and a half after that show when the 1991 Oakland firestorm erupted.
Panoramic Hill is a treasure of a neighborhood and, despite being filled with elderly curmudgeons, doesn't deserve to be trapped in the unlikely yet potentially deadly event of a fire, especially if that occurred simultaneously to an event in Strawberry Canyon. As annoying as PHA can be, they spend an enormous amount of time worrying about disaster preparation and how to keep people safe.
While PHA may or may not be NIMBY, they've become an easy target for football fans who have forgotten about the 3,400 homes destroyed in an instant and the 25 people burned alive in their cars when 10,000 neighbors couldn't evacuate fast enough. Thank god there weren't 70,000 more evacuees. Not all of their lawsuits are designed to annoy football fans, some are designed to save lives. Let's not point too many middle fingers at fellow Cal fans.
Otherwise, great article, thank you for Writing for California.
Go Bears.
Bulletin board material from the LAT:
“I wear the blue and gold with a lot of pride and I really do believe UCLA is the best public university in the country,” Bhaghani said. “I really do put a lot on that game, and everybody on our team will, as a season opener, two schools with brand new head coaches. It’s going to be a shootout, and we’ll come out on top.”
This may be poor timing.
I am not intending to be a D Downer, as I am highly caught up in this wave of optimism and renewal. I do, however, want to know my esteemed fellow commenters and the WFC contributors’ thoughts on the recently released CTE study in the NYT.
Here’s a brief recap from a followup story, in which I would replace the context of “parents” with college football fans who love the sport and always have:
“According to that study of hundreds of cases over a recent six-year period, at least one in four of all the people who have played in the N.F.L. might expect to end up with chronic traumatic encephalopathy, the degenerative brain disease thought to come from repeated hits to the head in contact sports. The disease, known as C.T.E., can cause behavioral changes, rage, memory loss, depression and advanced dementia.
The new information added yet another layer of fear, uncertainty or guilt — sometimes all three — to parents who have, sometimes reluctantly, let their children play tackle football.”
Thank you for your consideration.
This (CTE) has been known and often discussed for 15 - 20 years. The biggest change to this have been rules on tackling (targeting). This rule has changed a lot ~ but not all ~ of the dangerous tackles. Football, at every level, could do better by changing/enforcing tackling. That is to say, tackles must be like rugby tackles. No hitting (shoulder only) but must be wrapped up (arms). I know several NFL teams have brought in rugby coaches to discuss these topics.
Certainly this will not solve all the problems. I myself received a brutal concussion while playing rugby at Cal when an opponents knee smashed the side of my skull. So, concussions will still happen in both sports.
I personally prefer to watch teams that display good form tackling. I think the game has "cleaned" up quite a bit but has a ways to go.
CF, thanks for bringing this up.
Been seeing for a while the extra helmet padding that college players have been using in practice. Not sure if the NFL is using it. I also wonder how much CTE damage is due to the actual games, or is a sizable contribution due to rigors of practice.
I’m really hoping that there are solutions that save the excitement of the games while giving the players a decent degree of safety.
Thank you, Wiata78. I’m feeling some guilt for supporting something so dangerous, yet I also understand these are adults making adult choices. It’s also true that human brains are not fully formed until mid to late 20s. So this is a critical time for the players. If everyone wore the big puffy helmets in practice and in games, maybe that would be a start.
Link for a study of helmet add-ons:
https://www.helmet.beam.vt.edu/football-helmet-add-ons.html
Searches on this topic, like many searches these days, yield plenty of people expressing opinions with no basis provided; also opportunities to spend money.