My mind wanders to... Garrett Riley. That would be a great hire for OC, and poetic in ways that exceed imagination. If the money is there for 2023 as claimed, might as well aim high.
1. Greatwood is a great Oline coach but bringing him on as analyst screams of concerns about how he may work with Musgrave and Angus.
2. The problem with our offense is not just Oline play. It's solidly a problem of play calling and execution. Adding Greatwood is not going to likely help Musgrave call a different game as he has only coached the players to do the plays he calls!
3. This is the least amount of change I can imagine Wilcox making given the dumpster fire the offense is. To put another way, this is feeble. I hear what others say about the financial wisdom of it, but darn it, how likely is this to amount to any difference in the actual scoring of our team? I'm very doubtful.
4. Who here thinks this change will go over well with Angus? The players may be loyal to Angus and not be receptive to Greatwood. Or if they are tired of Angus, and only listen to Greatwood, then why keep Angus on?
5. We need the entire brain trust of our offense to be people who understand how offense is played in 2022, and not in 1986.
Mugrave's play calling is fine. We have an o-line that does ok against a 3 or 4 man front but with more number in the box and in blitz and delayed blitz situations they are terrible. We have a QB that can't figure out you don't run into an 8 man box (or 7 for that matter), you throw to your hot read and you don't check down to get there because by the time you do the defense has figured it out. We have a QB who can't see a blitz coming even when its perfectly obvious. We have a QB who gets happy feet and forgets all his coaching when he is under just a little pressure; he won't stand in the pocket to deliver the ball and take a hit (the Goff used to do). He scrambles early and misses easy throws. Those easy throws put us in 2nd and deep and third and deep situations. The defenses take away our run and dare us to throw and we fail. Our O-line needs to be a lot better and so does our QB. I expect to see Kai Milner on the field against UW if Plummer starts out the way he did at CO.
I’m curious if “bringing him on as an analyst” is the political way of sidelining a dead man walking coach without having to formally fire him before the contract ends.
I wonder that too. That would honestly make more sense from a leadership perspective than asking those guys to co-exist in a power struggle sort of way. Just hope it is clear to the players.
I can’t imagine theres a lot of loyalty to McClure. If I’m a player in offense, I would welcome any change. Especially on the o-line; no way those guys have an NFL career the way things are going now.
We have had a few undrafted offensive players make a practice roster or get signed as UDFA but no one have their name actually called at the draft. I am not sure what Wilcox and staff can sell HS recruits right now. We aren’t winning, our offense is stagnant and no offensive players get drafted. That is all before we even get into conference realignment.
I'm guessing their hope is that if we fix the o-line play, then Plummer isn't literally dying in the backfield and has enough time to make the reads that make Musgrave's play calling not look idiotic.
This would have been a great addition…..2 weeks ago when we were on our bye week.
This certainly will help and at least gives fans some hope that Wilcox is trying something, even if it is a day late and a dollar short.
I agree with GEAT, this is an upgrade to Angus but I was a bit underwhelmed with Greatwood while he was at Cal. His OLs were never very good but as average as they were, even being just average would be a step up from what we have seen the last 2 seasons.
This feels like a compromise to me, as in people say Wilcox down and said he had to fire Angus and he said no so they settled on bringing in a “consultant” so we are basically throwing good money at bad and just wasting more resources on a doomed staff.
This is as strong a repudiation of his current staff as I'd ever expect Wilcox to make. He's been pissed for weeks, and now he brings back his previous O-line coach, basically telling our staff "you're not good enough, we're going back to the way that was working better."
The writing is on the wall for post-season changes—but whether we have the funds and reputation to make good offensive staff hires remains to be seen.
It actually makes business sense for the Athletic Department to give him an extra $1 million more to upgrade his coordinator(s) than it does to set him up to fail and have to buy him out in another year. Improves his odds, but he still needs to nail the hire(s).
meh, while Greatwood had a good career his few years here at Cal did not have great OLs. I don't mind the stop gap until the end of year but I assure you the next OL coach at Cal will not be Greatwood. (I never liked the initial Greatwood hire but I'm OK with this for a few months).
I severely doubt he’s coming back to coach coach. He retired for a reason and the word was he took on the cal gig saying it would be his last. They probably called in a favor to help OL coaching. And they’ll make the hires after the season is over.
we do. Musgrave makes more than Joebrady (Qb coach for the Bills). finances are there along with a yearly 2% increase in assistant pool. its just about making the right hire.
If I remember correctly, Wilcox ensured coaching pool increases last year in his extension. Musgrave is our only assistant on a two-year contract, but it's terminating this January with all the others, so I've had an inkling JW would run out his contract but offer someone new something bigger.
Yup. Thats what i would suspect. As piotr noted the probably realized:
1. No one in the pipeline on the staff to takeover playcalling duties
2. No one in the pipeline to takeover qb coach duties.
3. All that added together is it worth paying him not to coach when you really cant spend that free spot for anything better right now with whomever taking over still using this offense you installed over the last 2 years.
I think its the rational move to make. Its not sensationalist but financially smart and also not thinking of only the short term.
That being said i would not be surprised if theres some shifting of roles/duties that are kept in house.
I get it if he loses his buyout by taking another job. But he’s got millions as, if there’s no prohibition against volunteering...free coach! Anyway, I still say they should call my brother😁
I’m half kidding. It was more about calling Geep’s calling his brother for help. Although my brother is a retired coach, D1 is a bit above his résumé level. (But I do really think my bro is an offensive genius, Mozart with a clipboard)
My mind wanders to... Garrett Riley. That would be a great hire for OC, and poetic in ways that exceed imagination. If the money is there for 2023 as claimed, might as well aim high.
OK, my points:
1. Greatwood is a great Oline coach but bringing him on as analyst screams of concerns about how he may work with Musgrave and Angus.
2. The problem with our offense is not just Oline play. It's solidly a problem of play calling and execution. Adding Greatwood is not going to likely help Musgrave call a different game as he has only coached the players to do the plays he calls!
3. This is the least amount of change I can imagine Wilcox making given the dumpster fire the offense is. To put another way, this is feeble. I hear what others say about the financial wisdom of it, but darn it, how likely is this to amount to any difference in the actual scoring of our team? I'm very doubtful.
4. Who here thinks this change will go over well with Angus? The players may be loyal to Angus and not be receptive to Greatwood. Or if they are tired of Angus, and only listen to Greatwood, then why keep Angus on?
5. We need the entire brain trust of our offense to be people who understand how offense is played in 2022, and not in 1986.
6. Rasmfrasm. Go Bears.
Mugrave's play calling is fine. We have an o-line that does ok against a 3 or 4 man front but with more number in the box and in blitz and delayed blitz situations they are terrible. We have a QB that can't figure out you don't run into an 8 man box (or 7 for that matter), you throw to your hot read and you don't check down to get there because by the time you do the defense has figured it out. We have a QB who can't see a blitz coming even when its perfectly obvious. We have a QB who gets happy feet and forgets all his coaching when he is under just a little pressure; he won't stand in the pocket to deliver the ball and take a hit (the Goff used to do). He scrambles early and misses easy throws. Those easy throws put us in 2nd and deep and third and deep situations. The defenses take away our run and dare us to throw and we fail. Our O-line needs to be a lot better and so does our QB. I expect to see Kai Milner on the field against UW if Plummer starts out the way he did at CO.
I’m curious if “bringing him on as an analyst” is the political way of sidelining a dead man walking coach without having to formally fire him before the contract ends.
I wonder that too. That would honestly make more sense from a leadership perspective than asking those guys to co-exist in a power struggle sort of way. Just hope it is clear to the players.
I can’t imagine theres a lot of loyalty to McClure. If I’m a player in offense, I would welcome any change. Especially on the o-line; no way those guys have an NFL career the way things are going now.
No one had a NFL career under Greatwood. I don’t think one OL, RB, WR or QB has been drafted in any round under Wilcox.
Plenty of his kids from Oregon did.
Undrafted but Patrick Laird
Also Pat Mekari.
We have had a few undrafted offensive players make a practice roster or get signed as UDFA but no one have their name actually called at the draft. I am not sure what Wilcox and staff can sell HS recruits right now. We aren’t winning, our offense is stagnant and no offensive players get drafted. That is all before we even get into conference realignment.
The last offensive player drafted was Khalfani Muhammed after 2016 season
I'm guessing their hope is that if we fix the o-line play, then Plummer isn't literally dying in the backfield and has enough time to make the reads that make Musgrave's play calling not look idiotic.
Damn. I remember when we were saying Steve Not So Greatwood when he retired. But at this point, let's see what he can do.
I don’t think anyone questioned his coaching. His recruiting was suspect at best which was the issue.
So are we to assume Femi is in the doghouse? Very cheeky response by Wilcox when asked: where's Femi?
I doubt doghouse. More they don’t think he’s in form compared to other guys at the position.
I don't remember the game. Did he not play vs Colorado?
He did not. I asked Wilcox at the presser today. You can watch it on the cal bears YouTube channel.
Interesting
This would have been a great addition…..2 weeks ago when we were on our bye week.
This certainly will help and at least gives fans some hope that Wilcox is trying something, even if it is a day late and a dollar short.
I agree with GEAT, this is an upgrade to Angus but I was a bit underwhelmed with Greatwood while he was at Cal. His OLs were never very good but as average as they were, even being just average would be a step up from what we have seen the last 2 seasons.
This feels like a compromise to me, as in people say Wilcox down and said he had to fire Angus and he said no so they settled on bringing in a “consultant” so we are basically throwing good money at bad and just wasting more resources on a doomed staff.
Hints on TOS that at least 1 more Offense analyst is coming, likely this week
If we are bringing someone out of retirement, how about some recently retired OL?
Mitchell Schwartz, Alex Mack, or our regular Oregon route of Max Unger or Kyle Long?
Is Tony Franklin coming?
Who needs Tony when you can just subscribe to his system for $3K and get the consulting service? I smell a bargain!
Hey Justin!
Here's a three thousand dollar check from goldenone.
What is TOS?
Ooh cryptic
The other site
California Golden Blogs? 🙃
I looked over there and it is dead
More dead: CGB or Cals offense?
A positive move, perhaps foreshadowing additional change (but maybe not at the moment).
Maybe we could add Keller Chryst to the staff too. Lord knows that furd degree isn't paying off.
Make it a Chryst family affair
I'd much rather see Addition by Subtraction.....
Better than a kick in the nuts (I hope)
Your sn is greatness👍🏾
This is as strong a repudiation of his current staff as I'd ever expect Wilcox to make. He's been pissed for weeks, and now he brings back his previous O-line coach, basically telling our staff "you're not good enough, we're going back to the way that was working better."
The writing is on the wall for post-season changes—but whether we have the funds and reputation to make good offensive staff hires remains to be seen.
It actually makes business sense for the Athletic Department to give him an extra $1 million more to upgrade his coordinator(s) than it does to set him up to fail and have to buy him out in another year. Improves his odds, but he still needs to nail the hire(s).
meh, while Greatwood had a good career his few years here at Cal did not have great OLs. I don't mind the stop gap until the end of year but I assure you the next OL coach at Cal will not be Greatwood. (I never liked the initial Greatwood hire but I'm OK with this for a few months).
I severely doubt he’s coming back to coach coach. He retired for a reason and the word was he took on the cal gig saying it would be his last. They probably called in a favor to help OL coaching. And they’ll make the hires after the season is over.
thats the key. Anything is better than Angus and Greatwood at least knows what he is talking about. A couple months is fine
we do. Musgrave makes more than Joebrady (Qb coach for the Bills). finances are there along with a yearly 2% increase in assistant pool. its just about making the right hire.
Good point.
If I remember correctly, Wilcox ensured coaching pool increases last year in his extension. Musgrave is our only assistant on a two-year contract, but it's terminating this January with all the others, so I've had an inkling JW would run out his contract but offer someone new something bigger.
Yup. Thats what i would suspect. As piotr noted the probably realized:
1. No one in the pipeline on the staff to takeover playcalling duties
2. No one in the pipeline to takeover qb coach duties.
3. All that added together is it worth paying him not to coach when you really cant spend that free spot for anything better right now with whomever taking over still using this offense you installed over the last 2 years.
I think its the rational move to make. Its not sensationalist but financially smart and also not thinking of only the short term.
That being said i would not be surprised if theres some shifting of roles/duties that are kept in house.
Can’t his brother make a simple phone call? I mean, at this point they should be calling all the football coaching brothers, including mine.
you have a multi million dollar buy out with wisconsin, why mess with that by taking on a temp gig in Berkeley?
I get it if he loses his buyout by taking another job. But he’s got millions as, if there’s no prohibition against volunteering...free coach! Anyway, I still say they should call my brother😁
Now I gotta know who your brother is. I feel I missed out on a key piece of CGB/W4C lore.
I’m half kidding. It was more about calling Geep’s calling his brother for help. Although my brother is a retired coach, D1 is a bit above his résumé level. (But I do really think my bro is an offensive genius, Mozart with a clipboard)
I'm 100% pro nepotism at this point. Lol
*and
WHERE IS PAUL CHRYST?!
Prepping for interviews with Colorado and ASU
you guys need to start thinking up-and-comer, not old school.
https://theathletic.com/3661745/2022/10/06/paul-chryst-fired-wisconsin-jim-leonhard/
btw: he did settle for $11m of the $20m remaining on his contract. No other specifics reported.
like buying lead boots so you can run faster
at home collecting million dollar checks.
"These margaritas ain't gonna drink themselves!"
Less than 16 million is still millions.
This article is complete.
I don't know about Greenwood but Greatwood was available for sure since he retired after Cal.
It's called Autocorrect
Can’t tell if sarcastic or not