I think at this point it's clear to see what we will get with this coaching staff.
A fast start (83% winning percentage over the 1st three games!)
An almost guaranteed loss game 4 (Only wins ever coming at Ole Miss (good win!) and a mid Arizona team)
Another almost guaranteed loss game 5 (Only win coming at home to a 3-9 AZ team we squeaked by)
Have never won a game 6 in Wilcox's tenure. Place your bets now!
Toss ups game 7/8
Game 9 almost a guaranteed L (Only wins were at home to a mid Wazzu and last years against a 4-8 Wake)
Games 10 and 12 are toss ups
Game 11, usual big game spot, has been favorable with a down Stanfurd.
This screams a repeatable coaching/process problem. Could also be a logistics thing too, I mean Dykes also never won a game 6...or 8...or 11 on his schedule, lol. God I miss Tedford.
Is it fixable? Maybe with better self-scouting, creative play-calling, fundamentals, ops/mindset, etc. (basically everything lol) I know he ain't Saban, but someone with a "process" or clearly defined mindset would be nice. Like any kind of strong leadership identity, remember the "compassion and cruelty" Harbaugh teams? Eh, whatever, frustrated but at least my Saturdays will be open again. This was my "Opt-Out".
The problem is that there is no fix an 8 year coach with the same results every year can bring to this team. I’ve seen all I need to see, and the sooner the change, the better. Are we going to renew him end of season? I don’t think so. Ron willing, he’ll be the interim and we can get a new one at the end of the season.
Seeing this, I kind of wonder if the staff are just terrible at week to week preparation and adjustments lol. Basically by game 4, your first injuries/suspensions start rolling in. Opponents would also start seeing changes to their lineups, or start adding wrinkles if they're breaking in new teams. So anything you did preseason would need big adjustments depending on what's going on week to week.
San Diego is cursed territory for Cal football, the '06 Holiday Bowl notwithstanding. The fact that Snapdragon was built upon the ruins of Qualcomm practically made this effort doomed, particularly after Cal's opening drive ended without a score.
Much of last night was on Wilcox, but there are certain babadooks that just follow the Cal football program across the fandom's generations. That's San Diego.
I actually overheard SDSU leadership having a strategy session: "Cal keeps losing here, and their risk/reward from playing us is very unfavorable to begin with. But for some strange reason Cal keeps giving us home-and-homes, so why would we stop inviting them?"
This was a tough one to watch. As an armchair commentator, I’ve got to say—a beating this bad usually comes down to poor adjustments from the coaching staff. Sure, the dropped passes didn’t help—too many that should’ve been routine completions, including a few from Mark Hamper that were absolute heartbreakers. Still, I agree with the post-game report: as painful as this loss was, it gives us a base to grow from, and I look forward to seeing the adjustments made moving forward.
It’s also hard not to point out—if JKS had the weapons from last year, we’d be unstoppable. Imagine JKS paired with Nyziah Hunter… that combo alone could flip the entire offense on its head. It just shows the potential on the table: if we invest in surrounding this stellar freshman with the right weapons, this team could be an offensive dynamo.
And honestly, as if the game itself wasn’t hard enough to watch, the commentary made it worse. This game established a whole new hatred for Randy Cross—this guy was insufferable to listen to from the opening kickoff.
Kudos to SDSU for imposing their will and beating us into submission.
It wasn't even agonizing or frustrating for me, since it became apparent relatively early that we had no answers.
I think in Cal we saw a make shift team (and make shift staff) with no chemistry and weak will, who showed us that their floor was considerably lower than we thought.
Thank you, SDSU, for exposing this for us in week 4. We can all relax now.
Watching him on the sidelines was sad, with blank expression & obviously having no clue what to do. Rivera should replace Wilson with himself NOW….& save the season for the Bears & fans.
Very strange. Last week Wilcox showed a lot of energy and action with the players on the sidelines. The players showed spirit like I'd never seen at Cal. What happebed in just a week?
From the get-go Willcox and the Bears looked listless and down, beaten tired and indifferent. Especially Wilcox. Very puzzling indeed.
Cal always gets a very disappointing loss when the team is getting recognition and has the biggest momentum. We all knew about it leading up to the game. Yet, I wanted to believe this year's team is different. We will get an easy win and say the worry was unnecessarily.
Nothing had changed. Cal lost the game as usual. However 0-34 is unprecedented. I seriously think Wilcox deserves to be fired even if the record is 3-1.
With BC coming off a bye and us traveling it could get ugly next week too.. So, do we finally hit bottom with Wilcox with a season defined by multiple blowout losses, instead of one-score games?
If they somehow muster a win next week I will be impressed given the circumstances -- and considering I will be in attendance at my first ever Cal road game, and with family.. But I'm expecting the worst and will continue to expect the worst on the season.
(I'm also going to the @Virginia Tech game with my bro-in-law who went there, and we've now dubbed our game The Toilet Bowl.)
Don’t give a cent to the program until Wilcox is fired. No more false hope, no more money going to the program. Year 9 and this is the best he can do? Not enough. I don’t need them to go to the play offs every year, but I want bowl games and winning seasons
Last night was just strange from the start. Reminded me of those night games at Oregon State and Washington State in the rain where you just knew disappointment was set in stone - framed by all those empty seats near the 50 yard line.
Going forward you would hope the next receiver that looks away from the ball before the catch will be sent to intramurals. First thoughts will be on sure tackling no matter how far downfield. Passing is going to have to set up running. Second and third teamers have to step up in practice and force some demotions.
None of the four consecutive win starts the last 20 years produced outstanding seasons. This wake up call early on before entering a gift conference schedule is either the start of a standout season where our jello mold of transfers sets properly or an occasionally entertaining runny mess like Jared Goff's freshman year.
What puzzled me as much as the loss was Wilcox’s complete lack of emotion on the sidelines. Starting with the team obviously struggling in the late 2nd quarter the camera shots of him showed a completely detached individual: you’d never know he was the head coach of a team needing some positive inspiration to take their collective minds off of how badly they were playing plus the breaks all going SD’s way (which happens in every sport). Cal Needed a leader to step up at that moment.
Yes, exactly this. Mid 2nd quarter, it was obvious what was happening, but he just stood there, bewildered, quiet, and at least once, literally picking his nose. He should have been pacing the sidelines, getting in people’s faces, and screaming bloody murder at the non-performers.
He’s wound so tight, it’s no surprise that when things are going wrong, the team starts making mental errors: holding, false starts, missed field goals, missed tackles. And from the press conference, he’s oblivious to this, thinks they just need to watch the film and address the problems. Wrong, Justin, you need to watch yourself on film, look in the mirror and fix the problem.
Gobsmacked. We've seen plenty of terrible performances from the Bears during this and every other era, but I can't recall one quite as disappointing as this. A 0-34 collapse at the hands of the Aztecs? Just... who knows what the season holds anymore, or if these coaches have the faintest clue what they're doing.
IMO, this was the final nail in Wilcox’s coffin….barring a 7-1/6-2 finish to the year, which given our inability to run the football and lack of talent at the skill positions seems incredibly unlikely, he will not return next year.
Yes, just one game, but he’s done nothing to earn the benefit of the doubt that he can turn things around. With another chance to capitalize on momentum, he fails to get the team ready to play….yet again.
I hoped the additions of Harsin, Rolo, Anae, Cefalo, RR would save Wilcox-coached teams from these types of pathetic losses.
It should be but you and I both know it won’t be. WiLcox will be back next season to lose some more games for Cal, he hasn’t completed hit job of completely destroying Cal football and sending us to the Pac12State conference.
You could choose to look at this game and just shake your head. Outplayed in all 3 phases by a Mountain West team that has also been decimated by the Portal and is rebuilding during the season. SDSU showed up to play, the GBs did not. The only positive is when realignment comes, the ACC will shed Cal and Furd, we will rej
ion the Pac12 and we get to go to afternoon games again - because we are irrelevant to NCAA football.
YES. Afternoon games please! Memorial after dark is always cold for my old body and going home after leaving the Stadium at 10:30 or later and driving 2 hours to my abode is really the pits!
I've thought from the outset that there are two ways that this season could play out and they're both good. Either we finally have that eight or even nine win season or we finally get a new head coach. If it's the latter I trust in Ron for the hire.
So Harsin’s offense didn’t score against a Mountain West foe. This is not looking like a good hire. And IMO that’s where Wilcox, for all his strengths, has sealed his fate — he can’t bring in and retain top-notch staff.
It does seem strange that Wilcox and his staff can't seem to get the team fired up for supposed cup-cakes. Is it bad coaching or bad luck? They certainly looked ready last week against Minnesota. Why such a big letdown against SDSU (or Colorado, or Arizona or FSU, etc.)? Cal did the same thing back in 2009 when, after beating a ranked 'Fuird team led by Andrew Luck ang doing 8-3, all we had to do was beat a bad Washington team (coached by Sarsleezian) and get to 9 wins and a respectable bowl game. The Tedford coached team promptly shit the bed, lost to Washington and we were relegated to the Poinsettia Bowl in San Diego (a place of horrors) where we were beat by Utah. Why are we so unlucky whenever we approach the brink of football greatness (or competitiveness)? If there are any sports psychologist on this blog, I would love to know what they think as this seems to be an endemic problem for Cal Football.
Two reasons why what you asked. Number one is our talent we get through the portal is average or worse. Cal really can't pay what the perennial big power schools can pay for talent. This NIL crap really hurts Cal financially. The players we get are usually guys who were second or third stringers who didn't get much playing time at the schools they transferred from. Number two is the poor selection of coordinators. Harsin was a better than average Head coach but his O coordinating is HORRIBLE. And the co D coordinators are a real letdown from Sirmon who went to the NFL.
Absolutely brutal. This fanbase deserves better. In Ron We Trust.
I think at this point it's clear to see what we will get with this coaching staff.
A fast start (83% winning percentage over the 1st three games!)
An almost guaranteed loss game 4 (Only wins ever coming at Ole Miss (good win!) and a mid Arizona team)
Another almost guaranteed loss game 5 (Only win coming at home to a 3-9 AZ team we squeaked by)
Have never won a game 6 in Wilcox's tenure. Place your bets now!
Toss ups game 7/8
Game 9 almost a guaranteed L (Only wins were at home to a mid Wazzu and last years against a 4-8 Wake)
Games 10 and 12 are toss ups
Game 11, usual big game spot, has been favorable with a down Stanfurd.
This screams a repeatable coaching/process problem. Could also be a logistics thing too, I mean Dykes also never won a game 6...or 8...or 11 on his schedule, lol. God I miss Tedford.
Is it fixable? Maybe with better self-scouting, creative play-calling, fundamentals, ops/mindset, etc. (basically everything lol) I know he ain't Saban, but someone with a "process" or clearly defined mindset would be nice. Like any kind of strong leadership identity, remember the "compassion and cruelty" Harbaugh teams? Eh, whatever, frustrated but at least my Saturdays will be open again. This was my "Opt-Out".
The problem is that there is no fix an 8 year coach with the same results every year can bring to this team. I’ve seen all I need to see, and the sooner the change, the better. Are we going to renew him end of season? I don’t think so. Ron willing, he’ll be the interim and we can get a new one at the end of the season.
Seeing this, I kind of wonder if the staff are just terrible at week to week preparation and adjustments lol. Basically by game 4, your first injuries/suspensions start rolling in. Opponents would also start seeing changes to their lineups, or start adding wrinkles if they're breaking in new teams. So anything you did preseason would need big adjustments depending on what's going on week to week.
San Diego is cursed territory for Cal football, the '06 Holiday Bowl notwithstanding. The fact that Snapdragon was built upon the ruins of Qualcomm practically made this effort doomed, particularly after Cal's opening drive ended without a score.
Much of last night was on Wilcox, but there are certain babadooks that just follow the Cal football program across the fandom's generations. That's San Diego.
I cringed the moment this game was scheduled six years ago.
As an Old Blue, it's frustrating to see the passing on of Generational Trauma, such as the aftermath of road games in San Diego.
Sdsu isn’t even that good, they are in year 2 of a full rebuild. We should have beat this team and we certainly haven’t been blown out
I actually overheard SDSU leadership having a strategy session: "Cal keeps losing here, and their risk/reward from playing us is very unfavorable to begin with. But for some strange reason Cal keeps giving us home-and-homes, so why would we stop inviting them?"
This was a tough one to watch. As an armchair commentator, I’ve got to say—a beating this bad usually comes down to poor adjustments from the coaching staff. Sure, the dropped passes didn’t help—too many that should’ve been routine completions, including a few from Mark Hamper that were absolute heartbreakers. Still, I agree with the post-game report: as painful as this loss was, it gives us a base to grow from, and I look forward to seeing the adjustments made moving forward.
It’s also hard not to point out—if JKS had the weapons from last year, we’d be unstoppable. Imagine JKS paired with Nyziah Hunter… that combo alone could flip the entire offense on its head. It just shows the potential on the table: if we invest in surrounding this stellar freshman with the right weapons, this team could be an offensive dynamo.
And honestly, as if the game itself wasn’t hard enough to watch, the commentary made it worse. This game established a whole new hatred for Randy Cross—this guy was insufferable to listen to from the opening kickoff.
Kudos to SDSU for imposing their will and beating us into submission.
It wasn't even agonizing or frustrating for me, since it became apparent relatively early that we had no answers.
I think in Cal we saw a make shift team (and make shift staff) with no chemistry and weak will, who showed us that their floor was considerably lower than we thought.
Thank you, SDSU, for exposing this for us in week 4. We can all relax now.
Bidding farewell to Wilcox is long overdue.
Watching him on the sidelines was sad, with blank expression & obviously having no clue what to do. Rivera should replace Wilson with himself NOW….& save the season for the Bears & fans.
Very strange. Last week Wilcox showed a lot of energy and action with the players on the sidelines. The players showed spirit like I'd never seen at Cal. What happebed in just a week?
From the get-go Willcox and the Bears looked listless and down, beaten tired and indifferent. Especially Wilcox. Very puzzling indeed.
Losses to BC and Duke would make for the right opportunity, with a Week 7 BYE before UNC.
Cal always gets a very disappointing loss when the team is getting recognition and has the biggest momentum. We all knew about it leading up to the game. Yet, I wanted to believe this year's team is different. We will get an easy win and say the worry was unnecessarily.
Nothing had changed. Cal lost the game as usual. However 0-34 is unprecedented. I seriously think Wilcox deserves to be fired even if the record is 3-1.
With BC coming off a bye and us traveling it could get ugly next week too.. So, do we finally hit bottom with Wilcox with a season defined by multiple blowout losses, instead of one-score games?
If they somehow muster a win next week I will be impressed given the circumstances -- and considering I will be in attendance at my first ever Cal road game, and with family.. But I'm expecting the worst and will continue to expect the worst on the season.
(I'm also going to the @Virginia Tech game with my bro-in-law who went there, and we've now dubbed our game The Toilet Bowl.)
Unfortunately, under those circumstances, nothing Wilcox has shown in now 9 years says they win this.
I hoped it was different this year with the coaching staff changes, but the systemic rot remains at the top.
Don’t give a cent to the program until Wilcox is fired. No more false hope, no more money going to the program. Year 9 and this is the best he can do? Not enough. I don’t need them to go to the play offs every year, but I want bowl games and winning seasons
Last night was just strange from the start. Reminded me of those night games at Oregon State and Washington State in the rain where you just knew disappointment was set in stone - framed by all those empty seats near the 50 yard line.
Going forward you would hope the next receiver that looks away from the ball before the catch will be sent to intramurals. First thoughts will be on sure tackling no matter how far downfield. Passing is going to have to set up running. Second and third teamers have to step up in practice and force some demotions.
None of the four consecutive win starts the last 20 years produced outstanding seasons. This wake up call early on before entering a gift conference schedule is either the start of a standout season where our jello mold of transfers sets properly or an occasionally entertaining runny mess like Jared Goff's freshman year.
What puzzled me as much as the loss was Wilcox’s complete lack of emotion on the sidelines. Starting with the team obviously struggling in the late 2nd quarter the camera shots of him showed a completely detached individual: you’d never know he was the head coach of a team needing some positive inspiration to take their collective minds off of how badly they were playing plus the breaks all going SD’s way (which happens in every sport). Cal Needed a leader to step up at that moment.
Yes, exactly this. Mid 2nd quarter, it was obvious what was happening, but he just stood there, bewildered, quiet, and at least once, literally picking his nose. He should have been pacing the sidelines, getting in people’s faces, and screaming bloody murder at the non-performers.
He’s wound so tight, it’s no surprise that when things are going wrong, the team starts making mental errors: holding, false starts, missed field goals, missed tackles. And from the press conference, he’s oblivious to this, thinks they just need to watch the film and address the problems. Wrong, Justin, you need to watch yourself on film, look in the mirror and fix the problem.
When it comes to actual football - ie the preparation, the execution, etc., that clearly is not a strength of his.
OTOH, he’s great at running a program where the kids more or less go to school and don’t beat up their girlfriends…
Gobsmacked. We've seen plenty of terrible performances from the Bears during this and every other era, but I can't recall one quite as disappointing as this. A 0-34 collapse at the hands of the Aztecs? Just... who knows what the season holds anymore, or if these coaches have the faintest clue what they're doing.
How many wins does Wilcox need to get an extension? I feel like 8-4 against this soft schedule, with this embarrassing loss shouldn’t be enough.
IMO, this was the final nail in Wilcox’s coffin….barring a 7-1/6-2 finish to the year, which given our inability to run the football and lack of talent at the skill positions seems incredibly unlikely, he will not return next year.
Yes, just one game, but he’s done nothing to earn the benefit of the doubt that he can turn things around. With another chance to capitalize on momentum, he fails to get the team ready to play….yet again.
I hoped the additions of Harsin, Rolo, Anae, Cefalo, RR would save Wilcox-coached teams from these types of pathetic losses.
I was wrong.
It should be but you and I both know it won’t be. WiLcox will be back next season to lose some more games for Cal, he hasn’t completed hit job of completely destroying Cal football and sending us to the Pac12State conference.
Rivera has been vocal that the expectation is 8-9 wins. I think fewer will result in a firing, more maybe an extension.
Rumors out there hint at a scenario where Wilcox moves on to other coaching opportunities, regardless of how many wins he has.
Probably 8, even against this schedule. I don't think 6 will cut it this time. 7, it depends on the circumstances.
IMO we need 9 wins minimum (though I could be convinced to include a bowl game in that). I'm not sure if that's how the administration thinks.
You could choose to look at this game and just shake your head. Outplayed in all 3 phases by a Mountain West team that has also been decimated by the Portal and is rebuilding during the season. SDSU showed up to play, the GBs did not. The only positive is when realignment comes, the ACC will shed Cal and Furd, we will rej
ion the Pac12 and we get to go to afternoon games again - because we are irrelevant to NCAA football.
YES. Afternoon games please! Memorial after dark is always cold for my old body and going home after leaving the Stadium at 10:30 or later and driving 2 hours to my abode is really the pits!
100%. Start times at 7:30 pm suck all the way around.
I've thought from the outset that there are two ways that this season could play out and they're both good. Either we finally have that eight or even nine win season or we finally get a new head coach. If it's the latter I trust in Ron for the hire.
So Harsin’s offense didn’t score against a Mountain West foe. This is not looking like a good hire. And IMO that’s where Wilcox, for all his strengths, has sealed his fate — he can’t bring in and retain top-notch staff.
"Wilcox, for all his strengths" and those are.....
His players don’t commit felonies.
He produces good DBs!
It does seem strange that Wilcox and his staff can't seem to get the team fired up for supposed cup-cakes. Is it bad coaching or bad luck? They certainly looked ready last week against Minnesota. Why such a big letdown against SDSU (or Colorado, or Arizona or FSU, etc.)? Cal did the same thing back in 2009 when, after beating a ranked 'Fuird team led by Andrew Luck ang doing 8-3, all we had to do was beat a bad Washington team (coached by Sarsleezian) and get to 9 wins and a respectable bowl game. The Tedford coached team promptly shit the bed, lost to Washington and we were relegated to the Poinsettia Bowl in San Diego (a place of horrors) where we were beat by Utah. Why are we so unlucky whenever we approach the brink of football greatness (or competitiveness)? If there are any sports psychologist on this blog, I would love to know what they think as this seems to be an endemic problem for Cal Football.
Two reasons why what you asked. Number one is our talent we get through the portal is average or worse. Cal really can't pay what the perennial big power schools can pay for talent. This NIL crap really hurts Cal financially. The players we get are usually guys who were second or third stringers who didn't get much playing time at the schools they transferred from. Number two is the poor selection of coordinators. Harsin was a better than average Head coach but his O coordinating is HORRIBLE. And the co D coordinators are a real letdown from Sirmon who went to the NFL.