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This alternate reality also likely gets Wilcox poached, I'd assume, while the market is hot.

It is an interesting hypothetical, but I am pretty sure playing Utah at the end of the season while they're peaking would almost certainly not be a one-score game. Even in fantasyland, Roses are still so far away. :(

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Great thread. Just a couple of those reversals and we would be singing Wilcox' praises.

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Take away Covid and we'd have beaten Arizona, that's a sixth win. That leaves four one-score games. It's reasonable to assume that you should win half of them, that gives us eight wins. We were an 8-4 team. I'd have been quite pleased with winning eight games in a regular season for the first time since '09 (2009 not 1909).

(BTW, I've looked through the records and this is -- at least in my estimation -- the best five-win season Cal has ever had. Not that it's much consolation.)

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Interesting and fun to read. Wilcox is fond of saying, "...it's a play here or a play there" from winning. Reality is a bit different, IMO, Cal hasn't reached the consistency and as importantly the domination on offense to win close games. Continuing to rely on a sturdy defense is, ultimately, a losing formula. If Cal can "find" 7 - 10 points more per game to go along w/ the great defense then we are looking at a team that can compete for the conference championship. Alas, those marginal points needed are all too elusive the past 5 years. It's a lot more than just a play or two. Hopefully Wilcox, if he's still around, fixes this issue during the off-season.

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One minor correction, Cal won 10 regular season games in 2004.

We went 7-1 in Pac 10 play and 10-1 overall before finishing 10-2 with the Holiday Bowl loss to Texas Tech.

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" I do not entertain hypotheticals. The world itself is vexing enough" :-) Let's get that OL squared away, and we can probably win a few more games in the real world.

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Is the off-season live thread for paying subscribers only? Or same bug as the second-half live threads?

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There is a Football player that CAL needs to recruit. Cathedral Catholic of San Diego RB Lucky Sutton with a performance for the ages :

In the southern championship game he had 436 Rushing Yards and 6 Rushing TD’s along with 1 Receiving TD. You can see Lucky in the California State Championship this Friday or Saturday. Anyone who has contact with recruiting team they need to talk to this amazing kid.

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Other What Ifs....sorry I was too busy yesterday...

What if Cal had beat UCLA in 1975? Cal would have been the outright Pac-8 champion and gone to the Rose Bowl. And won, of course. Coach Mike White would have stayed on for at least another five years, and would take Cal to the Rose Bowl two more times. Cal fans would get more accustomed to recruiting "violations". Cal itself would become even more legendary as the pinnacle of both academic and football excellence...

What if Cal had run up the score against Southern Miss, scoring twice more to make the final score 40-16. Mack Brown would go around saying Texas was the more sportsmanlike team, having only beaten A&M 26-16. And Cal fans would feel guilty. But no one else would care about that, and Cal would go to the Rose Bowl and win! Aaron Rodgers would be drafted high in the first round and go to the 49ers. The Bay Area culture would help sustain his understanding of science....

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