"Bonagura: After Cal running back Jaydn Ott ran for 1,305 yards and 12 touchdowns, there was a case for including him on the list this year. Next year, he'll be among the best running backs in the ACC, and it shouldn't be a surprise if he is a top-50 player. He averaged 131.8 yards rushing over the last five games of the regular season and helped Cal win its last three to reach bowl eligibility."
A little love for Ott who I think is pretty amazing. This is considering we got to watch the Beastmode, Jahvid, Anderson, JJ, Forsett, Vereen over the years... he has the goods to go to the next level.
Now that Ron Rivera could be leaving coaching, we need to beg him to come be our new athletic director. Or combine the assistant director and get his wife Stephanie to co-manage. She played CAL basketball and is the extrovert of the duo. They have put up $$ in donations, are CAL faithful and would energize the alumni base to donate. Both are class acts.
Josh Tupoi should be ready to be a head coach, we need his recruiting. Get Tim DeRuyter back by offering a better salary, and go find an exciting, up and coming offensive coordinator.
No excuse for empty seats. Hell, give away seats to anyone with a student i.d. and paying adult. Lower prices on seats not between the 30-50 yard line until they're full so we have a home field advantage. We can raise prices when we are winning and have sellouts. You can at least make money off concessions with butts in seats.
idk if CAL faithful can ever allow “Josh Tupoi” to roam our sidelines again. he is dirty and shady. showed no respect for Tedford or CAL - or honesty, for that matter.
Really nice piece. You write: "Cal has the tools to be successful in the ACC next year." I would challenge that at this point due to the WR corps. Hightower and Davis were non-factors. Hunter seemed to create less separation as he came to expect bracket or high safety help. Anderson was a jet sweep maestro! Do you think we can expect King, Mangum, Dortch, Plummer, Reber, or Daley to create consistent separation?
I think we can expect a baseline of Trond and Endries to be a big part of the passing game next year. I'm banking on Merriweather, Nyziah Hunter, Anderson, and Dortch to make up the difference
Yeah, honestly, being on the losing end of close games is not going to cut it.
Being new to and having piggybacked/begged our way into a new conference makes us like the "new guy" on a cell block. We need, figuratively, to break a chair over someone's head just to establish our creds.
As you, say, TD, there's no margin for error and the clock is ticking towards the next realignment. The clock may have just jumped ahead with FSU's cause-of-action temper tantrum, so there's also the chance that it's already too late and we'll be G5 in no time.
An "exemplary" leader and a "great" ambassador for the university? That needs some clarification for a guy like me who equates leadership with winning football games. Never met him, but Wilcox must be off the charts in likeability factor. Unfortunately, that also gets you a 21-37 conference record and 30,000 or so at most home games.
Wilcox has helped move mountains and spur organizational change that will help out whoever the next head coach is. That takes great leadership beyond the ability to win on the field.
To me leadership is not 1:1 in winning football games. You could be a bad person and still win (Art Briles). JW is a good person, has the buy in and culture. However as I state the obvious that’s not where we need to be and not good enough considering where we are.
His management of the program is where he is deficient, with the absolute ceiling being 7-5 with maybe a lower tier bowl win, a la 2019. That’s it. And I agree with TD - 7-5 should be the absolute minimum next year (3-1 non-con, 4-4 in ACC). I am not convinced Fernando Mendoza is the QB to get them there, however…my money’s on Rogers to start v UCD.
It’s unfortunately way more likely that they slip to 5-7 and he gets fired after next season than they bust out with an 8 or 9 win season and a bowl close to New Year’s Day, something he’s not sniffed.
The defensive inconsistency is a real bad sign. However, you’re banking on some semblance of coaching stability aiding in the re-building of the program, but until they quit snatching defeat from the jaws of victory in winnable games (@ U of A’21, @ CU ‘22, v AU ‘23), the jury is out.
Watching UW last night made me so jealous of them for many reasons but one was UW saw Lake wasn’t a good coach and quickly fired him, meanwhile Cal has doubled and tripled down on such a mediocre coach in Wilcox. Who gets 8 years with the poor results and record like Wilcox?! 8 years of wasted time.
I'd rather have a "bad" person who wins games, gets butts in seats, and improves our on-field reputation than a "good" person who only wins moral victories
Tedford was a class act and I don't know if Wilcox is a better person than Tedford, but if he is, then Tedford level of good person is more than satisfactory.
D1 College Football requires robust and deep money in order to get needed players from the portal and keep top players from entering the portal. Cal’s "natural" advantage of being a top academic school just is not considered by the best players.
So we need a few deep pocketed angels as well as all the smaller donations we can get if Cal is to win on a consistent basis. It's SHOW ME THE MONEY, plain and simple.
Hey! Ott was mentioned here as "who make big leap in 2024 (in the rankings)"!
https://www.espn.com/college-football/story/_/id/39230162/cfb-top-100-players-reaction-caleb-williams-ranked-too-high-2023
"Bonagura: After Cal running back Jaydn Ott ran for 1,305 yards and 12 touchdowns, there was a case for including him on the list this year. Next year, he'll be among the best running backs in the ACC, and it shouldn't be a surprise if he is a top-50 player. He averaged 131.8 yards rushing over the last five games of the regular season and helped Cal win its last three to reach bowl eligibility."
A little love for Ott who I think is pretty amazing. This is considering we got to watch the Beastmode, Jahvid, Anderson, JJ, Forsett, Vereen over the years... he has the goods to go to the next level.
Now that Ron Rivera could be leaving coaching, we need to beg him to come be our new athletic director. Or combine the assistant director and get his wife Stephanie to co-manage. She played CAL basketball and is the extrovert of the duo. They have put up $$ in donations, are CAL faithful and would energize the alumni base to donate. Both are class acts.
Josh Tupoi should be ready to be a head coach, we need his recruiting. Get Tim DeRuyter back by offering a better salary, and go find an exciting, up and coming offensive coordinator.
No excuse for empty seats. Hell, give away seats to anyone with a student i.d. and paying adult. Lower prices on seats not between the 30-50 yard line until they're full so we have a home field advantage. We can raise prices when we are winning and have sellouts. You can at least make money off concessions with butts in seats.
idk if CAL faithful can ever allow “Josh Tupoi” to roam our sidelines again. he is dirty and shady. showed no respect for Tedford or CAL - or honesty, for that matter.
but the rest of what you say is 1000%!!!!!
Really nice piece. You write: "Cal has the tools to be successful in the ACC next year." I would challenge that at this point due to the WR corps. Hightower and Davis were non-factors. Hunter seemed to create less separation as he came to expect bracket or high safety help. Anderson was a jet sweep maestro! Do you think we can expect King, Mangum, Dortch, Plummer, Reber, or Daley to create consistent separation?
I think we can expect a baseline of Trond and Endries to be a big part of the passing game next year. I'm banking on Merriweather, Nyziah Hunter, Anderson, and Dortch to make up the difference
Let's hope the bank is paying high rates! I'm a little dubious. We need a WR1 like Evan Stewart in Berkeley!
You are over target, TD.
Bombs away.
Yeah, honestly, being on the losing end of close games is not going to cut it.
Being new to and having piggybacked/begged our way into a new conference makes us like the "new guy" on a cell block. We need, figuratively, to break a chair over someone's head just to establish our creds.
As you, say, TD, there's no margin for error and the clock is ticking towards the next realignment. The clock may have just jumped ahead with FSU's cause-of-action temper tantrum, so there's also the chance that it's already too late and we'll be G5 in no time.
Thanks TD!
We just need once in a decade level of QB. Rodgers in 2000s, Goff in 2010s, so it's about time we get another one in 2020s.
We need a new DC
Great article and analysis! Thank you!
An "exemplary" leader and a "great" ambassador for the university? That needs some clarification for a guy like me who equates leadership with winning football games. Never met him, but Wilcox must be off the charts in likeability factor. Unfortunately, that also gets you a 21-37 conference record and 30,000 or so at most home games.
Wilcox has helped move mountains and spur organizational change that will help out whoever the next head coach is. That takes great leadership beyond the ability to win on the field.
He desperately needs that latter part.
Dykes fixed the academics, Wilcox got the money for coaches and some more admin support. Now someone needs to fix the actual football team.
To me leadership is not 1:1 in winning football games. You could be a bad person and still win (Art Briles). JW is a good person, has the buy in and culture. However as I state the obvious that’s not where we need to be and not good enough considering where we are.
The problem is Wilcox has created a culture of mediocre results and poor special teams.
His management of the program is where he is deficient, with the absolute ceiling being 7-5 with maybe a lower tier bowl win, a la 2019. That’s it. And I agree with TD - 7-5 should be the absolute minimum next year (3-1 non-con, 4-4 in ACC). I am not convinced Fernando Mendoza is the QB to get them there, however…my money’s on Rogers to start v UCD.
It’s unfortunately way more likely that they slip to 5-7 and he gets fired after next season than they bust out with an 8 or 9 win season and a bowl close to New Year’s Day, something he’s not sniffed.
The defensive inconsistency is a real bad sign. However, you’re banking on some semblance of coaching stability aiding in the re-building of the program, but until they quit snatching defeat from the jaws of victory in winnable games (@ U of A’21, @ CU ‘22, v AU ‘23), the jury is out.
I am happy we scheduled Oregon State but you just know that Wilcox is going to lose to the hollowed out husk of an OSU program.
He may squeak out a win at home in ‘24, but he’s probably losing at Reser on Opening Day 2025…
Watching UW last night made me so jealous of them for many reasons but one was UW saw Lake wasn’t a good coach and quickly fired him, meanwhile Cal has doubled and tripled down on such a mediocre coach in Wilcox. Who gets 8 years with the poor results and record like Wilcox?! 8 years of wasted time.
I'd rather have a "bad" person who wins games, gets butts in seats, and improves our on-field reputation than a "good" person who only wins moral victories
Tedford was a class act and I don't know if Wilcox is a better person than Tedford, but if he is, then Tedford level of good person is more than satisfactory.
We can and should strive for both. I'd rather go 0-12 every year than have a Sandusky-Penn State situation ever happen at Cal.
we should, I'm just sick of every criticism of Wilcox needing to include a caveat that he's a good human being. That is not a high enough bar for me
Agreed. There’s plenty of good guys that graduate their players and produce high character teams that actually win football games.
remember the holmoe-pocalypse years? absolutely hated hearing how he was a good man. his job is to win games and be a good man.
Well said and I agree. I just have no faith in Wilcox because he is not a very good HC.
D1 College Football requires robust and deep money in order to get needed players from the portal and keep top players from entering the portal. Cal’s "natural" advantage of being a top academic school just is not considered by the best players.
So we need a few deep pocketed angels as well as all the smaller donations we can get if Cal is to win on a consistent basis. It's SHOW ME THE MONEY, plain and simple.
Cal was sufficient on offense BUT not on defense. It's as simple as that.
The O was ineffective after the 1st Qt of the bowl game!
Well said TD.
Agree! Good analysis.