I was working today so I recorded the game and got home and watched it, fast forwarding to get through it. Heres's my take: Mike Bloesch needs to be relieved of his duties as OC, today. Why? We have talent on offense, but we are incredibly unprepared, the play calling is terrible, and our o-line cannot execute. As a former o-lineman and o-line coach I watched a number of plays over and over to see how the o-line performed. At the most basic level their technique/s were terrible. No one stays on blocks. We are all to high with body position. There is no finish. And our blocking schemes are terrible. I don't know why Rush Reimer gets beat every time on a delayed blitz to his outside gap. Either he's uncoachable (if this is the case he should not be on the field) or he has not been taught how to handle the pass off and pick up. Our offensive tackles getting regularly beat inside is simply because they are out of position.
This is the 6th game of the season and we should have it together by now. We have decent enough players, but the terrible attention to detail by them is a reflection of the lack of attention to detail by the coaches. This offense is a total clusterfuck from both an execution and the play calling standpoint, and I have no faith it will be better next week. If Wilcox wants the offense to run better he needs to take a hard look at the failures and a deep gut check and make a tough decision.
A couple of other thoughts. Why run Cardwell three plays in a row when he had two good runs? Pass it on the next play. When the box is stacked and they are coming for Fernando, why run fake RPO's and take time away from him to make a read and throw the ball? Why run an inside QB draw with Fernando? Why change it up with Chandler Rogers? Did any of his plays result in success? I'm really pissed off right now that its the same old shit.
Oh, we aren’t firing Wilcox before the end of the season or making any coaching changes before we end up 5-7 or 6-6. He is here through this season and more than likely next.
Trouble is, we can't afford to fire him. His contract payoff would be way too much. Then we would have to hire a new guy for $4 mil minimum. We have a QB coach on staff who's been a successful O coordinator at several universities. Make him the new OC.
The trouble is that these current O linemen are just not comparable to other power 5 (oops, power 4) talent in their positions. Check out where they transferred from. FCS schools, where the talent in O line is much lower. This is the hardest position to recruit.
I respect your knowledge so much and listen to your voice for that reason. Even from my merely fan perspective, this is all over Bloesch as a Oline coach and Bloesch as offensive coordinator. Therefore, it's on Wilcox to make choices, and Knowlton to ask his donors if they want more of this. Like I said yesterday, it's bad business to bet on a team winning that has way below normal offensive line play. I don't give a shit how we play the rest of the year, as it won't erase the absurdity of losing to these past three teams when we should have won by all accounts. I will not be renewing my season tickets next year unless there is at least an exciting and proven OC and OLine coaching hires, or Wilcox rides away with head held high that he graduated players and ran a clean program but was perpetually mediocre.
Wilcox has to go. It’s been the same story / result for the past 7+ years. We know who he is and the results he will produce.
Now you’ll have a serious lack of fan engagement and increased apathy that needs to be arrested with firing Wilcox. Otherwise, the program will wither away.
I understand fully. When you look at the game stats what stands out is that we have the ability to move the ball, but we don't score points. Why is that? Bad play calling, bad situational game management. Just like we should have beat FSU and Miami, this game should not have been close. Our OC is holding us back.
I am afraid I am starting to see people's point about Wilcox. He does not prioritize offense. Defense is important, but complementary football takes on all comers and wins championships. He has many virtues, but, as a field general, he never attacks, instead favors retreat and defense. This seems why we are constantly playing not-to-lose. I know Ron Rivera is available, might we, in. a few years, be able to land him or even Nick Saban? Justin is a good man, but his priorities have us listing to one side.
Don't you think Bloesch made a difference with the Oline, last year?
Letting a kicker who was money like Baghani get away was stupid. And supposedly because they didn’t want to use a scholarship. Why would you not do that?
Thank you for the compliment but I can tell you I am the wrong guy for that job. I know the o-line but I think the best OC's are former QB's who have a deep understanding of the nuances of the passing game that an o-lineman will never have.
How can the offense improve or get the attention they badly need when we do not even have a dedicated and full time OL coach. The OL is such an important position and it historically has struggled under Wilcox that I can’t believe he thought it was a good idea to have Bloesch split duties as the OC and OL coach.
In that last feeble attempt to get into field goal position did you see any of our receivers actually running a route that might free them from easy coverage? Any route at all? This University doesn't deserve a football team. Looks like the only reason the ACC accepted Cal and Stanford was to gain a few more cupcakes for their real teams.
No, the way people showed up for GameDay and the Miami game shows that the community DOES deserve a good team. The coaches and admin are letting them down.
For decades that stadium has been far less than half capacity for all but one or two games every season. For decades the University, the city, has ignored any semblance of promoting football attendance. In 2020 the city might have been responsible for a couple of their losses with nonsense restrictions. I'm done, and I'm not alone.
After the success of Spav, I thought we had turned a corner of marrying the good defense with good offense, so the fact that he ended up leaving after a season, and that we promoted from within was a head-scratcher at the time and now just seems like a total disaster.
I just…I’ve got nothing. I simultaneously have a 1000 things to yell and nothing at all. The two point conversion made no sense. The third quarter play calling made no sense. Taking your starting QB off the field for the most important play of the game when he’s 26-33 made beyond no sense. Having a sieve of an offensive line at a program where that should be the easiest position group to recruit makes no sense. I try to be level headed but I just don’t know how you keep defending Wilcox after this. This team with a decent coaching staff is 6-0, or at a minimum 5-1, right now and that’s what’s most sad.
Totally agree. Was anyone comfortable relying on our kicker to make a game winner from even inside the 30? I would have been happier with Fernando taking three shots into the end zone.
has to be the worst coaching decision game of the Wilcox era. This loss started with the inexplicable decision to go for 2 after the first TD. I still can't create any scenario in which that is a good idea, unless your kicker woke up with a broken leg this morning.
He was chasing points that didn’t even exist. Just a terrible decision to go for 2 that early in the game and while in the lead. Especially with how bad our OL plays.
Fire Wilcox. I’m convinced Wilcox could go full jerry Sandusky and the Wilcox stans would still defend him. It’s indefensible at this point. With decent coaching, this is a 5-1 or 6-0 team. Inexcusable. Your qb is 26/33 for 260-some yards and we pull him off the field on a critical 3rd down so we can kick a 40 yarder with our shaky kicker? Can’t recruit a decent kicker? That’s on the head coach. Can’t find a functional offensive coordinator? That’s on the head coach. Choke away close games repeatedly. THAT’S ON THE F$&@ING HEAD COACH. Fire him. Now. As a fanbase, we are the decent looking guy with no self esteem who habitually dates below ourselves because we’re so scared we might not be able to do better. Tired of this shit…
In past Cal eras you could easily argue that Cal just didn’t have the football talent to be good. I don’t think that’s true anymore; we were right there with FSU, Miami, and Pitt and lost all three because our coaches went too conservative at crunch time. That’s especially true for today. Wilcox is not going to change.
Taking Fernando off the field to run an obvious Rogers keeper on 3rd down when another first down and then a TD could have actually put the game away . . . I just have no words for that. Unbelievably bad strategy.
Even if Coe had made the kick (a 50/50 proposition at best), Pitt was going to be left with plenty of time on the clock! Their kicker had hit a 58-yarder earlier in the game! You need to step on their throat. How does a Power 5 coach with 8 years on the job not get that?
EXACTLY! There isn't even the excuse that if you make the field goal, you win the game--you left the other team time to come back and beat you even if you made it!
Except in this game, even making the kick would have only meant we went up by 1 with Pitt getting the ball with just under 2 minutes left. I can’t be confident we would have won.
It is too late in the season for the Offense to have this many false start or offside penalties. 90 yards of penalties in the first half alone! That is unacceptable this far into the season.
No two ways about it: this loss is 100% on Wilcox and his bad game-management decisions. That last long drive into a missed FG could not have made it more plain. He needs to go. This team would have at least 5 wins right now under a more ballsy head coach.
Justin should have been history years ago. Hopefully, Cal fans with better memories can help with the details. Cal was down by 3 late in the 4th quarter. They had driven the ball inside the 5?, but it was 4th down. Instead of kicking the FG and sending it into overtime, Justin decided to go for the win. They didn’t make it and Cal lost. Although I don’t understand why you go for the win on the road, there has to be a yardage needed limit. I’ve never been angrier at a player or coach in my life. I’ve looked at Justin’s 3-point losses, but can’t find it. Does anyone remember a game like that?
After the Miami loss, I wouldn’t have been surprised if we got beat in a blowout. Defense battled but others did not pick up the slack. Thank you Justin, but it’s not working out.
As someone who went to countless games in other (often far worse) eras, I can't quite relate...
I dunno. I've been attending Cal games for decades, most of which were marked by sub-par coaching and poor team performance. If I stopped going to games on that count, I'd have missed a lot of memories.
Since when is being a Cal fan about - ya know - being there because the organization is healthy and productive? That's not why most of us go, I image.
I can relate to not going to another game. I remember the Holmoe years but we never had this kind of talent. Keep going to the games to see all the talent we have suffer? I’ll keep going but will make as much noise as I can to FIRE WILCOX
Holmoe. Snyder. Gilbo. Holmoe. Late Tedford. Holmoe. I'm sorry, but anyone who'd trade this season experience in for your average Cal Bear death march circa 1999 or something isn't being honest.
Sure, fire Wilcox. It ain't working. (But speaking of talent, it's not as though the capable, skilled squad we've got just fell out of the sky. It was recruited and developed by this staff, of course).
Anyway, that's beside the point. Again, I'm not here to defend Wilcox at ALL. I'm here to defend being a Cal fan. Maybe it's just me - maybe I'm being sentimental - but this has been a thick or thin (mostly thin) fan/team relationship since the early 60s or something, when the team stopped being reliably decent. That hasn't stopped most of us.
No, the truth is that the talent was subpar until NIL happened and a donor collective showed up and operated outside of the program to help infuse the team with more talent through the transfer portal. Wilcox's recruiting has never been that great (it's why we don't have a good OL).
Okay. I might have misunderstood you, but what I'm responding to is the suggestion that someone could endure the last 10, 20, 30 or 70 years of Cal Football as a "fan" - the Holmoe years included - but feel that this is somehow the last straw, and publicly flounce themselves away.
It's not why most fans go, but the reality is that most fans *don't* go anymore. Look at our average game viewership and attendance. The administration has made it very clear they have no intention of trying to be competitive in football.
Gameday showed that if you put together a product that's interesting, Cal fans will show up. After 8 years, Wilcox is decidedly not that product.
Same, I am done donating to anything Cal football related or going to any more games. I was planning to go to both the Big Game (and bring my wife and kids to this game) and the Oregon State game since I will be up in the Bay Area for work those weeks but I’ll pass and just come home on Friday.
I am done with Cal football until Wilcox is fired.
And I am die hard Cal football fan but Wilcox has lost me and if he has lost me, all the casual fans are certainly gone.
Even if you think Wilcox has done OK given the limitations on our talent (I disagree), it is time to move on. You cannot just run it back with joyless seasons between 5-7 and 7-5 without at least the hope of a new "roll of the dice" in the form of a different HC. Could it be worse? Of course. But it could be better--look at what finding a good coach did for Indiana this year, or Kansas the last couple years. Will it make us Georgia? No. But at least we could dream of more than this. After 8 years, "it could be worse" is not an excuse for inaction.
Beyond stupid. Reminds me of that silly season where he had our 2 qbs competing for like the first 5 or 6 games...maybe longer..miserable failure then and thus was even worse considering how well mendoza was throwing
Not going with Mendoza as starter the past two seasons was questionable. Spring, fall practice it was clear the past two years Mendoza should be starter. Wilcox not seeing that is very concerning. Fire Wilcox (my new sign offf)
Perhaps it is time for Lyons to make Saban an offer he can't refuse ... after all he did rock the blue and gold tie, and this would be the ultimate challenge of a lifetime
While this latest loss is disappointing the true Wilcox program defining game was last week against Miami.
That was the moment and it didn’t happen. In our hearts we all know that. Now were just going through the motions until the inevitable firing/resignation.
I swear...it almost seems like wilcox is trying to make stupid decision that lose games...but sadly that is his decision making. It's almost comical. Like...what could a coach do to screw up his team on the field...play calling..clock mgmt, formations,..he does it. He literally makes the opposite of the right moves in many situations...and that's him thinking he's being smart or aggressive when it just plain dumb...like actually stupid and likely to help us lose. You nailed a bunch of them in ur comment
I was working today so I recorded the game and got home and watched it, fast forwarding to get through it. Heres's my take: Mike Bloesch needs to be relieved of his duties as OC, today. Why? We have talent on offense, but we are incredibly unprepared, the play calling is terrible, and our o-line cannot execute. As a former o-lineman and o-line coach I watched a number of plays over and over to see how the o-line performed. At the most basic level their technique/s were terrible. No one stays on blocks. We are all to high with body position. There is no finish. And our blocking schemes are terrible. I don't know why Rush Reimer gets beat every time on a delayed blitz to his outside gap. Either he's uncoachable (if this is the case he should not be on the field) or he has not been taught how to handle the pass off and pick up. Our offensive tackles getting regularly beat inside is simply because they are out of position.
This is the 6th game of the season and we should have it together by now. We have decent enough players, but the terrible attention to detail by them is a reflection of the lack of attention to detail by the coaches. This offense is a total clusterfuck from both an execution and the play calling standpoint, and I have no faith it will be better next week. If Wilcox wants the offense to run better he needs to take a hard look at the failures and a deep gut check and make a tough decision.
A couple of other thoughts. Why run Cardwell three plays in a row when he had two good runs? Pass it on the next play. When the box is stacked and they are coming for Fernando, why run fake RPO's and take time away from him to make a read and throw the ball? Why run an inside QB draw with Fernando? Why change it up with Chandler Rogers? Did any of his plays result in success? I'm really pissed off right now that its the same old shit.
It’s time to fire Wilcox. He has now hired 4 OCs, of which, 3 were total failures. Wilcox doesn’t deserve to hire a 5th OC, he had enough chances.
This. THIS. THE COORDINATOR HIRES ARE ON THE HEAD COACH.
Right! This is his 4th OC and you want to give him a chance to hire a 5th! He has proven he can’t hire capable OCs or OL coaches.
How about we finish the season and maybe a bowl, then discuss this. Now, would be a disaster.
Oh, we aren’t firing Wilcox before the end of the season or making any coaching changes before we end up 5-7 or 6-6. He is here through this season and more than likely next.
Yes, let’s make sure we’re measured in our response to, checks notes, year 8 of bumbling mediocrity.
Trouble is, we can't afford to fire him. His contract payoff would be way too much. Then we would have to hire a new guy for $4 mil minimum. We have a QB coach on staff who's been a successful O coordinator at several universities. Make him the new OC.
The thing is, before we fire Wilcox we need to replace Knowlton. But we don't seem to be in a hurry there.
And the one that wasn’t a failure left after one season working under him. Makes me wonder why.
I agree 100%. The O-line should not be this bad and this game was a coaching failure on many levels.
The trouble is that these current O linemen are just not comparable to other power 5 (oops, power 4) talent in their positions. Check out where they transferred from. FCS schools, where the talent in O line is much lower. This is the hardest position to recruit.
I respect your knowledge so much and listen to your voice for that reason. Even from my merely fan perspective, this is all over Bloesch as a Oline coach and Bloesch as offensive coordinator. Therefore, it's on Wilcox to make choices, and Knowlton to ask his donors if they want more of this. Like I said yesterday, it's bad business to bet on a team winning that has way below normal offensive line play. I don't give a shit how we play the rest of the year, as it won't erase the absurdity of losing to these past three teams when we should have won by all accounts. I will not be renewing my season tickets next year unless there is at least an exciting and proven OC and OLine coaching hires, or Wilcox rides away with head held high that he graduated players and ran a clean program but was perpetually mediocre.
Wilcox has to go. It’s been the same story / result for the past 7+ years. We know who he is and the results he will produce.
Now you’ll have a serious lack of fan engagement and increased apathy that needs to be arrested with firing Wilcox. Otherwise, the program will wither away.
I understand fully. When you look at the game stats what stands out is that we have the ability to move the ball, but we don't score points. Why is that? Bad play calling, bad situational game management. Just like we should have beat FSU and Miami, this game should not have been close. Our OC is holding us back.
https://sports.yahoo.com/ncaaf/california-golden-bears-pittsburgh-panthers-202410120012/?section=teamcomparison
I am afraid I am starting to see people's point about Wilcox. He does not prioritize offense. Defense is important, but complementary football takes on all comers and wins championships. He has many virtues, but, as a field general, he never attacks, instead favors retreat and defense. This seems why we are constantly playing not-to-lose. I know Ron Rivera is available, might we, in. a few years, be able to land him or even Nick Saban? Justin is a good man, but his priorities have us listing to one side.
Don't you think Bloesch made a difference with the Oline, last year?
He doesn’t even prioritize special teams! If he simply prioritized special teams we are 5-1 right now.
In his defense, Cox was supposed to be a ringer.
Letting a kicker who was money like Baghani get away was stupid. And supposedly because they didn’t want to use a scholarship. Why would you not do that?
Solution- Rugbear for OC!
Thank you for the compliment but I can tell you I am the wrong guy for that job. I know the o-line but I think the best OC's are former QB's who have a deep understanding of the nuances of the passing game that an o-lineman will never have.
How can the offense improve or get the attention they badly need when we do not even have a dedicated and full time OL coach. The OL is such an important position and it historically has struggled under Wilcox that I can’t believe he thought it was a good idea to have Bloesch split duties as the OC and OL coach.
John Madden said he always built his teams from the Oline up. If you can't win the LOS, all bets are off.
In that last feeble attempt to get into field goal position did you see any of our receivers actually running a route that might free them from easy coverage? Any route at all? This University doesn't deserve a football team. Looks like the only reason the ACC accepted Cal and Stanford was to gain a few more cupcakes for their real teams.
No, the way people showed up for GameDay and the Miami game shows that the community DOES deserve a good team. The coaches and admin are letting them down.
This.
For decades that stadium has been far less than half capacity for all but one or two games every season. For decades the University, the city, has ignored any semblance of promoting football attendance. In 2020 the city might have been responsible for a couple of their losses with nonsense restrictions. I'm done, and I'm not alone.
After the success of Spav, I thought we had turned a corner of marrying the good defense with good offense, so the fact that he ended up leaving after a season, and that we promoted from within was a head-scratcher at the time and now just seems like a total disaster.
I just…I’ve got nothing. I simultaneously have a 1000 things to yell and nothing at all. The two point conversion made no sense. The third quarter play calling made no sense. Taking your starting QB off the field for the most important play of the game when he’s 26-33 made beyond no sense. Having a sieve of an offensive line at a program where that should be the easiest position group to recruit makes no sense. I try to be level headed but I just don’t know how you keep defending Wilcox after this. This team with a decent coaching staff is 6-0, or at a minimum 5-1, right now and that’s what’s most sad.
Oh you mean the big smart dudes are the ones who should be easy for us to draw to Cal? I don’t know man, this is a wild take lol!
Totally agree. Was anyone comfortable relying on our kicker to make a game winner from even inside the 30? I would have been happier with Fernando taking three shots into the end zone.
AS former coach I'll tell you that the O line is the HARDEST position to recruit. The talent pool is really low there.
has to be the worst coaching decision game of the Wilcox era. This loss started with the inexplicable decision to go for 2 after the first TD. I still can't create any scenario in which that is a good idea, unless your kicker woke up with a broken leg this morning.
He was chasing points that didn’t even exist. Just a terrible decision to go for 2 that early in the game and while in the lead. Especially with how bad our OL plays.
Fire Wilcox. I’m convinced Wilcox could go full jerry Sandusky and the Wilcox stans would still defend him. It’s indefensible at this point. With decent coaching, this is a 5-1 or 6-0 team. Inexcusable. Your qb is 26/33 for 260-some yards and we pull him off the field on a critical 3rd down so we can kick a 40 yarder with our shaky kicker? Can’t recruit a decent kicker? That’s on the head coach. Can’t find a functional offensive coordinator? That’s on the head coach. Choke away close games repeatedly. THAT’S ON THE F$&@ING HEAD COACH. Fire him. Now. As a fanbase, we are the decent looking guy with no self esteem who habitually dates below ourselves because we’re so scared we might not be able to do better. Tired of this shit…
In past Cal eras you could easily argue that Cal just didn’t have the football talent to be good. I don’t think that’s true anymore; we were right there with FSU, Miami, and Pitt and lost all three because our coaches went too conservative at crunch time. That’s especially true for today. Wilcox is not going to change.
100%. He and his staff are letting the team down.
Taking Fernando off the field to run an obvious Rogers keeper on 3rd down when another first down and then a TD could have actually put the game away . . . I just have no words for that. Unbelievably bad strategy.
Even if Coe had made the kick (a 50/50 proposition at best), Pitt was going to be left with plenty of time on the clock! Their kicker had hit a 58-yarder earlier in the game! You need to step on their throat. How does a Power 5 coach with 8 years on the job not get that?
EXACTLY! There isn't even the excuse that if you make the field goal, you win the game--you left the other team time to come back and beat you even if you made it!
Why isn’t Roger’s passing? Didn’t he play for North Texas against us last year and looked pretty good? Granted, it was against us.
I thought NT had a diff QB against us?
WE lost because our kicker is the pits. Three easy missed field goals made and we would be 6 - 0
Except in this game, even making the kick would have only meant we went up by 1 with Pitt getting the ball with just under 2 minutes left. I can’t be confident we would have won.
I think we’re ready for the annual “Write for California” article on the cost analysis to fire Wilcox at the end of this season.
My only fear is that we go 4-2 in our last six games (very possible) and Wilcox gets another extension as we’re now trending upward.
I just feel sorry for the athletes who put in all that hard work to be constantly let down by the Coach and Admin year after year.
I agree. We need an article solely about firing Wilcox. I’m done with him. Great guy, terrible coach
It is too late in the season for the Offense to have this many false start or offside penalties. 90 yards of penalties in the first half alone! That is unacceptable this far into the season.
No two ways about it: this loss is 100% on Wilcox and his bad game-management decisions. That last long drive into a missed FG could not have made it more plain. He needs to go. This team would have at least 5 wins right now under a more ballsy head coach.
Justin should have been history years ago. Hopefully, Cal fans with better memories can help with the details. Cal was down by 3 late in the 4th quarter. They had driven the ball inside the 5?, but it was 4th down. Instead of kicking the FG and sending it into overtime, Justin decided to go for the win. They didn’t make it and Cal lost. Although I don’t understand why you go for the win on the road, there has to be a yardage needed limit. I’ve never been angrier at a player or coach in my life. I’ve looked at Justin’s 3-point losses, but can’t find it. Does anyone remember a game like that?
After the Miami loss, I wouldn’t have been surprised if we got beat in a blowout. Defense battled but others did not pick up the slack. Thank you Justin, but it’s not working out.
Defense stood tall and kept us in the game.
That’s the Wilcox playbook: Have a conservative and bumbling offense and lean heavily on your defense to pull it out.
Don’t forget the shaky special teams that can’t make a critical FG or PAT to win or tie the game.
The kicker is the reason we're 3 and 3. You've got to be football blind not to see that.
Coe didn’t lose us the Miami game. He made all his extra points and his FG attempt.
You're right . We would be 5 - 1
We are giving a new generation of Cal students the Cal experience.
Tradition!
Always a silver lining.
Fire Wilcox. I won’t go to another Cal game until Wilcox is fired.
As someone who went to countless games in other (often far worse) eras, I can't quite relate...
I dunno. I've been attending Cal games for decades, most of which were marked by sub-par coaching and poor team performance. If I stopped going to games on that count, I'd have missed a lot of memories.
Since when is being a Cal fan about - ya know - being there because the organization is healthy and productive? That's not why most of us go, I image.
I go for the Band. 😎. Cal Band Great!
Well we get less of the band now with the loud blasting nonsense music.
Yeah, they’re taking the band away from us too.
Sadly. Complained about that last week.
YES!! Get rid of that f'n terrible DJ. I don't go to games to listen to that garbage. Whose idea was that to start that shit!!!?
CAL BAND GREAT!
I can relate to not going to another game. I remember the Holmoe years but we never had this kind of talent. Keep going to the games to see all the talent we have suffer? I’ll keep going but will make as much noise as I can to FIRE WILCOX
Holmoe. Snyder. Gilbo. Holmoe. Late Tedford. Holmoe. I'm sorry, but anyone who'd trade this season experience in for your average Cal Bear death march circa 1999 or something isn't being honest.
Sure, fire Wilcox. It ain't working. (But speaking of talent, it's not as though the capable, skilled squad we've got just fell out of the sky. It was recruited and developed by this staff, of course).
Anyway, that's beside the point. Again, I'm not here to defend Wilcox at ALL. I'm here to defend being a Cal fan. Maybe it's just me - maybe I'm being sentimental - but this has been a thick or thin (mostly thin) fan/team relationship since the early 60s or something, when the team stopped being reliably decent. That hasn't stopped most of us.
No, the truth is that the talent was subpar until NIL happened and a donor collective showed up and operated outside of the program to help infuse the team with more talent through the transfer portal. Wilcox's recruiting has never been that great (it's why we don't have a good OL).
That's fair.
Anyway, as I said: I'm not particularly interested in defending Wilcox.
Bring Tedford back!
I never said “trade this season”
Okay. I might have misunderstood you, but what I'm responding to is the suggestion that someone could endure the last 10, 20, 30 or 70 years of Cal Football as a "fan" - the Holmoe years included - but feel that this is somehow the last straw, and publicly flounce themselves away.
edit, deleted. I’m not going to debate you on this when you’re trying to put words in my mouth.
Core, die hard fans aren’t the problem. It’s the casual fans we need to fill the stands and wins to make our program viable in the future.
It either up or fade into non-relevancy like the Ivy League
It's not why most fans go, but the reality is that most fans *don't* go anymore. Look at our average game viewership and attendance. The administration has made it very clear they have no intention of trying to be competitive in football.
Gameday showed that if you put together a product that's interesting, Cal fans will show up. After 8 years, Wilcox is decidedly not that product.
I won’t be donating any more $ to the FB program until he’s gone.
It’s going to Mad Dog and his crocs.
Same, I am done donating to anything Cal football related or going to any more games. I was planning to go to both the Big Game (and bring my wife and kids to this game) and the Oregon State game since I will be up in the Bay Area for work those weeks but I’ll pass and just come home on Friday.
I am done with Cal football until Wilcox is fired.
And I am die hard Cal football fan but Wilcox has lost me and if he has lost me, all the casual fans are certainly gone.
Then you'll have to wait 2 more years. He's on a contract which unaffordable to pay off.
Even if you think Wilcox has done OK given the limitations on our talent (I disagree), it is time to move on. You cannot just run it back with joyless seasons between 5-7 and 7-5 without at least the hope of a new "roll of the dice" in the form of a different HC. Could it be worse? Of course. But it could be better--look at what finding a good coach did for Indiana this year, or Kansas the last couple years. Will it make us Georgia? No. But at least we could dream of more than this. After 8 years, "it could be worse" is not an excuse for inaction.
As noted below, this loss is on the HC and OC and it’s getting old.
If it wasn’t for Knowlton and his brilliant extension, Wilcox would have only one more year on his contract. An easy buyout.
Just imagine that and then imagine he still has 3 more years.
Time for Wilcox to go. It's time.
Switching QBs again was the last straw.
Beyond stupid. Reminds me of that silly season where he had our 2 qbs competing for like the first 5 or 6 games...maybe longer..miserable failure then and thus was even worse considering how well mendoza was throwing
It’s exactly like the Garbers/McIlwain situation, where everyone could see that Garbers was better except for the coaching staff apparently.
Hell, Mendoza only got to play after we failed with two other guys. Wilcox just ain’t good at seeing QB talent.
Not going with Mendoza as starter the past two seasons was questionable. Spring, fall practice it was clear the past two years Mendoza should be starter. Wilcox not seeing that is very concerning. Fire Wilcox (my new sign offf)
that was on Bloach. He ;calls the offense. Fire him and Sirman
Perhaps it is time for Lyons to make Saban an offer he can't refuse ... after all he did rock the blue and gold tie, and this would be the ultimate challenge of a lifetime
While this latest loss is disappointing the true Wilcox program defining game was last week against Miami.
That was the moment and it didn’t happen. In our hearts we all know that. Now were just going through the motions until the inevitable firing/resignation.
I swear...it almost seems like wilcox is trying to make stupid decision that lose games...but sadly that is his decision making. It's almost comical. Like...what could a coach do to screw up his team on the field...play calling..clock mgmt, formations,..he does it. He literally makes the opposite of the right moves in many situations...and that's him thinking he's being smart or aggressive when it just plain dumb...like actually stupid and likely to help us lose. You nailed a bunch of them in ur comment