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"· They threw, with multiple timeouts available, on a 3rd and 2 from their own 28, leading to an incomplete pass, and eventually, a rushing touchdown to Zach Evans with 11 seconds to go in the half." This was the most confounding, atrocious coaching move I can recall. I estimate that throw to have a 25% success rate. so 75% you've either an incompletion, sack or interception; all leading to extremely positive outcomes for TCU.
+ Did Musgrave feel he couldn't get 2 yards since we weren't able to on 4th down from the 7?
+ Did he think Gary Patterson's defense would not be ready?
+ Does he believe this play to have a 50%+ success rate?
Confounding and angering. Players make and miss tackles as they try their hearts out. A multi-decade coach calling these plays in these scenarios is unforgivable.
It’s not the losses that really bother me. At its best, Cal is a consistent 8-4 program, I recognize that. What bothers me most is sitting in empty stadiums year after year.
Berkeley game days were fun during the Tedford era because people were legitimately excited about the team. Tedford only won 8 games 6/11 years. He wasn’t some god but he did two things. 1. Develop exciting talented players and 2. You knew we were a 7-8 win program, but every year from 2003-2011 it was a possibility we’d do something exciting and win 10 games and challenge for the conference. We only actually did it a couple times but you could realistically talk yourself into it every august.
It is starting to seem like Wilcox is a 7-5 coach AND he’s not good enough to develop enough talent or out-coach better teams to have one of those special seasons. Not only are we a 6-7 win program under him...we are a really boring 6-7 win program. That’s purgatory.
Purgatory is a perfect descriptor of the program. My usual word is "middling", able to win enough games to stoke hope but not nearly good enough to capitalize on opportunities.
At this point in the tenure though, it's all their guys. If they didn't develop the depth, they're responsible for that -- and the problem is getting worse, not better.
So, how do special teams (failures / inadequacies) get addressed during the actual season? Can we trade for someone or sign a free agent (obviously a joke). But seriously, what can be done?
It's not about the coaching - I swear - look at how good Stanford's special teams were after Alamar went there. If it was about the coaching, Stanford's would have been terrible - like they were here under Alamar.
Special teams execution and excellence - aside from the quality of your specialists - are a direct result of the proportion of practice spent at time and emphasis by the program's leadership.
We seem to be pretty decent about turning out specialists - kickers, punters, long snappers (not returners since Trevor Davis though) but the details like blocking, clean catches for kicks, tackling and staying in lanes - that is all wavering.
Sellers was, IIRC, the top long-snapper recruit in the country, and we got him. He likely snaps the ball 20-30 times each practice and if he weren’t hitting his mark CONSISTENTLY the kickers, holders and he would work on it until it was automatic. I think this PAT miss was a fluke. Why did it happen on that hike and not one in practice? Because Cal…..
Not much. The only thing Wilcox and the coaches can do is give more practice time to special teams and maybe put some starters out there but then you’re risking injury.
I feel elite educational schools should have a comparative advantage recruiting punters and kickers as thats a skill fairly independent of the other players around you and the number of open kicker and punter spots are exceedingly small in the NFL.
We might be able to run the ball (game 1). We might be able to throw the ball (game 2). We likely have an average defense (game 1 & 2). Cal's margin of error is very thin ~ college players will make mental and physical mistakes. . Wilcox can no longer hope to play dirty and pull it out in the last few minutes of the game. He doesn't have the defense for that strategy anymore.
What Cal has no margin for is critical mistakes by the coaching staff. Football/coaching 101 says you never take points off of the board. Especially in the first half and on the road!! That choice combined with a few questionable choices later in the game was too much to overcome for this Cal team.
To add salt to the wound, furd did ~ in fact ~ successfully take points off the board and convert it to a + 4 point advantage in their demolition of U$C.
Pretty poor effort by the defense. Yeah, we made some plays but the missed tackles and bad angles showed almost a Dykesian level of incompetence. Losing a game with very good offensive output (Hey, we hit some deep balls!) and 32 points with past Wilcox' defenses would have notched a win. I have no idea why Ragle is still employed. The only consolation I can come up with is that both Nevada and TCU are getting Top 25 votes so they are actually good teams.
Nam is absolutely right about one thing: Losing The 'Root to Oregon is going to be a huge hit against us this season. The tackling yesterday was atrocious and there were times when we didn't look like we could stop anyone. I don't think that he was the best recruiter but man, can he build a defense! As Nam pointed out, look what he did with the Duck's defense WITH THEIR BEST PLAYERS OUT! Don't be surprised if Oregon runs the table in the Pac-12.
I miss DeRuyter's defense too, but I think the tackling is more related to Gerald Alexander's departure as he was the one leading the initiatives on improved tackling that we saw in Wilcox's earlier seasons.
Sirmon was our DC and TDR was co-DC in 2020 so I don't think we could have made Alexander co-DC. Maybe passing game coordinator? Still probably didn't help much.
I think Wilcox thought we needed to get 7 points whenEVER the opportunity arose as he thought, as most of us did, TCU’s offense was going to be a juggernaut. Hindsight coaching is always right. I supported the call at the time; we were moving and 7 would have been a huge momentum boost…..
The Part-Time Vegetarian by Nicola Graimes offers a refreshing take on plant-based cooking. With innovative recipes, it caters to both vegetarians and flexitarians. Delta Executor, like Roblox, this book lets you explore new culinary worlds. Graimes' dishes are a playground for taste buds, making every meal an adventure! https://deltaexecutor.app
"· They threw, with multiple timeouts available, on a 3rd and 2 from their own 28, leading to an incomplete pass, and eventually, a rushing touchdown to Zach Evans with 11 seconds to go in the half." This was the most confounding, atrocious coaching move I can recall. I estimate that throw to have a 25% success rate. so 75% you've either an incompletion, sack or interception; all leading to extremely positive outcomes for TCU.
+ Did Musgrave feel he couldn't get 2 yards since we weren't able to on 4th down from the 7?
+ Did he think Gary Patterson's defense would not be ready?
+ Does he believe this play to have a 50%+ success rate?
Confounding and angering. Players make and miss tackles as they try their hearts out. A multi-decade coach calling these plays in these scenarios is unforgivable.
I have been thinking about the last 30 seconds of the first half ever since Saturday, so so frustrating.
It’s not the losses that really bother me. At its best, Cal is a consistent 8-4 program, I recognize that. What bothers me most is sitting in empty stadiums year after year.
Berkeley game days were fun during the Tedford era because people were legitimately excited about the team. Tedford only won 8 games 6/11 years. He wasn’t some god but he did two things. 1. Develop exciting talented players and 2. You knew we were a 7-8 win program, but every year from 2003-2011 it was a possibility we’d do something exciting and win 10 games and challenge for the conference. We only actually did it a couple times but you could realistically talk yourself into it every august.
It is starting to seem like Wilcox is a 7-5 coach AND he’s not good enough to develop enough talent or out-coach better teams to have one of those special seasons. Not only are we a 6-7 win program under him...we are a really boring 6-7 win program. That’s purgatory.
Purgatory is a perfect descriptor of the program. My usual word is "middling", able to win enough games to stoke hope but not nearly good enough to capitalize on opportunities.
I recall those water balloons sitting with my parents at a USC game. Got a big kick out them while mom and dad ignored my gesticulations about them.
Was one of those years where we yelled "Litts is a wimp?" Haha.
Wondering how much poor special teams correlates with lack of depth on the roster
At this point in the tenure though, it's all their guys. If they didn't develop the depth, they're responsible for that -- and the problem is getting worse, not better.
So, how do special teams (failures / inadequacies) get addressed during the actual season? Can we trade for someone or sign a free agent (obviously a joke). But seriously, what can be done?
Mike Leach fired ST coordinator after Trevor Davis scored 2 return TDs
It's not about the coaching - I swear - look at how good Stanford's special teams were after Alamar went there. If it was about the coaching, Stanford's would have been terrible - like they were here under Alamar.
Special teams execution and excellence - aside from the quality of your specialists - are a direct result of the proportion of practice spent at time and emphasis by the program's leadership.
We seem to be pretty decent about turning out specialists - kickers, punters, long snappers (not returners since Trevor Davis though) but the details like blocking, clean catches for kicks, tackling and staying in lanes - that is all wavering.
Sellers was, IIRC, the top long-snapper recruit in the country, and we got him. He likely snaps the ball 20-30 times each practice and if he weren’t hitting his mark CONSISTENTLY the kickers, holders and he would work on it until it was automatic. I think this PAT miss was a fluke. Why did it happen on that hike and not one in practice? Because Cal…..
Not much. The only thing Wilcox and the coaches can do is give more practice time to special teams and maybe put some starters out there but then you’re risking injury.
I would assume that would show more in the coverage and return teams and not so much in FG and PAT attempts.
I feel elite educational schools should have a comparative advantage recruiting punters and kickers as thats a skill fairly independent of the other players around you and the number of open kicker and punter spots are exceedingly small in the NFL.
Not a novel, but how about some haiku?
Oh watch the Bears play
The media has their say
In Defense we pray
Offense bad one week
Defense is bad the next week
Kicking always bad
We might be able to run the ball (game 1). We might be able to throw the ball (game 2). We likely have an average defense (game 1 & 2). Cal's margin of error is very thin ~ college players will make mental and physical mistakes. . Wilcox can no longer hope to play dirty and pull it out in the last few minutes of the game. He doesn't have the defense for that strategy anymore.
What Cal has no margin for is critical mistakes by the coaching staff. Football/coaching 101 says you never take points off of the board. Especially in the first half and on the road!! That choice combined with a few questionable choices later in the game was too much to overcome for this Cal team.
To add salt to the wound, furd did ~ in fact ~ successfully take points off the board and convert it to a + 4 point advantage in their demolition of U$C.
Pretty poor effort by the defense. Yeah, we made some plays but the missed tackles and bad angles showed almost a Dykesian level of incompetence. Losing a game with very good offensive output (Hey, we hit some deep balls!) and 32 points with past Wilcox' defenses would have notched a win. I have no idea why Ragle is still employed. The only consolation I can come up with is that both Nevada and TCU are getting Top 25 votes so they are actually good teams.
Wilcox can’t be losing games in which Garbers throws for 300+ & the O scores 4 TDs.
This defense is bad and the poor tackling is brutal.
You get a point for using the word "Dykesian". Well done.
"...poor tackling is brutal" is a massive understatement.
Nam is absolutely right about one thing: Losing The 'Root to Oregon is going to be a huge hit against us this season. The tackling yesterday was atrocious and there were times when we didn't look like we could stop anyone. I don't think that he was the best recruiter but man, can he build a defense! As Nam pointed out, look what he did with the Duck's defense WITH THEIR BEST PLAYERS OUT! Don't be surprised if Oregon runs the table in the Pac-12.
I miss DeRuyter's defense too, but I think the tackling is more related to Gerald Alexander's departure as he was the one leading the initiatives on improved tackling that we saw in Wilcox's earlier seasons.
https://cal.rivals.com/news/cal-db-coach-gerald-alexander-heading-to-the-miami-dolphins
And Alexander, who was poached by the Dolphins....
Sirmon was our DC and TDR was co-DC in 2020 so I don't think we could have made Alexander co-DC. Maybe passing game coordinator? Still probably didn't help much.
I think Wilcox thought we needed to get 7 points whenEVER the opportunity arose as he thought, as most of us did, TCU’s offense was going to be a juggernaut. Hindsight coaching is always right. I supported the call at the time; we were moving and 7 would have been a huge momentum boost…..