Oh please. Did we watch the same game? To put Cal in the same sentence with Tennessee, LSU, Notre Dame and Texas is quite frankly laughable. Cal is heading for at the very best another 6-6 season to hold off a 5-7 by having to beat Stanford in Palo Alto. This team, with occasional bright spots as you rightly point out, is following in the same Wilcox tradition or perhaps better stated, the same tired Cal tradition, of fielding a representative team that can’t win crucial games and ends even a slightly winning season in some no-name bowl game. Frankly, after watching this for the most part uninspired football for 65 years since Cal’s 1959 Rose Bowl appearance, I’d really like to see a winning program put in place that complements the winning education provided by the finest public university in the world. Can we not find a big Chuck Muncie style back who can actually convert a fourth and one by crashing through the line behind a big OL? And maybe a few WR who can actually catch the ball more consistently than this crew? I’m not a coach so am not going to go on about what this program needs, but I am a VERY long suffering Cal fan who, truth be known, actually did play a small part in this tradition during the Craig Morton/Ray Willsey years when high school players were confined to the frosh team (we beat Stanford). My hope is that Ron and the Chancellor will put together an effective NIL syndicate and go out and buy the best coach and players that money can buy in this completely money-corrupted D1 Power4 game that we’ve managed to get ourselves into. If not, let’s just pack it in and move back to a reconstituted PAC12. At least the players won’t have to travel 2500 miles for the privilege of traveling home following yet another dismal performance.
I can see some scenarios where travel is eased in future realignment. Maybe Cal and Stanford somehow find their way into the B1G and join the former Pac schools there in a scheduling "pod." Or the ACC loses some members to the Big 2 and maybe backfills with the former Pac members from the Big 12 (give or take BYU as well) to create a different western pod.
And while a B1G invite is likely best case scenario for the entire department, the powers that be would seem to face a monumental challenge. Gotta get Cal’s revenue sports to the level where they could be competitive in a pod with Oregon, UW, SC, fUCLA and ‘Furd , given the resources they figure to devote on out.
Yesterday, Ott did not get off the bench. Endries had 1 catch for a negative 1 yard. They both made very bad decisions to leave Cal too late to fit themselves into another quality program. Too bad. They would have thrived with JKS behind the wheel. And we’d be scoring a lot more points.
Ott has had a disastrous transfer experience. Maybe the money takes some of the sting out of it. In other non-Cal news, ‘Furd out-mediocred the ‘Noles down on The Farm in front of 26,000 fans.
Ott was injured during the summer camp and got off to a slow start and never caught up. Had troubles with injuries at Cal as well. Endries is the starting tight end at Texas, which could still make the championship play-off. They don't seem to throw to the TE much. His biggest mistake was going with Manning rather than going to Indiana with Mendoza.
So far, for thus entire season Ott has only 21 carries for 68 yards, 0 TDs; 3.2 YPC and has been hampered by injury. That he’d leave in April and arrive at OK after spring ball was over, thus missing a key time to learn a new system, certainly raises the issue of why he’d leave Cal. He apparently was not happy w the way his ankle injury was handled and is on the record as remarking that at OK “the team members really care about the program” which could be taken as an indictment of the current Cal coaching staff. While there is no reliable information about how much NIL money he was offered to make the move, estimates run from $240k to $800k, but nothing definitive has ever been acknowledged. That Ott wanted to play in the SEC and was hoping for better exposure has not been disputed.
For Mendoza, Model valuations for NIL money offered by Indiana(not deals):
• ~$1.4M around the time he arrived at IU (Sports Illustrated NIL roundup). 
• ~$1.6M during September 2025 (Athlon/Yahoo pieces citing On3’s model). 
• ~$2.2M current On3 profile valuation (again, an estimate, not a contract). 
• Rumors: message-board chatter pegs his “package” around $2M, but there’s no sourcing behind that. Treat as fan speculation. 
• What’s actually documented: The Wall Street Journal noted he used NIL earnings to cover remaining Cal tuition hours after his scholarship ended—evidence he’s earning NIL money, but no dollar figure disclosed. IU’s roster bio says the same about paying for final Cal classes, without amounts.
My understanding is that Cal's collective was ready and willing to match the compensation for both Mendoza and Ott, but they chose to leave anyway. It's a statement on how the program is run, IMO, that these guys left. Hopefully we can improve this with Rivera running things.
I agree completely. It's a statement about the coaching staff and the outlook for the program under Wilcox along with the increased exposure obtained from a well coached, winning program and less so about the NIL money. These kids are all focused on getting to the NFL and the big money payoff that represents. It has very little to do, if at all, with the education provided by the university. A good coach and solid, well preforming program is the only thing that will put a stop to the portal departures that Cal has experienced. If Cal had a contending, even just ranked program, it would be a different story. As it is, we will likely lose JKS to the portal along with the few other better performers on the current team, absent hiring a new coaching staff that can convince these kids not to leave.
Watching the highlights is a funny experience. They show a lot of 3rd and 17-20 yard completions, which did indeed happen and look impressive. But of course, why were we in so many 3rd and 20 situations?
It just looks like a lot of Wilcox Ball again: boring offensive scheme that seems to rely on perfect execution to win. Once in a while we will see a game that shows some creativity. Minnesota had some of that this year. Miami had it last year. But then it is back to the same boring stuff.
If we didn't have JKS to rescue us with great throws on 3rd down this season would be really ugly.
Trying to be impartial, it looked to me that the Refs were trying to give the game to Bill and the Tarheels. The favoritism was evident by the disparity of the penalties. Almost 100 yds.for Cal to 49 for the Tarheels. And when the Tarheel lineman shoved Ulave to the ground in front of everybody? No call. Maybe I'm biased but it seems like Cal always has to play against 12 instead of 11.
That was an ugly win against a really bad team. The play calling was bad on both sides of the ball. JKS, his numbers barely get to 200 yards with lots of attempts, conservative dink and dunk, defense played lots of zone coverage, didn’t attack an offense that was really bad. Bottom line is , I don’t have confidence in this staff at all. They are playing uninspiring football. They feed off the enthusiasm of Wilcox, which is non existent for what ever reason. Anyway, I have them 2-3 at best with the remaining schedule. Hope I’m wrong.
what was the stat we kept hearing last year? Four losses with a total of seven points? Or was it a few plays away from ten wins?
This year we’re two or three plays away for 3-4 or 2-5. We needed miracle red zone turnovers to beat atrociously bad BC and UNC. And we needed Minnesota’s best player to inexplicably muff a punt to beat them. I feel worse about this team than I have for a while. The disappearing acts against SDSU and after the 1st quarter against Duke are not acceptable, and Wilcox needs to go even if we luck into another three or four wins.
Yep, a six game losing streak is extremely plausible. I hope Cal can beat VA Tech on the road to get the hay in the barn for a bowl bid, because the 5 games after that could be extremely rough sledding.
It’s mathematically possible that Cal could lose 5 in a row, get a bowl bid because there aren’t enough 6-6 teams, and then lose that. One bowl I really enjoyed was 10 years ago, Nebraska at 5-7 beat an 8-4 UCLA team featuring Josh Rosen at QB in the Foster Farms/San Francisco Bowl. But yeah, I guess I got a little loose with the math.
If we beat Virginia Tech next week we will be 6-2. In that situation I think alums and fans owe it to themselves and to the school to give one LAST push of real optimism, energy and enthusiasm for the following game against Virginia at home.
My biggest fear is that we win 7 games and Wilcox is still here next year. My really big fear is that he wins 8 and gets an extension after a night of drinking with Ron.
I agree but I still think winning more than 6 is unlikely and winning 8 is like the odds of winning the Powerball lottery. Theoretically not impossible but realistically improbable. We will be lucky if this team beats Stanford.
Cal's offense is poor mainly because of the coach who installed the offense and who's calling the plays and that coach is Bryan Harsin who is the offensive coordinator. His offense is very mundane. In other words in lacking of variety and interest. Also, his sequence of play calling is very hap hazard which leads to no building and setting up outcomes of succeeding plays.
Do you know anything about a college coaching staff responsibilities? The head coach hires an offensive coordinator who implements an offense and calls all the plays during a game. Wilcox does not call plays, but he hires crappy O coordinators.
And it's not safe to assume that any head coach just allows his coordinators to do whatever they want. The head coach still has ultimate authority over the game plan. If he wants a safe, vanilla offense, then the OC has to deliver a safe, vanilla offense.
Have you ever been on a college coaching staff? I have and the head coach was a former pro defensive lineman and former college defensive coordinator. He had very little input into the offensive room. This seems tl be the case at Cal.
No I haven’t and I don’t know how responsibilities are handled on Cal’s staff. Just saying that you cannot ASSUME the head coach is hands-off with any particular thing.
Regardless, if the same offensive problems keep happening with different OCs . . . I say the head coach is the issue, however that is happening.
Virginia struggled with a 3-3 Washington State squad last night in Charlottesville. Cougars led for nearly the entire game. Late in the 4th quarter, penalties were their undoing and led to a safety scored by Virginia to pull out the win, 22-20.
Saban taking on the challenge of Cal football would be the ultimate victory for Cal if he were to turn Cal into a winner: starting with the ACC championship. Just read that he’s available but his wife (Mrs. Always Right) said “ I haven’t heard a number yet”. Stranger things have happened…..lol
Did you get that stuff you’re smoking on the street or at a dispensary? He’s way too busy talking to a duck, painting walls and managing his vacation home.
Oh please. Did we watch the same game? To put Cal in the same sentence with Tennessee, LSU, Notre Dame and Texas is quite frankly laughable. Cal is heading for at the very best another 6-6 season to hold off a 5-7 by having to beat Stanford in Palo Alto. This team, with occasional bright spots as you rightly point out, is following in the same Wilcox tradition or perhaps better stated, the same tired Cal tradition, of fielding a representative team that can’t win crucial games and ends even a slightly winning season in some no-name bowl game. Frankly, after watching this for the most part uninspired football for 65 years since Cal’s 1959 Rose Bowl appearance, I’d really like to see a winning program put in place that complements the winning education provided by the finest public university in the world. Can we not find a big Chuck Muncie style back who can actually convert a fourth and one by crashing through the line behind a big OL? And maybe a few WR who can actually catch the ball more consistently than this crew? I’m not a coach so am not going to go on about what this program needs, but I am a VERY long suffering Cal fan who, truth be known, actually did play a small part in this tradition during the Craig Morton/Ray Willsey years when high school players were confined to the frosh team (we beat Stanford). My hope is that Ron and the Chancellor will put together an effective NIL syndicate and go out and buy the best coach and players that money can buy in this completely money-corrupted D1 Power4 game that we’ve managed to get ourselves into. If not, let’s just pack it in and move back to a reconstituted PAC12. At least the players won’t have to travel 2500 miles for the privilege of traveling home following yet another dismal performance.
I admittedly tried being funny with that line, did not articulate it well
I hear ya
Keep up the great work/ reporting. I really enjoy it and the opportunity to engage with fellow masochists!
No, it was pretty obvious to me that you were being sarcastic with that comparison.
Only thing is staying in, or returning to, a reconstituted P12 is simply not an option. Never has been.
What’s happening to Oregon State would be the result, and with that you’re losing half of your sports programs.
So the travel thing is here to stay.
I can see some scenarios where travel is eased in future realignment. Maybe Cal and Stanford somehow find their way into the B1G and join the former Pac schools there in a scheduling "pod." Or the ACC loses some members to the Big 2 and maybe backfills with the former Pac members from the Big 12 (give or take BYU as well) to create a different western pod.
And while a B1G invite is likely best case scenario for the entire department, the powers that be would seem to face a monumental challenge. Gotta get Cal’s revenue sports to the level where they could be competitive in a pod with Oregon, UW, SC, fUCLA and ‘Furd , given the resources they figure to devote on out.
And becoming OSU, we would be obligated to be bitter hate-casters, also like the Beavers.
Yesterday, Ott did not get off the bench. Endries had 1 catch for a negative 1 yard. They both made very bad decisions to leave Cal too late to fit themselves into another quality program. Too bad. They would have thrived with JKS behind the wheel. And we’d be scoring a lot more points.
Ott has had a disastrous transfer experience. Maybe the money takes some of the sting out of it. In other non-Cal news, ‘Furd out-mediocred the ‘Noles down on The Farm in front of 26,000 fans.
What about "Jet" Thomas? Is he getting playing time?
He's doing pretty damned good at FUCLA. He, Endries, and Hunter are all three getting good play at their respective new schools.
Ott was injured during the summer camp and got off to a slow start and never caught up. Had troubles with injuries at Cal as well. Endries is the starting tight end at Texas, which could still make the championship play-off. They don't seem to throw to the TE much. His biggest mistake was going with Manning rather than going to Indiana with Mendoza.
It all depended on who offered him.
So far, for thus entire season Ott has only 21 carries for 68 yards, 0 TDs; 3.2 YPC and has been hampered by injury. That he’d leave in April and arrive at OK after spring ball was over, thus missing a key time to learn a new system, certainly raises the issue of why he’d leave Cal. He apparently was not happy w the way his ankle injury was handled and is on the record as remarking that at OK “the team members really care about the program” which could be taken as an indictment of the current Cal coaching staff. While there is no reliable information about how much NIL money he was offered to make the move, estimates run from $240k to $800k, but nothing definitive has ever been acknowledged. That Ott wanted to play in the SEC and was hoping for better exposure has not been disputed.
For Mendoza, Model valuations for NIL money offered by Indiana(not deals):
• ~$1.4M around the time he arrived at IU (Sports Illustrated NIL roundup). 
• ~$1.6M during September 2025 (Athlon/Yahoo pieces citing On3’s model). 
• ~$2.2M current On3 profile valuation (again, an estimate, not a contract). 
• Rumors: message-board chatter pegs his “package” around $2M, but there’s no sourcing behind that. Treat as fan speculation. 
• What’s actually documented: The Wall Street Journal noted he used NIL earnings to cover remaining Cal tuition hours after his scholarship ended—evidence he’s earning NIL money, but no dollar figure disclosed. IU’s roster bio says the same about paying for final Cal classes, without amounts.
My understanding is that Cal's collective was ready and willing to match the compensation for both Mendoza and Ott, but they chose to leave anyway. It's a statement on how the program is run, IMO, that these guys left. Hopefully we can improve this with Rivera running things.
I agree completely. It's a statement about the coaching staff and the outlook for the program under Wilcox along with the increased exposure obtained from a well coached, winning program and less so about the NIL money. These kids are all focused on getting to the NFL and the big money payoff that represents. It has very little to do, if at all, with the education provided by the university. A good coach and solid, well preforming program is the only thing that will put a stop to the portal departures that Cal has experienced. If Cal had a contending, even just ranked program, it would be a different story. As it is, we will likely lose JKS to the portal along with the few other better performers on the current team, absent hiring a new coaching staff that can convince these kids not to leave.
Watching the highlights is a funny experience. They show a lot of 3rd and 17-20 yard completions, which did indeed happen and look impressive. But of course, why were we in so many 3rd and 20 situations?
Bingo
It just looks like a lot of Wilcox Ball again: boring offensive scheme that seems to rely on perfect execution to win. Once in a while we will see a game that shows some creativity. Minnesota had some of that this year. Miami had it last year. But then it is back to the same boring stuff.
If we didn't have JKS to rescue us with great throws on 3rd down this season would be really ugly.
Really ugly? There’s still plenty of time. My hope is that we’re not just warming up.
The offense is put in by the Offensive coordinators. That's where Wilcox screwed up. He hired Harsin and his offense schemes really suck.
If that's the case then he screwed up with every OC he's ever hired, because our offensive schemes always suck. I think the constant is Wilcox.
Trying to be impartial, it looked to me that the Refs were trying to give the game to Bill and the Tarheels. The favoritism was evident by the disparity of the penalties. Almost 100 yds.for Cal to 49 for the Tarheels. And when the Tarheel lineman shoved Ulave to the ground in front of everybody? No call. Maybe I'm biased but it seems like Cal always has to play against 12 instead of 11.
That was an ugly win against a really bad team. The play calling was bad on both sides of the ball. JKS, his numbers barely get to 200 yards with lots of attempts, conservative dink and dunk, defense played lots of zone coverage, didn’t attack an offense that was really bad. Bottom line is , I don’t have confidence in this staff at all. They are playing uninspiring football. They feed off the enthusiasm of Wilcox, which is non existent for what ever reason. Anyway, I have them 2-3 at best with the remaining schedule. Hope I’m wrong.
what was the stat we kept hearing last year? Four losses with a total of seven points? Or was it a few plays away from ten wins?
This year we’re two or three plays away for 3-4 or 2-5. We needed miracle red zone turnovers to beat atrociously bad BC and UNC. And we needed Minnesota’s best player to inexplicably muff a punt to beat them. I feel worse about this team than I have for a while. The disappearing acts against SDSU and after the 1st quarter against Duke are not acceptable, and Wilcox needs to go even if we luck into another three or four wins.
Yep, a six game losing streak is extremely plausible. I hope Cal can beat VA Tech on the road to get the hay in the barn for a bowl bid, because the 5 games after that could be extremely rough sledding.
We're playing a 13-game regular season this year?
If we beat Virginia Tech, there will be a 13th game.
Yeah, like the Pop Tart Bowl in Bismarck, North Dakota on a Tuesday in December! Plenty of free tickets!
It’s mathematically possible that Cal could lose 5 in a row, get a bowl bid because there aren’t enough 6-6 teams, and then lose that. One bowl I really enjoyed was 10 years ago, Nebraska at 5-7 beat an 8-4 UCLA team featuring Josh Rosen at QB in the Foster Farms/San Francisco Bowl. But yeah, I guess I got a little loose with the math.
If we beat Virginia Tech next week we will be 6-2. In that situation I think alums and fans owe it to themselves and to the school to give one LAST push of real optimism, energy and enthusiasm for the following game against Virginia at home.
If we see a great win over a (likely) ranked Virginia team, then I will be back on board. Not holding my breath for that, though.
I’m betting after the UVA game instead of holding your breath it will be your nose!
My biggest fear is that we win 7 games and Wilcox is still here next year. My really big fear is that he wins 8 and gets an extension after a night of drinking with Ron.
I want to believe that there's no way Rivera thinks this is acceptable even if we win a few more games.
I have the same fear. Can't bear (pun intended) another year of Wilcox.
I agree but I still think winning more than 6 is unlikely and winning 8 is like the odds of winning the Powerball lottery. Theoretically not impossible but realistically improbable. We will be lucky if this team beats Stanford.
Cal's offense is poor mainly because of the coach who installed the offense and who's calling the plays and that coach is Bryan Harsin who is the offensive coordinator. His offense is very mundane. In other words in lacking of variety and interest. Also, his sequence of play calling is very hap hazard which leads to no building and setting up outcomes of succeeding plays.
Except we have seen this same pattern with multiple offensive coordinators. It's Wilcox.
Do you know anything about a college coaching staff responsibilities? The head coach hires an offensive coordinator who implements an offense and calls all the plays during a game. Wilcox does not call plays, but he hires crappy O coordinators.
Then it all still goes back to Wilcox.
And it's not safe to assume that any head coach just allows his coordinators to do whatever they want. The head coach still has ultimate authority over the game plan. If he wants a safe, vanilla offense, then the OC has to deliver a safe, vanilla offense.
Have you ever been on a college coaching staff? I have and the head coach was a former pro defensive lineman and former college defensive coordinator. He had very little input into the offensive room. This seems tl be the case at Cal.
No I haven’t and I don’t know how responsibilities are handled on Cal’s staff. Just saying that you cannot ASSUME the head coach is hands-off with any particular thing.
Regardless, if the same offensive problems keep happening with different OCs . . . I say the head coach is the issue, however that is happening.
Where do you see 3 more wins coming from?
VTech, hope springs eternal, but won’t be enough, dismal vs. dismal, if Cal loses this one it’s 6-6 at best or 5-7…
Virginia, nope, at least it’s at home
Louisville, the Miami killer, in Louisville?, save the flight, phone it in, definitely not
Stanford, on the Farm, light some incense, run up the prayer flags, start praying to Andy Smith right now
SMU, oh please, nope
Virginia struggled with a 3-3 Washington State squad last night in Charlottesville. Cougars led for nearly the entire game. Late in the 4th quarter, penalties were their undoing and led to a safety scored by Virginia to pull out the win, 22-20.
"Penalties"?
ACC refs?
Hmmm...
Although WSU out-gained UVA in rushing (143 to 122) and slightly in total yardage (326 to 301), UVA made the critical plays late in the game.
UVA’s comeback in the fourth quarter was decisive — they out-gained WSU 126-8 and dominated possession for over 10 minutes in that quarter. 
WSU’s turnovers (2 interceptions) and special teams miscue (fair catch at the 2-yard line set up the game-winning safety) were critical. 
UVA managed to hold onto the ball fewer times (57 plays vs. WSU’s 62), but used their drives more efficiently in the final quarter.
Who knows.
Two more coaches fired today. Florida fired Napier and Colorado State fired Norvell.
I imagine Wisconsin will fire Fickell and FSU will fire Mike Norvell
I'm surprised Bill is still employed
I think UNC is trying to find a way for both of them to save face and have a mutually agreed separation
Saban taking on the challenge of Cal football would be the ultimate victory for Cal if he were to turn Cal into a winner: starting with the ACC championship. Just read that he’s available but his wife (Mrs. Always Right) said “ I haven’t heard a number yet”. Stranger things have happened…..lol
Did you get that stuff you’re smoking on the street or at a dispensary? He’s way too busy talking to a duck, painting walls and managing his vacation home.
Welp, just guessing, but based upon Cignetti's numbers, It would need to be North of $12 mil/year.
How about them Clemson Tigers? Florida State Seminoles? To Go with Those UNC Tar Heels?