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Rick Chen's avatar

Discuss the game and share your reactions in the recap post: https://writeforcalifornia.com/p/cal-football-duke-2025-game-results-recap-analysis

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GoldenSD81's avatar

Tomorrow would be the perfect time to fire Wilcox, we have a bye week so it is not or we wait until the end of the season

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Jimmy Chitwood's avatar

I think it might have been on the table had we lost at BC, but 4-2 into the bye means he’s probably safe until Dec.

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GoldenSD81's avatar

You’re probably right but I’m so incredibly frustrated with wiLcox. I think 6-6 is the floor for this team. We might get to 8-4, I am just worried that if we do go 8-4 that they will bring wiLcox back

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veritek's avatar

38 unanswered points, worse than the SDSU game - simply inexcusable especially at home.

Rivera needs to show that Cal is willing to be a serious program sooner rather than later; relieving Wilcox of his duties during the bye week and commencing a real search for a replacement (*not* a Harsin or Rolo bandaid) would be a start.

Ron better be asking whale donors to cut checks for paying Wilcox's buyout this week. Otherwise we're fucking beyond cooked with more realignment looming on the near horizon.

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Jimmy Chitwood's avatar

The W at BC almost certainly bought JW the rest of the year….but I like where your head’s at! :-)

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Brocky's avatar

Ron can step in as interim coach

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Brocky's avatar

Wilcox got beat at his own game. I really miss the takers.

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Old Bear 71's avatar

Trounced. Thoroughly.

Go Bears!

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Jason Scott's avatar

Offense went belly up

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bigaddi's avatar

I want Wilcox tarmaced. Doesn't matter that they are at home. Writing is on the wall of what his ceiling is, 6-6 with a shitty bowl loss, time to move on

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GoldenSD81's avatar

Leave him at Ashby BART station

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bigaddi's avatar

Throw him in the bay

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bluehenbear's avatar

Did Wilcox think game was over when cal got to 21?

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Todd's avatar

The fundamental problem with the Cal Football Program is a lack of depth. When a starter goes down, the next man up is a big drop off

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Brocky's avatar

My bingo card is full of lower body season ending injuries

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Jason Scott's avatar

Just wish we had a backup head coach

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Jaylen Brown's avatar

Duke stat padding now💀

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sacman701's avatar

They were just killing the clock.

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Brocky's avatar

Thank goodness the niners won earlier this week to at least have some sport outcome to be happy about

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TKE Prytanis 79's avatar

phew...good night all. Go Bears!

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Todd's avatar

The Bears are going to be 4-2 going into a bye week. Regroup & heal up. Get a win against North Carolina & we’re 5-2

I’ll take that every year!! Go Bears

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Old Bear 71's avatar

Alas,

We will play down to UNC and give them a w.

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GoldenSD81's avatar

I fully expect UNC to come and score 35 points and beat us

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sacman701's avatar

UNC is utter crap. They beat only Charlotte and Richmond, and they lost to TCU by 34, UCF by 25, and Clemson by 28 only because Clemson called off the dogs at halftime. We'll beat them and probably Furd. We'll lose the others.

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GoldenSD81's avatar

I assume nothing because wiLcox is our coach and it is a game in October. Any team that plays Cal in the month of October while wiLcox is still our coach will have a decent chance of winning

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sacman701's avatar

We'll beat UNC. Book it.

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GoldenSD81's avatar

I don’t know, wiLcox has proven he can lose to some really terrible teams. We have lost to winless Colorado, Arizona and FSU

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TKE Prytanis 79's avatar

Good point!

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Jason Scott's avatar

Stop stop we’re already dead!

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GoldenSD81's avatar

Pile it on! It’s the only way to get wiLcox fired

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Jason Scott's avatar

The impossible dream

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Jason Scott's avatar

More Teflon than Gotti

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Brocky's avatar

I will love this team forever but making any sort of bowl game is basically the ceiling for any Cal team, not just under Wilcox. The only wrinkle Wilcox teams bring is just games they just don’t show up for. My expectations have been adjusted over the past few decades.

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Bowlbasaur's avatar

38 unanswered. Nice work Wilcox.

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AndyPanda's avatar

Apparently, SD St was not a fluke?

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sacman701's avatar

This was a replay of SD st except that we had a few good drives in the first quarter.

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sacman701's avatar

Horrific play, and the Duke asshole had to be a complete asshole about it. They may actually be pretty good, but boy are they a bunch of assholes.

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GoldenSD81's avatar

It’s October Cal football right on schedule. When will Cal rid itself of the incompetence that is wiLcox?

Anytime the program has any momentum, he kills it with a home loss

Just fire him already and be done with it. His defense has regressed, he hasn’t fielded a competent OL in years.

I would not be shocked at all to lose to a terrible UNC team that comes to Memorial and puts up 35 points on us

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Jimmy Chitwood's avatar

Mmmmm, Jake’s Del Mar…

;-)

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GoldenSD81's avatar

I hope you’re right! I can’t take another year, let alone another game of wiLcox coaching Cal

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Jimmy Chitwood's avatar

Enough is enough.

That debacle at Snapdragon in front of a lot of Cal fans who made the trip was incredibly damaging to his long term prospects.

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Old Bear 71's avatar

Holy moly

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Archon79's avatar

Disaster

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bigaddi's avatar

Trying to get Aristotle to take a pay cut, leading to him leaving, leading to the rb exodus, leading to a rb stable who cant catch a pass was definetly a choice. Can't wait for the long overdue firing of Wilcox. Get this bum the fuck outta here

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Old Bear 71's avatar

4-8 here we come.

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concernedparent's avatar

This is feeling like 6-6 with a Big Game win that preserves Wilcox's job.

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Jimmy Chitwood's avatar

He is not back with 6-6.

7-5 maybe.

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sacman701's avatar

7-5 *might* be enough if we beat UNC, VT, and Furd handily and are competitive against UVA, Louisville, and SMU.

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Old Bear 71's avatar

I sure hope not

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AndyPanda's avatar

Losing the Big Game is something you would hope for?

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Old Bear 71's avatar

Not my point. I see furd improving , and us not. What I want to lose is Wilcox. I just don’t think the culture is there to win 6

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Jimmy Chitwood's avatar

You get the Bye and then gotta beat UNC.

Unfortunately, as is often the case with overmatched Head Coaches like Justin Wilcox, Cal rarely plays their best football off of their Bye, which is telling on so many levels.

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AndyPanda's avatar

It doesn't appear enough talent is there. Or experience.

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TadyBear88's avatar

What a horrific showing. Another year where the only thing that matters is the big game. 31 unanswered points and counting. Fire Wilcox

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cheeksbossman's avatar

“Destroyed Cal on the offensive line” How many times have we heard that during Wilcox’s tenure? What sane QB would want to stay here?

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Jason Scott's avatar

Complete offensive collapse

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TezCalipoca's avatar

RB s killing us

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Jimmy Chitwood's avatar

Our RBs can’t really compete at this level.

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GoldenSD81's avatar

We have a bunch of G5 RBs! Remember when people were saying we would be fine without Ott and Thomas? We reloaded with a bunch of fringe G5 guys.

Our WR room is terrible and our OL looks about as below average as usual

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Jimmy Chitwood's avatar

The OL has been the biggest disappointment. Really felt like Anae was gonna be a game changer. He has not been - much of the same…they’ve played their best ball against Texas Southern & v a bad BC team.

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GoldenSD81's avatar

I agree because I thought the guys we brought in via the portal and our new OL coach would be enough to see an improvement. I knew our RB and WR rooms were going to struggle and a clear downgrade from last season as we lost more talent than we gained in the portal at those positions

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Archon79's avatar

JKS wasn’t great but these receivers…

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Justbear's avatar

I think we might lose this game

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sacman701's avatar

That was 100% on the receiver. Edited: 90%. It was a little high, but he should catch that.

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bluehenbear's avatar

Where’s the fucking oline. Jeez

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Spazzard's avatar

Is this what the jets feel like? Still… go bears!

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TKE Prytanis 79's avatar

Go Bears Forever!

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Spazzard's avatar

All I have is Mendoza screaming that in my head. Just hoping next week is better!!!

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CalBear’19's avatar

Oklahoma State has balls.

UCLA has balls.

Arkansas has balls.

Virginia Tech has balls.

Will Cal find their pair?

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Jimmy Chitwood's avatar

The BC win bought him the rest of the year.

You now face an absolute must-win v Belichick.

After the debacle at SDSU, you can’t call the FRI night game at Va Tech a W, even tho it should be.

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TezCalipoca's avatar

I could live with Harsin as the interim

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CalBear’19's avatar

At this point…why not. I’m willing to settle for Rolovich.

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TezCalipoca's avatar

No thanks

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TKE Prytanis 79's avatar

Play loose JKS...WTF not...maybe get some points

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bluehenbear's avatar

Mediocre to poor oline and no skill players to complement JKS. Doom

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CalBear’19's avatar

October Wilcox strikes again! What’s the definition of insanity again?

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Jimmy Chitwood's avatar

That stat is simply mind boggling.

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Brocky's avatar

Being a Cal fan

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NinjaNed's avatar

Feel sorry for the fans. Sorry product on the field

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Rugbear's avatar

I dare say that that’s the game. The defense gave away the first half and the offense gave away the second half. You can’t have two turnovers that turn into scores against the team like Duke and hope to win. We played better than I thought we would, but I hate the loss.

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Old Bear 71's avatar

I think that is it too. This team clearly lacks cohesiveness that other teams seem to develop. Spurts and fits across the whole team. O, D, ST, completely out played when it counts.

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HelloBowlesHall's avatar

We were not even competitive for the majority of the game. I actually think we played worse than I thought we would.

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Jimmy Chitwood's avatar

Dominated in football at home by an unranked Duke team.

In year 9.

That’s how you get relegated.

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Brocky's avatar

Time to hit the reset button, Ron.

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Jimmy Chitwood's avatar

Way.

Past.

Time.

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Jimmy Chitwood's avatar

Masses got worked tonight.

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TKE Prytanis 79's avatar

That was a perfect pass

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Jimmy Chitwood's avatar

Poor technique. Never found the football.

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TezCalipoca's avatar

He was on that guy pretty close. I didn't blame him for their great play

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Jimmy Chitwood's avatar

Never found the ball. Never got his head turned.

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Lapachet’75's avatar

Feel sorry for the band—they have to stay until the bitter end.

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sacman701's avatar

He was right there on that play, the ball was just in a tight window.

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Archon79's avatar

They REALLY went at him

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Jimmy Chitwood's avatar

Never got his head turned around there, consistently allowed inside leverage.

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Jason Scott's avatar

Masses mossed!!

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Jimmy Chitwood's avatar

Awful tonight. Poor technique all around.

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TezCalipoca's avatar

A very disjointed game. Sometimes O is great, then goes to zero. Sometimes D is great, then goes to zero.

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Jimmy Chitwood's avatar

With special teams being an all-around negative.

I dunno, sounds like a pretty typical Wilcox Saturday.

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TezCalipoca's avatar

Guess you're right.

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Jimmy Chitwood's avatar

Ballgame.

Duke has the play in the trenches Wilcox has been unable to assemble in nearly a decade.

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Rugbear's avatar

They have a lot more money to spend than us. I don’t know if you looked at their office of Linemen,, but they were as big as our guys and much more athletic.

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Jimmy Chitwood's avatar

I did.

But in reality, Cal’s football NIL is comparable to Duke. They just execute better.

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GoldenSD81's avatar

Typical WiLcox loss.

The program has some momentum, fans taking notice and we immediately lose. Plus it’s October so it is time for a nice 3 game losing streak. The defense has continued to regress. Despite all this, WiLcox will be back next season

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HelloBowlesHall's avatar

Not just the trenches. Their receivers catching everything, our special teams have been horrible.

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Jimmy Chitwood's avatar

A lot of that was schematic. Their WR/TE were 7 yards clear the entire 2Q.

Felt like the Ed Dickson game.

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Jason Scott's avatar

Uluave went the wrong way

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Rugbear's avatar

Refs missed a huge old call on number 85 of Duke on that long run play

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Old Bear 71's avatar

That will do it

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sacman701's avatar

That was abysmal.

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bluehenbear's avatar

We’re cooked

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HelloBowlesHall's avatar

If they punch this in I think we’re officially toast

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sacman701's avatar

Yeah, we're not scoring 3 times.

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TKE Prytanis 79's avatar

Phleming is really bad

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Mark's avatar

So they overturn the call but don't put time back on the clock?

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