Fellow Golden Bears: Let’s face it. As an institution, we have quit on our football program. It wasn’t THAT long ago that Tedford had us in the top 10 and we were always mentioned on Game Day. CMS had 60,000+ for most games and was rocking! Student section packed. Then, those in charge got all upset and ran Tedford out rather than working with him on a fix. (Things went down hill but, hey, our GPA is great. ) So here’s my question: do we just quit and think fondly of the days when we were relevant? Do we look at UCLA (same basic institution as Cal), Michigan, Penn State , etc.— all with solid academic standing—and ask, no demand, that we have a football program that matches those schools? It is NOT a zero sum game where you give up academic reputation for football success. There are many donors who would open up their wallets if convinced they were getting a reasonable return on investment—winning teams, a bowl game, fun on Saturdays and a general pride in wearing blue and gold. Maybe actually being able to walk into your office or country club on Monday and have folks say “nice game”, not WTF! The donor money is there but is too smart ti throw it down the rabbit hole. Oregon does it, OREGON STATE is doing it, UCLA always does it. Even Furd occasionally does it. The old: “Yes but they let ANYONE in and we have more Nobel Prizes." just doesn’t work. We should have both.
I’m just ssd that our administration doesn’t have the will to compete.
Cal’s Phil Knight is out there, somewhere, but would rather invest in Amazon than Edsel. We need to start with a COMMITMENT to win and that (those?) donor will show up.
Everything we endeavor to do reflects on our university. How in the world is mediocrity in any endeavor acceptable to what we like to consider the best public university in the world?
And that’s the issue … everyone is ok with mediocrity - you’re right we will never be a powerhouse because of this … where is our Phil Knight you ask … this is Cal Fucking Berkeley … 500000 alumni and one of the worst football programs in the country and a fan base too cheap to care
I'm going to write something I never thought I would write. With the NIL ruling college football these days, and the exacerbated nature of the haves and have nots, where the big get bigger and the lesser schools get worse, it's an altogether disheartening landscape to even be a college football fan, not to mention a Cal fan. My wife is right when she says how sorry she is for me. It's a big chunk of the small part of my life I allocate to sports to be a Cal fan.
What purpose or hope is there to line up against Oregon? UW? Their greatness this year is exceptional but will continue in kind with their NIL prowess. The double whammy of the dissolution of the Pac12 combined with the hopeless feeling of playing an unfair deck, is just too much. Even truly stellar coaches like Wittingham and Smith at OSU, cannot outcoach the talent differential on a consistent basis. And when it's not up to the skill and charisma of the coach to attract top players, like has always been the hope of a new hot coach, and it's only about NIL money, then what is the point of the exercise? I have absolutely no interest in seeing Cal play teams that have like 20 million dollar rosters when we have 1/120th of that. I don't need to watch Cal play the 49ers.
It's not that we couldn't on occasion play well enough with our guys to scare someone like $C, but we all know that the law of averages will play out. I don't see a place of hope for my Bears. I don't need to get excited about beating patsy states. Yet, I don't want Cal to become a football factory with heaps of NIL money pouring in and the players being mercenaries. I may be in the minority in how I cheer for the team in some good part because I know the players are Cal students. I cheer for them being scholar athletes. Not hired guns merely. I don't fault the players in any way, but it's a broken and horrible system.
Where does my fandom go, besides away? I'm wearing a 2003 Insight Bowl shirt as type this. I've been die hard since my freshman year in 1987. I travel all over to see my Bears. But now, I just don't know or see how I can place hope in a team, no matter how valiant and true blue, when they are simply not of the size or speed or talent to compete. And I'll finish by saying I can fault Wilcox for various things, but I truly don't believe it is all on him. No coach will get this team to beat Oregon or WA on a consistent basis in the days of NIL.
College football has been the NFL minor league for decades.
Now, these players, taking those same risks, (wit Javian Thomas), can get some compensation. I don't like the NIL for where college football is going, but, honestly, it's just getting ongoing and past practices out in the open, so ethical programs can compete. We should do better than we are in raising money for our NIL I am okay with being a football factory, after all, we are already a nerd factory, so let's get some balance, so our nerds can be successful in the "real world," not just online.
You are so right. My freshman year at Cal was 1956. Ive seen the Bears when they were truly as good as SC or better and were much better than Washington and Oregon. Now with the NIL and portal, we can never get the same talent aboard. But I'll still go to games and root with all my heart.
That’s about the only positive thing coming from realignment - ESPN and the ACC network! Now I can watch the bears lose instead of having to read about it every week!
I hope Wilcox overhauls the defensive staff this off-season like he did with the offense last year. Shitcan Sirmon, get rid of one of the DB coaches and invest in special teams.
expect coach wilcox to mention something cursory in the post-game press conference about how ifanse didn't dress because he missed practice last week. we should get more details from cal early next week
Yes. It’s come to that increasingly for years. This season being the zenith. The future portends more of it with new and different twists at our expense. Can’t win anymore with them - pun intended. It’s official we’ve been permanently assigned to the short bus and the annex off the BiG and B12 league campuses.
I'm glad that Cal will never face Oregon again for good. Cal does not have Oregon’s material to compete against each other. Lack of material comes down to coach???
William: Yes, never playing them again sounds good, especially considering that we have only won ONCE at Autzen in 23 years!!!!! Definitely time to move on to a new conference. However, I don't believe that we will be bad forever. Our final three games are all winnable so clawing our way to 6-6 is still possible. The Pac-12 in its final year of existence is just ridiculously good. When was the last time that a conference had THREE Heisman candidates in the same year and we had to play all of them! Arizona just beat FUCLA and remember where they were a few years ago. Things will turn around Cal fans, just be patient and GO BEARS!!!!!
Yes we will get better. Most of the starters are lower classmen. The QB, Mendoza, is a freshman. The RB, Ott, is a sophomore. The TE, Endries, is a freshman. One of the 2 wide receivers is a sophomore and The other is a junior. The whole O line has only 1 senior and the rest are juniors and sophomores. The Defense starters are now all lower classmen. These guys have nowhere to go but up. I saw it before with guys like Goff, Rodgers, Marshawn Lynch, Cameron Jordan, and yes, Troy Taylor.
Fellow Golden Bears: Let’s face it. As an institution, we have quit on our football program. It wasn’t THAT long ago that Tedford had us in the top 10 and we were always mentioned on Game Day. CMS had 60,000+ for most games and was rocking! Student section packed. Then, those in charge got all upset and ran Tedford out rather than working with him on a fix. (Things went down hill but, hey, our GPA is great. ) So here’s my question: do we just quit and think fondly of the days when we were relevant? Do we look at UCLA (same basic institution as Cal), Michigan, Penn State , etc.— all with solid academic standing—and ask, no demand, that we have a football program that matches those schools? It is NOT a zero sum game where you give up academic reputation for football success. There are many donors who would open up their wallets if convinced they were getting a reasonable return on investment—winning teams, a bowl game, fun on Saturdays and a general pride in wearing blue and gold. Maybe actually being able to walk into your office or country club on Monday and have folks say “nice game”, not WTF! The donor money is there but is too smart ti throw it down the rabbit hole. Oregon does it, OREGON STATE is doing it, UCLA always does it. Even Furd occasionally does it. The old: “Yes but they let ANYONE in and we have more Nobel Prizes." just doesn’t work. We should have both.
I’m just ssd that our administration doesn’t have the will to compete.
Go Bears!
Where's Cal's Phil Knight? I'm joking but it is about priorities. U of O is a football school. Cal, not so much. I'm ok with that
Cal’s Phil Knight is out there, somewhere, but would rather invest in Amazon than Edsel. We need to start with a COMMITMENT to win and that (those?) donor will show up.
I, however, am not okay with that.
Everything we endeavor to do reflects on our university. How in the world is mediocrity in any endeavor acceptable to what we like to consider the best public university in the world?
And that’s the issue … everyone is ok with mediocrity - you’re right we will never be a powerhouse because of this … where is our Phil Knight you ask … this is Cal Fucking Berkeley … 500000 alumni and one of the worst football programs in the country and a fan base too cheap to care
Shades of Tedford’s last year at Cal when we got shellacked by OSU.
Let’s hope for a similar outcome and a fresh start - I’ll even take Tedford 2.0 as long as he manages his health better this time.
I'm going to write something I never thought I would write. With the NIL ruling college football these days, and the exacerbated nature of the haves and have nots, where the big get bigger and the lesser schools get worse, it's an altogether disheartening landscape to even be a college football fan, not to mention a Cal fan. My wife is right when she says how sorry she is for me. It's a big chunk of the small part of my life I allocate to sports to be a Cal fan.
What purpose or hope is there to line up against Oregon? UW? Their greatness this year is exceptional but will continue in kind with their NIL prowess. The double whammy of the dissolution of the Pac12 combined with the hopeless feeling of playing an unfair deck, is just too much. Even truly stellar coaches like Wittingham and Smith at OSU, cannot outcoach the talent differential on a consistent basis. And when it's not up to the skill and charisma of the coach to attract top players, like has always been the hope of a new hot coach, and it's only about NIL money, then what is the point of the exercise? I have absolutely no interest in seeing Cal play teams that have like 20 million dollar rosters when we have 1/120th of that. I don't need to watch Cal play the 49ers.
It's not that we couldn't on occasion play well enough with our guys to scare someone like $C, but we all know that the law of averages will play out. I don't see a place of hope for my Bears. I don't need to get excited about beating patsy states. Yet, I don't want Cal to become a football factory with heaps of NIL money pouring in and the players being mercenaries. I may be in the minority in how I cheer for the team in some good part because I know the players are Cal students. I cheer for them being scholar athletes. Not hired guns merely. I don't fault the players in any way, but it's a broken and horrible system.
Where does my fandom go, besides away? I'm wearing a 2003 Insight Bowl shirt as type this. I've been die hard since my freshman year in 1987. I travel all over to see my Bears. But now, I just don't know or see how I can place hope in a team, no matter how valiant and true blue, when they are simply not of the size or speed or talent to compete. And I'll finish by saying I can fault Wilcox for various things, but I truly don't believe it is all on him. No coach will get this team to beat Oregon or WA on a consistent basis in the days of NIL.
Welp.
It's been a long time coming.
College football has been the NFL minor league for decades.
Now, these players, taking those same risks, (wit Javian Thomas), can get some compensation. I don't like the NIL for where college football is going, but, honestly, it's just getting ongoing and past practices out in the open, so ethical programs can compete. We should do better than we are in raising money for our NIL I am okay with being a football factory, after all, we are already a nerd factory, so let's get some balance, so our nerds can be successful in the "real world," not just online.
You are so right. My freshman year at Cal was 1956. Ive seen the Bears when they were truly as good as SC or better and were much better than Washington and Oregon. Now with the NIL and portal, we can never get the same talent aboard. But I'll still go to games and root with all my heart.
Cool you can stop watching then
That’s about the only positive thing coming from realignment - ESPN and the ACC network! Now I can watch the bears lose instead of having to read about it every week!
Amen. …or close ones with SC with the proclivities of the officiating to insure our loss or others like us every freaking time.
I hope Wilcox overhauls the defensive staff this off-season like he did with the offense last year. Shitcan Sirmon, get rid of one of the DB coaches and invest in special teams.
Where do we get updates on Jet? Ifanse, too, who left on a cart last week.
expect coach wilcox to mention something cursory in the post-game press conference about how ifanse didn't dress because he missed practice last week. we should get more details from cal early next week
Thanks
Oregon really dodged a program killer when they didn’t hire Wilcox.
let's be honest: he was never a serious candidate
He was actually offered the job but didn't want to deal with Knight.
Yes, this.
Glad Wilcox could leave the Ducks with a 6 TD win on their way to the Big 10.
and still, people find a way to hate us when we deliver such great gifts
Yes. It’s come to that increasingly for years. This season being the zenith. The future portends more of it with new and different twists at our expense. Can’t win anymore with them - pun intended. It’s official we’ve been permanently assigned to the short bus and the annex off the BiG and B12 league campuses.
I'm glad that Cal will never face Oregon again for good. Cal does not have Oregon’s material to compete against each other. Lack of material comes down to coach???
William: Yes, never playing them again sounds good, especially considering that we have only won ONCE at Autzen in 23 years!!!!! Definitely time to move on to a new conference. However, I don't believe that we will be bad forever. Our final three games are all winnable so clawing our way to 6-6 is still possible. The Pac-12 in its final year of existence is just ridiculously good. When was the last time that a conference had THREE Heisman candidates in the same year and we had to play all of them! Arizona just beat FUCLA and remember where they were a few years ago. Things will turn around Cal fans, just be patient and GO BEARS!!!!!
Yes we will get better. Most of the starters are lower classmen. The QB, Mendoza, is a freshman. The RB, Ott, is a sophomore. The TE, Endries, is a freshman. One of the 2 wide receivers is a sophomore and The other is a junior. The whole O line has only 1 senior and the rest are juniors and sophomores. The Defense starters are now all lower classmen. These guys have nowhere to go but up. I saw it before with guys like Goff, Rodgers, Marshawn Lynch, Cameron Jordan, and yes, Troy Taylor.
Who’s not injured?
our depth continues to doom us
Eviscerate is the exact right word. Nice to meet you before the game, when we were all still in a good mood lol
likewise, hope you at least enjoyed the environment!