it;s not the X's and O's, but the Jimmie's and the Joe's. BC put up 400 yards and 4 TD's against SMU with a stout OL and running game. Since we don;t even have a below average OL, we have no running game. Unless SMU's starters got the flu, no way we coudl be competitive with our Jimmy's and Joe's.
It’s the coaches who evaluate and recruit the jimmy’s and joes - the good coaches coach up their jimmys and joes and then turn around take their jimmys and joes the win also… this is 100% all on the coaches. Totally weak to pin this on 18yr old kids
This is absolutely the worst I have ever seen a Cal defense look, including anything under Dykes. Tackling has been abysmal. They all look like they haven't slept for 3 days.
I don’t care if Knowlton is still the AD. You fire Wilcox and put Knowlton in the corner while you form a committee to hire the next Cal HC. It worked out well with men’s basketball.
Need a strong AD to lead the whole sports dept. Can't keep going with this gross incompetence and negligence. Lyons needs to raise $$$ and hire a dynamic modern AD to fully unleash the potential at Cal. We are the sleeping giant. Let's get the folks in here to wake up the beast.
The effort today has mostly been fine, but we're missing too many of our most important players. I agree he probably would have been fired with a loss to Furd, though.
Wilcox's job is safe because we're broke and his salary is low for the ACC (especially the better programs). Unless he does something to get himself fired without getting the buyout, he's ours.
He will absolutely be the head coach. I think the whole FSU/Clemson thing will be resolved by next season. If it looks like the ACC is falling apart like the Pac12 did, I could see the administration rolling with Wilcox due to the uncertainty of realignment.
The uncertainty is why they need to swing and show they care about supporting a winning program instead of showing the world that we consider these results sufficient.
He should never have let Spav go. You see how Spav turned the Baylor offense around and Baylor, after a slow start went 8-4. Baylor had the season we should have had, if we had a good OC and dedicated OL coach.
Is offensive coordinator school a thing? Can guys grow into a role? Please say yes... I mean I'm not good at my job but I got better by watching other people do my job...
Well, ideally you have an OC that actually understands offensive concepts…Bloesch simply doesn’t…that much is clear from the playcalls.
He’s also an OL-coach by trade who presides over one of the the worst OL’s in the sport. Which makes sense, because Cal does not have a dedicated OL coach - Bloesch is pulling double duty.
I understand why they moved off of Spavital prior to the Independence Bowl, but it should be no surprise that Cal’s OL has largely been an unmitigated disaster ever since.
Wrong. If Wilcox had this philosophy we would have won more 1 score games than we have lost. I agree, play the game till the end, if you step on a neck or two along the way, welp that is the game too bad if you don't like it.
We need to embrace that we are in the ACC and a basketball school now. No reason to donate or pay attention to football while Wilcox is our HC. Give all your money, donations, time and support behind Madsen. He has earned it and is an actual competent HC, who not only “gets” Cal but also wins!
He at least visibly tries to go through his progressions before it's incomplete, and it's obvious how his targets are missed -- them all being relatively fixable problems with drives & reps.
This is getting ugly. What happened to Mendoza? Time to turn off the tv and do something else. Do we just look tired or is it because they have so much speed? A few weeks of rest before our bowl game will do us a world of good.
My mother in law wants to drag my wife and I to a quilt fair. Literally the lowest circle of hell and yet I'm considering it instead of watching this...
love these penalties
Rick, what do the Bears need to do in second half?
Thanks for setting this up for last time this regular season.
Thank you for dropping the ban hammer on the troll.
It wasn't even clever trolling. Just plain mean and gratuitous.
Yeah, they weren’t even trying to hide it.
This is a no troll zone.
See everyone at the “bowl game” yay
We need the 6 extra weeks of practice.
And to get healthy!!
LA Bowl?
second time rodgers has been sacked on fourth down
the P4 games are just a tad faster than teh G4 games.
Chandler looks more comfortable
Announcers said he didn't even get to prepare this week as qb1 since Fernando wasn't scratched as the starter till yesterday
I surmised last week that we would be the worse power 4 team in the country if we got below average QB play this year.
I know SMU is good but with Rogers out there we look like the worse team in power 4.
We have by far the worst OL in the power 4.
By far.
Are. We still allowed to enjoy $c’s misery
Big Time and Always
Yes!!!!
Forever will enjoy their losing.
Definitrly
Well, we're within two scores in the 4th quarter. The way this game started, it looked like SMU would be playing their 3rd string at this point.
They really should be playing 3rd string since Cal is doing so at several positions
It is bad when the announcer says "my goodness" after your team has but another in a rash of injuries, illnesses, etc
Fresno State is leading UCLA 10-6 at halftime
Go Bulldogs!
You can’t start plays behind the line of scrimmage against this team. The announcers are talking about SMU speeds. Didn’t Cal see this on game film?
it;s not the X's and O's, but the Jimmie's and the Joe's. BC put up 400 yards and 4 TD's against SMU with a stout OL and running game. Since we don;t even have a below average OL, we have no running game. Unless SMU's starters got the flu, no way we coudl be competitive with our Jimmy's and Joe's.
Down your qb, best rb, and 2 online men. Nobody's playbook or depth chart has a page for that.
It’s the coaches who evaluate and recruit the jimmy’s and joes - the good coaches coach up their jimmys and joes and then turn around take their jimmys and joes the win also… this is 100% all on the coaches. Totally weak to pin this on 18yr old kids
Well Rogers, here’s your chance to shine!
Good grief
When the announcer says "what a disaster" about your team, that is no good.
This is absolutely the worst I have ever seen a Cal defense look, including anything under Dykes. Tackling has been abysmal. They all look like they haven't slept for 3 days.
++
Did the whole team come down with Mendoza’s flu?
A very celebratory week for the boys! Including Nando.
See y'all at the Bowl Game.
The regular season ended with a whimper though.
I don’t care if Knowlton is still the AD. You fire Wilcox and put Knowlton in the corner while you form a committee to hire the next Cal HC. It worked out well with men’s basketball.
Show me the money
We'll start a go fund me page.
Take a couple of Calimony checks and turn them into Wilcoximony
#Calgorithm can do it!!
I would trust the Calgorithm to make the right hire. It did get Game Day to come to Cal.
Need a strong AD to lead the whole sports dept. Can't keep going with this gross incompetence and negligence. Lyons needs to raise $$$ and hire a dynamic modern AD to fully unleash the potential at Cal. We are the sleeping giant. Let's get the folks in here to wake up the beast.
Would love to see Miami lose.
Do what we could not!
We showed that we can lose to Syracuse too.
Anything to stick it to ACC.
Time to cheer for basketball Bears. Attendance has been poor. Need to turn out for them.
Such an interesting roster if we get to full strength and Wilkinson keeps up his heater…
Honestly believe Wilcox would have been terminated next week with this effort had Mendoza not gone 98 yards with his boys.
100%.
Oh I agree. If we went 5-7, losing the Axe and this performance, I think that’s all anyone would be talking about.
But what about AD picking next coach?
AD has to go first. Frankly not sure why he is still around, Lyons?
Not true, we hired a good men’s bball coach with Knowlton as the AD. Put Knowlton in the corner while someone else hired the HC.
The effort today has mostly been fine, but we're missing too many of our most important players. I agree he probably would have been fired with a loss to Furd, though.
Imagine if we had not beaten Furd and you’re rolling out a Mendoza-less O because he has the f-ing flu?!?! You kidding me?
Wilcox's job is safe because we're broke and his salary is low for the ACC (especially the better programs). Unless he does something to get himself fired without getting the buyout, he's ours.
That’s not true. And Wilcox makes nearly $5M per year.
They would have solved that AD issue, tho it would have been less than ideal.
6-wins and a bowl at least isn’t devastating…tho it’s disappointing.
If Justin Wilcox is still the Cal football Head Coach on opening day of the 2026 season, it will be a major, major surprise.
He will absolutely be the head coach. I think the whole FSU/Clemson thing will be resolved by next season. If it looks like the ACC is falling apart like the Pac12 did, I could see the administration rolling with Wilcox due to the uncertainty of realignment.
Side bet, bud…dinner at Jake’s Del Mar? I say no way.
You’re on.
The uncertainty is why they need to swing and show they care about supporting a winning program instead of showing the world that we consider these results sufficient.
What is Wilcox going to do in the offseason with the offense?
You can’t fire Bloesch…but this OL is a complete embarassment.
And Bloesch so clearly has ZERO understanding of running a successful college offense.
He should never have let Spav go. You see how Spav turned the Baylor offense around and Baylor, after a slow start went 8-4. Baylor had the season we should have had, if we had a good OC and dedicated OL coach.
It’s another unfortunate illustration of how out of his depth Wilcox is as an HC.
He’s just not CEO material.
He can’t even see the trees in the forest, he is too focused on the bushes.
Hence why he is a bush league head coach.
Why can’t you fire him?
That would be his 5th OC hire…just think that’s unlikely.
He needs to hire an OL coach who can maybe be the OL coach/OC run coordinator. That will help the OL and also maybe help Bloesch with game plans.
I think that’s really the only option. Because you’re not firing ANOTHER OC.
Nope
Is offensive coordinator school a thing? Can guys grow into a role? Please say yes... I mean I'm not good at my job but I got better by watching other people do my job...
Well, ideally you have an OC that actually understands offensive concepts…Bloesch simply doesn’t…that much is clear from the playcalls.
He’s also an OL-coach by trade who presides over one of the the worst OL’s in the sport. Which makes sense, because Cal does not have a dedicated OL coach - Bloesch is pulling double duty.
I understand why they moved off of Spavital prior to the Independence Bowl, but it should be no surprise that Cal’s OL has largely been an unmitigated disaster ever since.
Jimmy why did they move off of Spav? He’s the only decent OC we’ve had in recent memory
Word is Spav was slow to come around on Mendoza, preferring Sammy Jax and even Finley for his system. Plus the Texas-native thing.
But mostly it was over personnel at the QB spot.
Bloesch can condone good things as OL coach, but he’s so out of his element on play calling.
Spav moved on from us.
I do t think that’s the whole story. There’s always stuff like this with this program but nobody ever actually tells us what is going on
My bigger issue is NOBODY thought having a dual OC/OL coach was a good idea. Nobody.
Except Justin Wilcox.
Which is how you are 20-games below .500 in conference play.
My memory could be faulty, but I thought I remembered when he was signed that it was agreed beforehand to be a quick partnership of necessity.
missed twice!
cal is so bad
Need to find endries
Not finding him has been an issue all year. Chandler running and Endries on passes should be their game plan with anything else as gravy.
Been so disappointed in Bloesch this year.
osu poor Losers!
Yup
Always.
False start, Write For California, 5 yard penalty first down game thread
If you know you know
Interested in seeing which Cal team shows up…Auburn/Miami or basically every other game?
If they’re sharp and crisp like the first 2, they can maybe hang around within striking distance. If it’s any of the other 9, look out.
That Big Game comeback to gain bowl eligibility was so big tho…
Hand off up the middle 2X
QB run or missed pass
Punt
We beat Furd.
And, lastly, the ACC color announcer who played at Stanford was terrible all game. He clearly had not recovered from the Big Game loss.
Miami lost!!!
Down goes Miami. We should have been the ones to expose them but Cuse finally did it.
They really were pretenders. The game against Cal should’ve been a loss anyway.
Cuse's offensive line is good enough to sustain drives. Ours isn't.
Why the hell are they throwing deep when they're up 25 in the last few minutes?
Style points for playoff bid.
If I'm the committee I punish them for cheap shit like that.
Wrong. If Wilcox had this philosophy we would have won more 1 score games than we have lost. I agree, play the game till the end, if you step on a neck or two along the way, welp that is the game too bad if you don't like it.
It's the opposite. They will be rewarded
That gets rewarded and if Wilcox were an actual good defensive coach he should be able to stop it.
Classless bastards are pouring it on.
I don’t blame them at all. If Wilcox and Sirmon were any good at coaching defense, they would be able to stop it.
IF
Playing for the CFP. Pouring it on.
Cal defense seems holding SMU back. We need offense to score.
or, SMU offense is now making business decisions so they'll be healthy for the ACC Champ Game.
Wilcox: “We gotta move the ball”
An impressive game plan, coach.
Straight out of the tv series Friday Night Lights.
SMU has had same OL for 8 games. Maybe we need a new strength and conditioning coach? 😃
Goddamn, that must be a nice luxury. Can't remember the last time Cal had a long stretch of games with the same O-Line - Tedford era?
maybe we need better OL players?
How about both
We need to embrace that we are in the ACC and a basketball school now. No reason to donate or pay attention to football while Wilcox is our HC. Give all your money, donations, time and support behind Madsen. He has earned it and is an actual competent HC, who not only “gets” Cal but also wins!
Exactly. 100%.
Donations to the football program are basically a waste, so long as Justin Wilcox is in charge.
And he's a Furdie... how did this happen?
Another Furdie…Mike Montgomery.
I totally forgot - good call.
Ya.
Madsen is here because of Monty and Jay John…and NOT Jim Knowlton.
Meh, a truly awful Cal team beat Santa Clara in hoops, so there’s that.
I do savor the win over Furd. But Furd lost to San Jose State this week.
We probably have the worse 6 wins in power 4
I'm curious how people view Troy Taylor at Stanford so far? When I watch they seem decently creative but I'm wondering how Stanford fans feel.
I would gladly take Taylor right today over Wilcox.
Let's go bears. If Michigan can do it. We can too.
SMU has zero class. Glad they got the death penalty for 40yrs.
They’re the U$C Texas version. Miami is the U$C of the south. No one to root for.
Not the season we wanted…again…but I look forward to watching the bowl game regardless!
In typical Wilcox fashion, he did the very bare minimum.
Tedford is 10-2 with this roster.
Pappy Waldorf 11-1 and Andy Smith 12-0.
Holmoe 3-9.
you're forgetting Tedford's desultory final few years
Not forgetting anything.
Tedford was a competent head coach. This roster had talent…with this schedule, a competent coaching staff wins plenty of games.
LA Bowl?
I got a flight and booked a room at the La Quinta Inn LAX on W. Century Blvd…
The Sun Bowl is gonna be tougher to hit…
Juice Box Bowl
That INT was pure inexperience
Harris had some promising plays. I like him better than Rodgers, based on few samples though.
He at least visibly tries to go through his progressions before it's incomplete, and it's obvious how his targets are missed -- them all being relatively fixable problems with drives & reps.
Nice pass
Come
On not a catch
We are one (soon to be) missed field goal away from almost scoring!!!!
you called it
I thought I was just being an asshole. Now I realize I was an asshole and a (sadly) correct.
Wow I don’t think we will score in this game.
This prediction is still valid!
SMU will rest the starters in the 2nd half, and we should get some garbage points.
Not at this rate. D keys on Ott bc Rodgers can’t throw. 3 n out every series. New FBS record for fewest yards allowed.
This is getting ugly. What happened to Mendoza? Time to turn off the tv and do something else. Do we just look tired or is it because they have so much speed? A few weeks of rest before our bowl game will do us a world of good.
mendoza is sick
Rick: What is he sick with? Flu? COVID?
Speed is a high priced commodity. SMU has the $ to buy it.
I may see if I can watch a replay of the National dog competition that aired on Thanksgiving.
My mother in law wants to drag my wife and I to a quilt fair. Literally the lowest circle of hell and yet I'm considering it instead of watching this...
Quilt fair sounds fun. Probably better for your mental health.
On vacation, saw a store sign “Amish Quilts” went in and most of the quilts showed “Made in China.”
I did not know there were Amish in China.
I mean... before the game it sounded laughable... now I think I could really get into...quilting...stuff.