Yep. I could cut and copy all of my ratings for FCS wins over Wilcoxs 8 years at Cal because they are always the same. Closer than expected and feel more like a loss than a win.
You seemed to pump some sunshine on the Locked on CFB. That guy is really down on Cal. I’d agree with the downer, except he projects as more like 5-7, if that.
8 years of mostly average football overall, a losing conference record, QB mismanagement, offensive ineptitude, and poor hires. None of that changed in the offseason and it won’t change during the season.
The excuses will be injuries and having to travel so much this season. This is another 5-7 team. More than likely lose against Miami, FSU and Auburn and split our other 8 games 4-4 to get to 5-7. Wilcox will be brought back for one more “win or else” type season and knowing our luck he goes 7-5 and wins his bowl game so we bring him back.
I just have zero faith in his ability to diagnose an issue with his football team and take meaningful steps to address and correct it.
And his insistence on using 2 QBs is inexcusable.
The talk that Cal wanted to keep things close to the vest and not give Auburn too much film is simply laughable - he’s not a good enough coach to be able to win with anything other than his very best…that is just a fact.
Using 2 QBs was actually essential. Having a backup with game experience is crucial when the starter goes down. Wilcox had to see what Rogers could do, and now we know - not much in this game anyway. So does the 3rd string guy get reps this week, or does the QB coach give Rogers some detailed work? Up to them, but it's a virtual certainty that Mendoza will come out at some point this season and we can't have some guy touching the ball for the first time vs FSU or NCS. If not against UCD, then vs who?
And playing not to lose instead of playing to win…reminds me of one of the opening scenes in “Crazy Rich Asians” where Rachel Chu schools her opponent.
Can someone PLEASE tell the DJ in charge of the between play and pregame "music" to turn down the volume and play a lot less of it. Very seldom can one hear the public address announcer as he describes the results of plays and penalties and also conversation with one's fellow spectators
Welp, it’s a new trend that panders to our modern minds conditioned to multi-stimuli and immediate gratification. Deeper realms of focus and thought are not popular, so these are replaced with quick samples of information.
Taught for nearly 20 years. People, today, would prefer movies to books.
Because it wasn’t good. Cal makes easy things look so hard. Even some of the good plays were millimeters away from being a disaster. Completed passes to a Cal WR surrounded by defenders. Late passes off target that were made good by a good grab. As another commenter said, their schemes or in my words, the big picture for how they went about their offense seemed more complicated than it needed to be. OL is struggling so there must be an approach that could offset this.
It was obvious that the O line had problems due to the fact the two starters were out and many players were shuffled in and out in order to see who was better under game situations. The same for the DB's. Did any of you negative commenters notice that 12 different DB's played and the DL was full of subbing throughout the game. Several players were kept out due to injuries. This was a pre season game with a known outcome and coaches have to see who they really have at certain positions. Note the 2nd half. Davis had only 2 first downs and no scores.
So, you’re saying it was more a matter of playing the whole team, than adjustments for the second half.
It is also my understanding that JW does not to roll up points on UCD. That being said, Oregon had to dig deep to win over Idaho, also a top FCS team. I think many FCS teams are traps waiting to happen.
We were joking at the OC alum watch party that it’s yet another of the infamous “lower body injuries”, where the player disappears for days, weeks, even years, before we read a one line comment that the player has medically retired.
I really have very little confidence in this program’s ability to keep players healthy or, if hurt, get them back on the field in the same actual season…
Circumstances conspired to make me miss most of the first half...thank god. I saw a pretty good game but so worried about Ott...Go Bears, beat Auburn!!
My dollar opinion. I understand, that teams like UC Davis, you want to try certain situations before you have to play tougher games, but why not soften up their offense and defense by making their qb very uncomfortable by playing a simple base and blitzing the hell out of qb. Correct me if I am wrong but we didn't start blitzing til later in the game. That should have been KEEP IT SIMPLE so kids can gain confidence and settle down. All that defensive stunting can wait later in the game. That's it. On offense, stop all that passing because your keeping their DL fresh and the other guys start saying we can play with these guys. The first series snap Ott gets 5yds running, then a pass on 2nd down, then its 3rd swing pass to the flat, drive is dead, WHY? Run the ball! Just run the ball right at them til you wear them down (we have the line to do it). Then, play call some situations you like to run in the game. First unit should have never played as long as they did. I hope Chancellor Lyons is watching! Eight years, its time to start having winning records, too much money at stake! This game should have been a blow out!
My 1⁄2p: from my spotty memory, most Bruce Snyder teams and early Jeff Tedford teams had the consistency with game planning, as you describe, while at Cal that I thought helped their teams build for success down the road/later in the schedule. As a coach attracts talented athletes and by extension more depth, doing this early in a season I imagine would be a lot easier.
Great comment. As a former high school head coach and an ass't college coach, I've never agreed with Sirmon's defensive strategy. He's very generic on passing situations. Against Davis I saw very little corner or nickel dogs especially in the 1st half. Also, as you said, the run game was nearly abandoned. Bloesch (O coordinator) was not impressive with his play calling. I hope he and Sirmon were hiding "stuff" from the more hard competition to come.
It's obvious we need a new HC but that's old news. I liked their new receiver corps, and Mendoza looks improved. The OL and pass rush were disappointing, even with the injuries. IMO Vatikani is their most important player, let's see how they do when he comes back. ILBs looked good especially Uluave again. Kicker Coe looked good. Ott's injury sucks but they are incredibly deep at RB, with Cardwell, Williams-Thomas, Jet, and Callaway all very capable with a good OL. Biggest key to season is getting Vatikani back and finding a pass rush. Biggest problem is their mediocre coaching staff. I love Bloesch as the OL coach but not as OC. Gilbert not a good hire. Defense hasn't been special since DeRuyter left.
The game itself became almost irrelevant to me once Ott got injured, and that's the only thing I care about right now.
After reflecting on it, I think the pivotal moment was Calloway's disastrous first carry. Aside from the scoop and score, if that freak (helmet leading) hit didn't happen, he very well could've established himself in the game and Ott wouldn't have needed to be in.
In hindsight, that was probably Wilcox's plan, but he didn't have the team completely ready and things didn't go as planned.. So we had to lean on Ott to establish control of the game, and shit happens. Bad shit happened. Hoping for the best for Ott.
Cal fans: Yes, the offense was sluggish but it did start moving in the second half. Also, the Cal defense really stepped up with three interceptions, which is a good sign after last season's issues on that side of the ball.
Yeah, my only hope is they just completely shut down the Tigers’ offense, like they did last year for most of the game. Cal’s defense today in the second half was lights out. Gives me hope if they can turn it into a low scoring affair. Cal’s really banged up on offense now. Depth will be on display big time next week. Offensive line has to figure some things out or it’s going to be a long year
So, after watching several teams struggle against Big Sky opponents this weekend, I'm feeling a tiny bit better about yesterday. Not a whole lot, but just a bit
Watching the Bears win at Memorial Stadium is always great fun but my goodness that O-Line looks weak. Spotty pass protection and they opened no holes for the backs. Impressed with the D especially in the second half. Couldn't understand a word from the PA system. So on brand for Cal in the Knowlton era.
For me, this was not a satisfying win. Perhaps I am foolish, but I thought Cal would have looked better. 2nd half was good (not great). 1st half was bad.
I think the only realistic way we could compensate for Ott would be big plays from some of the new receivers, in addition to the backup RBs playing solid. Calloway was supposed to be the guy in the vein of Ifanse last year, but he's in doubt after his only carry.. sigh. Hopefully Cardwell can do it. I dont think the Jet has the size.
Wilcox special….wins that feel like losses….
La Burrita just started selling the "Wilcox Burrito"
It's a regular burrito except they stomp on it right before they hand it to you.
Yep. I could cut and copy all of my ratings for FCS wins over Wilcoxs 8 years at Cal because they are always the same. Closer than expected and feel more like a loss than a win.
I remain amusedly baffled by the sunshine pumpers that pegged a Cal team coached by Justin frigging Wilcox as a 10 game winner. Unreal.
and then you get to me who reins it all in!
TD,
You seemed to pump some sunshine on the Locked on CFB. That guy is really down on Cal. I’d agree with the downer, except he projects as more like 5-7, if that.
It’s 8 years of data with Wilcox at Cal now.
8 years of mostly average football overall, a losing conference record, QB mismanagement, offensive ineptitude, and poor hires. None of that changed in the offseason and it won’t change during the season.
The excuses will be injuries and having to travel so much this season. This is another 5-7 team. More than likely lose against Miami, FSU and Auburn and split our other 8 games 4-4 to get to 5-7. Wilcox will be brought back for one more “win or else” type season and knowing our luck he goes 7-5 and wins his bowl game so we bring him back.
I just have zero faith in his ability to diagnose an issue with his football team and take meaningful steps to address and correct it.
And his insistence on using 2 QBs is inexcusable.
The talk that Cal wanted to keep things close to the vest and not give Auburn too much film is simply laughable - he’s not a good enough coach to be able to win with anything other than his very best…that is just a fact.
I think after this game, it's obvious that Auburn will only need to prep for one QB.
Facts.
Using 2 QBs was actually essential. Having a backup with game experience is crucial when the starter goes down. Wilcox had to see what Rogers could do, and now we know - not much in this game anyway. So does the 3rd string guy get reps this week, or does the QB coach give Rogers some detailed work? Up to them, but it's a virtual certainty that Mendoza will come out at some point this season and we can't have some guy touching the ball for the first time vs FSU or NCS. If not against UCD, then vs who?
Chandler Rogers has started 2-seasons worth of games and is your clear back-up. It’s pretty simple.
And playing not to lose instead of playing to win…reminds me of one of the opening scenes in “Crazy Rich Asians” where Rachel Chu schools her opponent.
Can someone PLEASE tell the DJ in charge of the between play and pregame "music" to turn down the volume and play a lot less of it. Very seldom can one hear the public address announcer as he describes the results of plays and penalties and also conversation with one's fellow spectators
Welp, it’s a new trend that panders to our modern minds conditioned to multi-stimuli and immediate gratification. Deeper realms of focus and thought are not popular, so these are replaced with quick samples of information.
Taught for nearly 20 years. People, today, would prefer movies to books.
Agree. Give me some more Cal Band music though. No need for all the canned, amplified loudspeaker garbage..
Why doesn’t it feel good
Because it wasn’t good. Cal makes easy things look so hard. Even some of the good plays were millimeters away from being a disaster. Completed passes to a Cal WR surrounded by defenders. Late passes off target that were made good by a good grab. As another commenter said, their schemes or in my words, the big picture for how they went about their offense seemed more complicated than it needed to be. OL is struggling so there must be an approach that could offset this.
It was obvious that the O line had problems due to the fact the two starters were out and many players were shuffled in and out in order to see who was better under game situations. The same for the DB's. Did any of you negative commenters notice that 12 different DB's played and the DL was full of subbing throughout the game. Several players were kept out due to injuries. This was a pre season game with a known outcome and coaches have to see who they really have at certain positions. Note the 2nd half. Davis had only 2 first downs and no scores.
So, you’re saying it was more a matter of playing the whole team, than adjustments for the second half.
It is also my understanding that JW does not to roll up points on UCD. That being said, Oregon had to dig deep to win over Idaho, also a top FCS team. I think many FCS teams are traps waiting to happen.
FWIW Idaho was preseason #7 and UC Davis was #17. We won by 8 more points than Oregon 🤷🐻
And we looked pretty good in the 2h. I felt comfortable pretty early on.
I was rooting so hard for Idaho.
Agreed…we likely lost Ott to a significant injury….
Ott just tweeted that it’s not season ending at least
He'll be ready for the national championship game!
That’s a good one!!😀
Saw that. We’ll see how much time he does miss tho…
We were joking at the OC alum watch party that it’s yet another of the infamous “lower body injuries”, where the player disappears for days, weeks, even years, before we read a one line comment that the player has medically retired.
I really have very little confidence in this program’s ability to keep players healthy or, if hurt, get them back on the field in the same actual season…
Please, do educate us on how to prevent injuries in football. I'm sure the NFL would be interested to hear this too.
Any update on the injury or are you speculating at this point?
Either way, he is more than likely out for the next month.
Great job Wilcox playing it so close that we needed our starters late into the 3rd quarter to win this game!
Just speculating based on the admittedly incredibly shoddy reporting by the always-useless sideline reporter…
Yeah, the one that shared he was “crying,” and earlier called Nando “Mendez”.
Could ESPN have found broadcasters less invested in us than what we saw?
I know, how about both one Cal and one Furd affiliated broadcasters? How about our own Justin Alegri?
The ACC honeymoon is over.
All that being said, we need to win and more convincingly than we have seen.
I get that the Davis game is more of a joint practice scrimmage, but, damn, Davis came to play
Circumstances conspired to make me miss most of the first half...thank god. I saw a pretty good game but so worried about Ott...Go Bears, beat Auburn!!
You didn’t miss anything by missing the first half. The Bears were horrible.
My dollar opinion. I understand, that teams like UC Davis, you want to try certain situations before you have to play tougher games, but why not soften up their offense and defense by making their qb very uncomfortable by playing a simple base and blitzing the hell out of qb. Correct me if I am wrong but we didn't start blitzing til later in the game. That should have been KEEP IT SIMPLE so kids can gain confidence and settle down. All that defensive stunting can wait later in the game. That's it. On offense, stop all that passing because your keeping their DL fresh and the other guys start saying we can play with these guys. The first series snap Ott gets 5yds running, then a pass on 2nd down, then its 3rd swing pass to the flat, drive is dead, WHY? Run the ball! Just run the ball right at them til you wear them down (we have the line to do it). Then, play call some situations you like to run in the game. First unit should have never played as long as they did. I hope Chancellor Lyons is watching! Eight years, its time to start having winning records, too much money at stake! This game should have been a blow out!
My 1⁄2p: from my spotty memory, most Bruce Snyder teams and early Jeff Tedford teams had the consistency with game planning, as you describe, while at Cal that I thought helped their teams build for success down the road/later in the schedule. As a coach attracts talented athletes and by extension more depth, doing this early in a season I imagine would be a lot easier.
Great comment. As a former high school head coach and an ass't college coach, I've never agreed with Sirmon's defensive strategy. He's very generic on passing situations. Against Davis I saw very little corner or nickel dogs especially in the 1st half. Also, as you said, the run game was nearly abandoned. Bloesch (O coordinator) was not impressive with his play calling. I hope he and Sirmon were hiding "stuff" from the more hard competition to come.
It's obvious we need a new HC but that's old news. I liked their new receiver corps, and Mendoza looks improved. The OL and pass rush were disappointing, even with the injuries. IMO Vatikani is their most important player, let's see how they do when he comes back. ILBs looked good especially Uluave again. Kicker Coe looked good. Ott's injury sucks but they are incredibly deep at RB, with Cardwell, Williams-Thomas, Jet, and Callaway all very capable with a good OL. Biggest key to season is getting Vatikani back and finding a pass rush. Biggest problem is their mediocre coaching staff. I love Bloesch as the OL coach but not as OC. Gilbert not a good hire. Defense hasn't been special since DeRuyter left.
The game itself became almost irrelevant to me once Ott got injured, and that's the only thing I care about right now.
After reflecting on it, I think the pivotal moment was Calloway's disastrous first carry. Aside from the scoop and score, if that freak (helmet leading) hit didn't happen, he very well could've established himself in the game and Ott wouldn't have needed to be in.
In hindsight, that was probably Wilcox's plan, but he didn't have the team completely ready and things didn't go as planned.. So we had to lean on Ott to establish control of the game, and shit happens. Bad shit happened. Hoping for the best for Ott.
Also hoping best for Calloway, hoping he doesn’t have a cracked rib.
Cal fans: Yes, the offense was sluggish but it did start moving in the second half. Also, the Cal defense really stepped up with three interceptions, which is a good sign after last season's issues on that side of the ball.
Hunter ("from the greater Bay Area ... he's from Salinas") was a highlight. They are not ready for Jordan-Hare voodoo whatsoever next week. Go Bears!
Yeah, my only hope is they just completely shut down the Tigers’ offense, like they did last year for most of the game. Cal’s defense today in the second half was lights out. Gives me hope if they can turn it into a low scoring affair. Cal’s really banged up on offense now. Depth will be on display big time next week. Offensive line has to figure some things out or it’s going to be a long year
McDonald, Vatikani, Grayes, Merriweather, Ott, Calloway, all injured and none of us knew till yesterday. Time to get back on anti depressants
Also, where was Reese. I didn't see him at all. He is our best edge rusher and outside contain guy.
So, after watching several teams struggle against Big Sky opponents this weekend, I'm feeling a tiny bit better about yesterday. Not a whole lot, but just a bit
Watching the Bears win at Memorial Stadium is always great fun but my goodness that O-Line looks weak. Spotty pass protection and they opened no holes for the backs. Impressed with the D especially in the second half. Couldn't understand a word from the PA system. So on brand for Cal in the Knowlton era.
Win’s a win.
Ott in tears?!?! Uh oh.
Is it too much to ask to fire the on-field interview woman?
Oh, yeah, ESPN owns us until the end of the ACC and/or the GOR.
Fire Wilcox for not putting this game away in the first half and having to play our starters deep into the 3rd quarter.
Yeah, it was not good. She didn’t sound too prepared.
You have to realize we received the 'D' squad today.
Not too prepared and not much invested.
Another Southern California centered aspirant to fame.
Sad but true
My rating: Oh no not Ott please
"Rate" link?
It was a Cal Game.
*grabs defibrillator
The link is where is says “Go Here”
Not sure if you meant to ask the question but just in case any one needs clarification
Yes, the link is well hidden.
Rather Cal lost and Ott stayed healthy. Not sure what happens now.
We may have to actually have the 2s and 3s step and fill the void.
Next man up.
Ott is great. But we also have some very good RBs.
What was sore was the coaching.
Hope you are right.
For me, this was not a satisfying win. Perhaps I am foolish, but I thought Cal would have looked better. 2nd half was good (not great). 1st half was bad.
Rating = 10 out of 19, equivalent to a C.
It doesn’t matter if we have 5 Otts if we don’t have an oline that can’t open some holes.
It’s the same old same old…if we only had a better oline.
Bloesch has too much on his plate. O line was terrible, running plays seemed telegraphed…
I think the only realistic way we could compensate for Ott would be big plays from some of the new receivers, in addition to the backup RBs playing solid. Calloway was supposed to be the guy in the vein of Ifanse last year, but he's in doubt after his only carry.. sigh. Hopefully Cardwell can do it. I dont think the Jet has the size.
If there's any consolation, Fresno State is giving Michigan Hell and Idaho remains down only two touchdowns after the first half.
Next man up…losing’s never a good thing especially if it’s a game you should win.