Some thoughts and facts (going off the top of my head here):
- Ott has the most rushing yards in the conference
- Ott also had the first kick return TD since Nikko Remigio in 2021 against Sac State (first against a P5 team since Trevor Davis against Wazzu in 2014)
- David Reese has 6.5 sacks over the last three weeks
- The last time a 5-6 Cal team earned bowl eligibility came in 2003, where the Bears beat UW and Stanford to finish the regular season 7-6
- Cal trailed for all of 14 seconds this game.
This was a satisfying one, and it sounded like a home game to an extent. I'm guessing Cal is heading to the Independence Bowl, but we'll see if they get one better.
This is one of the most satisfying wins of my recent memory of Cal football. I can't even find the words. To beat those bastards, who so often recently have stolen our souls, on their home turf, to become bowl eligible and to do it by playing so well in all three phases, it's just so damn beautiful. Just so beautiful. If they play a bowl game anywhere in the West, I will be there with my wife. Go Bears, dear Buddha, Go Bears!
It's even sweeter that he's not getting fired and UCLA is losing a bunch of kids over the off season. They're about to be at the bottom of the B1G next year.
Losing small hurts. Losing integrity and family and regional identity? I can't even imagine how deep the misery must be now, and in the years ahead, for the little bruin community as this debacle of Pac disintegration that they led sinks in. The great human need is not money, it is connectedness and love and community. The Mighty Golden Bear will welcome back the baby bruin some day to the ursine fold, but only after they reach rock bottom and acknowledge the error of their ways.
What a perfect way to end the season for Cal. We got everything we could ask for in this game, and then some. It really does feel like this team could be something special if we can keep the right pieces and add even just one special player. Even better that the game was nationally televised on ESPN, and that the announcers talked us up. You really could feel some of the magic of the golden Tedford years starting to seep its way back into the cracks of our team. Before today, I really did not think Cal could win this game and it was fortuitous that Ethan Garbers left the game because I don’t even want to know how the game would have ended if he had stayed in the entire game. Uluave is definitely my vote for MVP, but everyone else gave it their all. I don’t even think the coaching staff made any terrible calls.
The next big critical step is to continue to develop Mendoza and make sure that he gets the right training to help minimize those turnovers that he seems guaranteed to have every game. Just gotta be careful not to dampen his fighting spirit too much because I don’t want him TOO conservative either! Some quarterbacks are so afraid to make mistakes that it kills their ability to win.
Uluave and Reese were fantastic tonight. Mendoza had mistakes against this defense, as expected. But he (unlike Moore) didn't get rattled, kept grinding, and eventually Ott and the run game opened up.
This was a real character win tonight. I love seeing our players so happy over something they earned.
Exactly. The energy and excitement and team love showed by the Bears tonight speaks volumes about what you want to see. The heart and passion. The genuine camaraderie. The love. God, it means so much to see it.
Mark: I had that same feeling of the old Tedford magic as you did, especially after witnessing Ott's 100yd kickoff return for a touchdown. It reminded me of the 2009 Cal vs. FUCLA game at the Rose Bowl when Jahvid Best scored a 93 yard touchdown. Enjoy.
You bring up a salient point. Ignoring today’s current euphoria - how much does this move the needle for keeping Wilcox versus finding the next Urban Meyer (who for whatever reason loves Cal and Cal only).
My guess is Pac12 teams (not named OSU or WSU) will resist changing coaches given the incredible upheaval facing everyone next season. Even if a coach should be fired, I bet a team in today’s situation would hold off. I realize this really only applies to us (the worst Pac12 teams have new coaches), but too much change is too much change.
Incredible game as I really expected it to be a defensive battle decided by 7 points. What could have been with the tough losses to Auburn and USC. Wilcox saved his job and bowl practices will help for next season
My favorite bit of trivia is that in every year Cal beat all 3 California rivals, Cal went to the Rose Bowl, and Cal has never been to the Rose Bowl without beating all 3 California Rivals.
It would have been very nice to break that trend in the final year of the PAC. Just one 2-pt conversion away....
Back in the day, when Cal could even think of the Rose Bowl, the Washington and Oregon schools were sort of predictable wins, so, the stat makes sense, then. Now, we could beat all three California schools and still drop four up North.
Yeah we have 6 schools in the top 25 of FPI, which is second after the SEC (7), but only 5 schools had 8+ wins and only 4 ended up ranked in the AP poll. USC is 21st in FPI but ended up 6th in the conference and unranked.
This is also the dilemma of the SEC: TA&M ended up 14th in FPI but went 7-5, placed 4th (of 7) in the West, didn't receive any AP votes and now owes their fired coach like 18% of a California Memorial Stadium remodel + athletic facility.
It's also why it wasn't unwise for USC to bolt to a weaker conference for more money (though screw them for doing so).
Weaker conference? They couldn't beat UW/UO and would have just replaced them with UM/tOSU/PSU. And now add UW/UO, and USC under Lincoln has a lot of guaranteed losses over the next few seasons. And that's ignoring the random games they'll be dropping to Iowa, Purdue, Michigan State, and Wisconsin.
The B1G is a large, top-heavy conference where not-UM/tOSU/PSU teams get to play a lot of mediocre teams each year, along with 1-2 of the top three schools. Outside of the four ranked teams, two schools finished 5-4 in conference, one school finished 4-5, FIVE schools finished 3-6, MSU was 2-7 and IU was 1-8. So in total you had five schools that were .500+ in conference and eight that were below .500. You pointing out the top three schools ignores the other 11.
My statement about USC bolting to a weaker conference was in reference to their move in the summer, before UO+UW joined. At that point they were joining a weaker conference. Now, if you look at end-of-season rankings in 2023, 1/3 of the current Pac-12 schools are ranked and 1/3 of the 2024 B1G schools are ranked… So it might just be similar difficulty, though the LA schools will now have to play the Northwest powerhouses annually.
What a beautiful way to close out the final game of the Pac 12 with a hammering of UC Los Angeles on their home field. A huge shout out to Coach Wilcox for keeping the Bears focused after the disaster in Eugene.
Yeah, the fact that the team was able to stay focused is one of the strongest arguments for keeping him. There are going to be a lot of distractions switching conferences.
And with that, I would just like to say:
Fuck you usc
Fuck you ucla
Fuck you UW
Fuck you Oregon
Four corner schools can go fuck themselves 4 ways
You’re cool OSU and you’re cool WSU.
Stanford, I hate you but respect you.
Pac12 went out with a bang, while usc and ucla went out with a whimper.
Pasadena is Bear territory.
Roll on you bears….
Hear, hear!
Some thoughts and facts (going off the top of my head here):
- Ott has the most rushing yards in the conference
- Ott also had the first kick return TD since Nikko Remigio in 2021 against Sac State (first against a P5 team since Trevor Davis against Wazzu in 2014)
- David Reese has 6.5 sacks over the last three weeks
- The last time a 5-6 Cal team earned bowl eligibility came in 2003, where the Bears beat UW and Stanford to finish the regular season 7-6
- Cal trailed for all of 14 seconds this game.
This was a satisfying one, and it sounded like a home game to an extent. I'm guessing Cal is heading to the Independence Bowl, but we'll see if they get one better.
And the first ever 8 minutes drive by Cal since forever.
THAT may have been my most satisfying Bear highlight this year!
Forgot what that felt like, and most definitely a product of Spav 2.0
One of the benefits of our WR crew being terrible at blocking is we run instead of throwing bubble screens!
Also 73 yard punt by Wilson.
Best Cal punter since Anger Smash.
Sun! Sun! Sun!
Cal Tailgate south of the border in Juarez?!?!
I think I read somewhere that the 14 seconds we trailed in the game was the only 14 seconds we trailed over the last 3 games.
This is one of the most satisfying wins of my recent memory of Cal football. I can't even find the words. To beat those bastards, who so often recently have stolen our souls, on their home turf, to become bowl eligible and to do it by playing so well in all three phases, it's just so damn beautiful. Just so beautiful. If they play a bowl game anywhere in the West, I will be there with my wife. Go Bears, dear Buddha, Go Bears!
IMO, college sports are so much more exciting when Cal is frigging relevant.
It’s glorious.
I agree
Great victory and that kickoff return was a perfect dagger in the heart of those baby bRuins! Two more thoughts:
1--Cal just won the last PAC 12 game ever played in the Rose Bowl.
2--Good luck to UCLA when they play Michigan and Ohio State every year! hahahahaha. And thanks for the $$$ you have to pay us annually!
Oh yes, enjoy the tailgating in Iowa, Nebraska and Indiana in December!
The end of the Pac-12 is tragic. For openers, as the announcers mentioned, UCLA's travel miles will increase more than threefold.
There are conservative Bears, we just avoid interjecting politics as a tonic for an embarrassing loss.
Yup, I’m a conservative Bear here as well. We just know this is for sports and not politics.
^^^^This!
You could not be more wrong, Ty!
Confusing football with politics, I see. Ty, ask your mama to tell you the difference.
Funny how the only one tipping their political lean is him. Tremendous projection.
I'd normally say we shouldn't engage with the troll but I'm craving salt today due to my victory hangover.
We won too hard not to engage with him. We can toss him in a few days if he becomes too tiresome.
I like beating up the Bruins and taking their lunch money
https://twitter.com/Oski/status/1728580513907302787?s=19
😅
Best snark:
https://x.com/bruhdini_/status/1728655484599902357?s=46&t=95GJQKtJEme63yghwKHwhQ
How sweet would it be if Chip got fired after losing to us?
*opens the tiniest violin case ever constructed*
It's even sweeter that he's not getting fired and UCLA is losing a bunch of kids over the off season. They're about to be at the bottom of the B1G next year.
So long, and thanks for all the money*
*TBD by the Regents
Apparently we'll get your money and you're giving us your tears for free.
Can this guy get booted? Tired of his rants…
If pissing off an enemy was BINGO, you would be the free square.
Edited to add you checks are due on the first of the month. Send them to:
Memorial Stadium #4426
Berkeley, CA 94720-4426
#Bitterglamourhounds
Losing small hurts. Losing integrity and family and regional identity? I can't even imagine how deep the misery must be now, and in the years ahead, for the little bruin community as this debacle of Pac disintegration that they led sinks in. The great human need is not money, it is connectedness and love and community. The Mighty Golden Bear will welcome back the baby bruin some day to the ursine fold, but only after they reach rock bottom and acknowledge the error of their ways.
PREACH!
What a perfect way to end the season for Cal. We got everything we could ask for in this game, and then some. It really does feel like this team could be something special if we can keep the right pieces and add even just one special player. Even better that the game was nationally televised on ESPN, and that the announcers talked us up. You really could feel some of the magic of the golden Tedford years starting to seep its way back into the cracks of our team. Before today, I really did not think Cal could win this game and it was fortuitous that Ethan Garbers left the game because I don’t even want to know how the game would have ended if he had stayed in the entire game. Uluave is definitely my vote for MVP, but everyone else gave it their all. I don’t even think the coaching staff made any terrible calls.
The next big critical step is to continue to develop Mendoza and make sure that he gets the right training to help minimize those turnovers that he seems guaranteed to have every game. Just gotta be careful not to dampen his fighting spirit too much because I don’t want him TOO conservative either! Some quarterbacks are so afraid to make mistakes that it kills their ability to win.
Uluave and Reese were fantastic tonight. Mendoza had mistakes against this defense, as expected. But he (unlike Moore) didn't get rattled, kept grinding, and eventually Ott and the run game opened up.
This was a real character win tonight. I love seeing our players so happy over something they earned.
Exactly. The energy and excitement and team love showed by the Bears tonight speaks volumes about what you want to see. The heart and passion. The genuine camaraderie. The love. God, it means so much to see it.
19 of 22 STARTERS RETURNING NEXT YEAR!!!!! Get us a Left tackle and a replacement for Mcmorris and Reese and let the GOOD TIMES ROLL
Mark: I had that same feeling of the old Tedford magic as you did, especially after witnessing Ott's 100yd kickoff return for a touchdown. It reminded me of the 2009 Cal vs. FUCLA game at the Rose Bowl when Jahvid Best scored a 93 yard touchdown. Enjoy.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kJAP6VempYs
So umm watching that again and then the Ott kick return, looks like Ott is the faster player
We don’t usually get to see him in such open space.
Meep meep!
Ott should have grabbed a golf cart. 😂
That would be fun but it's really hard to imagine anyone but Marshawn doing that. Marshawn is sui generis.
points for accurate sui generis.
I was thinking about that play! Thanks for posting.
I was officially over with Wilcox midway thru the season but knowing that he won't be fired, I am fine with him next year again.
I am so easy to please.
And if you can't be with the one you love, honey
Love the one you're with
You bring up a salient point. Ignoring today’s current euphoria - how much does this move the needle for keeping Wilcox versus finding the next Urban Meyer (who for whatever reason loves Cal and Cal only).
My guess is Pac12 teams (not named OSU or WSU) will resist changing coaches given the incredible upheaval facing everyone next season. Even if a coach should be fired, I bet a team in today’s situation would hold off. I realize this really only applies to us (the worst Pac12 teams have new coaches), but too much change is too much change.
I’d rather have Wilcox going over into the ACC, than being OSU in the PAC-2 trying to hire a new HC as players scramble to the portal…
Incredible game as I really expected it to be a defensive battle decided by 7 points. What could have been with the tough losses to Auburn and USC. Wilcox saved his job and bowl practices will help for next season
U-C-L-A EAT MY FUCKING SHORTS YOU TRAITORS
Buhh-bye baby bears!
La, La, La, La,
Westwood Junior High
You think your presence here rattles us, but it just makes the curb stomping even sweeter. Have fun as the doormat of the Big10.
And, you, it would seem, are bitter. I drink to your tears.
And you are a lowlife trolling turd. Go drown your tears with the rest of your sorry ass, fair weather fan base.
I don't normally gloat, but the meltdown from the 2 Bruins fans on the app formerly known as Twitter is just icing on the cake.
It was the best game I attended in person since 2019 Big Game.
So satisfying.
Schedule turned out to be slightly less daunting then we thought to begin the season but I still consider going 6-6 a minor success.
Agreed. Beating frickin Auburn and U$C would have made it a MAJOR success.
That would mean we beat all 3 California schools + SEC school and a winning conference record. Indeed a major success
My favorite bit of trivia is that in every year Cal beat all 3 California rivals, Cal went to the Rose Bowl, and Cal has never been to the Rose Bowl without beating all 3 California Rivals.
It would have been very nice to break that trend in the final year of the PAC. Just one 2-pt conversion away....
Back in the day, when Cal could even think of the Rose Bowl, the Washington and Oregon schools were sort of predictable wins, so, the stat makes sense, then. Now, we could beat all three California schools and still drop four up North.
Given our status of three weeks ago, I call this miraculous!
FPI lists it as the second hardest SOS in the conference. Definitely no cakewalk
Some of that was the Pac being deep enough to consume itself. Conference play humbled a lot of optimism built during OOC play.
Yeah we have 6 schools in the top 25 of FPI, which is second after the SEC (7), but only 5 schools had 8+ wins and only 4 ended up ranked in the AP poll. USC is 21st in FPI but ended up 6th in the conference and unranked.
This is also the dilemma of the SEC: TA&M ended up 14th in FPI but went 7-5, placed 4th (of 7) in the West, didn't receive any AP votes and now owes their fired coach like 18% of a California Memorial Stadium remodel + athletic facility.
It's also why it wasn't unwise for USC to bolt to a weaker conference for more money (though screw them for doing so).
Weaker conference? They couldn't beat UW/UO and would have just replaced them with UM/tOSU/PSU. And now add UW/UO, and USC under Lincoln has a lot of guaranteed losses over the next few seasons. And that's ignoring the random games they'll be dropping to Iowa, Purdue, Michigan State, and Wisconsin.
The B1G is a large, top-heavy conference where not-UM/tOSU/PSU teams get to play a lot of mediocre teams each year, along with 1-2 of the top three schools. Outside of the four ranked teams, two schools finished 5-4 in conference, one school finished 4-5, FIVE schools finished 3-6, MSU was 2-7 and IU was 1-8. So in total you had five schools that were .500+ in conference and eight that were below .500. You pointing out the top three schools ignores the other 11.
My statement about USC bolting to a weaker conference was in reference to their move in the summer, before UO+UW joined. At that point they were joining a weaker conference. Now, if you look at end-of-season rankings in 2023, 1/3 of the current Pac-12 schools are ranked and 1/3 of the 2024 B1G schools are ranked… So it might just be similar difficulty, though the LA schools will now have to play the Northwest powerhouses annually.
How soon can we poach some OL from Oregon State (and get their OL coach on staff in some capacity)??
Mizalchek (sp?) is going with smith to M St.
Don’t know if OL players are going too, but wouldn’t be surprised if some do.
I figured the OL coach would go w/ Smith but still wished it.
Wouldn't surprise me if multiple players go to the portal and if we can pick off an OL or two that would be G(r)EAT!!
I feel bad for OSU and WSU. Especially OSU for losing their coach. Can they avoid massive loses among their high school commits and in the portal??
I suspect the OSU program is on the verge of an implosion
tbd, but can't be good for OSU.
What a beautiful way to close out the final game of the Pac 12 with a hammering of UC Los Angeles on their home field. A huge shout out to Coach Wilcox for keeping the Bears focused after the disaster in Eugene.
Yeah, the fact that the team was able to stay focused is one of the strongest arguments for keeping him. There are going to be a lot of distractions switching conferences.