Where: California Memorial Stadium in Berkeley, Calif.
TV: ESPN2
Radio: KSFO 810 AM; Channel 381 on Sirius XM Radio or Channel 971 on the SiriusXM app and website; The Varsity Network app; or the official Cal Bears YouTube channel
Timeout decisions. In the 1st half, Wilcox appeared to mismanage timeouts - initially not taking them when it would have helped add time to score before the end of half drive, then by taking one to allow more time for Virginia to get a last chance to score. In the 2nd half at the end of the game, I think with about 3 minutes left, Wilcox took 1 of his 3 timeouts on a 3rd and 1 when Virginia was clearly already in field goal range (and when Virginia had a ridiculous number of more challenging 3rd down conversions already in their belt). When Virginia inevitably got the 1st down, it left Cal only with 2 left and allowed Virginia to nearly bleed the remainder of the clock. Am I missing something or was this good timeout management?
I thought the use of timeouts at the end of the game made sense and I say that as someone who has noted how poorly Wilcox has managed the clock and timeouts in the past.
As I watched Wilcox trot off the field after the game I thought (hoped) that this might have been his last game at Memorial Stadium. The Bears put up a game effort today but there's not enough talent and the team is poorly coached.
It was a great to have a day game again but the fans didn't turnout (who can blame them?).
I'm excited about next season under an exciting, new coach. Right, Ron?
I think I’ll dress as Wilcox for Halloween next year. He is as scary as a 2026 health plan summary of benefits with a fat premium attached. That duo alone should send the people running.
I watched 15 min after halftime and there r so many empty seats at memorial. we played a ranked team and the turn out was below avg. Ron hope you noticed it. Wilcox delivers time n time again mediocrity, there's no winning culture here anymore
That’s the thing - the program is just spinning its wheels now, wasting valuable time.
In the last 9 years, UVA (a comparable FB program) has been up (9 wins in ‘19), down, down real bad (B2B 3-win seasons), then on the up, and now way up (8-1), ALL while Wilcox has been putzing along at 6-6.
I don't know a single person who prefers night games and I know a lot of people who won't go at night but I know no one who won't go to day games. I think the small crowd today had less to do with kickoff time and more to do with how dissatisfied people are with the team.
I don’t know if that is true for today. Cal was still 5-3 going into today and was playing a nationally ranked team. I thought attendance would be better than the UNC game, which was played on a Friday night. However it seems like attendance might have been slightly below the UNC game
That used to be a problem for the Joe Kapp teams in the 80s as well. I know because I was there. As the old saying goes; "The more things change, the more they stay the same", especially for Cal Football.
Defense actually played better in the second half. We didn't let QB run all over us, but we still allowed their RB get chunks of yards.
No drops in the first half, but DeJesus dropped a perfect pass thrown in his strides that could have resulted in a TD if not a very big gain that should have led to a score in the 4th quarter. We also had two punts of 50 yards. Mini threw a TD pass. On the next TD, both Devin Brown and EJ Caminong were on the field. Masses also made a tackle.
From a defensive standpoint, getting a team behind the sticks seems to offer zero advantage to this Cal team, which is possibly the biggest Wilcox indictment possible.
2nd and 16? Doesn’t matter - pass for 10, pass for 9, easy 1st down.
WRs that still can’t catch? Looking at the box score and it appears we still don’t have a run game. I really wish Ron would fire Wilcox tonight or tomorrow but he won’t
Thank you fellow Bears fans for all the comments. Like a therapy session, better that we are doing this together rather than suffering alone. I hope we can finish the season strong somehow! Go Bears!
I watched the game on ESPN and the lack of crowd was just embarassing. Everytime they would do a sweep of the stadium they would put something in the background to try and distract the audience from the obviously low turnout. If Cal is really serious about geting into the Big Ten come 2030, they had better start figuring out a way to fill up Memorial. Obviously this starts with winning but as the only sports team left standing in the East Bay after the Warriors, Raiders and A's moved out, Cal has an entire market to itself! They have to start taking advantage of that to fill up Memorial. Nobody at Big Ten HQ is going to pay $20-30 million per year to televise bad and/or irrelevant football AND a half-empty stadium.
Cal had the best most unquestioningly loyal major donors with families giving over multiple generations-don’t lose them, Cal-Football trickles down to everything-if they don’t move quickly and decisively…will we have a program? So sad
If there is one positive from this game it is that we will definitely have a new coach to start the next season. I guess I can root for JKS when he is playing at Alabama next season.
I’m starting to think that the students and fans prefer night games to day games. Every time we have a day game, it seems like attendance is lower than night games
Agree that it’s closer than expected but it’s still a loss. With again less than 30 yds total rushing, Can’t have consistent wins without a run game. Can’t just depend on JKS. With Cal now at 5-4 this team seems likely to be 5-5 after Louisville with the real possibility of losing to Stanford followed by a sure loss to SMU. Best possible looks like 6-6 if Cal can beat Stanford in Palo Alto. If not, it’s a 5-7 season. Either way it’s the end, finally, of the Wilcox era.
I really like Coach Wilcox and I’ve supported him up until now. It’s time for change. How do you start a center in the eighth game of the season that can’t snap the football correctly? The multiple bad snaps every game are drive killers. Even if it’s not so bad the JKS has to dive on it to keep it from being turned over it throws off his timing and rhythm. We just saw what happened on that interception to end the game for us Our defense is terrible. I don’t think either of his defensive coordinators can handle the job. Something is missing. Maybe it’s emotion from Coach Wilcox. But it’s time to move on.
I know I didn’t, I put my Halloween decorations away and cleaned up the front and backyards, checked the score at halftime and then the final score to confirm that Wilcox did in fact lose again
I agree. That play looked very rushed. DeJesus was one on one with a safety and streaking across mid-field when JKS threw that last interception into double coverage! A good coaching staff would tell him to be more disciplined with his eyes and look for the OPEN GUY IN ONE ON ONE, NOT DOUBLE, COVERAGE!!!! We are so cursed as a football program.
why do we have no easy underneath passing? no slants or hitches etc. or anything everyone here thought at the beginning of the season we would need. the short passes always end up being long developing 3rd or 4th options with the receiver dragging across the entire field.
why do we have no concept of attacking zones or especially when they are playing cover deep. maybe we do and I'm not seeing it?
Wish all these unused tickets could go to kids, schools and families.
Stat of the game: California averaged 0.3 yards a rush.
Timeout decisions. In the 1st half, Wilcox appeared to mismanage timeouts - initially not taking them when it would have helped add time to score before the end of half drive, then by taking one to allow more time for Virginia to get a last chance to score. In the 2nd half at the end of the game, I think with about 3 minutes left, Wilcox took 1 of his 3 timeouts on a 3rd and 1 when Virginia was clearly already in field goal range (and when Virginia had a ridiculous number of more challenging 3rd down conversions already in their belt). When Virginia inevitably got the 1st down, it left Cal only with 2 left and allowed Virginia to nearly bleed the remainder of the clock. Am I missing something or was this good timeout management?
I thought the use of timeouts at the end of the game made sense and I say that as someone who has noted how poorly Wilcox has managed the clock and timeouts in the past.
He’s been awful at game management for a decade. It’s never been a strength.
As I watched Wilcox trot off the field after the game I thought (hoped) that this might have been his last game at Memorial Stadium. The Bears put up a game effort today but there's not enough talent and the team is poorly coached.
It was a great to have a day game again but the fans didn't turnout (who can blame them?).
I'm excited about next season under an exciting, new coach. Right, Ron?
One more home game this season. Cal vs SMU the Saturday after Thanksgiving.
Not if he's fired before that
What are the odds of that, especially if Cal beats Stanford? (If Cal loses, all bets are off.)
Very low
He’s not going to quit
We can only hope
I think I’ll dress as Wilcox for Halloween next year. He is as scary as a 2026 health plan summary of benefits with a fat premium attached. That duo alone should send the people running.
I watched 15 min after halftime and there r so many empty seats at memorial. we played a ranked team and the turn out was below avg. Ron hope you noticed it. Wilcox delivers time n time again mediocrity, there's no winning culture here anymore
That’s the thing - the program is just spinning its wheels now, wasting valuable time.
In the last 9 years, UVA (a comparable FB program) has been up (9 wins in ‘19), down, down real bad (B2B 3-win seasons), then on the up, and now way up (8-1), ALL while Wilcox has been putzing along at 6-6.
Enough.
I would like to see day attendance versus night attendance. I feel like students and fans prefer night games.
I don't know a single person who prefers night games and I know a lot of people who won't go at night but I know no one who won't go to day games. I think the small crowd today had less to do with kickoff time and more to do with how dissatisfied people are with the team.
I don’t know if that is true for today. Cal was still 5-3 going into today and was playing a nationally ranked team. I thought attendance would be better than the UNC game, which was played on a Friday night. However it seems like attendance might have been slightly below the UNC game
I can think of roughly 4.8 million reasons why he should go
I didn’t watch the game, just checked to see we lost 31-21. I am sure we lost in typical Wilcox fashion
The snaps were harrowing
That used to be a problem for the Joe Kapp teams in the 80s as well. I know because I was there. As the old saying goes; "The more things change, the more they stay the same", especially for Cal Football.
The Kapp Snap
Defense actually played better in the second half. We didn't let QB run all over us, but we still allowed their RB get chunks of yards.
No drops in the first half, but DeJesus dropped a perfect pass thrown in his strides that could have resulted in a TD if not a very big gain that should have led to a score in the 4th quarter. We also had two punts of 50 yards. Mini threw a TD pass. On the next TD, both Devin Brown and EJ Caminong were on the field. Masses also made a tackle.
So there were some new things.
So WRs continue to drop catchable passes. How many big 3rd down conversions did our defense give up?
From a defensive standpoint, getting a team behind the sticks seems to offer zero advantage to this Cal team, which is possibly the biggest Wilcox indictment possible.
2nd and 16? Doesn’t matter - pass for 10, pass for 9, easy 1st down.
And if they don’t get it on 3rd down, they will likely get it on 4th
Many
Lifeless CMS for much of the game.
Offensive ineptitude, drops, STILL trying to find the right OL combination in game 9.
WRs that still can’t catch? Looking at the box score and it appears we still don’t have a run game. I really wish Ron would fire Wilcox tonight or tomorrow but he won’t
Also many bad snaps, going all over the field, some that JKS just had to jump on the ground
Been 30 minutes now.
Is Wilcox fired?
Wilcox, fire yourself. It’s the honorable thing to do. You’re a nice guy, but it’s just not working.
Fire Wilcox. Let Ron DC. Then clean house unless we win out the rest of the games
Thank you fellow Bears fans for all the comments. Like a therapy session, better that we are doing this together rather than suffering alone. I hope we can finish the season strong somehow! Go Bears!
At this point a strong finish would just be beating Furd and losing respectably to Louisville and SMU.
30,000 today with attendance falling fast. Your move Ron.
I watched the game on ESPN and the lack of crowd was just embarassing. Everytime they would do a sweep of the stadium they would put something in the background to try and distract the audience from the obviously low turnout. If Cal is really serious about geting into the Big Ten come 2030, they had better start figuring out a way to fill up Memorial. Obviously this starts with winning but as the only sports team left standing in the East Bay after the Warriors, Raiders and A's moved out, Cal has an entire market to itself! They have to start taking advantage of that to fill up Memorial. Nobody at Big Ten HQ is going to pay $20-30 million per year to televise bad and/or irrelevant football AND a half-empty stadium.
Idk how they hook major donors for another round if they don’t move fast and aggressively lock in a winner
Exactly. Jan 2 is portal opening….new HC gotta be in place by then.
Cal had the best most unquestioningly loyal major donors with families giving over multiple generations-don’t lose them, Cal-Football trickles down to everything-if they don’t move quickly and decisively…will we have a program? So sad
HC and hopefully at least OC and DC.
DeSean Jackson as HC and Tedford as OC. Marshawn as the spokesman and DeRuyter as DC
If there is one positive from this game it is that we will definitely have a new coach to start the next season. I guess I can root for JKS when he is playing at Alabama next season.
How was the attendance today? A beautiful fall day, nice start time, ranked opponent... Was it full?
30k, 1/2 full essentially
I’m starting to think that the students and fans prefer night games to day games. Every time we have a day game, it seems like attendance is lower than night games
And here I stand alone again in this empty stadium. 😕. Whelp. At least there’s some daylight left for the drive home….
Massive respect!
How does JKS stay if we don't bring someone in that can actually help him reach his potential? He's good as gone if we don't change regime
I assume Riverboat Ron has been working the phones for some time.
Give him the axe the axe the axe
Right in the Check, the Check, the Check
Give him the axe give him the axe give him the axe NOW
Agree that it’s closer than expected but it’s still a loss. With again less than 30 yds total rushing, Can’t have consistent wins without a run game. Can’t just depend on JKS. With Cal now at 5-4 this team seems likely to be 5-5 after Louisville with the real possibility of losing to Stanford followed by a sure loss to SMU. Best possible looks like 6-6 if Cal can beat Stanford in Palo Alto. If not, it’s a 5-7 season. Either way it’s the end, finally, of the Wilcox era.
Griffin is the worst RB coach we've had in the past 25 years (that's all I can go back to)
I really like Coach Wilcox and I’ve supported him up until now. It’s time for change. How do you start a center in the eighth game of the season that can’t snap the football correctly? The multiple bad snaps every game are drive killers. Even if it’s not so bad the JKS has to dive on it to keep it from being turned over it throws off his timing and rhythm. We just saw what happened on that interception to end the game for us Our defense is terrible. I don’t think either of his defensive coordinators can handle the job. Something is missing. Maybe it’s emotion from Coach Wilcox. But it’s time to move on.
Anae has been awful. Center can't even snap.
His guys can’t pick up delayed blitzes. He really has been bad as a offensive line coach.
Have we fired Wilcox yet
Why do we watch?
I know I didn’t, I put my Halloween decorations away and cleaned up the front and backyards, checked the score at halftime and then the final score to confirm that Wilcox did in fact lose again
Hope springs eternal in the hearts of Cal fans
Been asking myself that for the majority of my 60 years
Because we like it like this.
Glad I had youtube for this one 😂
Lose it on the first fucking play. smh
It’s not like we didn’t have multiple other possessions down 3. Shouldn’t have had to rely on last
Always finding new and exciting ways to lose. Same old story.
As a friend of mine (who played at Cal in the 60s) put it; "Our specialty is close losses".
Fire.
Wilcox.
Immediately
Im ok with Harsin finishing the season as our interim HC
Or Rolo or Ron
Rolo would be my choice.
Omfg
Not even mad
I am. THAT was the brilliant play at that critical juncture?
I agree. That play looked very rushed. DeJesus was one on one with a safety and streaking across mid-field when JKS threw that last interception into double coverage! A good coaching staff would tell him to be more disciplined with his eyes and look for the OPEN GUY IN ONE ON ONE, NOT DOUBLE, COVERAGE!!!! We are so cursed as a football program.
Another shitty snap didn’t help
that's on JKS
and that just blew up the spread
The defense did enough. That ones on the offense
holy shit
Okay. Time for a 45 second miracle! Go Bears!
Hell, not that crap!
How did they get 70 seconds off the clock?
Also wondering this...
The injury. Ten second run off then they killed the whole 40 second clock before taking a time out.
They shouldn’t have had the entire 40 sec clock. Makes no sense
isn't it a 10 second run off after injuries inside 2 minutes?
Yes. And they did.
They probably go again
Even when we know it is a run we can stop them. Unreal.
Wait a minute, Bears aren't supposed to quit and die! Let me see the script!
We had a shot
We’ve
Had multiple possessions being down.3 points and could not sustain
Had DeJesus caught that perfect pass thrown in his strides....
I knew this would be a loss, so not being blown out and seeing a cool trick play TD makes it a much better game than the last two games.
DJax woulda won this game.
If only his toe wasn’t out of bounds in Arizona…
Not getting blown was a surprise
Low bar. Again a team that if we were competently managed we could have beat.
I have a extremely low bar set for our Bears.
Wayne and Hampton physically look impressive. Maybe something for next years defense
Zero run game…again…but every team runs at will against us. Both lines need major work.
Why don't they measure it
Measuring is so 20-teens. /sarcasm
Time for a Masses Pick 6
Too little too late it looks like.
it was closer than I expected, at least
We've had so many chances
Bend is giving way to break
why do we have no easy underneath passing? no slants or hitches etc. or anything everyone here thought at the beginning of the season we would need. the short passes always end up being long developing 3rd or 4th options with the receiver dragging across the entire field.
why do we have no concept of attacking zones or especially when they are playing cover deep. maybe we do and I'm not seeing it?
Because there is no run game so linebackers and safeties prioritize coverage
DAM!!!