This was beyond embarrassing. This was a unprecedented coaching disaster which honestly makes anyone question the competence and intelligence of our coaching staff. The defense did a decent job, but were exhausted out b/c of he offensive play .There were so many unbelievable bad plays called by the offensive, it made you wonder if Musgrave was trying to lose., ..Then again that might be giving him too much credit that he could actually execute a plan. ..It was obvious and scared playcalling, poor 3rd down playcalling, stupid playcalling (reverses). I mean, I just can't believe this is what Wilcox has put together after 5yrs. The goddamn chancellor and regents should be doing something about this...fire the AD to start.,then go down vthe line. We need new hungry talent... this level of mediocrity brings shame to our great university. It's sad for the kids, bc its not their fault.
I'VE LEARNED TO GO THROUGH LIFE EXPECTING THE WORST
WHILE HOPING FOR THE BEST. IF THE WORST HAPPENS THEN, OH WELL, I WAS EXPECTING THAT BUT, IF SOMTHING GOOD HAPPENS, THAT COULD BE A SPECIAL JOY BECAUSE ITS SO MUCH BETTER THAN WHAT I EXPECTED! CAL FOOTBALL IS HOW I LEARNED ALL THIS! IT PROBABLY WOULD BE BETTER FOR ME TO LEARN
TO JUST WATCH THE GAME INSTEAD OF INTERNALIZING AND LIVING THE GAMES! GERBEAR
I'VE LEARNED TO GO THROUGH LIFE EXPECTING THE WORST
WHILE HOPING FOR THE BEST. IF THE WORST HAPPENS THEN, OH WELL, I WAS EXPECTING THAT BUT, IF SOMTHING GOOD HAPPENS, THAT COULD BE A SPECIAL JOY BECAUSE ITS SO MUCH BETTER THAN WHAT I EXPECTED! CAL FOOTBALL IS HOW I LEARNED ALL THIS! IT PROBABLY WOULD BE BETTER FOR ME TO LEARN
TO JUST WATCH THE GAME INSTEAD OF INTERNALIZING AND LIVING THE GAMES! ERBEAR
I want to call everyone's attention to GERALD COLVIN, here. He was Cal Yell Leader in 1951. If anyone, here, can claim to have endured a long road of Cal football disappointments, it would surely be him. Honestly, it's been over 60 years since Cal has gone to the Rosebowl. If I did not know any better, I'd be tempted to think it was by design. We were once a football powerhouse, while being a prestigious public university. I can only speculate what happened.
Easily the worst coached game I've ever seen. Be it in the Wilcox era or any era prior.
From the mid-first quarter to mid-second quarter we had empty set 1st and 10 on offense. For at least 5 possessions (no i'm not going back to count them). WTF??? Only to top that with 2nd and long with a RB (obvious pass situation)?? WTF?? Musgrave has to go. Hell, how many times did Plummer raise his hands in confusion while looking at the sideline. He KNEW the play calling sucked. We, while watching, called the next stupid play Musgrave was going to call. Musgrave has to go.
Defense, not much better. No pass rush on obvious rush downs. Defensive coaching / play calling was fucking horrid during this game.
The undersigned called it a Cal loss in the first quarter (see above on offensive play calling).
The coaching lost this game, plain and simple. Not complicated Cal fans. Wilcox has to fire a coach, in-season, to prove he is in charge of this program.
An example, how long has it taken Angus to stop playing vets or mixing up an OL? Answer: forever. Angus should be gone. Wilcox needs to manage his program more from a selfish prospective: "I like to be paid millions of dollars per year" versus loving his staff ad nauseum.
I don't believe in these assistants which will lead to a conclusion that the leadership (leader) isn't the right guy for the position.
A lot of coaches aren't scared of making a midseason change to send a message to the staff that they are in control and care about winning. Wilcox rewards mediocrity.
Well the challenges are definitely real in Berkeley, where the City, the institution & a fair number of the students could take or leave the athletic program.
To be honest I'm fed up with the whole thing. I ran an errand at halftime and didn't get back until we were already down 28-9. Pathetic. I didn't watch the 2nd half and deleted the game from my DVR because of the bad taste in my mouth.
^^^This is the core problem. IMHO, an environment that bears a thinly veiled hatred all things American and football is so emblematic of America. It was so easy for the City to shut down football; it did not really matter what the reason was. Meanwhile, during our capitulation to WSU, I camped across from a Michigan fan to whom I complained how great it must be to have both academic and football excellence. Honestly, I am not sure how things might change nor if they can change; it seems to be a systemic hobbling of our income sports.
Newellbany and I had an interesting ‘what-if’ conversation with some of our ND buddies back in South Bend for the Cal weekend…if you had all the money in the world, what changes would you make to enhance the football program?
Turns out our options were incredibly limited because of the systemic challenges posed by the municipality and academic machine. Facilities upgrades would be hampered by the state and local bureaucracy, etc…the only thing we hit on was just funding a Cal collective, but even that would likely be spread about the entire department. It’s such an uphill battle.
Welp, about the only way to help Cal football is to move out of the Bay Area. Sad, but true and impossible. Honestly, the program is purposely throttled and it's becoming safe to say, it will never get great, again. It may be time to move on and find another college team to root for or give up on college football.
So a question for the Wilcox die hards: are you content with the fact that in year 6, and after two OC's, Cal is SO much closer to being the worst team in the P12 than they are being the best?
Seriously, watching Colorado in Tucson - the Buffs could give the Bears O fits at Folsom...
Wilcox did not disappoint. 2nd and short (1yd) pass play. 3rd and short (1yd) rb 4 yds back handoff. What's wrong with calling a qb sneak! Oh by the way, Sacto Hornets won last week 41-10 Colorado State and getting ready to get another victory 49-21against Cal Poly. Wilcox better get on phone before Troy Taylor moves on! Musgrave is not the answer.
Both were frustrating, admittedly...but I think you always have a chance to win if you can score points.
THIS product under Wilcox tho is untenable. His O's inefficiency actually harms the D's efficacy. THAT'S a problem...Cal's D played well enough to win today, despite the lack of pressure - the O's predictable parade of punts put the D in an impossible situation...you just can't keep giving good offenses the ball.
At least with Dykes, you always had a chance to win a 45-42 barnburner. Wilcox, there's no confidence they're gonna pull it out, kind of like that Holmoe team with Justin Vedder at QB...the margins are just too slim.
Hard disagree. 5-7 is 5-7, but I would rather drop games against bad teams with the chance of an upset. Dykes always blew out bad teams and got blown out by the good ones. His offenses could not score against decent defenses and we had way more ugly blowouts as a result. Like just looking at the schedule you knew we were going to drop 50 on cellar dwellers, and then lose 45-14 or whatever to UW or USC.
Dont forget how bad those Dykes defenses were at basic things like tackling. There were a lot more humiliating, emasculating losses within the 5-7, and nary a chance of an upset. Albeit, less frustrating because they were who they were. With Wilcox, you never know which team will show up, the one that wins a close game over a good team or the one that loses a close game to a bad team.
That said, we could be reaching a tipping point this year with WIlcox and he could start to lose his team. The 2nd half of ND and now WSU show a team that is simply outcoached and outclassed in terms of execution, and a defense that doesnt have enough depth to stem the tide week in and week out.
If this defense begins to get demoralized things could get very ugly fast.
You're starting to see it already - the D played well enough to win today. The O just kept kicking it in the nuts. Even the 1st TD was because of offensive and special teams ineptitude.
Agreed, there’s definitely a level of apathy when it comes to Wilcox’s O, especially in recent seasons. The margins are just too razor thin in terms of staying ahead of the sticks.
The spacing downfield is so poor - this was evident in person at the Davis and Notre Dame games. Far too often, our skill position players are just way too easy to defend. It makes you wonder if they are in the right place, or if the entire play is just so FUBAR - so many plays are contested catches, with Plummer struggling immensely with downfield accuracy.
The 30-yarder to Hunter where he was open right before the 59 yarder down to the 3 was a beauty...where has that play been? Why is it so hard to recreate that? Why have those chunk plays been so few and far between the past 6 years? Why is it so challenging?
Agreed...not sure how as a fan, someone can watch this offense consistently sputter for a 6th consecutive year and have any confidence that they can make the plays necessary to win...THAT'S the feeling I had watching Holmoe that 1-10 year.
Honestly, despite my nega-bear persona, I do believe Wilcox will rally the troops & come out with a solid effort after the BYE…they’ll beat Colorado, because if they don’t, they ARE the worst team in the P12, and no one wants to think about that.
It’s the swing games tho going forward that are troublesome…Stanfurd, Oregon St….
He was absolutely blanketed on the play for no gain...on the 20 yarder down field, Plummer's throw was a beat behind him but still, he's gotta make that catch. Sigh.
I get the feeling he makes adjustments week to week, rather than in game. Once there's a plan, the plan's the plan for that game. You know, because the plays are already written down in order. In ink!
For people who were saying we made good adjustments at halftime last week against AZ. I didnt see it. I thought it was just that AZ made BAD adjustments at halftime, and ultimately our talent won out and their defense was just that bad. I could be wrong of course (and probably am) but that was my impression.
I like Wilcox as a good fit for Cal and had hoped he would have worked out by now, but we have to stop kidding ourselves. He’s the one constant over the years with our team’s mediocrity.
Have to find a way to move on and for those who say we can’t get a good Coach for the environment at Cal, look at OSU, WSU and Arizona. Not exactly deep pockets or great areas to recruit, they have found a way to either build a solid program (OSU) or turn it around quickly (WSU and Arizona).
This was beyond embarrassing. This was a unprecedented coaching disaster which honestly makes anyone question the competence and intelligence of our coaching staff. The defense did a decent job, but were exhausted out b/c of he offensive play .There were so many unbelievable bad plays called by the offensive, it made you wonder if Musgrave was trying to lose., ..Then again that might be giving him too much credit that he could actually execute a plan. ..It was obvious and scared playcalling, poor 3rd down playcalling, stupid playcalling (reverses). I mean, I just can't believe this is what Wilcox has put together after 5yrs. The goddamn chancellor and regents should be doing something about this...fire the AD to start.,then go down vthe line. We need new hungry talent... this level of mediocrity brings shame to our great university. It's sad for the kids, bc its not their fault.
I'VE LEARNED TO GO THROUGH LIFE EXPECTING THE WORST
WHILE HOPING FOR THE BEST. IF THE WORST HAPPENS THEN, OH WELL, I WAS EXPECTING THAT BUT, IF SOMTHING GOOD HAPPENS, THAT COULD BE A SPECIAL JOY BECAUSE ITS SO MUCH BETTER THAN WHAT I EXPECTED! CAL FOOTBALL IS HOW I LEARNED ALL THIS! IT PROBABLY WOULD BE BETTER FOR ME TO LEARN
TO JUST WATCH THE GAME INSTEAD OF INTERNALIZING AND LIVING THE GAMES! GERBEAR
I'VE LEARNED TO GO THROUGH LIFE EXPECTING THE WORST
WHILE HOPING FOR THE BEST. IF THE WORST HAPPENS THEN, OH WELL, I WAS EXPECTING THAT BUT, IF SOMTHING GOOD HAPPENS, THAT COULD BE A SPECIAL JOY BECAUSE ITS SO MUCH BETTER THAN WHAT I EXPECTED! CAL FOOTBALL IS HOW I LEARNED ALL THIS! IT PROBABLY WOULD BE BETTER FOR ME TO LEARN
TO JUST WATCH THE GAME INSTEAD OF INTERNALIZING AND LIVING THE GAMES! ERBEAR
I want to call everyone's attention to GERALD COLVIN, here. He was Cal Yell Leader in 1951. If anyone, here, can claim to have endured a long road of Cal football disappointments, it would surely be him. Honestly, it's been over 60 years since Cal has gone to the Rosebowl. If I did not know any better, I'd be tempted to think it was by design. We were once a football powerhouse, while being a prestigious public university. I can only speculate what happened.
Is it over? Did we win? OOOhhhhhh, yeah, I remember, now. Uggghhh.
https://scontent-sjc3-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t39.30808-6/309256040_883693862603022_2022885106999593163_n.jpg?_nc_cat=111&ccb=1-7&_nc_sid=730e14&_nc_ohc=x5ElhEFyvyEAX8h7lDA&_nc_ht=scontent-sjc3-1.xx&oh=00_AT8bAZG5c9eHH1N9c6eWcCV3mBfZOACQ9SGdOi2L1AfWdQ&oe=633F680D
ah crap, back to reality
Fuck sake even San Diego State knows enough to fire its OC in-season. C'mon Wilcox?!?
Their offense is terrible. They only had 33 yards passing last night and only have 290 passing yards for the season.
Easily the worst coached game I've ever seen. Be it in the Wilcox era or any era prior.
From the mid-first quarter to mid-second quarter we had empty set 1st and 10 on offense. For at least 5 possessions (no i'm not going back to count them). WTF??? Only to top that with 2nd and long with a RB (obvious pass situation)?? WTF?? Musgrave has to go. Hell, how many times did Plummer raise his hands in confusion while looking at the sideline. He KNEW the play calling sucked. We, while watching, called the next stupid play Musgrave was going to call. Musgrave has to go.
Defense, not much better. No pass rush on obvious rush downs. Defensive coaching / play calling was fucking horrid during this game.
The undersigned called it a Cal loss in the first quarter (see above on offensive play calling).
The coaching lost this game, plain and simple. Not complicated Cal fans. Wilcox has to fire a coach, in-season, to prove he is in charge of this program.
An example, how long has it taken Angus to stop playing vets or mixing up an OL? Answer: forever. Angus should be gone. Wilcox needs to manage his program more from a selfish prospective: "I like to be paid millions of dollars per year" versus loving his staff ad nauseum.
I don't believe in these assistants which will lead to a conclusion that the leadership (leader) isn't the right guy for the position.
A lot of coaches aren't scared of making a midseason change to send a message to the staff that they are in control and care about winning. Wilcox rewards mediocrity.
Run the god damn ball until/if they take it away from you.
Good to hear from you, GEAT!!
ASU is better than Cal.
All these teams in the Conference got better...
After 25 years years of being a Cal fan, I'm starting to think that the Athletic Department can't get their act together...
Well the challenges are definitely real in Berkeley, where the City, the institution & a fair number of the students could take or leave the athletic program.
It definitely magnifies coaching whiffs…
To be honest I'm fed up with the whole thing. I ran an errand at halftime and didn't get back until we were already down 28-9. Pathetic. I didn't watch the 2nd half and deleted the game from my DVR because of the bad taste in my mouth.
^^^This is the core problem. IMHO, an environment that bears a thinly veiled hatred all things American and football is so emblematic of America. It was so easy for the City to shut down football; it did not really matter what the reason was. Meanwhile, during our capitulation to WSU, I camped across from a Michigan fan to whom I complained how great it must be to have both academic and football excellence. Honestly, I am not sure how things might change nor if they can change; it seems to be a systemic hobbling of our income sports.
Newellbany and I had an interesting ‘what-if’ conversation with some of our ND buddies back in South Bend for the Cal weekend…if you had all the money in the world, what changes would you make to enhance the football program?
Turns out our options were incredibly limited because of the systemic challenges posed by the municipality and academic machine. Facilities upgrades would be hampered by the state and local bureaucracy, etc…the only thing we hit on was just funding a Cal collective, but even that would likely be spread about the entire department. It’s such an uphill battle.
Welp, about the only way to help Cal football is to move out of the Bay Area. Sad, but true and impossible. Honestly, the program is purposely throttled and it's becoming safe to say, it will never get great, again. It may be time to move on and find another college team to root for or give up on college football.
So a question for the Wilcox die hards: are you content with the fact that in year 6, and after two OC's, Cal is SO much closer to being the worst team in the P12 than they are being the best?
Seriously, watching Colorado in Tucson - the Buffs could give the Bears O fits at Folsom...
Wilcox did not disappoint. 2nd and short (1yd) pass play. 3rd and short (1yd) rb 4 yds back handoff. What's wrong with calling a qb sneak! Oh by the way, Sacto Hornets won last week 41-10 Colorado State and getting ready to get another victory 49-21against Cal Poly. Wilcox better get on phone before Troy Taylor moves on! Musgrave is not the answer.
Arizona D is garbage.
Washington State is significantly better than Cal.
That is all.
Starts at the QB, even with the questionable decision making.
They had that WR hook pattern all...day...long.
Pocket collapse and Wazzou ruah had Plummer panicked half the time.
Arizona is getting all it can handle from Colorado...
The win last week is being put into perspective.
At least U of A's O is exciting and watchable - gives that team a chance.
I miss the Sonny Dykes days...
As much as I'm over Wilcox, I do not miss the days of giving up 50 ppg and would still take him over Dykes (who I also dont think is a bad guy)
Both were frustrating, admittedly...but I think you always have a chance to win if you can score points.
THIS product under Wilcox tho is untenable. His O's inefficiency actually harms the D's efficacy. THAT'S a problem...Cal's D played well enough to win today, despite the lack of pressure - the O's predictable parade of punts put the D in an impossible situation...you just can't keep giving good offenses the ball.
At least with Dykes, you always had a chance to win a 45-42 barnburner. Wilcox, there's no confidence they're gonna pull it out, kind of like that Holmoe team with Justin Vedder at QB...the margins are just too slim.
Hard disagree. 5-7 is 5-7, but I would rather drop games against bad teams with the chance of an upset. Dykes always blew out bad teams and got blown out by the good ones. His offenses could not score against decent defenses and we had way more ugly blowouts as a result. Like just looking at the schedule you knew we were going to drop 50 on cellar dwellers, and then lose 45-14 or whatever to UW or USC.
Well, you said it - 5-7 is 5-7, so really who gives a schitt how you got there.
Hindsight, certainly…but personally, I’d rather watch Dykesian-level scoring than this offensive ineptitude.
For 6 years, the O under Wilcox has actively hurt the Cal D…so your weakness is SO weak it saps your strength…tough to win.
Respectfully
Dont forget how bad those Dykes defenses were at basic things like tackling. There were a lot more humiliating, emasculating losses within the 5-7, and nary a chance of an upset. Albeit, less frustrating because they were who they were. With Wilcox, you never know which team will show up, the one that wins a close game over a good team or the one that loses a close game to a bad team.
That said, we could be reaching a tipping point this year with WIlcox and he could start to lose his team. The 2nd half of ND and now WSU show a team that is simply outcoached and outclassed in terms of execution, and a defense that doesnt have enough depth to stem the tide week in and week out.
If this defense begins to get demoralized things could get very ugly fast.
You're starting to see it already - the D played well enough to win today. The O just kept kicking it in the nuts. Even the 1st TD was because of offensive and special teams ineptitude.
I feel like we have reached Holmoe levels of offense ineptness.
As a direct witness to that era, yup.
Agreed, there’s definitely a level of apathy when it comes to Wilcox’s O, especially in recent seasons. The margins are just too razor thin in terms of staying ahead of the sticks.
Yep. What's particularly frustrating this year is we finally for the first time in Wilcox's tenure have some skills guys capable of making big plays.
The spacing downfield is so poor - this was evident in person at the Davis and Notre Dame games. Far too often, our skill position players are just way too easy to defend. It makes you wonder if they are in the right place, or if the entire play is just so FUBAR - so many plays are contested catches, with Plummer struggling immensely with downfield accuracy.
The 30-yarder to Hunter where he was open right before the 59 yarder down to the 3 was a beauty...where has that play been? Why is it so hard to recreate that? Why have those chunk plays been so few and far between the past 6 years? Why is it so challenging?
That’s true and good news if Wilcox brings in a new OC as they will have playmakers available to turn things around quickly on offense.
Provided those skill position players are not playing in Knoxville, or Austin, or Tallahassee next year...
Agreed...not sure how as a fan, someone can watch this offense consistently sputter for a 6th consecutive year and have any confidence that they can make the plays necessary to win...THAT'S the feeling I had watching Holmoe that 1-10 year.
I am getting a "tipping point" kind of feeling from this game. I hope things don't spiral out of control.
Honestly, despite my nega-bear persona, I do believe Wilcox will rally the troops & come out with a solid effort after the BYE…they’ll beat Colorado, because if they don’t, they ARE the worst team in the P12, and no one wants to think about that.
It’s the swing games tho going forward that are troublesome…Stanfurd, Oregon St….
My favorite sequence was the Zone read, followed by an attempted reverse from your own 20 against the team with the most TFL in the Conference...
The screen pass is not a part of our offense....the TE is not a part of the offense.
The reverse was chefs kiss
Oh we try screens but they always get blown up because of missed blocking assignments.
We finally passed to Terry today!
... In the flat for like zero yards.... (There was another one about 10 yards that wasn't caught)
He was absolutely blanketed on the play for no gain...on the 20 yarder down field, Plummer's throw was a beat behind him but still, he's gotta make that catch. Sigh.
Musgrave's game plans are consistently perplexing.
I get the feeling he makes adjustments week to week, rather than in game. Once there's a plan, the plan's the plan for that game. You know, because the plays are already written down in order. In ink!
For people who were saying we made good adjustments at halftime last week against AZ. I didnt see it. I thought it was just that AZ made BAD adjustments at halftime, and ultimately our talent won out and their defense was just that bad. I could be wrong of course (and probably am) but that was my impression.
Honestly, this is the result I had expected.
WSU is legit this year.
We probably luck our way to 6 wins in 2022.
I like Wilcox as a good fit for Cal and had hoped he would have worked out by now, but we have to stop kidding ourselves. He’s the one constant over the years with our team’s mediocrity.
Have to find a way to move on and for those who say we can’t get a good Coach for the environment at Cal, look at OSU, WSU and Arizona. Not exactly deep pockets or great areas to recruit, they have found a way to either build a solid program (OSU) or turn it around quickly (WSU and Arizona).
Just need a competent AD to hire the right guy.