If JW had any integrity, he would resign. If he gave a shit about Cal football, he would end this nightmare he's putting the school, students, fans and alums through. This 200% apples to Knowlton as well. These guys are shameless if that is not clear by now. Separately is there. Billionaire alum we can petition plead our case to...to get the money to get rid of these two fools? Seriously...Nist think about how much joy they could bring forth in ending this hell and helping create a winning team worthy of excellence that Berkeley brings to the workd. ..or .y last idea is maybe we start a petition and or rallies to het them out..Berkeley knows how to protest effectivley lol. Maybe national shaming on same level would help them quit or at least force Lyons to do something. Honestly , I think our existence is at stake...I don't think we have a football team in 5yrs if Wilcox stays..I think we exit P5 and then another year or two and the plug is pulled.
Maybe so. The last game was abysmal. It looked less then flat.
Here is what I know. If the Bears win out they will have 8 wins. 8 wins is very doable.
This team has the ability to do great things. That can only be accomplished with great heart.
The team didn't have that.
When I played for the bears we went down to USC and won on heart. We lost to Washington State the next week and it broke our heart. Coach Mariucci made us believe. Then we lost that.
Football works like that.
If the team can find its heart it will win out.
Mendoza - leading with heart.
The defense - leading with heart
A commitment to one another that no one will hit the portal until after the bowl game - coaches included.
Does anyone do this exercise each mid-November? For the 6 of the last 7 years, I naturally scan through this week's FBS schedule and start to look for and root against the 4-6 and 5-5 teams. Like in my head, I'm thinking "oh, maybe UVa loses the next two. 5-7. Oh, oh, no way Wake wins the next two. Terps are not going 2 - 2. BC may lose both. WVU is probably winning at least 1." One year I even made a spreadsheet getting each FBS schools' APRs into the scenario planning. Point being, this is exhausting! Our Bears deserve a leader that's bowl eligible by Halloween 4 out of every 5 years!
Cal fans: Like everyone, I too am frustrated by the continued inability to win close and/or winnable games and make Cal Football relevant. There is no question that the overwhelming consensus at Write for California is that it is time for Wilcox to go, even if we win the Big Game and somehow defeat SMU. One question: Who do you see as the next coach of Cal Football? What FCS coach or Power Four assistant coach is going to come to our rescue and make us relevant enough to get an invite into the Big 10, even at a substantially reduced share? I genuinely want to know what the Cal faithful think. GO BEARS!!!!
Odom and Norvell of took programs (UNLV and CSU) that were in very bad shape, lots of fan apathy and a culture of losing and have managed to turn them both around.
Dickert might want to leave WSU for a program that is in the P4.
Hiring a successful Oregon OC has worked well for us once, why not try again.
EDIT: it isn’t like I am keeping a list or a Christmas list of HC I would want from Oski this Christmas or anything…
What's an Old Blue to do? So how can I express my displeasure with Coach Wilcox (for whom I have a great deal of respect)? I always want to support our athletes.
The night games are taking their toll on this 78-year-old couple who drive 2 hours to get to CMS. The acoustics underneath the press box are terrible. The student body has deserted the team. But it's really the predictability of the games and a 6-6 season (again) that have removed the fun of what use to be a great gameday experience.
Do I not renew the season tickets I've held for over 20 years? I have emailed Rich Lyons but what else can I do?
Please add to your communication to the athletic department that they have taken a very wrong turn in the game day experience. Blaring and deafening music between almost every play and before the game? Announcers that are shouting into too-loud microphones to get the crowd excited? It doesn't. My wife had to put her fingers in her ears the sound was so loud. This is a football experience, not a rock concert for 15 year olds. Cal is quickly alienating the fans that have supported the program for decades. I implore you to help change this damaging trend. Dr. Thomas Parry.
My understanding is this is done for players, recruits, and younger fans, who really love the in-game noise. The acoustics and sound production could be improved though.
I can't imagine that young people would stop coming to the games without blaring music (not without music, just not blaring music) or without announcers shouting into the microphone. But I know too many alums that are fed up with it and wonder if the athletic department cares about them and their perspective. And without their support (both financial and attendance) the program would be in worse shape than it already is. The athletic department needs to get a clue. I didn't see too many students at the last game. So maybe the deafening music really isn't all that important.
The answer is the athletic department really could not care less about alumni. I consider the aggressive, piped in music to be an active “screw you” to all of us that value the pageantry of the band, and the DJ to be an active “screw you” to the mic men. You could mix the band and the mic men stadium wide, but you refuse to because you are genuinely telling us you do not want us as part of the program.
I feel your frustrations and agreed with the Wilcox take...
Genuine question, does anyone know what JW likes to do outside football? Seems like a good guy. Does anyone have any fun facts? Love life? Does he fish or golf or play halo 3?
That’s what Cal did…they invested in the NIL, made some changes to the coaching staff and hoped Wilcox could figure it out. He absolutely didn’t…in fact, with more talent, a weaker schedule, and the GameDay/Calgorithm momentum, he showed beyond any reasonable doubt that he has no business being a head coach at the FBS level.
There is no legitimate football-reason to defend the continued employment of Justin Wilcox. He is only returning because of the status of Jim Knowlton…you can not let the incompetent Colorado Springs resident make this hire, so Wilcox gets another year as a lame duck HC atop a roster that will be thoroughly gutted by transfers, with an NIL budget that will suffer because donors have seen the foolishness of putting their dollars in Wilcox’s hands. Maybe we go 6-6, and he’ll be fired by December 2026.
Of course, by then the football program is basically on life support and we’re well on our way to the FCS.
But let’s beat Stanford and at least get a 2nd consecutive bowl. And then worry about 2025 next fall.
I'm not saying this from a place of hubris because I recognize there are people that disagree with me who care just as much about Cal football, if not way more than me. And there are definitely people that understand football and the dynamics of the program more than me. Having said that I am genuinely confused how people could look at option 2 (keeping Wilcox and hope for a change) as anything other than the definition of insanity. The irony to this is if someone could go into the future and tell me we will have two more 7-5/6-6/5-7, type seasons and have a fresh start I would grudgingly accept that considering the financial situation. At this point though I actually think the bottom falling out of the program as a greater likelihood than a Wilcox turnaround. What if Mendoza transfers and we are back to square one with a quarterback? What would this season look like without his frankly, heroic play? We would be completely dead in the water. I think a jump into the unknown with a poorly paid HC (for power 4 standards) because we had to buyout Wilcox and dealing with the potential NIL and transfers is preferable than doing this for another two years while hoping this can somehow get better when it's just as likely it can get worse.
Cal fans: When Avi said, "And it leaves us staring up at the man in charge yet again", I briefly thought he was referring to Fox Sports or ESPN. Aren't they the ones who are really in charge? Sigh......
Despite this great write up, showing all of Wilcox’s flaws and inability to beat P4 teams, people are still in here defending him. That is why Cal will never win, because Cal fans are fine with loser coaches like Wilcox because “they get Cal”. Maybe we will finally fire Wilcox in 2029, just in time before we are sent down to the Mountain West or PacState12.
It is ludicrous and why I won’t go to another Cal football game or donate another dollar to the program as long as Wilcox is our head coach. I won’t even waste my time watching another Cal game while Wilcox is the HC, it isn’t worth wasting my time and day to set aside 3 hours to watch this program with Wilcox as the HC. Having Wilcox fire and rehire staff is a waste of time and money as well, since he has proven worthless and terrible at identifying competent staff.
I am moving back to the Bay so I am up here all this week. Went to the Syracuse disaster, and am going with Newellbany and the WFC crew to Big Game…but am likely done after that. My CALegends donations will go to entirely go to Madsen.
This is a fantastic summation Avi. Your listing of all the terrible stats under JW is absolutely damning, and proves beyond a shadow of a doubt that Cal has a non-winning coach, even given a much easier schedule in 2024. I would ask chancellor Lyons to defund all DEI programs and staff at Berkeley and use these funds to buy out Knowlton and JW - and bring a winning coach to Cal. The longer Cal stays with these two, the closer we are to relegation when realignment happens again. And fully agree that a nice family day for old alums (like me) to enjoy the campus - while witnessing a losing football team is not ok!!!
Ok I'll bite. Out of curiosity how much do you think DEI programs are costing the University? Also, assuming the DEI program is somehow costing the university the amount needed to buyout Wilcox, how is firing what would presumably be dozens of people who had absolutely nothing to do with Willcox's failure specifically to help pay a multi-million dollar buyout to said unsuccessful head coach fit within your ethical and moral framework? Or am I asking the wrong question and this is about your political views guiding you to the institutional version of killing two birds with one proverbial stone?
Not only that but Wilcox had no prior HC experience before being hired and Knowlton was never an AD at a P5/P4 program prior to coming to Cal, as he came to us from Air Force Academy.
We hired two people with no experience for the jobs they currently have and then we doubled down with extensions to both! They are the poster children of DEI hires.
Hiring a coordinator from a P5 program to be a head coach at another one is a perfectly normal move. I wouldn't read too much into that. Jeff Tedford had no HC experience either.
Sure it is and Tedford was but Tedford was a successful OC. Wilcox was never a successful DC. He failed at his two highest profile jobs, Tennessee and USC. Given all the resources of those two schools and he was fired by both programs.
Wilcox was basically a journeyman DC when we hired him.
A career coordinator, and a completely overrated one at that.
At least with an offensive minded coordinator—-> HC, you always have a shot, and the games are usually entertaining. Even Wilcox’s wins are difficult to watch…it’s like a 4-hour visit to the dentist on a Saturday.
I think we are all frustrated. Those who drove the Calgorithm into the national consciousness, those who donated and sometimes multiple times to the NIL, and those who attend games faithfully. Unfortunately the goodwill generated by the online fanbase was squandered and here we are with the same situation as recent years. If Wilcox wins the Big Game he has probably bought another season at the helm. But eight years and losses to bottom of the barrel teams three times is hard to take. If there is to be sequential improvement like Snyder pulled off in my last few years as an undergrad then where is it? We seem to be going nowhere fast and settling for mediocrity at best. Time to turn the ship around.
I get what you are saying, it is as if we are parents of a kid attending USC. Significant investment with minimal gains, or even worse, your kid is just partying away all the resources you've invested.
If JW had any integrity, he would resign. If he gave a shit about Cal football, he would end this nightmare he's putting the school, students, fans and alums through. This 200% apples to Knowlton as well. These guys are shameless if that is not clear by now. Separately is there. Billionaire alum we can petition plead our case to...to get the money to get rid of these two fools? Seriously...Nist think about how much joy they could bring forth in ending this hell and helping create a winning team worthy of excellence that Berkeley brings to the workd. ..or .y last idea is maybe we start a petition and or rallies to het them out..Berkeley knows how to protest effectivley lol. Maybe national shaming on same level would help them quit or at least force Lyons to do something. Honestly , I think our existence is at stake...I don't think we have a football team in 5yrs if Wilcox stays..I think we exit P5 and then another year or two and the plug is pulled.
Maybe so. The last game was abysmal. It looked less then flat.
Here is what I know. If the Bears win out they will have 8 wins. 8 wins is very doable.
This team has the ability to do great things. That can only be accomplished with great heart.
The team didn't have that.
When I played for the bears we went down to USC and won on heart. We lost to Washington State the next week and it broke our heart. Coach Mariucci made us believe. Then we lost that.
Football works like that.
If the team can find its heart it will win out.
Mendoza - leading with heart.
The defense - leading with heart
A commitment to one another that no one will hit the portal until after the bowl game - coaches included.
Those things happen and this team can win out.
Thanks for your perspective and service to the Bears Chris! Hopefully they can figure this out.
Does anyone do this exercise each mid-November? For the 6 of the last 7 years, I naturally scan through this week's FBS schedule and start to look for and root against the 4-6 and 5-5 teams. Like in my head, I'm thinking "oh, maybe UVa loses the next two. 5-7. Oh, oh, no way Wake wins the next two. Terps are not going 2 - 2. BC may lose both. WVU is probably winning at least 1." One year I even made a spreadsheet getting each FBS schools' APRs into the scenario planning. Point being, this is exhausting! Our Bears deserve a leader that's bowl eligible by Halloween 4 out of every 5 years!
Excellent summation!!
Cal fans: Like everyone, I too am frustrated by the continued inability to win close and/or winnable games and make Cal Football relevant. There is no question that the overwhelming consensus at Write for California is that it is time for Wilcox to go, even if we win the Big Game and somehow defeat SMU. One question: Who do you see as the next coach of Cal Football? What FCS coach or Power Four assistant coach is going to come to our rescue and make us relevant enough to get an invite into the Big 10, even at a substantially reduced share? I genuinely want to know what the Cal faithful think. GO BEARS!!!!
UNLV HC Barry Odom
Colorado State HC Jay Norvell
Oregon OC Will Stein
WSU HC Jake Dickert
Odom and Norvell of took programs (UNLV and CSU) that were in very bad shape, lots of fan apathy and a culture of losing and have managed to turn them both around.
Dickert might want to leave WSU for a program that is in the P4.
Hiring a successful Oregon OC has worked well for us once, why not try again.
EDIT: it isn’t like I am keeping a list or a Christmas list of HC I would want from Oski this Christmas or anything…
Ryan Grubb
Brennan Marion
A couple other names.
What's an Old Blue to do? So how can I express my displeasure with Coach Wilcox (for whom I have a great deal of respect)? I always want to support our athletes.
The night games are taking their toll on this 78-year-old couple who drive 2 hours to get to CMS. The acoustics underneath the press box are terrible. The student body has deserted the team. But it's really the predictability of the games and a 6-6 season (again) that have removed the fun of what use to be a great gameday experience.
Do I not renew the season tickets I've held for over 20 years? I have emailed Rich Lyons but what else can I do?
We will try and think of ways to provide better feedback to the university in the offseason.
Please add to your communication to the athletic department that they have taken a very wrong turn in the game day experience. Blaring and deafening music between almost every play and before the game? Announcers that are shouting into too-loud microphones to get the crowd excited? It doesn't. My wife had to put her fingers in her ears the sound was so loud. This is a football experience, not a rock concert for 15 year olds. Cal is quickly alienating the fans that have supported the program for decades. I implore you to help change this damaging trend. Dr. Thomas Parry.
My understanding is this is done for players, recruits, and younger fans, who really love the in-game noise. The acoustics and sound production could be improved though.
I can't imagine that young people would stop coming to the games without blaring music (not without music, just not blaring music) or without announcers shouting into the microphone. But I know too many alums that are fed up with it and wonder if the athletic department cares about them and their perspective. And without their support (both financial and attendance) the program would be in worse shape than it already is. The athletic department needs to get a clue. I didn't see too many students at the last game. So maybe the deafening music really isn't all that important.
The answer is the athletic department really could not care less about alumni. I consider the aggressive, piped in music to be an active “screw you” to all of us that value the pageantry of the band, and the DJ to be an active “screw you” to the mic men. You could mix the band and the mic men stadium wide, but you refuse to because you are genuinely telling us you do not want us as part of the program.
I'm not saying that's wrong, but I think it's better so fill the stadium than to blast noise in an empty stadium.
Let’s just focus now on winning the Big Game……Go Bears!
It’s really all we have, NGO…
6-6, tho admittedly underwhelming, nonetheless gives Wilcox likely B2B bowl bids, which though disappointing in so many ways is not nothing.
Beat ‘Furd…the alternative is tough to stomach.
I feel your frustrations and agreed with the Wilcox take...
Genuine question, does anyone know what JW likes to do outside football? Seems like a good guy. Does anyone have any fun facts? Love life? Does he fish or golf or play halo 3?
Big fishing guy, big on the outdoors. Supposedly went to Patagonia this offseason.
The Patagonia at North Point and Hyde in SF, or the outlet one in Santa Cruz?
;-)
Pretty sure 2024 WAS option 2.
That’s what Cal did…they invested in the NIL, made some changes to the coaching staff and hoped Wilcox could figure it out. He absolutely didn’t…in fact, with more talent, a weaker schedule, and the GameDay/Calgorithm momentum, he showed beyond any reasonable doubt that he has no business being a head coach at the FBS level.
There is no legitimate football-reason to defend the continued employment of Justin Wilcox. He is only returning because of the status of Jim Knowlton…you can not let the incompetent Colorado Springs resident make this hire, so Wilcox gets another year as a lame duck HC atop a roster that will be thoroughly gutted by transfers, with an NIL budget that will suffer because donors have seen the foolishness of putting their dollars in Wilcox’s hands. Maybe we go 6-6, and he’ll be fired by December 2026.
Of course, by then the football program is basically on life support and we’re well on our way to the FCS.
But let’s beat Stanford and at least get a 2nd consecutive bowl. And then worry about 2025 next fall.
Facts and truth
Sums it up perfectly.
Thanks OD.
Let’s get the win and make back to back bowls…probably as good as we can really hope for now.
I'm not saying this from a place of hubris because I recognize there are people that disagree with me who care just as much about Cal football, if not way more than me. And there are definitely people that understand football and the dynamics of the program more than me. Having said that I am genuinely confused how people could look at option 2 (keeping Wilcox and hope for a change) as anything other than the definition of insanity. The irony to this is if someone could go into the future and tell me we will have two more 7-5/6-6/5-7, type seasons and have a fresh start I would grudgingly accept that considering the financial situation. At this point though I actually think the bottom falling out of the program as a greater likelihood than a Wilcox turnaround. What if Mendoza transfers and we are back to square one with a quarterback? What would this season look like without his frankly, heroic play? We would be completely dead in the water. I think a jump into the unknown with a poorly paid HC (for power 4 standards) because we had to buyout Wilcox and dealing with the potential NIL and transfers is preferable than doing this for another two years while hoping this can somehow get better when it's just as likely it can get worse.
Especially because we know Wilcox will not turn it around. He has proven he can’t do it.
Cal fans: When Avi said, "And it leaves us staring up at the man in charge yet again", I briefly thought he was referring to Fox Sports or ESPN. Aren't they the ones who are really in charge? Sigh......
Despite this great write up, showing all of Wilcox’s flaws and inability to beat P4 teams, people are still in here defending him. That is why Cal will never win, because Cal fans are fine with loser coaches like Wilcox because “they get Cal”. Maybe we will finally fire Wilcox in 2029, just in time before we are sent down to the Mountain West or PacState12.
It’s simply ludicrous. This is not a serious program.
It is ludicrous and why I won’t go to another Cal football game or donate another dollar to the program as long as Wilcox is our head coach. I won’t even waste my time watching another Cal game while Wilcox is the HC, it isn’t worth wasting my time and day to set aside 3 hours to watch this program with Wilcox as the HC. Having Wilcox fire and rehire staff is a waste of time and money as well, since he has proven worthless and terrible at identifying competent staff.
I am moving back to the Bay so I am up here all this week. Went to the Syracuse disaster, and am going with Newellbany and the WFC crew to Big Game…but am likely done after that. My CALegends donations will go to entirely go to Madsen.
This is a fantastic summation Avi. Your listing of all the terrible stats under JW is absolutely damning, and proves beyond a shadow of a doubt that Cal has a non-winning coach, even given a much easier schedule in 2024. I would ask chancellor Lyons to defund all DEI programs and staff at Berkeley and use these funds to buy out Knowlton and JW - and bring a winning coach to Cal. The longer Cal stays with these two, the closer we are to relegation when realignment happens again. And fully agree that a nice family day for old alums (like me) to enjoy the campus - while witnessing a losing football team is not ok!!!
Ok I'll bite. Out of curiosity how much do you think DEI programs are costing the University? Also, assuming the DEI program is somehow costing the university the amount needed to buyout Wilcox, how is firing what would presumably be dozens of people who had absolutely nothing to do with Willcox's failure specifically to help pay a multi-million dollar buyout to said unsuccessful head coach fit within your ethical and moral framework? Or am I asking the wrong question and this is about your political views guiding you to the institutional version of killing two birds with one proverbial stone?
Wilcox and Knowlton are the DEI hires.
That was funny! Only in DEI is a 1-5 conference record considered a success...
Not only that but Wilcox had no prior HC experience before being hired and Knowlton was never an AD at a P5/P4 program prior to coming to Cal, as he came to us from Air Force Academy.
We hired two people with no experience for the jobs they currently have and then we doubled down with extensions to both! They are the poster children of DEI hires.
Hiring a coordinator from a P5 program to be a head coach at another one is a perfectly normal move. I wouldn't read too much into that. Jeff Tedford had no HC experience either.
Sure it is and Tedford was but Tedford was a successful OC. Wilcox was never a successful DC. He failed at his two highest profile jobs, Tennessee and USC. Given all the resources of those two schools and he was fired by both programs.
Wilcox was basically a journeyman DC when we hired him.
A career coordinator, and a completely overrated one at that.
At least with an offensive minded coordinator—-> HC, you always have a shot, and the games are usually entertaining. Even Wilcox’s wins are difficult to watch…it’s like a 4-hour visit to the dentist on a Saturday.
Hello fellow sickos!!!
Avinash - you are the voice of the LSBFs. Option 2 seems like the likely path.
I think we are all frustrated. Those who drove the Calgorithm into the national consciousness, those who donated and sometimes multiple times to the NIL, and those who attend games faithfully. Unfortunately the goodwill generated by the online fanbase was squandered and here we are with the same situation as recent years. If Wilcox wins the Big Game he has probably bought another season at the helm. But eight years and losses to bottom of the barrel teams three times is hard to take. If there is to be sequential improvement like Snyder pulled off in my last few years as an undergrad then where is it? We seem to be going nowhere fast and settling for mediocrity at best. Time to turn the ship around.
I get what you are saying, it is as if we are parents of a kid attending USC. Significant investment with minimal gains, or even worse, your kid is just partying away all the resources you've invested.