Wilcox came to Cal wanting to make it a run oriented, ball control, and defensive oriented team. He wanted to make us like Wisconsin or Stanford. Which is fine but in order to do that you better have a strong OL and a great FG kicker who can make critical FGs because most of your games will be low scoring and points will be at a premium.
Wilcox has 8 years to implement this and he has failed completely. Our OL has never been great, let alone good. It is often average to below average. He has made terrible OC hires (Bill Musgrove) and terrible OL hires (Angus McClure) and this year he came to the puzzling conclusion that our OL, with years of struggling as a unit, did not need a dedicated and full time position coach. I wish someone would ask Wilcox why he felt our OL was good enough that it didn’t need its own dedicated position coach. Why when we play low scoring games, Wilcox can’t find a consistent FG kicker that can make 90% of their FGs within 40 yards? You would think a coach who believes in ball control and defense would also make special teams a priority but he hasn’t. Under Wilcox, only 1/3 of our team has been functional.
This is why Wilcox needs to be fired. He can’t even create the type of team he wants.
Setting up for a 40-yard kick was NOT "whatever" even with a good kicker, because it was TOO EARLY to turtle up like that. Pitt had a kicker who had nailed a field goal from 58 yards away! You can't just give them the ball back with 1:50 remaining. Cal needed another first down, at minimum.
Wilcox may SAY he was trying for first downs, but the team's actions say otherwise: two runs into the middle and then taking Mendoza off the field. And this after Mendoza had gotten us to that position by slinging the ball downfield! I could not believe what I was watching.
I’ve have seen my fair share of futility, but to have three of the dumbest losses in succession is new territory even for this program. Heart breaks for the kids cause effort has been there. We’re just wasting some really good performances and talent.
The offense is a mess. It hasn't gotten better. Our play calling runs from predictable, to too much trickery and our execution sucks. I don't understand our O-lines inability to execute. It's either because they aren't coached up well (I see a lot of bad technique), the blocking schemes are poorly drawn up, they ask guys who are not that athletic to do things that require them to be athletic, or a combination of any and all of the preceding. I think its a combo of all of the preceding.
One of the other things I see is a lack of attention to fundamentals. Any good coach will watch a team in practice and call out the little things. There will be constant reminders to reinforce 'No Holding' and 'No Prestart Penatlies' and no 'Stupid Selfish Penalties'. Great coaches get their players incredibly fired up, but in a controlled way. Guys losing it on the field, to me, is a reflection of coaches that have not done an appropriate job of reinforcing a culture that is disciplined and responsible. And that's what I see with CAL's offense right now, lack of discipline and responsibility and a team that has neglected the basics.
After watching our offense for six weeks, I no longer believe Bloesch is the guy that can succeed as a P$ OC. Sadly, he can't even get his o-line to perform with any consistency.
It's too late to make a difference, so Coach Wilcox may have to ride the horse he bought to the finish, but it may very well cost him his job. If I were him, I would not hire any coach in the future without successful proven P4 experience. Talking about X's and O's and philosophy is easy, actually implementing a system and being successful is a whole different skill set.
Your assessment of the discipline lacking in the O line is on the button. And that is coaching. Either by instilling the right mental attitude, or picking the right personnel. Or … maybe recruiting …
All of which Wilcox is responsible for. Wilcox was the one who decided we didn’t need to hire a full time and dedicated OL coach. Wilcox is the one who decides who we offer a scholarship to and recruit.
Just watched the entire postgame presser and my god was it bad. Absolutely no accountability from the coaching staff and there seemed to be a stubborn lack of reflection on his decisions. Instead of owning the 2 point conversion attempt, he basically tried to explain why it was the right move. At best, he was brushing things off onto the players about not making enough plays. At worst, he was saying things like “we ran 40 times for 60 yards” which 1. Throws your offense under the bus and 2. Raises more questions about why you took your QB off the field and ran it on 3rd and 9. Catastrophically bad coaching with equally as bad answers postgame. Just hoping for the unlikely scenario somewhere down the line where Lyons calls up Knowlton and says “you fire him or I fire you.”
That’s it for me on the Wilcox Regime. I’ve been contributing to the NIL, but until they’re ready to move on, I’m only interested in the Wilcox buyout fund.
Sad to agree but I do. I had written before the season that I considered this year 8 wins or bust. I can see maybe getting that number and still wanting WIlcox fired. I've said it for a few years but I have no power so all I had was hope... accent on the 'had'... even a winning record would feel like failure.
Wake me up when Wilcox is fired, I’ll be in my den hibernating. But really I’ll continue to go to the games but only to support the players as I have for my entire life.
I always lose my voice cheering but won’t be expending any of that type of energy under Wilcox anymore. We have some awesome talent that’s fun to watch. I’m excited to see what The Jet can do, continuing to get better. Nohl Williams on track to break the Cal season record for interceptions. Mendoza’s resilience. I could go on. The individual talent is there (weren’t we #17 in transfer class?). It will be fun watching the games for the individual players but as an elder said to me during spring game, don’t expect much as a team under Wilcox.
Incredible Defensive efforts - top notch - outstanding - against Miami until they were gassed due to bad Offense by cal and a miami team that had to go for it on 4th downs a bundle - Vs. PItt forcing fourth downs was huge and at the end of the game the pitt QB was rattled - Unfortunately Cal couldn't get their offensive line rolling. THat is the major issue.
Some blasphemy to consider. A - Ott isn't a power back - he feels the hole and bursts. That requires a hole. With the poor OL that CAL has - they do better with the other backs. They get up into the hole faster and better that he does. I don't blame him for not playing - but he is hurt - all the time. The NFL knows his metrics and ability - they are also watching this season. Fair or unfair - this year he has not been good. His time is now if he wants to raise his stock. If not - fizzle fizzle.
B - Mendoza is a damn good QB. He is tough and fairly accurate. It is his toughness and leadership that keeps the bears viable (even when they go cold). When he gets hit - he still delivers. Protect this guy! HIs OL is letting him down. They should probably be on the 7 man sled every day- they simply blow it with penalties and sacks/pressure all the time.
C- The kicker needs to be fired - open it up to the student population. Fleece a soccor player - get someone in their that doesn't choke.
D- The go for it in MIami on 4th down brought praise to Wilcox - the coaches need to be more creative. Incorrect - their creativity led to the first disaster of the PItt game - going for two early. Be solid. Move the ball. Don't shoot off all your toes - avoid 3rd and 25's. That maybe too much to ask. If there is an off chance that they read this (maybe, but probably not).
E. Quit putting Rodgers in in the red zone. That ruins the flow. Of course so do procedure penalties and offsides - oh well.
F. WInners win - losers lose
Cal has shown they can play with anybody in the nation for the past few years. The problem is they cant win. That - is a mentality that comes with Bear territory. Until that goes away - from the fans to the players - that is how it will be. The Calgorithym or whatever that is - thats a distraction -
George C Scott in the Hustler (Sorry youngins) knew a winner when he saw one. He also knows a loser. WInners win despite their talent. Losers lose despite their talent. In the Hustler, despite his talent - Paul Newman was a loser. . . There are winners - and there are losers.
Mendoza is a winner. The kicker is not. So far - Ott is not either. . . big plays can be expected from him from time to time. Not so much in crunch time. The other backs are better - that may have to do with the sorry state of the line - but it is what it is. The Doctor Pepper commercial about the hype train explains it all so perfectly - right before a big choke of a kick was made to lose the game.
CIrcle the wagons coach - play to win - not to compete
IF not the school should fire you - coach knows that - I am rooting for them. The winning streak needs to start now. WInning out is not out of the question - but it is if your a loser. Don't be a loser.
I agree about Ott. He "pussy foots" to line to hesitate and find non existent holes in the zone blocking schemes. No pulling and filling with down blocks instead of reach blocks. going for two after the first score was insane, and stalling to set up a FG was bad since our kicker has a big leg but no accuracy. We have 2 other kickers who warm up before each game with pretty good accuracy. GIVE THEM A TRY.
Ahh yes, let’s search for moral victories in year 8. This is an acceptable perspective in year one or two. Maybe even year three. Hell, I’ll even accept it in years four, five and six cuz of Covid. Not in year 8. Not with a coach who has amassed insane generational wealth coaching this team. You’re on here acting like we’re all unhinged Finebaum callers. Good grief dude, have something resembling standards for this program.
We were not competitive in, what, four or five games last year with Top 25 teams.
Moral victory, maybe not, but progress is shown. Apart from firing the coach, what constructive changes would you make? Would you hold yourself accountable for the results?
Playing close games against good teams and losing in year one or two is acceptable. Again, we’re in year 8 my man. Not good enough. We’re still seeing insane decision making lose us games. We’re still seeing players who can’t execute in crucial times. This all falls on the head coach. IT IS HIS RESPONSIBILITY. Would I hold myself accountable for the results? You mean if I was the multi millionaire head coach responsible for all of this? Yes, yes I would. Is that a serious question?
I think we must also consider the perfunctory, unenthused Administrative support football received before Chancellor Lyons got here. To get us where we should be, Lyons must navigate some resentful academics-only thinkers, while rebuilding our brand. Wilcox's high graduation rate helps with this. The City of Berkeley leadership did us no favors and, effectively, sanctioned our program with setbacks. Pat MacAfee expected to get bricks thrown at him, so poor is the reputation of Berkeley for some folks.
On the upswing, Wilcox has shown some brilliance with The Portal and improving the talent and depth of the team, but linemen are hard to find. Promoting Bloesch was likely way to further tap his connections to line recruits in Texas.
I am willing to wait to see how the season finishes, but OC/play-calling needs to change for the better. The kicker most likely needs to relegated to kick offs and the 2and 3 kickers promoted. There are some serious problems on offense, but many are fixable with coaching.
All of this may be true, and yet, the last three losses, which were the ones that finally broke me, had nothing to do with the chancellor, institutional challenges, the city of Berkeley, etc. Winners win. And he’s just not finding ways to win.
Exactly. What tells it clearly is Wilcox doesn't know how to do it. He doesn't even accept the responsibility for it. He just whines and says he does. A man who takes responsibility fixes things. He doesn't have the cohonas nor the intelligence to do so. His stupid coaching decisions like going for 2pts unnecessarily or that botched series leading to a assine 40yrd attempt say it all.
💯 - I hated the decision to go for two at the time and neither of our 2pt attempts ever looked likely to succeed. The decision to settle for a 40yd FG attempt once we reached the Pitt 20 was flat out wrong. Even had Coe miraculously converted, Pitt would have had 2mins & 2TO and a FG kicker who was nails from 60. Time wasn’t the issue at all, we needed another first down if not a TD. Plowing up the middle was useless. If Wilcox doesn’t understand his errors and acknowledge this loss was on him, he should be removed as his destined to continue to repeat them.
Putting the QB coach in as coordinator would really help. Bloech is NOT there as a good play caller or play designer. Those running plays are so generic and so limited.
I don’t blame Bloesch for taking the promotion and pay raise. The blame rest on Wilcox for the promotion. As far as I know, no one was trying to poach Bloesch from us as their OC. It was a completely unforced error by Wilcox.
Wilcox has shown he can’t hire a good OC, why would we give Wilcox a 5th chance to hire a new OC?
I’ve had my beef with various O coordinators over the years but I’m honestly not sure how much more Bloesch can do with an offensive line that can’t get any push in the run game or hold blocks in the pass game. That along with the O line penalties makes it almost impossible to design an effective scheme.
See I actually disagree. A good O coordinator can scheme and plan around that particular year’s deficiencies. Spav scored points with the players he had. Could he run everything he wanted to? Probably not, but if we had a fraction of last year’s offensive scoring ability we’re 6-0. The more glaring question I had is why he bailed. It’s not like it was some prestigious position. Why was he so motivated to bail before the season was even over?
Finally someone who can see the most glaring problem with the Bears. O line talent. Of course most people watch the ball and not the O line or LB's or D line Or DB's and what cover their in, etc. If they did they'd see the O line deficiency and the FG kicker. Those two positions are why we are not 5-1.
Cal will be favored the rest of the way, excluding the SMU game. Cal should (key word: should) win the next 5 games, but I have also lost faith in the program doing so and wouldn't be surprised if Cal dropped another 1-2 winnable games. NC State opened as 7.5-point underdogs, and they are probably one of the tougher games remaining. Oregon State lost a lot of talent when the Pac-12 fell apart (and also lost their coach), but they're always tough regardless of their record. Wake Forest is just straight-up bad, which is why I predicted a loss to them in our preseason predictions. Syracuse is one-dimensional, and I think Cal's secondary shuts down Kyle McCord. Then there's the Big Game, and anything can happen in a rivalry game. Even though Stanford is also straight-up bad, they hung around a vastly superior Clemson team for longer than they should have, so I am not taking that one for granted either. Cal is in a weaker conference, and still going to somehow struggle to find that 6th win for bowl eligibility.
I still think Cal was the better team than Pitt on Saturday, and that Cal lost that game more than Pitt won it.
Was this was happened? I was curious beforehand, and now even more so, considering how clear it was that Wilcox needed to make a good decision on his fourth O coordinator. Going with an internal basically unproven choice seemed, odd, to put it mildly.
This is getting hard to watch, and I’ve been a Cal fan since the 70s…..
I love Coach W, but there are times I wish he HAD taken the Oregon job so we’d be forced (with the benefit of a payout instead of the burden of a payout) to switch things up. Not that we would have landed a Dan Lanning-esque coach, but a change of SOME sort is needed….
There are those that are ok with 4-6 wins a season along with our graduation rates. This is just another version of turtling and just not good enough if we want the program to survive in this day and age.
We HAVE to take a chance (and it is a risk) on getting a better Coach.
I’d rather go down swinging than curl up in a corner and hope next year Wilcox will turn it around.
We have faced the same song for eight years under Wilcox’s regime. Cal tends to lose its lead in the fourth quarter, known as the “fourth quarter is not ours” (satirically). We are stuck with his old song and can't afford to replace him with a new coach if needed. He's an excellent coach, oh well!
Wilcox came to Cal wanting to make it a run oriented, ball control, and defensive oriented team. He wanted to make us like Wisconsin or Stanford. Which is fine but in order to do that you better have a strong OL and a great FG kicker who can make critical FGs because most of your games will be low scoring and points will be at a premium.
Wilcox has 8 years to implement this and he has failed completely. Our OL has never been great, let alone good. It is often average to below average. He has made terrible OC hires (Bill Musgrove) and terrible OL hires (Angus McClure) and this year he came to the puzzling conclusion that our OL, with years of struggling as a unit, did not need a dedicated and full time position coach. I wish someone would ask Wilcox why he felt our OL was good enough that it didn’t need its own dedicated position coach. Why when we play low scoring games, Wilcox can’t find a consistent FG kicker that can make 90% of their FGs within 40 yards? You would think a coach who believes in ball control and defense would also make special teams a priority but he hasn’t. Under Wilcox, only 1/3 of our team has been functional.
This is why Wilcox needs to be fired. He can’t even create the type of team he wants.
Yes. This.
Well put.
Setting up for a 40-yard kick was NOT "whatever" even with a good kicker, because it was TOO EARLY to turtle up like that. Pitt had a kicker who had nailed a field goal from 58 yards away! You can't just give them the ball back with 1:50 remaining. Cal needed another first down, at minimum.
Wilcox may SAY he was trying for first downs, but the team's actions say otherwise: two runs into the middle and then taking Mendoza off the field. And this after Mendoza had gotten us to that position by slinging the ball downfield! I could not believe what I was watching.
I've watched this movie since 1988. It doesn't get less brutal.
This exactly. This is crystal clear case of coaching incompetence...like possibly actually reflecting a sub100 IQ..dumb
I’ve have seen my fair share of futility, but to have three of the dumbest losses in succession is new territory even for this program. Heart breaks for the kids cause effort has been there. We’re just wasting some really good performances and talent.
The offense is a mess. It hasn't gotten better. Our play calling runs from predictable, to too much trickery and our execution sucks. I don't understand our O-lines inability to execute. It's either because they aren't coached up well (I see a lot of bad technique), the blocking schemes are poorly drawn up, they ask guys who are not that athletic to do things that require them to be athletic, or a combination of any and all of the preceding. I think its a combo of all of the preceding.
One of the other things I see is a lack of attention to fundamentals. Any good coach will watch a team in practice and call out the little things. There will be constant reminders to reinforce 'No Holding' and 'No Prestart Penatlies' and no 'Stupid Selfish Penalties'. Great coaches get their players incredibly fired up, but in a controlled way. Guys losing it on the field, to me, is a reflection of coaches that have not done an appropriate job of reinforcing a culture that is disciplined and responsible. And that's what I see with CAL's offense right now, lack of discipline and responsibility and a team that has neglected the basics.
After watching our offense for six weeks, I no longer believe Bloesch is the guy that can succeed as a P$ OC. Sadly, he can't even get his o-line to perform with any consistency.
It's too late to make a difference, so Coach Wilcox may have to ride the horse he bought to the finish, but it may very well cost him his job. If I were him, I would not hire any coach in the future without successful proven P4 experience. Talking about X's and O's and philosophy is easy, actually implementing a system and being successful is a whole different skill set.
Your assessment of the discipline lacking in the O line is on the button. And that is coaching. Either by instilling the right mental attitude, or picking the right personnel. Or … maybe recruiting …
All of which Wilcox is responsible for. Wilcox was the one who decided we didn’t need to hire a full time and dedicated OL coach. Wilcox is the one who decides who we offer a scholarship to and recruit.
The press conference where he doubled down on multiple poor decisions is where he lost me.
He lost me at Colorado in 2022.
That loss and the Arizona loss should have gotten him fired.
I agree, that Colorado team was one of the worst teams in the history of the Pac-12, losing to them was completely inexcusable.
Off a BYE no less. I’m still irritated with that game.
Wilcox: wins that feel like losses, and losses that should be wins. Sigh.
Me too.
Just watched the entire postgame presser and my god was it bad. Absolutely no accountability from the coaching staff and there seemed to be a stubborn lack of reflection on his decisions. Instead of owning the 2 point conversion attempt, he basically tried to explain why it was the right move. At best, he was brushing things off onto the players about not making enough plays. At worst, he was saying things like “we ran 40 times for 60 yards” which 1. Throws your offense under the bus and 2. Raises more questions about why you took your QB off the field and ran it on 3rd and 9. Catastrophically bad coaching with equally as bad answers postgame. Just hoping for the unlikely scenario somewhere down the line where Lyons calls up Knowlton and says “you fire him or I fire you.”
That’s it for me on the Wilcox Regime. I’ve been contributing to the NIL, but until they’re ready to move on, I’m only interested in the Wilcox buyout fund.
Sad to agree but I do. I had written before the season that I considered this year 8 wins or bust. I can see maybe getting that number and still wanting WIlcox fired. I've said it for a few years but I have no power so all I had was hope... accent on the 'had'... even a winning record would feel like failure.
Wake me up when Wilcox is fired, I’ll be in my den hibernating. But really I’ll continue to go to the games but only to support the players as I have for my entire life.
I always lose my voice cheering but won’t be expending any of that type of energy under Wilcox anymore. We have some awesome talent that’s fun to watch. I’m excited to see what The Jet can do, continuing to get better. Nohl Williams on track to break the Cal season record for interceptions. Mendoza’s resilience. I could go on. The individual talent is there (weren’t we #17 in transfer class?). It will be fun watching the games for the individual players but as an elder said to me during spring game, don’t expect much as a team under Wilcox.
This. The players are still playing their assess off which is why I suck up the five hours in the car from Lincoln to Berkeley and back.
A tough three weeks for sure.
Incredible Defensive efforts - top notch - outstanding - against Miami until they were gassed due to bad Offense by cal and a miami team that had to go for it on 4th downs a bundle - Vs. PItt forcing fourth downs was huge and at the end of the game the pitt QB was rattled - Unfortunately Cal couldn't get their offensive line rolling. THat is the major issue.
Some blasphemy to consider. A - Ott isn't a power back - he feels the hole and bursts. That requires a hole. With the poor OL that CAL has - they do better with the other backs. They get up into the hole faster and better that he does. I don't blame him for not playing - but he is hurt - all the time. The NFL knows his metrics and ability - they are also watching this season. Fair or unfair - this year he has not been good. His time is now if he wants to raise his stock. If not - fizzle fizzle.
B - Mendoza is a damn good QB. He is tough and fairly accurate. It is his toughness and leadership that keeps the bears viable (even when they go cold). When he gets hit - he still delivers. Protect this guy! HIs OL is letting him down. They should probably be on the 7 man sled every day- they simply blow it with penalties and sacks/pressure all the time.
C- The kicker needs to be fired - open it up to the student population. Fleece a soccor player - get someone in their that doesn't choke.
D- The go for it in MIami on 4th down brought praise to Wilcox - the coaches need to be more creative. Incorrect - their creativity led to the first disaster of the PItt game - going for two early. Be solid. Move the ball. Don't shoot off all your toes - avoid 3rd and 25's. That maybe too much to ask. If there is an off chance that they read this (maybe, but probably not).
E. Quit putting Rodgers in in the red zone. That ruins the flow. Of course so do procedure penalties and offsides - oh well.
F. WInners win - losers lose
Cal has shown they can play with anybody in the nation for the past few years. The problem is they cant win. That - is a mentality that comes with Bear territory. Until that goes away - from the fans to the players - that is how it will be. The Calgorithym or whatever that is - thats a distraction -
George C Scott in the Hustler (Sorry youngins) knew a winner when he saw one. He also knows a loser. WInners win despite their talent. Losers lose despite their talent. In the Hustler, despite his talent - Paul Newman was a loser. . . There are winners - and there are losers.
Mendoza is a winner. The kicker is not. So far - Ott is not either. . . big plays can be expected from him from time to time. Not so much in crunch time. The other backs are better - that may have to do with the sorry state of the line - but it is what it is. The Doctor Pepper commercial about the hype train explains it all so perfectly - right before a big choke of a kick was made to lose the game.
CIrcle the wagons coach - play to win - not to compete
IF not the school should fire you - coach knows that - I am rooting for them. The winning streak needs to start now. WInning out is not out of the question - but it is if your a loser. Don't be a loser.
get over the hump please!!!!!
As far as “C” above,
Let's get Daniel from Gameday.
He made his 40 yarder. Wearing Vans.
I agree about Ott. He "pussy foots" to line to hesitate and find non existent holes in the zone blocking schemes. No pulling and filling with down blocks instead of reach blocks. going for two after the first score was insane, and stalling to set up a FG was bad since our kicker has a big leg but no accuracy. We have 2 other kickers who warm up before each game with pretty good accuracy. GIVE THEM A TRY.
This team has shown its share of moxie, but boy do the near-misses get demoralizing.
Finally, a balanced, intelligent comment from someone.
Ahh yes, let’s search for moral victories in year 8. This is an acceptable perspective in year one or two. Maybe even year three. Hell, I’ll even accept it in years four, five and six cuz of Covid. Not in year 8. Not with a coach who has amassed insane generational wealth coaching this team. You’re on here acting like we’re all unhinged Finebaum callers. Good grief dude, have something resembling standards for this program.
We were not competitive in, what, four or five games last year with Top 25 teams.
Moral victory, maybe not, but progress is shown. Apart from firing the coach, what constructive changes would you make? Would you hold yourself accountable for the results?
Playing close games against good teams and losing in year one or two is acceptable. Again, we’re in year 8 my man. Not good enough. We’re still seeing insane decision making lose us games. We’re still seeing players who can’t execute in crucial times. This all falls on the head coach. IT IS HIS RESPONSIBILITY. Would I hold myself accountable for the results? You mean if I was the multi millionaire head coach responsible for all of this? Yes, yes I would. Is that a serious question?
I think we must also consider the perfunctory, unenthused Administrative support football received before Chancellor Lyons got here. To get us where we should be, Lyons must navigate some resentful academics-only thinkers, while rebuilding our brand. Wilcox's high graduation rate helps with this. The City of Berkeley leadership did us no favors and, effectively, sanctioned our program with setbacks. Pat MacAfee expected to get bricks thrown at him, so poor is the reputation of Berkeley for some folks.
On the upswing, Wilcox has shown some brilliance with The Portal and improving the talent and depth of the team, but linemen are hard to find. Promoting Bloesch was likely way to further tap his connections to line recruits in Texas.
I am willing to wait to see how the season finishes, but OC/play-calling needs to change for the better. The kicker most likely needs to relegated to kick offs and the 2and 3 kickers promoted. There are some serious problems on offense, but many are fixable with coaching.
All of this may be true, and yet, the last three losses, which were the ones that finally broke me, had nothing to do with the chancellor, institutional challenges, the city of Berkeley, etc. Winners win. And he’s just not finding ways to win.
Exactly. What tells it clearly is Wilcox doesn't know how to do it. He doesn't even accept the responsibility for it. He just whines and says he does. A man who takes responsibility fixes things. He doesn't have the cohonas nor the intelligence to do so. His stupid coaching decisions like going for 2pts unnecessarily or that botched series leading to a assine 40yrd attempt say it all.
This team has not progressed. It's the same nonsense year after year. You want to accept mediocrity, others dont
💯 - I hated the decision to go for two at the time and neither of our 2pt attempts ever looked likely to succeed. The decision to settle for a 40yd FG attempt once we reached the Pitt 20 was flat out wrong. Even had Coe miraculously converted, Pitt would have had 2mins & 2TO and a FG kicker who was nails from 60. Time wasn’t the issue at all, we needed another first down if not a TD. Plowing up the middle was useless. If Wilcox doesn’t understand his errors and acknowledge this loss was on him, he should be removed as his destined to continue to repeat them.
Putting the QB coach in as coordinator would really help. Bloech is NOT there as a good play caller or play designer. Those running plays are so generic and so limited.
On the two point conversion attempt: Why use the punter and the long snapper to try to execute?
Bloesch’s play calling ability was previewed in the 2023 Independence Bowl and was abysmal - then he gets promoted.
I don’t blame Bloesch for taking the promotion and pay raise. The blame rest on Wilcox for the promotion. As far as I know, no one was trying to poach Bloesch from us as their OC. It was a completely unforced error by Wilcox.
Wilcox has shown he can’t hire a good OC, why would we give Wilcox a 5th chance to hire a new OC?
I’ve had my beef with various O coordinators over the years but I’m honestly not sure how much more Bloesch can do with an offensive line that can’t get any push in the run game or hold blocks in the pass game. That along with the O line penalties makes it almost impossible to design an effective scheme.
See I actually disagree. A good O coordinator can scheme and plan around that particular year’s deficiencies. Spav scored points with the players he had. Could he run everything he wanted to? Probably not, but if we had a fraction of last year’s offensive scoring ability we’re 6-0. The more glaring question I had is why he bailed. It’s not like it was some prestigious position. Why was he so motivated to bail before the season was even over?
He’s also the O Line Coach and responsible for that hot mess.
Yeah and I agree but the problem is Bloesch is also the OL coach so he still has to point the finger at himself.
Finally someone who can see the most glaring problem with the Bears. O line talent. Of course most people watch the ball and not the O line or LB's or D line Or DB's and what cover their in, etc. If they did they'd see the O line deficiency and the FG kicker. Those two positions are why we are not 5-1.
Forcing Spav out too along the way.
If you kept Spavital, we'd have never ended up with Mendoza. Spav was for SJV/Finley only.
Then that’s also on Wilcox, for hiring Spavital in the first place.
Interested in getting your take on the program now after your prediction for the Pitt game.
Cal will be favored the rest of the way, excluding the SMU game. Cal should (key word: should) win the next 5 games, but I have also lost faith in the program doing so and wouldn't be surprised if Cal dropped another 1-2 winnable games. NC State opened as 7.5-point underdogs, and they are probably one of the tougher games remaining. Oregon State lost a lot of talent when the Pac-12 fell apart (and also lost their coach), but they're always tough regardless of their record. Wake Forest is just straight-up bad, which is why I predicted a loss to them in our preseason predictions. Syracuse is one-dimensional, and I think Cal's secondary shuts down Kyle McCord. Then there's the Big Game, and anything can happen in a rivalry game. Even though Stanford is also straight-up bad, they hung around a vastly superior Clemson team for longer than they should have, so I am not taking that one for granted either. Cal is in a weaker conference, and still going to somehow struggle to find that 6th win for bowl eligibility.
I still think Cal was the better team than Pitt on Saturday, and that Cal lost that game more than Pitt won it.
Dead on.
Was this was happened? I was curious beforehand, and now even more so, considering how clear it was that Wilcox needed to make a good decision on his fourth O coordinator. Going with an internal basically unproven choice seemed, odd, to put it mildly.
This is getting hard to watch, and I’ve been a Cal fan since the 70s…..
I love Coach W, but there are times I wish he HAD taken the Oregon job so we’d be forced (with the benefit of a payout instead of the burden of a payout) to switch things up. Not that we would have landed a Dan Lanning-esque coach, but a change of SOME sort is needed….
There are those that are ok with 4-6 wins a season along with our graduation rates. This is just another version of turtling and just not good enough if we want the program to survive in this day and age.
We HAVE to take a chance (and it is a risk) on getting a better Coach.
I’d rather go down swinging than curl up in a corner and hope next year Wilcox will turn it around.
And to be honest, with CFB season being 12 games now and Cal having 4 OOC games, winning 4-6 games a season is not that difficult anymore.
We have faced the same song for eight years under Wilcox’s regime. Cal tends to lose its lead in the fourth quarter, known as the “fourth quarter is not ours” (satirically). We are stuck with his old song and can't afford to replace him with a new coach if needed. He's an excellent coach, oh well!
And as per usual for W4C, tremendous work on summing that disaster up.
That was a wonderful summation. Thank you