24 Comments

Offense? Quite the opposite. I was laughing my ass off. I will be the first to tell anyone that schools like Sac State are a bit soul numbing, but necessary means to an end. One of the reasons I fell in love with Cal football was my first visit to the stadium and walking around that campus. Magnificent in every way.

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A loss to this Buffs team is a fire-able offense

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You simply do not fire the guy who turned down the Oregon head coaching job.

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LOL. Maybe you do if you lose to the worst team in Colorado's 120 year football history. To be fair though, it's more fire-able given that Wilcox has barfed up 5 straight (ok, 4, because covid) losing records in conference play. And by the looks of things, it'll be one more in 2022. And probably another in 2023 (have you seen the recruiting class?!).

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I'm of the school of thought that Cal wins this tomorrow, but in closer fashion than it should be. I remember when one of Tedford's average teams beat Colorado 52-3 to open the season. It won't be that for sure. And no, I haven't paid attention to the recruiting class because the bigger issue is if Wilco can keep the good young players he has now from saying adios on the transfer portal.

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I agree, I think we win by 3 scores, but that we should probably win by 5 or 6. And great point about the transfer portal - maybe some Buffs would like a fresh start in Berkeley :)

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Chances of Wilcox keeping Ott, Hunter & Sturdivant are so slim.

This game should not be close, tho it likely will be. The Buffs rush defense is brutal, so expect Musgrave to call a pass heavy game plan.

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author

What makes you think those players have any intention of leaving?

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Oct 13, 2022·edited Oct 14, 2022

The National Football League.

Makai Polk.

Cal’s mess of an offense for the entirety of the Wilcox era.

The NIL.

The transfer portal.

Be wonderful if they all stayed, but in this era of college football, the chances of a middling program like Cal keeping elite talent is slim.

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Colorado’s D sounds a lot like Cal’s in 2013

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author

I was thinking about this too, except those Dykes defenses had at least some talent scattered about. They were also much better at forcing turnovers.

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Agree about Kaufman’s defenses; Wilcox proved that there was some talent there. IMO 2013 was different, roster was depleted by players leaving, suspensions, and injuries.… we had a backup QB plyaing safety

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In 2013? Are you talking about Rubenzer? He came to Cal in 2014 and became safety in 2015.

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I forgot about Rubenzer. If I recall he was "the running QB" early in his career.

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“The only way I can see Jaydn Ott not having a big game is because Wilcox is content with his 24-3 lead, and decides to let a different running back rack up yards as he saves Ott for Washington (as he lets Colorado come back and make it 24-17 for some reason).”

I think I’m having heart palpitations.

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"I see Cal losing this game is by becoming an even bigger dumpster fire, which just shouldn’t happen."

"Now this looks like a job for me." - Wilcox turtling up 10 in Q2

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Doom!

Despite that, thanks Chris.

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Oct 13, 2022·edited Oct 13, 2022Liked by Piotr Le, Christopher Helling

Another great analysis and report Christopher. Given all those whiffs, I'm feeling somewhat better about the certainty of a win especially if we can get Ott in space. In fact, given his proclivity to find the holes and dart around would be tacklers even a simple run scheme would seemingly be effective. It's a contest where we need to impose our will. Go Bears and beat Colorado! (And Washington next week).

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At this point, we could probably just have Ott line up the wildcat with no particular play and just tell him “have fun”

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Probably a better offensive plan and play call than anything Musgrave would dial up.

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Hey look, we were right. Sigh…

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