I gave a listen this morning to a Wildcat podcast recorded after the game. Shouldn’t have. My Bear ego got a bit bruised as they pretty much dismissed our handicaps. E.g So what no Garners as we play with backups all the time, etc. etc.
I played Pop Warner for the El Cerrito Rockets and then moved to Oakland and played for the Dynamites before high school and CAL. And, my very own Oakland now has a vacancy for a big time football team. ;-)
Could easily accommodate our home game crowds and would attract little attention from the CofB. Plus you'd have Seabreeze as your concession stand and a nice view of the Bay.
The crowd will indeed be small but that isn’t due to the city of Berkeley. That was due to people giving up on this program and Wilcox when we started the season 1-5. Are we now blaming the city of Berkeley for our 1-5 start as well?
I agree that had we win yesterday the crowd would have been decent but still small. I can’t imagine a lot of SC fans will be wasting their time to come up and watch SC, casual Cal fans and students have mostly checked out.
If true, that would be great for everyone involved. His inability to win is on him, not the admin or the city. The city and admin didn’t hire Baldwin or Musgrave. The city and admin aren’t to blame the poor QB recruiting and lack of overall offensive talent and speed.
I doubt he ever gets another HC job again in a P5 conference and if he does, he will fail just as he has at Cal.
You sound like a bitter player who was on the team under Wilcox but did not get much playing time. Why are you so angry with him and so narrow in your focus on the issues of our success. Certainly Wilcox is a big part, but if CoB and our Admin are problems, do you think we can ever get a good coach to come to CAL. If we don't then you know what the answer to your question is: this is as good as it gets. The only reason we have a P5 team and will continue to have one is because we need to pay off the debt on the Stadium, which aside from football has very limited other uses by way of the agreement with the CoB (imagine that). We were a program on the ascension until Covid hit us. We were steadily improving and our recruiting ended with a #19 class. Then the world got turned upside down with Covid. I imaging CoB's protocols are much more stringent than other college towns and cities and definitely more so than other conferences. Why?
I admit I didn't do any research, but I'm sure there are other schools that hired new HC, OC, or DC in the last two years. Michigan State hired new HC and OC in 2020 and they are undefeated this year. Cincinatti hired new DC and are also undefeated.
Other than yesterday, how has the CoB been an obstacle to Wilcox being successful? Did they make him hire Musgrave? How did the CoB or the admin impact our first 6 games of the season when we went 1-5. Are we blaming them for the 1-5 start? If so? How?
As to the first 5 games here is my explanation. Musgrave was hired two years ago. He brought a complicated offensive system with him. It's a system that takes a good solid season to learn and master with growing pains. When he was hired we had an aborted Spring training that lasted one week So much for the installation of his offense. In the Covid shortened season of 2020 had an abbreviated Fall camp, and played 5 games in which a number of our starters did not play in many. There was no way 2020 provided much in the way of installing, practicing and learning Musgrave's system. They finally had a real spring in 2021 and we observed the growing pains of learning a complex offensive system. Same as in Fall camp. Musgrave was still installing new plays in the Fall. What this tells me is that our kids had their first full season of playing in Musgrave's system this season. We lost some close games that were frustrating, but it was because of lack of execution, which in my mind comes down to lack of reps in the system. The we played CO and something seemed to click. Same with OSU. Without this Covid issue our full team travels to AZ and crushes them and we have a chance to win out the year. Yes, we can beat every team left on our schedule if we are healthy. If we did this then to me it would have shown that our team had finally mastered Musgrave's system and that next year would look bright. Btw, just about any time you have a change of OC it takes at least a season for the team to adjust unless the new OC runs the same system with slight variations. We needed a wholesale adjustment from BB's system. This is one of the reasons why I want to give Wilcox his last year on his contract. And who knows, if Garbers gets a low score on his draft potential, he might come back for one more year.
Because I think CFB has largely left west coast/pro style offenses behind due their complexity and lack of practice time in favor of more power spread or air raid offenses.
Knowlton is busy tweaking his CV at Strada. He likely realized long ago that dealing with the CofB has little to do with logic or reason. Like JW, he's pining for a less farcical working environment.
Understood, & I applaud it….the fan base is frustrated, especially so after such an ugly game. I honestly did not mean any harm tho, and in no way mean to belittle the contributions of the staff, which are greatly appreciated.
The only way that I can feel somewhat better about this loss is if 'Zona manages to win at least one more game. Somehow, I have a feeling that they are going to get stomped the rest of the way and it will only make us look even more ridiculous than we already do. Sigh......
Not to anyone who's paying attention. Only a handful of teams would have won that game if you would have taken away their equivalents of the players we had missing. Washington and SC barely beat Zona at close to full strength.
Sacman: You make a good point and even with a roster that was almost completely gutted, we only lost by a touchdown. However, we still should have won. 'Zona was down to their 4th or 5th string QB and we should have been running the ball down their throats, especially when Plummer, who is mobile, kept gashing the defense with first down runs. In other words, keep their offense off the field! It worked against a good team like Oregon State so I don't see why it wouldn't have worked yesterday.
How do we know that players did that? I get that that’s the most likely way to be exposed to COVID, but it’s certainly not the only way. Seems premature to start blaming the players when we have virtually no information on anything, including how many players tested positive, displayed symptoms, etc.
We have recruited well at QB. We had 5 going into Spring: Chase Garbers, Zach Johnson, Spencer Brasch, Robby Rowell and Jaden Casey. Casey and Brasch decided to transfer after Spring. In the Fall we welcomed Glover and four star Milner. The problem is not our recruiting, the problem was that we got notified Wednesday of those who were required to enter the Covid Protocol as defined by the City of Berkeley. Then we had to get our team ready in three days, when normally Monday is install, Tues and Weds are hitting days, Thursday is Shells and Friday is helmets only. Tough to install a game plan and get Glover game ready in three days and NOT have Zach Johnson on the travel squad. This is not all on WIlcox, but the lesson to be learned here it to make sure your backups get reps ALL season long. Lastly, let me address Musgrave. His system is complicated and takes time to learn. This was our first FULL season under his system. Once we figured it out it worked very well. I give you the Oregon State game as an example. The problem as I see it, is that Musgrave's system is like Tedford's system and QB's that don't have a lot of reps just won't play well. It is a pro offense for a reason. Pros have virtually unlimited practice, meeting and film study time, college kids don't. That's why I like the spread offense for college. It's easy to learn fast. I'm not a fan of the Air Raid, but I do like Urban Meyer's modified spread with TE's and RB formations. In any event, some of the blame for this failure is on Wilcox and some lies on other groups. The City of Berkeley certainly is no friend of CAL football, or even CAL for that matter. The University does so much for the City and as I see it the City is unhappy with CAL's presence and sees Saturday football as a nuisance.
So I looked up Glover's experience. In 2018, "Through those 10 games, Glover racked up 1,482 yards, seven touchdowns, and six interceptions, while leading the Quakers to a 6-4 record. Additionally, Glover demonstrated his capability as a mobile quarterback by running for 300 yards and two touchdowns. That year, he was also the only Black Ivy League quarterback to start every game under center. "
I clearly did not see any mobility from him today. And I wonder how he was able to start 10 games when he can't throw...maybe he could throw better 3 years ago?
I know you're trying to run a tight ship in order to not have the thread fall off the deep end but that was pretty satirical from Jimmy. He and I always poke fun at LT, its nothing like my rant from months ago where I took a whole round of shots at him :/
Cal, last year, had contingencies in place to practice outside of Berkeley. I suggest they implement the plan immediately and move the venue of next week's game. Only 3 weeks left so while an inconvenience to the players and staff, at least they would be able to play.
How bad must Millner be to not even see the field today? Not even for one series. We only have 4 games left and he hasn’t played so it isn’t like by playing him we are in danger of burning his redshirt.
So if Garbers doesn’t come back for his 13th season is Glover our starting QB next season?
He's not bad he just has had very few reps in Musgrave's system. What many don't understand is that you can be a very good QB and still suck in a game if you don't get reps in practice. At the P5 level it's a very fast game and so much is timing. How does even a good QB go in to a game and look of a DB and then go back to a receiver successfully if he has never done it in practice. Milner is a 4*. He has a big arm, touch and can throw tight windows. He is tall and very mobile. When he is ready I think the kid will be money. But, typical with most college programs, when you have serviceable back ups then you put your frosh QB's on the scout team so they can ease into the process. Milner wasn't even here last spring. As to who our starter is next year I would expect a full blown competition in Spring and I suspect with his freshman year under his belt AND some additional reps and coaching, Milner's abilities will put him at the head of the competition.
Okay, so if anyone is interested, LA County had tightened COVID-19 protocols and then loosened them for football players in response to UCLA and USC's requests. The updated rules, published Aug. 24, allowed for "vaccinated athletes exposed to COVID-19 to continue taking part in practice and competition as long as they remain asymptomatic and test negative for five consecutive days." So, these are looser than Berkeley's 10 day quarantine. What I can't remember was whether the 10 day quarantine period was Berkeley's protocols before vaccinations were available. If so, it seems like Berkeley's protocols do not recognize that vaccinations lower the spread of the virus-even if someone tests positive (as in a break through case) , they statistically do not carry the viral load that unvaccinated people do. I wouldn't call Berkeley's policies arcane but I would say they are probably the strictest in the conference. On the other hand, Alameda County with 1.6+ million people has only had 1407 deaths from COVID since the start of the pandemic. So there's that.
This has City of Berkeley idiocy written all over it. Would love for someone to do some digging here and find out what really happened. I refuse to believe two dozen vaccinated players all came down with covid. There must be some other protocols in place here. And that can only be City of Berkeley. You're right, I wouldn't call their policies 'arcane' .... they're INSANE.
If these were the same rules prior to vaccinations being available, the "emergency order" that brought these back into place are an "outlier." I wouldn't call them "insane," because there are breakthrough cases; also, I assume they adjust the protocols depending on the infection rate; the city health dept. updated the protocols on Oct. 28.
Does the Oct 28 "emergency order" state if one is vaccinated and asymptomatic they must isolate for 10 days? If so, I could see why Cal would be pissed off. This puts them at a competitive disadvantage to U$C & fucla per the LA County ruling. So the CoB "emergency order" in this case really screwed Cal. I was not aware of the "emergency order" and was going on vaccinated and asymptomatic would be cleared to play. 36 peeps with 99% vaccination could not all be symptomatic was my initial thought, and now this CoB "emergency order" clears it up.
This is the only site, that I'm aware of, that has mentioned the "emergency order".
In my opinion, and this comes from working for 20+ years at a university (not at Berkeley), bureaucracies are not good at communication. Making rules, and even being thoughtful about them, yes. Communicating rule changes to those impacted by them, no. So the quarantine order changed on Oct. 28, and the website I looked at doesn't suggest to someone not working at the health dept. the reason why they're changing. It's to "align" the protocols with an acronym, the latter of which clearly refers to something; at least on their website they're just not saying why or giving any context.
Now, imagine that order is publicly announced at 4:00 p.m. on Oct. 28. Did the AD know it was going to change? When? Wilcox mentioned this past Weds, Thursday, and Friday, as when they found out. Obviously someone tested positive, and they probably were vaccinated. But how did the information flow work between the city's health department, the university, the athletic department and the football program? Plus, if you read the quarantine orders, while you don't have to be Einstein to understand them, they are detailed and lengthy.
In my experience, people do not just "turn on a dime," and communication in bureaucracies and between them is often just poor.
Yes, I would be pissed if I were Wilcox, not only because of what transpired and possibly not even hearing about what rules they were under until after someone tested positively. Also, he must know that other universities have been willing to go to bat for their football programs, but my guess is (and for plenty of good reasons) Berkeley decided not to do that.
I'm not talking about what is the "right" set of protocols. The program went through a "misunderstanding" about the protocols last year. This year, after everyone is vaccinated, the rules they start with change at the end of October, which is a little after mid-season. Cal ends up with players in quarantine as a result. Yes, I'd be pissed, if I were in his position, regardless of whether he should have done a better job of developing qbs.
All that may be true. I just don't remember two dozen Georgia or Ohio State players and coaches being held out of games because of health departments of Athens and Columbus. Why does this kinda thing only seem to happen to us?
The Pac12 rule says that even if you are asymptomatic, if you test positive for Covid you need to isolate for 10 days. You do not need to isolate if you are negative even if you are exposed to Covid thru contact tracing.
I gave a listen this morning to a Wildcat podcast recorded after the game. Shouldn’t have. My Bear ego got a bit bruised as they pretty much dismissed our handicaps. E.g So what no Garners as we play with backups all the time, etc. etc.
Like I said before, no one but Cal fans and even then only hardcore Cal fans care about the Covid issue.
Wilcox: “we heard nothing from the pac-12”. Thanks for the support klivakoff!
University of California at Albany anyone?
El Cerrito?
I played Pop Warner for the El Cerrito Rockets and then moved to Oakland and played for the Dynamites before high school and CAL. And, my very own Oakland now has a vacancy for a big time football team. ;-)
We should move games to the Seabreeze Market parking lot near the Marina.
That's still in Berkeley.
Could easily accommodate our home game crowds and would attract little attention from the CofB. Plus you'd have Seabreeze as your concession stand and a nice view of the Bay.
The crowd will indeed be small but that isn’t due to the city of Berkeley. That was due to people giving up on this program and Wilcox when we started the season 1-5. Are we now blaming the city of Berkeley for our 1-5 start as well?
I agree that had we win yesterday the crowd would have been decent but still small. I can’t imagine a lot of SC fans will be wasting their time to come up and watch SC, casual Cal fans and students have mostly checked out.
Wilcox wants out of Berkeley. He made that clear in the presser.
I get the sense that he's had it both with the city itself and administration. He knows he can't win here.
If true, that would be great for everyone involved. His inability to win is on him, not the admin or the city. The city and admin didn’t hire Baldwin or Musgrave. The city and admin aren’t to blame the poor QB recruiting and lack of overall offensive talent and speed.
I doubt he ever gets another HC job again in a P5 conference and if he does, he will fail just as he has at Cal.
You sound like a bitter player who was on the team under Wilcox but did not get much playing time. Why are you so angry with him and so narrow in your focus on the issues of our success. Certainly Wilcox is a big part, but if CoB and our Admin are problems, do you think we can ever get a good coach to come to CAL. If we don't then you know what the answer to your question is: this is as good as it gets. The only reason we have a P5 team and will continue to have one is because we need to pay off the debt on the Stadium, which aside from football has very limited other uses by way of the agreement with the CoB (imagine that). We were a program on the ascension until Covid hit us. We were steadily improving and our recruiting ended with a #19 class. Then the world got turned upside down with Covid. I imaging CoB's protocols are much more stringent than other college towns and cities and definitely more so than other conferences. Why?
Covid hit everyone not just us, so that's not a good excuse.
Except that we were starting the install of a new and complicated offensive system and Covid derailed it by two years. That is a legit excuse.
I admit I didn't do any research, but I'm sure there are other schools that hired new HC, OC, or DC in the last two years. Michigan State hired new HC and OC in 2020 and they are undefeated this year. Cincinatti hired new DC and are also undefeated.
I assure you, I am not Vic Enwere or Wharton.
Other than yesterday, how has the CoB been an obstacle to Wilcox being successful? Did they make him hire Musgrave? How did the CoB or the admin impact our first 6 games of the season when we went 1-5. Are we blaming them for the 1-5 start? If so? How?
As to the first 5 games here is my explanation. Musgrave was hired two years ago. He brought a complicated offensive system with him. It's a system that takes a good solid season to learn and master with growing pains. When he was hired we had an aborted Spring training that lasted one week So much for the installation of his offense. In the Covid shortened season of 2020 had an abbreviated Fall camp, and played 5 games in which a number of our starters did not play in many. There was no way 2020 provided much in the way of installing, practicing and learning Musgrave's system. They finally had a real spring in 2021 and we observed the growing pains of learning a complex offensive system. Same as in Fall camp. Musgrave was still installing new plays in the Fall. What this tells me is that our kids had their first full season of playing in Musgrave's system this season. We lost some close games that were frustrating, but it was because of lack of execution, which in my mind comes down to lack of reps in the system. The we played CO and something seemed to click. Same with OSU. Without this Covid issue our full team travels to AZ and crushes them and we have a chance to win out the year. Yes, we can beat every team left on our schedule if we are healthy. If we did this then to me it would have shown that our team had finally mastered Musgrave's system and that next year would look bright. Btw, just about any time you have a change of OC it takes at least a season for the team to adjust unless the new OC runs the same system with slight variations. We needed a wholesale adjustment from BB's system. This is one of the reasons why I want to give Wilcox his last year on his contract. And who knows, if Garbers gets a low score on his draft potential, he might come back for one more year.
Why do you think Musgrave is a bad hire?
Because I think CFB has largely left west coast/pro style offenses behind due their complexity and lack of practice time in favor of more power spread or air raid offenses.
Curious if you speculated similarly as to the future of Sonny Dykes after his departure from Berkeley?
I did not. Just like with Wilcox, I put the blame on Dykes inability to hire/find a competent defensive staff.
Also, I suppose I can understand the feeling toward the admin but why would I blame the city of Berkeley for Dykes or Wilcoxs failure.
Anyways, I certainly hope Wilcox does resign and enjoys a long career as a MWC DC.
I agree with you wholeheartedly though. I just think we've sloshed across the Rubicon already.
Knowlton is busy tweaking his CV at Strada. He likely realized long ago that dealing with the CofB has little to do with logic or reason. Like JW, he's pining for a less farcical working environment.
Where is knowlton. Shouldn’t he be out in front of all this? He runs the athletic department for dogs sake.
Understood, & I applaud it….the fan base is frustrated, especially so after such an ugly game. I honestly did not mean any harm tho, and in no way mean to belittle the contributions of the staff, which are greatly appreciated.
The only way that I can feel somewhat better about this loss is if 'Zona manages to win at least one more game. Somehow, I have a feeling that they are going to get stomped the rest of the way and it will only make us look even more ridiculous than we already do. Sigh......
Not to anyone who's paying attention. Only a handful of teams would have won that game if you would have taken away their equivalents of the players we had missing. Washington and SC barely beat Zona at close to full strength.
Sacman: You make a good point and even with a roster that was almost completely gutted, we only lost by a touchdown. However, we still should have won. 'Zona was down to their 4th or 5th string QB and we should have been running the ball down their throats, especially when Plummer, who is mobile, kept gashing the defense with first down runs. In other words, keep their offense off the field! It worked against a good team like Oregon State so I don't see why it wouldn't have worked yesterday.
Stop blaming the city of Berkeley and start placing blame where it belongs; the players who went out unmasked and congregated in large gatherings.
How do we know that players did that? I get that that’s the most likely way to be exposed to COVID, but it’s certainly not the only way. Seems premature to start blaming the players when we have virtually no information on anything, including how many players tested positive, displayed symptoms, etc.
No I blame the city. Everyone has had a chance to get vaccinated, we have effective treatments now, its time to move on.
Are you arguing they should play with Covid?
You can be vaccinated but still get Covid.
Also the coaching staff did not recruiting at QB better.
We have recruited well at QB. We had 5 going into Spring: Chase Garbers, Zach Johnson, Spencer Brasch, Robby Rowell and Jaden Casey. Casey and Brasch decided to transfer after Spring. In the Fall we welcomed Glover and four star Milner. The problem is not our recruiting, the problem was that we got notified Wednesday of those who were required to enter the Covid Protocol as defined by the City of Berkeley. Then we had to get our team ready in three days, when normally Monday is install, Tues and Weds are hitting days, Thursday is Shells and Friday is helmets only. Tough to install a game plan and get Glover game ready in three days and NOT have Zach Johnson on the travel squad. This is not all on WIlcox, but the lesson to be learned here it to make sure your backups get reps ALL season long. Lastly, let me address Musgrave. His system is complicated and takes time to learn. This was our first FULL season under his system. Once we figured it out it worked very well. I give you the Oregon State game as an example. The problem as I see it, is that Musgrave's system is like Tedford's system and QB's that don't have a lot of reps just won't play well. It is a pro offense for a reason. Pros have virtually unlimited practice, meeting and film study time, college kids don't. That's why I like the spread offense for college. It's easy to learn fast. I'm not a fan of the Air Raid, but I do like Urban Meyer's modified spread with TE's and RB formations. In any event, some of the blame for this failure is on Wilcox and some lies on other groups. The City of Berkeley certainly is no friend of CAL football, or even CAL for that matter. The University does so much for the City and as I see it the City is unhappy with CAL's presence and sees Saturday football as a nuisance.
Musgrave said Glover took majority of the first team reps on Tuesday
So I looked up Glover's experience. In 2018, "Through those 10 games, Glover racked up 1,482 yards, seven touchdowns, and six interceptions, while leading the Quakers to a 6-4 record. Additionally, Glover demonstrated his capability as a mobile quarterback by running for 300 yards and two touchdowns. That year, he was also the only Black Ivy League quarterback to start every game under center. "
I clearly did not see any mobility from him today. And I wonder how he was able to start 10 games when he can't throw...maybe he could throw better 3 years ago?
Maybe the ivy league is terrible?
It ain't P5, even AZ P5.
Arizona didnt beat Cal. Arizona beat the stupid city of Berkeley and its rules.
No, I’m pretty sure they beat Cal football today.
Arizona held open tryouts for the football team 3 weeks ago.
Their defense was allowing 32 PPG.
We won the turnover battle 2-0.
And we still only scored 3 points with our backup QB.
If Wilcox and staff are as good as they are supposed to be then we should have been able to beat an 0-8 Arizona team in year 5 of his tenure.
3-0
Personally, I place the blame squarely on the shoulders of Lars Thiemann...
Cmon man. Either talk about the game or don’t but don’t bring in and take shots at other players for other sports.
I know you're trying to run a tight ship in order to not have the thread fall off the deep end but that was pretty satirical from Jimmy. He and I always poke fun at LT, its nothing like my rant from months ago where I took a whole round of shots at him :/
Yes, this. It was a sarcastic joke…again, no harm was intended…
Will probably stick strictly to the DBD from now on…thanks for your efforts & all of the staff, Rob. See you at the SC tailgate!
I'm taking you up on that blame too, easy outlet to blame tbh.
This is just poor journalism, but the ESPN recap says that 2 dozen Cal players tested positive for COVID: https://www.espn.com/college-football/story/_/id/32569751/arizona-ends-nation-longest-losing-streak-20-games-covid-depleted-cal-team
They did
OK. I thought it wasn't clear how many had, and that many were being pulled for close contact.
Cal, last year, had contingencies in place to practice outside of Berkeley. I suggest they implement the plan immediately and move the venue of next week's game. Only 3 weeks left so while an inconvenience to the players and staff, at least they would be able to play.
That was for camp. The kids need to attend classes unless they are online.
How bad must Millner be to not even see the field today? Not even for one series. We only have 4 games left and he hasn’t played so it isn’t like by playing him we are in danger of burning his redshirt.
So if Garbers doesn’t come back for his 13th season is Glover our starting QB next season?
He's not bad he just has had very few reps in Musgrave's system. What many don't understand is that you can be a very good QB and still suck in a game if you don't get reps in practice. At the P5 level it's a very fast game and so much is timing. How does even a good QB go in to a game and look of a DB and then go back to a receiver successfully if he has never done it in practice. Milner is a 4*. He has a big arm, touch and can throw tight windows. He is tall and very mobile. When he is ready I think the kid will be money. But, typical with most college programs, when you have serviceable back ups then you put your frosh QB's on the scout team so they can ease into the process. Milner wasn't even here last spring. As to who our starter is next year I would expect a full blown competition in Spring and I suspect with his freshman year under his belt AND some additional reps and coaching, Milner's abilities will put him at the head of the competition.
Looking for a true freshman like Goff
Glover doesn't have any eligibility left after this year.
Thank the heavens for that.
No, Glove is not a true senior. He's a redshirt senior.
A true senior would have another year of eligibility because 2020 does not count.
I said he doesn't have eligibility left. He's a redshirt senior.
You are the one that said he's a true senior. If he's a true senior, he would have eligibility next year, which he clearly doesn't have.
in glover's defense, he had 2 nice long balls that were catchable
Okay, so if anyone is interested, LA County had tightened COVID-19 protocols and then loosened them for football players in response to UCLA and USC's requests. The updated rules, published Aug. 24, allowed for "vaccinated athletes exposed to COVID-19 to continue taking part in practice and competition as long as they remain asymptomatic and test negative for five consecutive days." So, these are looser than Berkeley's 10 day quarantine. What I can't remember was whether the 10 day quarantine period was Berkeley's protocols before vaccinations were available. If so, it seems like Berkeley's protocols do not recognize that vaccinations lower the spread of the virus-even if someone tests positive (as in a break through case) , they statistically do not carry the viral load that unvaccinated people do. I wouldn't call Berkeley's policies arcane but I would say they are probably the strictest in the conference. On the other hand, Alameda County with 1.6+ million people has only had 1407 deaths from COVID since the start of the pandemic. So there's that.
This has City of Berkeley idiocy written all over it. Would love for someone to do some digging here and find out what really happened. I refuse to believe two dozen vaccinated players all came down with covid. There must be some other protocols in place here. And that can only be City of Berkeley. You're right, I wouldn't call their policies 'arcane' .... they're INSANE.
If these were the same rules prior to vaccinations being available, the "emergency order" that brought these back into place are an "outlier." I wouldn't call them "insane," because there are breakthrough cases; also, I assume they adjust the protocols depending on the infection rate; the city health dept. updated the protocols on Oct. 28.
Does the Oct 28 "emergency order" state if one is vaccinated and asymptomatic they must isolate for 10 days? If so, I could see why Cal would be pissed off. This puts them at a competitive disadvantage to U$C & fucla per the LA County ruling. So the CoB "emergency order" in this case really screwed Cal. I was not aware of the "emergency order" and was going on vaccinated and asymptomatic would be cleared to play. 36 peeps with 99% vaccination could not all be symptomatic was my initial thought, and now this CoB "emergency order" clears it up.
This is the only site, that I'm aware of, that has mentioned the "emergency order".
In my opinion, and this comes from working for 20+ years at a university (not at Berkeley), bureaucracies are not good at communication. Making rules, and even being thoughtful about them, yes. Communicating rule changes to those impacted by them, no. So the quarantine order changed on Oct. 28, and the website I looked at doesn't suggest to someone not working at the health dept. the reason why they're changing. It's to "align" the protocols with an acronym, the latter of which clearly refers to something; at least on their website they're just not saying why or giving any context.
Now, imagine that order is publicly announced at 4:00 p.m. on Oct. 28. Did the AD know it was going to change? When? Wilcox mentioned this past Weds, Thursday, and Friday, as when they found out. Obviously someone tested positive, and they probably were vaccinated. But how did the information flow work between the city's health department, the university, the athletic department and the football program? Plus, if you read the quarantine orders, while you don't have to be Einstein to understand them, they are detailed and lengthy.
In my experience, people do not just "turn on a dime," and communication in bureaucracies and between them is often just poor.
Yes, I would be pissed if I were Wilcox, not only because of what transpired and possibly not even hearing about what rules they were under until after someone tested positively. Also, he must know that other universities have been willing to go to bat for their football programs, but my guess is (and for plenty of good reasons) Berkeley decided not to do that.
I'm not talking about what is the "right" set of protocols. The program went through a "misunderstanding" about the protocols last year. This year, after everyone is vaccinated, the rules they start with change at the end of October, which is a little after mid-season. Cal ends up with players in quarantine as a result. Yes, I'd be pissed, if I were in his position, regardless of whether he should have done a better job of developing qbs.
All that may be true. I just don't remember two dozen Georgia or Ohio State players and coaches being held out of games because of health departments of Athens and Columbus. Why does this kinda thing only seem to happen to us?
The Pac12 rule says that even if you are asymptomatic, if you test positive for Covid you need to isolate for 10 days. You do not need to isolate if you are negative even if you are exposed to Covid thru contact tracing.
https://www-mercurynews-com.cdn.ampproject.org/v/s/www.mercurynews.com/2021/08/20/hotline-mailbag-covid-protocols-vax-rates-mask-mandates-big-ten-alliance-directv-outlook-and-more/amp/?amp_js_v=a6&_gsa=1&usqp=mq331AQKKAFQArABIIACAw%3D%3D#aoh=16362522841605&referrer=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com&_tf=From%20%251%24s&share=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.mercurynews.com%2F2021%2F08%2F20%2Fhotline-mailbag-covid-protocols-vax-rates-mask-mandates-big-ten-alliance-directv-outlook-and-more
If someone has the CoB emergency order, could you please post it, ty.
https://www.cityofberkeley.info/uploadedFiles/Health_Human_Services/Public_Health/covid19/COB-health-order-n20-12-quarantine.pdf
Do those loosened protocols also come with a competent backup Pac 12 QB? Because if they don’t it doesn’t matter as we would still lose this game.
I’m more bummed for the SC game than this one. Without those players we will lose again and that just deeply sucks as this SC team is bad.
Dude, this Arizona team was epically bad. We will, without a doubt lose to SC and Wilcox will ride the Covid excuse to another two season at Cal.