93 Comments

I passionately disagree with the author's assertion that Garbers' threw the game away. This loss is not entirely on him. He had a few mistakes but he also made many good plays to counter balance the mistakes. Furthermore, every other unit had as many or more mistakes. The penalties, the blown coverages, the first half lack of pressure, the botched special teams, and the continued infatuation to go for the home run on third and short are all equally as important as Garbers' mistkes.

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This loss is solely on Slater Zellers and Charlie Ragle. Stupidly not taking the ball first with the momentum didnt help but those 2 need to be told personally that they lost this game.

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I think one of the biggest disappointments about this season is that we had a schedule that was really nice. Avoiding Arizona State and Utah for Colorado and Arizona, we could have finished with a really good record without really beating any good teams. I know the team might not have been that good, but it would have looked good on paper and it could have been sold to the recruits.

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We have more talent this year than we had during our last full season two years ago. We are bigger and stronger and we have super seniors, so why are we not winning more games than two years ago. IMHO we are making mistakes that start at the fundamental levels. That goes back to coaching. What has changed in the last two years? I'll only list the ones that I think are of importance. Musgrave took over at OC for Beau Baldwin. I think we can all say now that Musgrave is an improvement. Our DC Tim DeRuyter exited last year and Peter Sirmon was elevated to the job. I think we lost a lot when DeRuyter left. Our DB Coach in 2019 was the highly regarded Gerald Alexander. This year it is first year coach Tre Watson. I think the difference in coaching experience has shown itself. Our O-line coach in 2019 was the highly regarded Steve Greatwood. Now it is Angus McClure. I think Greatwood produced better results with less talent and depth. Geep Chryst took over Tight End coaching from Marques Tuiasosopo and I think Chryst has been an improvement. Charlie Ragle has been the ST coach and I think that our ST's have not been good the entire time he has been in that job. They have been ok to bad, but never consistently good. Here are some observations that I think all of you have probably seen for yourself: 1. Our defense is nowhere near as physical as it has been in the past. We used to swarm and pound people, and even our DB's were physical. Our current LB's are soft. We aren't hitting on tackles, we are arm tackling. That's about as fundamental as it gets. We have been 'out-physicaled' in every game we have played. Our heralded secondary and supposedly defensive strength has had blown coverages WAY too many times. Our pass rush has been almost non-existent (until the 2nd half of the UW game). On the other side of the ball we have been schizophrenic on offense, running the ball effectively at times and passing the ball well at other times, but we seem to have a problem doing both well in any game. I am not impressed with how our o-line maintains their run blocking and we really need some more nasty up there (Mettauer and Coleman have nasty, and unfortunately they need to learn to control it better). And lastly, we are making way to many mental mistakes to win. Penalties at key times are drive killers. Having so many false starts is inexcusable. Taking selfish personal fouls is a reason for temporary benching in my view. These mistakes are all the result of poor coaching. Well coached teams don't make these mistakes over and over every week. I have some ideas for solutions that I will list. I'll start by saying on defense the coaches need to identify a physical leader who will set an example with his play. Kunaszyk and Weaver were those guys in the past. We don't have one right now and we need to find him. Next...I like Coach Wilcox and I think he was a great choice as a hire. He fits well with CAL and he has tons of integrity. I want him to be successful. This is his first HC job and he has not learned that it takes a bit of ruthlessness that a CEO must have to build a successful business. CEO's hold their people accountable. In football every player gets graded on film from practice and games. Game performance grades are the ultimate determinant of playing time. Assistant coaches cannot be exempt from this process. Coach Wilcox needs to hold his assistants accountable. After he reviews film every week he needs to let his coaches know what he sees and what he expects in terms of improvement. If necessary he needs to guide them, and his patience can only be limited. At this point his patience should be gone, based on our results and how erratically we have played. Loyalty to your assistants is a good thing, but only if it helps win games. If your assistant coaches are not getting the job done, the entire team suffers. If the team doesn't win, the HC loses his job. With no contract extension in place and a terrible season so far, Coach Wilcox's future options are not looking good. He will have 2022 to turn this ship around. Even with changes in the assistant coaching staff, this will be difficult, because kids will need to learn the changes in a short period of time. Coach Wilcox needs to think of one thing: what can he do to better the team. If it means unloading assistant coaches for better replacements, then he needs to put his loyalty aside and bring in assistant coaches who can get it done. Otherwise he won't be here after 2022 (maybe after this year) and we'll be starting from scratch again.

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Lose the turnover battle and you likely lose the game. Penalties were particularly devastating in this game. The lads fought hard but just too much to overcome.

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Another life lesson for our team that little things matter and they accumulate into wins or losses #GoBears

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Is it me, but does it seem like Wilcox is going through somethings?

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The best entertainment tonight were the two people commenting on the first half thread after the second half had started. I got the most recs ever in my life.

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A friend of mine played football for Cal in the 1960s (he played with Ed White) and what he said about us then is still true today: "We specialize in close losses." Sigh......

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At least we showed fight. Wilcox still has the kids fighting. Ragle and Sirmon should not have jobs.

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Talent won out there...offensive facemask was brutal. Tie game, with the ball, 3 timeouts left...and you go backwards half the distance??? Inexcusable mistake....that’s the hallmark of the Wilcox era...too many costly mistakes.

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A couple of bright spots. Our defense played it's best half of football this season in the 2nd half of the game, so there's that - maybe they can learn from this experience. Also, Musgrave is off the hotseat in my opinion with some intriguing and successful play calls. ST remains a concern with a botched snap and 2 missed field goals. We were only 3-4 yards away from winning the game in regulation with that long attempt.

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Wilcox presser (short summary: he’s pissed again) mentioned something about the plane making an unscheduled stop in Eugene. Does anyone know what was going on?

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This isn’t a good UW team, it is as poorly coached as Cal right now. Chances are Lake is fired before Wilcox. I’m happy the team fought back but let’s put this in perspective. UW lost to Montana at home and only put up 7 points against them.

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Entertaining game but brutal way to lose. So many missed opportunities and self inflicted wounds once again

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I really think our secondary's inability to cover UW receivers for a majority of the game and an inability to execute fundamentals at key positions (ST, tackling overall) did a lot more to "throw away the game" than Garbers.

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