Dancy slipped in the depth chart this year, but he kept showing up to work, and his efforts paid off big time, with game-changing big runs against LSJU and USC.
Some players might've stopped working so hard in his shoes, and some might've fallen out with the coaching staff, but Dancy did neither. He's always exemplified the kind of student-athlete we want at Cal, and if he trusts this staff, that carries a lot of weight.
After the USC game I took the opportunity to re-live my childhood by "storming" the field (actually I gently lowered myself down from the wall so I didn't hurt myself and calmly walked around.....). Marcel was there clearly emotionally savoring his last moments in his uniform on the field of play he loved so much. I gave him a shoulder-pad pumping "thank you" and left him to say his goodbyes. Everyone's playing days come to an end at some point and it's never easy. Great guy.
Indeed! I can still vividly remember the last time I took my helmet and shoulder pads off knowing I would never put them on again. (some 20-plus years ago)
Marcel is truly a shining light himself. Look at all his incredible works off the field & you can see what an amazing young man he is. Truly proud of both of them representing us who still truly love what Cal always has stood for beyond winning games. #GoBears
Normally it would be cheesy to say "if the players believe, I believe." But players really have gained a ton of power with the changes. And with that comes the influence to pull in transfers and sell the Cal brand with their own NIL deals.
Hard to know whether Wilcox will finally strike California gold but I'm not willing to discount the power of hype as much as I once did. As an old person, I have no idea what speaks to young people so we just have to listen to what they have to say, whether they're coming to or leaving Cal.
By all accounts, Clay Helton was a player's coach, too. The USC players affectionately referred to him as "Coach Clay." But the number one job of a major college football coach is not to curry favor with his players. No, that number one thing is to build the brand for the university and to win more games than you lose. Leave the "people building" to Pop Warner and high school coaches.
I did not go to Cal, so I will admit I do not understand the rationale behind extending the contract for another four years for a sub 500 coach because he is a good man who has respect and admiration from his players. All I know is that the program is on a downward trajectory with a 6-10 record over the last two seasons in arguably the worst Power 5 conference. This year's recruiting haul does not suggest there is a Russell White or a DeSean Jackson in the mix who can turn the program around on a dime. And I don't buy the premise that assistant coaches are not making enough money to enjoy their lifestyles in the Bay Area. Please, someone tell me how a $250,000 annual salary does not afford a comfortable living in the burbs that are a fairly easy commute to Berkeley.
My older brother always had a way of pretending to make an abstract point while in reality using that discourse as a cover to deliver a stream of insults that he thought would be more effective if delivered in stealth. It would have worked if it weren’t so obvious. Is that you, Vinny? 😀
No, you are not a jerk. You are a pessimist. Your comments, while opposite of most posts, are welcome. Why CAL alums see things differently than you is because long ago we drank the kool-aide and have been bound by the spell of optimism and the mantra that 'there is always next year'. The wonderful thing about being a Golden Bear is that we can be blissful with our delusions. ;-)
That is just awesome. It does help me better understand things. I guess I come from the side of the ledger where a major college football coach needs to be treated like a CEO of a fortune 500 company. Produce, or you are gone. The Cal alums are placing some real value on the decency of the man along with loyalty to the program. You also have the very recent perspective of a Sonny Dykes who had pretty much the same win/loss results as Wilcox, but was angling for a better gig pretty much the whole time he was here. I just want to see exciting football at Cal again. My voice was hoarse for three days after the Oregon State game, but it was the only game where that happened this past season.
Cal isn’t, and will never be, in the position of the major football factories that vie for playoff spots every year. I would love that but it’s not in the cards.
My expectations are different—beat the furds, embarrass fUCLA and $C, go to a bowl game because bowl games are hella fun.
To add to this, Cal doesn't have the resources to protect top coaching talent. As much as we'd like to be a destination, our limited funding, academic requirements, and administration antipathy mean there are a lot better places to go. Wilcox earned a LOT of good will by sticking with Cal over moving up to Oregon.
If we didn't have some wins over important rivals or lost by bigger margins, I think people (and players) would be more lukewarm. But Cal has had an incredible streak of bad luck over the past two years so it's easier to imagine us having a successful season if we just catch a few breaks.
" And I don't buy the premise that assistant coaches are not making enough money to enjoy their lifestyles in the Bay Area. Please, someone tell me how a $250,000 annual salary does not afford a comfortable living in the burbs that are a fairly easy commute to Berkeley."
We're not paying coaches big bucks so they feel comfortable. We're paying them so bigger programs don't swoop in and take anyone capable of lifting Cal out of the cellar with financial incentives. The going rate for a top flight coordinator these days is in the 7 figure range after all. With the insane competition for assistant coaches that the recent coaching carousel has unleashed on the college football world, anyone the least bit competent will be scooped up if you don't give them enough green
Glad you clarified that. So it's not about lifting the salaries of assistant coaches who might not otherwise want to come to the Bay Area due to the high cost of living. It's really about a salary arms race. That makes sense, and it's kind of depressing. Kind of like NIL and recruiting.....
I am sure it did, as it did with a lot of other teams. I mean, Cal for sure would have beaten Arizona last season if Garbers and a few others had played. But other things looking at the whole body of work come into play for me. I thought Wilcox made a brilliant decision to hire Beau Baldwin as his offensive coordinator to start everything in 2017. Baldwin is the guy who found and cultivated Cooper Kupp and won a national championship at Eastern Washington. But something misfired drastically, and I am now not sure it was all Baldwin's fault. And along came the hire of Bill Musgrave to replace him. Musgrave had decent success in the NFL, but somehow never managed to stick with any particular team. He has installed an NFL style offense at Cal that does not seem to mesh with the skill set of the the players. One of the writers on this blog published a piece about Cal's offense this past season year that kind of blew me away. Cal ranked among bottom dwellers like Vanderbilt and Northwestern for having almost 90% of its offensive drives progress to third downs last season. That plainly should not have happened having a ton of experienced skill players coming back in 2021. It suggests overly conservative or even some bad play calling throughout the season.
For those reasons and perhaps a few more, I don't think Wilcox deserved a promotion and a four year extension of his contract. Another season yes, but I would have preferred a hot seat for him to maybe show he can win in the conference. I know I am in the total minority on this one.
I think the Bears can only blame one Loss to Covid, the Arizona game, and that would have put us 6-6, but that's not much of a spectacular record either. Do you think if there was no Covid, we would have had a much better record?
Let's remember that Wilcox is conservative by nature and a defensive guy first. Maybe that's why Justyn Martin reversed his commitment and switched to ULCA after watching some of the early Cal games this past season. Cal will have to get a little lucky to find its next great quarterback. Let's hope there is a quarterback about ready to have a great high school season whose Dad played catcher on the Cal baseball team.
Nick Saban is a defensive coach. Kirby Smart is a defensive coach. Justyn Martin flipped to UCLA because he saw Kai Milner starting for the next three years and thought DTR was leaving. Well, after Justyn committed DTR decided to return and they picked up Dillon Gabriel from UCF with two seasons of eligibility left. And then there is the younger Garbers. Justyn received 4 stars because of his potential, not what he has done. Let's see if he is still at UCLA in two years or if he enters into the Transfer Portal.
That's good reasoning, but let's remember that Milner was already on the roster when Martin first committed. So if what you are saying is true, he was more concerned about Milner than he was of the younger Garbers brother. Can we agree that the younger Garbers was the heir apparent at UCLA in the same way that Milner was at Cal last fall? I still think there is a also a very good reason to believe he didn't like what he saw in some of the early Cal games this year. Especially if he watched the Nevada game.
I would say you are spot on. Tedford and Snyder, the two most successful coaches at Cal over the last 40 years, were O coordinators. Jonathan Smith, the up and coming Oregon State coach, was a quarterback at his alma mater. Chris Peterson at Boise State and then Washington was an offensive guy who played his high school ball as a QB for the Yuba City Honkers. David Shaw at Stanford also an O guy. Mike Bellotti and Chip Kelly at Oregon both O guys. Funny....both Bellotti and Peterson came out of UC Davis and the Jim Sochor coaching tree. Sochor was brilliant and once considered for the Cal job after Joe Kapp.
Notable exceptions of defensive minded and successful head coaches in the Pac 12 were Arizona HC Dick Tomey of the famed Desert Swarm, Pete Carroll and Kyle Whittingham. Carroll and Whittingham in particular were very astute in surrounding themselves with competent and creative O coordinators. One of them being Troy Taylor in his short stint at Utah. Current Utah O coordinator Andy Ludwig was Tedford's O coordinator in 2009.
I agree with you about Taylor. The man has won wherever he has gone and has done something no one thought possible at Sac State, a commuter school that has gone 14-1 in the Big Sky conference under Taylor's helm the last two years. If Cal doesn't get him, someone else will.
It’s all coming together. Coach Wilcox has a vision for the PAC 12 Championship and it’s great to see all the pieces from the school to his players and his coaches and support staff , it’s all coming together !!
Dancy slipped in the depth chart this year, but he kept showing up to work, and his efforts paid off big time, with game-changing big runs against LSJU and USC.
Some players might've stopped working so hard in his shoes, and some might've fallen out with the coaching staff, but Dancy did neither. He's always exemplified the kind of student-athlete we want at Cal, and if he trusts this staff, that carries a lot of weight.
Well said!
After the USC game I took the opportunity to re-live my childhood by "storming" the field (actually I gently lowered myself down from the wall so I didn't hurt myself and calmly walked around.....). Marcel was there clearly emotionally savoring his last moments in his uniform on the field of play he loved so much. I gave him a shoulder-pad pumping "thank you" and left him to say his goodbyes. Everyone's playing days come to an end at some point and it's never easy. Great guy.
Indeed! I can still vividly remember the last time I took my helmet and shoulder pads off knowing I would never put them on again. (some 20-plus years ago)
Marcel is truly a shining light himself. Look at all his incredible works off the field & you can see what an amazing young man he is. Truly proud of both of them representing us who still truly love what Cal always has stood for beyond winning games. #GoBears
These comments from players and alums speak volumes and reinforce the value of the decision to extend Coach Wilcox....so happy! GO BEARS!!!!
Unlike the UO letter from alums...... Good point!
Go Bears. Hopefully we have a platform for success in place. The fact that so many current and ex-players have reacted favorably is great.
Certainly seems to be widespread support within the program for the extension.
Normally it would be cheesy to say "if the players believe, I believe." But players really have gained a ton of power with the changes. And with that comes the influence to pull in transfers and sell the Cal brand with their own NIL deals.
Hard to know whether Wilcox will finally strike California gold but I'm not willing to discount the power of hype as much as I once did. As an old person, I have no idea what speaks to young people so we just have to listen to what they have to say, whether they're coming to or leaving Cal.
By all accounts, Clay Helton was a player's coach, too. The USC players affectionately referred to him as "Coach Clay." But the number one job of a major college football coach is not to curry favor with his players. No, that number one thing is to build the brand for the university and to win more games than you lose. Leave the "people building" to Pop Warner and high school coaches.
I did not go to Cal, so I will admit I do not understand the rationale behind extending the contract for another four years for a sub 500 coach because he is a good man who has respect and admiration from his players. All I know is that the program is on a downward trajectory with a 6-10 record over the last two seasons in arguably the worst Power 5 conference. This year's recruiting haul does not suggest there is a Russell White or a DeSean Jackson in the mix who can turn the program around on a dime. And I don't buy the premise that assistant coaches are not making enough money to enjoy their lifestyles in the Bay Area. Please, someone tell me how a $250,000 annual salary does not afford a comfortable living in the burbs that are a fairly easy commute to Berkeley.
My older brother always had a way of pretending to make an abstract point while in reality using that discourse as a cover to deliver a stream of insults that he thought would be more effective if delivered in stealth. It would have worked if it weren’t so obvious. Is that you, Vinny? 😀
Every sports blog needs a designated jerk to inflame the passions of the readers. If I am that jerk, so be it.
No, you are not a jerk. You are a pessimist. Your comments, while opposite of most posts, are welcome. Why CAL alums see things differently than you is because long ago we drank the kool-aide and have been bound by the spell of optimism and the mantra that 'there is always next year'. The wonderful thing about being a Golden Bear is that we can be blissful with our delusions. ;-)
That is just awesome. It does help me better understand things. I guess I come from the side of the ledger where a major college football coach needs to be treated like a CEO of a fortune 500 company. Produce, or you are gone. The Cal alums are placing some real value on the decency of the man along with loyalty to the program. You also have the very recent perspective of a Sonny Dykes who had pretty much the same win/loss results as Wilcox, but was angling for a better gig pretty much the whole time he was here. I just want to see exciting football at Cal again. My voice was hoarse for three days after the Oregon State game, but it was the only game where that happened this past season.
Cal isn’t, and will never be, in the position of the major football factories that vie for playoff spots every year. I would love that but it’s not in the cards.
My expectations are different—beat the furds, embarrass fUCLA and $C, go to a bowl game because bowl games are hella fun.
To add to this, Cal doesn't have the resources to protect top coaching talent. As much as we'd like to be a destination, our limited funding, academic requirements, and administration antipathy mean there are a lot better places to go. Wilcox earned a LOT of good will by sticking with Cal over moving up to Oregon.
If we didn't have some wins over important rivals or lost by bigger margins, I think people (and players) would be more lukewarm. But Cal has had an incredible streak of bad luck over the past two years so it's easier to imagine us having a successful season if we just catch a few breaks.
^ As a young blue I'm kinda sad that my expectations long term is this already. Feels like #rosebowlbeforeidie is already an impossibility
" And I don't buy the premise that assistant coaches are not making enough money to enjoy their lifestyles in the Bay Area. Please, someone tell me how a $250,000 annual salary does not afford a comfortable living in the burbs that are a fairly easy commute to Berkeley."
We're not paying coaches big bucks so they feel comfortable. We're paying them so bigger programs don't swoop in and take anyone capable of lifting Cal out of the cellar with financial incentives. The going rate for a top flight coordinator these days is in the 7 figure range after all. With the insane competition for assistant coaches that the recent coaching carousel has unleashed on the college football world, anyone the least bit competent will be scooped up if you don't give them enough green
Glad you clarified that. So it's not about lifting the salaries of assistant coaches who might not otherwise want to come to the Bay Area due to the high cost of living. It's really about a salary arms race. That makes sense, and it's kind of depressing. Kind of like NIL and recruiting.....
Uh, You don't the disproportional impact of Covid might have a little something to do with the last 2 year's record? Maybe just a bit? 🙄
I am sure it did, as it did with a lot of other teams. I mean, Cal for sure would have beaten Arizona last season if Garbers and a few others had played. But other things looking at the whole body of work come into play for me. I thought Wilcox made a brilliant decision to hire Beau Baldwin as his offensive coordinator to start everything in 2017. Baldwin is the guy who found and cultivated Cooper Kupp and won a national championship at Eastern Washington. But something misfired drastically, and I am now not sure it was all Baldwin's fault. And along came the hire of Bill Musgrave to replace him. Musgrave had decent success in the NFL, but somehow never managed to stick with any particular team. He has installed an NFL style offense at Cal that does not seem to mesh with the skill set of the the players. One of the writers on this blog published a piece about Cal's offense this past season year that kind of blew me away. Cal ranked among bottom dwellers like Vanderbilt and Northwestern for having almost 90% of its offensive drives progress to third downs last season. That plainly should not have happened having a ton of experienced skill players coming back in 2021. It suggests overly conservative or even some bad play calling throughout the season.
For those reasons and perhaps a few more, I don't think Wilcox deserved a promotion and a four year extension of his contract. Another season yes, but I would have preferred a hot seat for him to maybe show he can win in the conference. I know I am in the total minority on this one.
I think Covid impacted everyone, including teams that made the playoffs
Sure, but like it impacted the Bears? I don't think so, we operated under different rules.
I think the Bears can only blame one Loss to Covid, the Arizona game, and that would have put us 6-6, but that's not much of a spectacular record either. Do you think if there was no Covid, we would have had a much better record?
That is the case with many programs. You can have a solid program and a so/so QB and you won't get far. Look at Oregon this year.
Let's remember that Wilcox is conservative by nature and a defensive guy first. Maybe that's why Justyn Martin reversed his commitment and switched to ULCA after watching some of the early Cal games this past season. Cal will have to get a little lucky to find its next great quarterback. Let's hope there is a quarterback about ready to have a great high school season whose Dad played catcher on the Cal baseball team.
Nick Saban is a defensive coach. Kirby Smart is a defensive coach. Justyn Martin flipped to UCLA because he saw Kai Milner starting for the next three years and thought DTR was leaving. Well, after Justyn committed DTR decided to return and they picked up Dillon Gabriel from UCF with two seasons of eligibility left. And then there is the younger Garbers. Justyn received 4 stars because of his potential, not what he has done. Let's see if he is still at UCLA in two years or if he enters into the Transfer Portal.
That's good reasoning, but let's remember that Milner was already on the roster when Martin first committed. So if what you are saying is true, he was more concerned about Milner than he was of the younger Garbers brother. Can we agree that the younger Garbers was the heir apparent at UCLA in the same way that Milner was at Cal last fall? I still think there is a also a very good reason to believe he didn't like what he saw in some of the early Cal games this year. Especially if he watched the Nevada game.
I would say you are spot on. Tedford and Snyder, the two most successful coaches at Cal over the last 40 years, were O coordinators. Jonathan Smith, the up and coming Oregon State coach, was a quarterback at his alma mater. Chris Peterson at Boise State and then Washington was an offensive guy who played his high school ball as a QB for the Yuba City Honkers. David Shaw at Stanford also an O guy. Mike Bellotti and Chip Kelly at Oregon both O guys. Funny....both Bellotti and Peterson came out of UC Davis and the Jim Sochor coaching tree. Sochor was brilliant and once considered for the Cal job after Joe Kapp.
Notable exceptions of defensive minded and successful head coaches in the Pac 12 were Arizona HC Dick Tomey of the famed Desert Swarm, Pete Carroll and Kyle Whittingham. Carroll and Whittingham in particular were very astute in surrounding themselves with competent and creative O coordinators. One of them being Troy Taylor in his short stint at Utah. Current Utah O coordinator Andy Ludwig was Tedford's O coordinator in 2009.
I agree with you about Taylor. The man has won wherever he has gone and has done something no one thought possible at Sac State, a commuter school that has gone 14-1 in the Big Sky conference under Taylor's helm the last two years. If Cal doesn't get him, someone else will.
It’s all coming together. Coach Wilcox has a vision for the PAC 12 Championship and it’s great to see all the pieces from the school to his players and his coaches and support staff , it’s all coming together !!