Here here! Great article. Every Cal fan needs to show up now and be loud. Students need to fill the stands and be rowdy. Alums have to open up their wallets and have faith. We all have to talk up the Bears every chance we get to create that excitement. I really do believe that Cal is a sleeping Bear that can rise to a higher level. We got one shot at this before who knows what will happen in college football in the next few years.
That unfortunately probably just isn’t gonna happen until the team is playing good, meaningful football again. There’s too much going on around the Bay Area for a mediocre college team to attract the kind of non-diehard numbers to pack the house every Saturday. Sports in the Bay are always gonna be an “if you build it they will come” thing, not an “if you come they will build it” thing.
I have one demand: do not hire Tosh LupoI. I still have a foul taste in my mouth for what he did to Coach Tedford. But it comes to character. He’s the opposite of Justin Wilcox.
I don’t care. That was a ruthless and classless move. Tedford can forgive him. I won’t. When he scrambled the Cal recruiting class and told them not to come to Cal and tried to get them to follow him to Washington, that was another unethical move. And remember, he was investigated for coaching his players to take dives late in the game against up-tempo teams. This isn’t the guy that I want running the Cal program. Also, Nick Saban basically told him after one year as a defense coordinator that he should find another job because Nick was gonna fire him otherwise. That’s when Tosh moved onto the NFL to coach defensive lineman. I don’t think he’s that great of a coach.
While I have no idea if Tosh will be a good HC, considering that Tedford did Tosh dirty and Tosh did Tedford dirty and they both have gotten over it, I suggest that you should to
He didnt throw Tosh under the bus and suspend him for a game for the fake injuries that he ordered? He didn't come up with more $ to pay him until he decided to leave for a 50% pay hike? C'mon man
Tedford had to discipline Tosh for that or the team takes a huge penalty from the NCAA. That's like saying you convicted someone of a crime they committed so you are bad. I don't suffer from suicidal empathy. Secondly, Tedford went to bat and got Tosh what he asked for, which was an increase from $175,000 to $350,000. Tosh told Tedford if he got him that amount then he would stay. What did he do? He leveraged it into a $400,000 offer from UW. I have no problem with him leveraging his deal to get more money from UW, but I have a YUGE problem with how he lied to Tedford and bolted. If Tedford doesn't get Tosh the raise, Tosh most likely doesn't get $400k from UW. He's a bad actor who has situational ethics will always put himself first. We don't want that. It's a road to failure.
Not enough, Avi. Not nearly enough. You're young and too credulous when it comes to Tosh. If he's hired here, he will burn Cal again. And quite frankly, "I told you so" will be quite bitter.
Lupoi burned his bridges with me and I suspect many others because he was callous and, apparently, ego-driven. Guys like that don't change their stripes.
It's about character. For me, whether or not what Tosh did is forgivable is not important. What's important is the team and the players. I don't want someone who conducted himself so selfishly, coaching at Cal. Team is family and coaches have parental duties. You take care of your team before taking care of yourself. Tosh did the opposite.
Lupoi would be an interesting hire because, I believe, there is still a lot of bad blood between Lupoi and the fans. Any other hire would come in with optimism and good-will with the fans just looking for results on the field. I think Tosh would come in with skepticism and a mandate to win our hearts in addition to winning games. In Ron we trust...
I can understand both sides of whether or not to forgive him.
What I don’t understand is why people think he’d be a good head coach. The fact that Saban demoted him is a big red flag. And the Oregon fans I see online are happy to let him go.
I guess he has the reputation of being a great recruiter, but anyone can bring people to Alabama and Oregon. His successes at Cal were in a different era - coffee mugs full of cash won’t help in 2025.
This is where I’m at. When arguably the best college football coach of all time says the guy is not a good coach, I think maybe we should take his word for it.
Recruiting is kind of meaningless nowadays. It's about playing time and paychecks. You can recruit great young players, but they are not going to wait two or three years to earn playing time and bigger paychecks when they can go somewhere else and get it now. The Transfer Portal and NIL have changed the game and frankly have allowed teams that have built NIL funding programs to compete quickly (Texas Tech, Indiana...) And there are very few true freshman who would start and be impactful at top P$ schools. Why did JKS come to CAL over Oregon? Simple, he knew he had a shot at playing this year. Now he'll take his success to a big school with a great O-Line that will pay him $3M+/year. He's way better than Carson Beck!
no one knows if he will be good. What we do know is a) talent level will significantly increase b) culture will change away from the marshmallow soft Wilcox culture (likely IMO) 3) Donor $ will significantly increase, at least initially (rumored but no one knows if this is true)
I am bemused by all the "but but but Saban demoted him" talk. First off, look at Saban's track record of demoting assistants. Tosh wasnt the only one and the churn at that level under him was non stop. Second, presumably people grow professionally over a period of time (7 years yo...). Third, last time I checked, HCs don't call plays, they manage the team. There are exceptions obviously but not many.
If Tosh is HC, his success on field will be heavily dependent on the coordinators he chooses. That is the key IMO. Not Tosh's Xs and Os qualifications. He will be a culture/recruiting/$s coach
I am not willing to put any hard restrictions on Ron Rivera’s coach search. Tosh would be a tough pill to swallow, and I would likely demand faster results than with someone else, but I’m gonna get behind this team no matter what they do as long as the hire feels like a true effort to win.
I've always been in the "FUCK TOSH" camp. But, he could be a necessary evil at this point. Given the existential threat we face in the next few years with more conference realignment.. He would probably be the most efficient way to get/retain talent and be relevant again..
I’m ambivalent towards Tosh and has no real ill will towards him, the whole Tosh issue is so long ago that the Pac12 doesn’t even exist as a conference anymore and if we don’t get this hire right we might be regulated to if Tosh can bring us back to relevance, I am all for it
He didn't get crosswise with Saban, he just failed as the DC and Saban told him he would not keep him for another season. Saban is good to his assistants. I read somewhere that he told Tosh to find another job so he wouldn't have to fire him.
Great write up Nick. Your assessment is spot on. I still am at a loss on how Cal played the game they did in Louisville and came out two weeks later with that performance. It just mystified me. I'd really be curious as to your take ( and others) on this.
I think most of us have been mystified by that kind of erratic play for nearly a decade. It really has been so fragile, even if Cal was up by 25 points, you could never relax, something always undid it. It seems to me that the preparation and subsequent execution came in spurts and therefore the play of the team was uncertain every game. With an occasional great game from time to time. I still don't understand it. Hopefully that period is over now.
All this talk about Tosh coming in worries me. I don’t know what he did, but it seems to me he does not have the right values I want to see in our next coach. We need to build off of Wilcox’s values, how he represented our school, backed his players, accepted responsibility for the loses, and loved CAL. Let’s not burn this down…
Also, knowing Ron, I don’t think he’d hire someone with questionable values…
And finally, I wish Wilcox only the best and wanted him to succeed here so bad…so so bad…it was the right decision, but I am not feeling joy with the news…bc I wanted him to succeed…
Not sure on admin protocols for this, and to quote Barbara Hershey’s character Myra Fleener in Hoosiers “I think in order to be fair”….going back over a decade, but the general long and short of it via the rumor mill is he really stabbed Tedford and the entire Golden Bears program in the back when he bolted Cal to go take a similar job at UW for Sark and a schitt-ton more $.
Leaving was not so much the issue, as that happens in the coaching profession. Hell Justin Wilcox left around then too…but rather how Tosh did it…he was completely dishonest and sneaky with Tedford, and broke unwritten rules by trying (successfully, ie Shaq Thompson) to flip Cal recruits before he actually had given his notice to Cal. It was a chicken-schitt move, and definitely worth the ire, skepticism and scorn many Cal fans still have for him.
Since then he’s bounced around plenty, was demoted as DC by Saban at Alabama, and failed to land a HC job.
But he’s a Bay Area native, a Cal alum, a potentially elite recruiter, and a favorite of some high level donors who have maybe been hesitant to donate as generously as one would hope given Wilcox’s struggles to get over the hump.
There’s a lot at play…but the reasons why many view him as persona non-grata seem pretty legit. That said, given his apparent strengths and the state of ACC football, he would seem an interesting hire in this crazy CFP/NIL/portal/conference realignment era.
Well said. Completely fair treatise on the Wilcox era. I cautiously share the author's optimism because I believe that Ron Rivera is the one man who can do what is necessary for the school he has always clearly loved. GO BEARS!
Consider this: Cal's football program has has 5 seasons since 2000 where the team had more conference wins than losses, the last time they were (co)conference champions was 2006, and the last positive conference win/loss record was 2009. >75% of the time over the last 26 seasons and 100% of the time over the last 16 seasons the GBs have been non-competitive in their OWN CONFERENCE. I don't question why JW has been let go, but I do question my own sanity for caring so much about a historically bad football program. Still, GO BEARS.
Earlier in the season, I promised a couple of high school players I would take them to see JKS with my sons. I do not believe Cal can beat SMU, especially after that mess of a game at Stanford, but it really doesn't matter that much right now. They just want to see a young gifted QB make some great throws. I am relieved things are changing. JW has looked burned out for at least a couple seasons.
Well, let's get some more facts. Since my time as a transfer student in 1972 and continuing until Coach Tedford arrived in 2002. Cal football had losing records for 21 years (less than .500) versus 9 winning seasons. Someone in 2002 did a study if Cal got the right coach. The criteria;
1. a winning record right from the get go and continuing. Or
2. a progressive winning record over time.
Anything less, meant the head coach wasn't the right fit.
Evidently Tedford was the right choice. However, like the previous successful Coach Pappy Waldorf, both burned out by the tenth coaching year.
With you. My Cal journey started in 1977, and I had season Tix throughout the 1980s, and most of those were lost years (but I did get to see "The Play" live in 1982). When Tedford came in (and my daughters were at Cal) the program was wonderful for a few short years, and I loved the program and the talent level Tedford brought in. Sadly, his pro style O was old school in his later years, and since then we have had "Dykes with no D" and a series of unsuccessful Rockfight years under JW. RR is betting his Cal legacy on this new hire, so I hope we get the right long term coach to rebuild a winning program. Not sure Tosh
I’m also a Maryland fan and the decision to keep Locksley is incredibly disappointing when he’s proven time and time again exactly what he is as a coach.
I hope whoever gets the job really challenges the fans to show up next year and let the rest of the college football world know what can be done here. This is a sleeping giant. Wilcox occasionally had it close to breaking out of its hibernation, only to fall back asleep and dream of a missed chip shot or targeting call.
Excellent article. Cal used Wilcox's tenure to make a lot of very necessary changes. It turns out that Wilcox wasn't the right coach to take advantage of those changes, but the next hire should find the Cal HC job much more attractive than it was a decade ago (even if the overall college football environment is tougher).
The “sleeping giant” comment reminds me of a fundraising letter I once received over the signature of Sonny Dykes. It claimed that he had angled for the HC job in Berkeley due to his strong belief that Cal was just such a sleeper, ready to wake up and shake up the Pac 12. Which, of course, was hogwash.
Pardon me if my interest in Cal sports in general has faded under the bright sun of money, portal parades, gambling and conference stupidity. I keep tabs and hope for the best, but I am not optimistic that we will ever break through when The Plan is for a rotation of champions from a few elite programs that have more money than academic excellence, while we continue to have the precise opposite.
I suspect that Justin Wilcox will be remembered fondly for all the right reasons, and that the rah-rah-sis-boom-bah era of college football we all knew and loved will never be seen again.
And, for what it is worth — not much, I know — I think a full ride to Berkeley (or Washington, or TCU, or Colgate) would have been far better and more affordable compensation for every single athlete on the team than the current NIL “system”. This nonstop fundraiser is going to exhaust the average fan and will play right into the super-donor (read: oligarch) mentality that has our nation on the verge of abandoning all that made us great to begin with.
Before you respond, watch Ken Burns’s “The American Revolution” and then get back to me.
You’re right. But WE HAVE THE SUPER DONORS. More than any other school, if we have to take advantage of the broken system and conventions of good faith and fairness in CFB to win j once then we should.
I get it completely. We only live once. If a Rose Bowl (or equivalent) can be ours within our lifetimes, then let’s win one for Joe Kapp and all the Old Blues who died while mediocrity reigned. But I am ever reminded of the New Yorker cartoon where the scraggly dad and two unkempt kids huddle by a fire with a burned out skyline in the background as he says to them, “Yes, it’s true, the planet was destroyed. But for one brief, shining moment, we delivered excellent value for our shareholders.”
Amid all the sympathy for Justin Wilcox let’s not forget that he unilaterally fired (sometimes secretly) virtually every assistant coach he ever had with no explanation or statement of support or regret. This started with him demoting the pushing out the 1st and best and most successful defensive coordinator he ever had (DeRuyter) so that Wilcox could hire and promote his good buddy from his playing days in Oregon (Sirmon) who was lmo not as effective as DeRuyter. He fired multiple OCs and lost great assistants right and left. And these assistant coaches did not have a 10.5M golden parachute, and likely no parachute at all. P5/4 is big business even more so now. If you don’t succeed you get fired . Wilcox had years of warnings(as pointed out in this excellent article). His teams made boneheaded stupid mistakes in critical situations over and over (this is not a talent issue). So I wish the best of luck to Wilcox, but he got more than a fair shot at Cal, but could not perform. As I heard him say in multiple post game interviews “effort is not enough”.
Thank you Nick for putting the punctuation mark on the last 48 hours, if not 9 years. As the comments already reflect of course there will be doubters, and they have ample justification. However, that does not take anything away from the points you've made. I've had the opportunity to meet and speak with Rich, and I have every confidence in his high level of commitment to football success. Ron's words and deeds already speak for themselves. We are on a level playing field in terms of financial commitment. The formula is there. And this is where I too find hope. Go Bears Forever!
Here's who I want: Troy Taylor. He's a Golden Bear. Outside of Stanfurd his career was on a similar track to Kalen DeBoer. Stanfurd was very restrained in how it allowed him to use NIL and the Portal. He would not have those issues at CAL.
And, if you read the story of his firing (try AI for research) and if you are like me, then he was essentially fired for lack of sensitivity to women around the program. OMG! Where else but Stanfurd (and maybe CAL).
Troy can recruit, he can coach up QB's and he has an amazing offensive mind.
Put him on a leash for a couple of years and let him go win.
He was bad at Furd, but it's because he was very limited in his recruiting through the Portal and use of NIL money to attract transfers. Tough to win if you don't have talent. He wouldn't have those issues at CAL. Check out what he did as an assistant and then his head coaching stints prior to Stanfurd. All he did was win. He reminds of Kalen DeBoer before he took the UW job.
I desperately wanted to see Wilcox canned in favor of Troy a couple years ago, but I think that ship has sailed. I think the personnel stuff is at least partially media-overblown (he’s currently suing espn), but two 3-9 seasons at the furd, even with all the institutional challenges, is probably a non-starter with our fanbase. Troy returning as an OC intrigues me, but I doubt he’s interested in anything but a HC gig.
Certainly a controversial choice. But I look at his record prior to Stanford and it is stellar all along his career path as a coach. Like I said, Stanford is a tough place to be a head coach because of the restraints they put on recruiting, the transfer portal, and NIL $. What happened with Troy during his tenure there that led to his dismissal is unfortunate, and if there was any reason for me to believe that his character was flawed like Tosh, I would not support him. Personally, I think the guy was being firm in his request for these gals to stay off the field and stop being distractions during practice, and it came back to bite him. This would’ve never happened outside of Stanford or Cal. And maybe he’s not a good fit for that reason, but I think he will prove himself somewhere as a great head coach. I’d like to see him do that at Cal.
Tosh was a dynamic recruiter and an up and coming assistant coach more than 10 years ago. Since then he has bounced around college and NFL but he has not become a HC anywhere. If he was that good, he would have been a HC already before turning 44.
IMO, if you galvanize and increase donor support right now, keep JKS and land some legit asst. coaching/coordinators & player talent, Cal football can thrive in a wide open ACC.
I used to hate Tosh but that was a lifetime ago in a different college football world. If he can accomplish the above, so be it!
As a vocal Wilcox the HC critic for the past 37 months tho, I completely understand and respect fans who view him in a much more negative light.
"one truly miserable Big Game will have created unity"
I was against firing Wilcox and, I admit, I have generally been a Wilcox apologist in the comments. However, I walked out of stanfurd stadium convinced he had to go.
Here here! Great article. Every Cal fan needs to show up now and be loud. Students need to fill the stands and be rowdy. Alums have to open up their wallets and have faith. We all have to talk up the Bears every chance we get to create that excitement. I really do believe that Cal is a sleeping Bear that can rise to a higher level. We got one shot at this before who knows what will happen in college football in the next few years.
One last shot for all eternity. We’re all in this together!
That unfortunately probably just isn’t gonna happen until the team is playing good, meaningful football again. There’s too much going on around the Bay Area for a mediocre college team to attract the kind of non-diehard numbers to pack the house every Saturday. Sports in the Bay are always gonna be an “if you build it they will come” thing, not an “if you come they will build it” thing.
I have one demand: do not hire Tosh LupoI. I still have a foul taste in my mouth for what he did to Coach Tedford. But it comes to character. He’s the opposite of Justin Wilcox.
There is no bad blood between Coach Tedford and Tosh Lupoi. Those fences were mended decades ago and the same is being done with our major donors.
I don’t care. That was a ruthless and classless move. Tedford can forgive him. I won’t. When he scrambled the Cal recruiting class and told them not to come to Cal and tried to get them to follow him to Washington, that was another unethical move. And remember, he was investigated for coaching his players to take dives late in the game against up-tempo teams. This isn’t the guy that I want running the Cal program. Also, Nick Saban basically told him after one year as a defense coordinator that he should find another job because Nick was gonna fire him otherwise. That’s when Tosh moved onto the NFL to coach defensive lineman. I don’t think he’s that great of a coach.
While I have no idea if Tosh will be a good HC, considering that Tedford did Tosh dirty and Tosh did Tedford dirty and they both have gotten over it, I suggest that you should to
Tedford didn't do Tosh dirty. He got Tosh the raise he asked for.
He didnt throw Tosh under the bus and suspend him for a game for the fake injuries that he ordered? He didn't come up with more $ to pay him until he decided to leave for a 50% pay hike? C'mon man
Tedford had to discipline Tosh for that or the team takes a huge penalty from the NCAA. That's like saying you convicted someone of a crime they committed so you are bad. I don't suffer from suicidal empathy. Secondly, Tedford went to bat and got Tosh what he asked for, which was an increase from $175,000 to $350,000. Tosh told Tedford if he got him that amount then he would stay. What did he do? He leveraged it into a $400,000 offer from UW. I have no problem with him leveraging his deal to get more money from UW, but I have a YUGE problem with how he lied to Tedford and bolted. If Tedford doesn't get Tosh the raise, Tosh most likely doesn't get $400k from UW. He's a bad actor who has situational ethics will always put himself first. We don't want that. It's a road to failure.
Not enough, Avi. Not nearly enough. You're young and too credulous when it comes to Tosh. If he's hired here, he will burn Cal again. And quite frankly, "I told you so" will be quite bitter.
Lupoi burned his bridges with me and I suspect many others because he was callous and, apparently, ego-driven. Guys like that don't change their stripes.
This is where I am on the Tosh issue.
It's about character. For me, whether or not what Tosh did is forgivable is not important. What's important is the team and the players. I don't want someone who conducted himself so selfishly, coaching at Cal. Team is family and coaches have parental duties. You take care of your team before taking care of yourself. Tosh did the opposite.
Lupoi would be an interesting hire because, I believe, there is still a lot of bad blood between Lupoi and the fans. Any other hire would come in with optimism and good-will with the fans just looking for results on the field. I think Tosh would come in with skepticism and a mandate to win our hearts in addition to winning games. In Ron we trust...
Fascinating Avi...didn't know that. And if bridges are being mended with current donors....hmmmmm
Thanks for bringing this up. I had no idea the bridges were mended and it actually says a lot. CFB is tough business.
(But I still will root against Indiana)
Fair point...character counts for a lot in my book.
I don't even know why he's being discussed as an option. What does he know about offense.
That’s a salient point, especially after Wilcox.
Ideally you get an offensive mind so you’re not playing OC roulette every single year.
Also he has zero head coaching experience.
I can understand both sides of whether or not to forgive him.
What I don’t understand is why people think he’d be a good head coach. The fact that Saban demoted him is a big red flag. And the Oregon fans I see online are happy to let him go.
I guess he has the reputation of being a great recruiter, but anyone can bring people to Alabama and Oregon. His successes at Cal were in a different era - coffee mugs full of cash won’t help in 2025.
am I missing something?
This is where I’m at. When arguably the best college football coach of all time says the guy is not a good coach, I think maybe we should take his word for it.
Recruiting is kind of meaningless nowadays. It's about playing time and paychecks. You can recruit great young players, but they are not going to wait two or three years to earn playing time and bigger paychecks when they can go somewhere else and get it now. The Transfer Portal and NIL have changed the game and frankly have allowed teams that have built NIL funding programs to compete quickly (Texas Tech, Indiana...) And there are very few true freshman who would start and be impactful at top P$ schools. Why did JKS come to CAL over Oregon? Simple, he knew he had a shot at playing this year. Now he'll take his success to a big school with a great O-Line that will pay him $3M+/year. He's way better than Carson Beck!
no one knows if he will be good. What we do know is a) talent level will significantly increase b) culture will change away from the marshmallow soft Wilcox culture (likely IMO) 3) Donor $ will significantly increase, at least initially (rumored but no one knows if this is true)
I am bemused by all the "but but but Saban demoted him" talk. First off, look at Saban's track record of demoting assistants. Tosh wasnt the only one and the churn at that level under him was non stop. Second, presumably people grow professionally over a period of time (7 years yo...). Third, last time I checked, HCs don't call plays, they manage the team. There are exceptions obviously but not many.
If Tosh is HC, his success on field will be heavily dependent on the coordinators he chooses. That is the key IMO. Not Tosh's Xs and Os qualifications. He will be a culture/recruiting/$s coach
Bay Area guy, Cal alum, successful recruiter, has donor support
It’s all about the coaching/player talent he can acquire.
I am not willing to put any hard restrictions on Ron Rivera’s coach search. Tosh would be a tough pill to swallow, and I would likely demand faster results than with someone else, but I’m gonna get behind this team no matter what they do as long as the hire feels like a true effort to win.
I've always been in the "FUCK TOSH" camp. But, he could be a necessary evil at this point. Given the existential threat we face in the next few years with more conference realignment.. He would probably be the most efficient way to get/retain talent and be relevant again..
get ready to be disappointed, my man
I’m ambivalent towards Tosh and has no real ill will towards him, the whole Tosh issue is so long ago that the Pac12 doesn’t even exist as a conference anymore and if we don’t get this hire right we might be regulated to if Tosh can bring us back to relevance, I am all for it
ESPN has him as the favorite! Though I am sure it is pure conjecture.
I agree re what he did to us but didn’t realize he got crosswise with Saban. What happened there?
He didn't get crosswise with Saban, he just failed as the DC and Saban told him he would not keep him for another season. Saban is good to his assistants. I read somewhere that he told Tosh to find another job so he wouldn't have to fire him.
Great write up Nick. Your assessment is spot on. I still am at a loss on how Cal played the game they did in Louisville and came out two weeks later with that performance. It just mystified me. I'd really be curious as to your take ( and others) on this.
I think most of us have been mystified by that kind of erratic play for nearly a decade. It really has been so fragile, even if Cal was up by 25 points, you could never relax, something always undid it. It seems to me that the preparation and subsequent execution came in spurts and therefore the play of the team was uncertain every game. With an occasional great game from time to time. I still don't understand it. Hopefully that period is over now.
Thank you Justin! You gave it your all and worked hard every day. Cal fans thank you!
I really hope you become a top FCS coach and have a great 20-year run.
And very well said Nick, as always
All this talk about Tosh coming in worries me. I don’t know what he did, but it seems to me he does not have the right values I want to see in our next coach. We need to build off of Wilcox’s values, how he represented our school, backed his players, accepted responsibility for the loses, and loved CAL. Let’s not burn this down…
Also, knowing Ron, I don’t think he’d hire someone with questionable values…
And finally, I wish Wilcox only the best and wanted him to succeed here so bad…so so bad…it was the right decision, but I am not feeling joy with the news…bc I wanted him to succeed…
Not sure on admin protocols for this, and to quote Barbara Hershey’s character Myra Fleener in Hoosiers “I think in order to be fair”….going back over a decade, but the general long and short of it via the rumor mill is he really stabbed Tedford and the entire Golden Bears program in the back when he bolted Cal to go take a similar job at UW for Sark and a schitt-ton more $.
Leaving was not so much the issue, as that happens in the coaching profession. Hell Justin Wilcox left around then too…but rather how Tosh did it…he was completely dishonest and sneaky with Tedford, and broke unwritten rules by trying (successfully, ie Shaq Thompson) to flip Cal recruits before he actually had given his notice to Cal. It was a chicken-schitt move, and definitely worth the ire, skepticism and scorn many Cal fans still have for him.
Since then he’s bounced around plenty, was demoted as DC by Saban at Alabama, and failed to land a HC job.
But he’s a Bay Area native, a Cal alum, a potentially elite recruiter, and a favorite of some high level donors who have maybe been hesitant to donate as generously as one would hope given Wilcox’s struggles to get over the hump.
There’s a lot at play…but the reasons why many view him as persona non-grata seem pretty legit. That said, given his apparent strengths and the state of ACC football, he would seem an interesting hire in this crazy CFP/NIL/portal/conference realignment era.
If Tosh stayed, we would have had Shaq Thompson, Arik Armstead, Stefon Diggs, Jordan Payton, Ellis McCarthy, etc.
Yup…would’ve probably been #1 class in nation.
Well said. Completely fair treatise on the Wilcox era. I cautiously share the author's optimism because I believe that Ron Rivera is the one man who can do what is necessary for the school he has always clearly loved. GO BEARS!
Consider this: Cal's football program has has 5 seasons since 2000 where the team had more conference wins than losses, the last time they were (co)conference champions was 2006, and the last positive conference win/loss record was 2009. >75% of the time over the last 26 seasons and 100% of the time over the last 16 seasons the GBs have been non-competitive in their OWN CONFERENCE. I don't question why JW has been let go, but I do question my own sanity for caring so much about a historically bad football program. Still, GO BEARS.
I am going to the SMU game. Go Bears.
Good for you @justbearly,!
Earlier in the season, I promised a couple of high school players I would take them to see JKS with my sons. I do not believe Cal can beat SMU, especially after that mess of a game at Stanford, but it really doesn't matter that much right now. They just want to see a young gifted QB make some great throws. I am relieved things are changing. JW has looked burned out for at least a couple seasons.
Well, let's get some more facts. Since my time as a transfer student in 1972 and continuing until Coach Tedford arrived in 2002. Cal football had losing records for 21 years (less than .500) versus 9 winning seasons. Someone in 2002 did a study if Cal got the right coach. The criteria;
1. a winning record right from the get go and continuing. Or
2. a progressive winning record over time.
Anything less, meant the head coach wasn't the right fit.
Evidently Tedford was the right choice. However, like the previous successful Coach Pappy Waldorf, both burned out by the tenth coaching year.
With you. My Cal journey started in 1977, and I had season Tix throughout the 1980s, and most of those were lost years (but I did get to see "The Play" live in 1982). When Tedford came in (and my daughters were at Cal) the program was wonderful for a few short years, and I loved the program and the talent level Tedford brought in. Sadly, his pro style O was old school in his later years, and since then we have had "Dykes with no D" and a series of unsuccessful Rockfight years under JW. RR is betting his Cal legacy on this new hire, so I hope we get the right long term coach to rebuild a winning program. Not sure Tosh
is that bet...
I also hope RR talked to other advisors (JT ?) and solicited their opinions.
There also needs to be a little takeaway from the academic senate / faculty
priority from nobel prizes (they should feel good (4) this year - a world record)
and give something for the students / alumni.
Couldn’t have said it any better.
I’m also a Maryland fan and the decision to keep Locksley is incredibly disappointing when he’s proven time and time again exactly what he is as a coach.
I hope whoever gets the job really challenges the fans to show up next year and let the rest of the college football world know what can be done here. This is a sleeping giant. Wilcox occasionally had it close to breaking out of its hibernation, only to fall back asleep and dream of a missed chip shot or targeting call.
Excellent article. Cal used Wilcox's tenure to make a lot of very necessary changes. It turns out that Wilcox wasn't the right coach to take advantage of those changes, but the next hire should find the Cal HC job much more attractive than it was a decade ago (even if the overall college football environment is tougher).
The “sleeping giant” comment reminds me of a fundraising letter I once received over the signature of Sonny Dykes. It claimed that he had angled for the HC job in Berkeley due to his strong belief that Cal was just such a sleeper, ready to wake up and shake up the Pac 12. Which, of course, was hogwash.
Pardon me if my interest in Cal sports in general has faded under the bright sun of money, portal parades, gambling and conference stupidity. I keep tabs and hope for the best, but I am not optimistic that we will ever break through when The Plan is for a rotation of champions from a few elite programs that have more money than academic excellence, while we continue to have the precise opposite.
I suspect that Justin Wilcox will be remembered fondly for all the right reasons, and that the rah-rah-sis-boom-bah era of college football we all knew and loved will never be seen again.
And, for what it is worth — not much, I know — I think a full ride to Berkeley (or Washington, or TCU, or Colgate) would have been far better and more affordable compensation for every single athlete on the team than the current NIL “system”. This nonstop fundraiser is going to exhaust the average fan and will play right into the super-donor (read: oligarch) mentality that has our nation on the verge of abandoning all that made us great to begin with.
Before you respond, watch Ken Burns’s “The American Revolution” and then get back to me.
You’re right. But WE HAVE THE SUPER DONORS. More than any other school, if we have to take advantage of the broken system and conventions of good faith and fairness in CFB to win j once then we should.
I get it completely. We only live once. If a Rose Bowl (or equivalent) can be ours within our lifetimes, then let’s win one for Joe Kapp and all the Old Blues who died while mediocrity reigned. But I am ever reminded of the New Yorker cartoon where the scraggly dad and two unkempt kids huddle by a fire with a burned out skyline in the background as he says to them, “Yes, it’s true, the planet was destroyed. But for one brief, shining moment, we delivered excellent value for our shareholders.”
https://www.newyorker.com/cartoon/a16995
Amid all the sympathy for Justin Wilcox let’s not forget that he unilaterally fired (sometimes secretly) virtually every assistant coach he ever had with no explanation or statement of support or regret. This started with him demoting the pushing out the 1st and best and most successful defensive coordinator he ever had (DeRuyter) so that Wilcox could hire and promote his good buddy from his playing days in Oregon (Sirmon) who was lmo not as effective as DeRuyter. He fired multiple OCs and lost great assistants right and left. And these assistant coaches did not have a 10.5M golden parachute, and likely no parachute at all. P5/4 is big business even more so now. If you don’t succeed you get fired . Wilcox had years of warnings(as pointed out in this excellent article). His teams made boneheaded stupid mistakes in critical situations over and over (this is not a talent issue). So I wish the best of luck to Wilcox, but he got more than a fair shot at Cal, but could not perform. As I heard him say in multiple post game interviews “effort is not enough”.
I don’t think anyone is questioning the decision. We were just also sad to see a genuinely good person go.
Thank you Nick for putting the punctuation mark on the last 48 hours, if not 9 years. As the comments already reflect of course there will be doubters, and they have ample justification. However, that does not take anything away from the points you've made. I've had the opportunity to meet and speak with Rich, and I have every confidence in his high level of commitment to football success. Ron's words and deeds already speak for themselves. We are on a level playing field in terms of financial commitment. The formula is there. And this is where I too find hope. Go Bears Forever!
Here's who I want: Troy Taylor. He's a Golden Bear. Outside of Stanfurd his career was on a similar track to Kalen DeBoer. Stanfurd was very restrained in how it allowed him to use NIL and the Portal. He would not have those issues at CAL.
And, if you read the story of his firing (try AI for research) and if you are like me, then he was essentially fired for lack of sensitivity to women around the program. OMG! Where else but Stanfurd (and maybe CAL).
Troy can recruit, he can coach up QB's and he has an amazing offensive mind.
Put him on a leash for a couple of years and let him go win.
Haha you sound like Bob. Wasn’t he terrible at Furd? Or was it his way of sabataging Furd?
He was bad at Furd, but it's because he was very limited in his recruiting through the Portal and use of NIL money to attract transfers. Tough to win if you don't have talent. He wouldn't have those issues at CAL. Check out what he did as an assistant and then his head coaching stints prior to Stanfurd. All he did was win. He reminds of Kalen DeBoer before he took the UW job.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Troy_Taylor_(American_football)
Hello Bob
Maybe as our OC, sure but I don’t think he is a good HC candidate
I desperately wanted to see Wilcox canned in favor of Troy a couple years ago, but I think that ship has sailed. I think the personnel stuff is at least partially media-overblown (he’s currently suing espn), but two 3-9 seasons at the furd, even with all the institutional challenges, is probably a non-starter with our fanbase. Troy returning as an OC intrigues me, but I doubt he’s interested in anything but a HC gig.
ok my bad, the Wikipedia link made it clear this is a bit. Carry on!
Talk about sabotaging your own credibility. Troy Taylor...that is certainly a choice.
Certainly a controversial choice. But I look at his record prior to Stanford and it is stellar all along his career path as a coach. Like I said, Stanford is a tough place to be a head coach because of the restraints they put on recruiting, the transfer portal, and NIL $. What happened with Troy during his tenure there that led to his dismissal is unfortunate, and if there was any reason for me to believe that his character was flawed like Tosh, I would not support him. Personally, I think the guy was being firm in his request for these gals to stay off the field and stop being distractions during practice, and it came back to bite him. This would’ve never happened outside of Stanford or Cal. And maybe he’s not a good fit for that reason, but I think he will prove himself somewhere as a great head coach. I’d like to see him do that at Cal.
Tosh was a dynamic recruiter and an up and coming assistant coach more than 10 years ago. Since then he has bounced around college and NFL but he has not become a HC anywhere. If he was that good, he would have been a HC already before turning 44.
Thanks Nick.
IMO, if you galvanize and increase donor support right now, keep JKS and land some legit asst. coaching/coordinators & player talent, Cal football can thrive in a wide open ACC.
I used to hate Tosh but that was a lifetime ago in a different college football world. If he can accomplish the above, so be it!
As a vocal Wilcox the HC critic for the past 37 months tho, I completely understand and respect fans who view him in a much more negative light.
"one truly miserable Big Game will have created unity"
I was against firing Wilcox and, I admit, I have generally been a Wilcox apologist in the comments. However, I walked out of stanfurd stadium convinced he had to go.
You and me both
Though the Virginia game pretty much had me feeling similar just not as strong
Me too except I was watching on TV