In the postgame it was good to hear Wilcox point out the broken mess that is college football today. Beautiful game that is broken and needs fixing. Aside from all my thoughts on Wilcox and coaching and such, it's my primary concern that the NIL and portal process prevent non-playoff teams from having any real meaningful post seasons. This wasn't Cal playing UNLV. This was Cal's 2nd and 3rd team playing UNLV 2nd and 3rd team. You can cheer for the jersey, but it's hard to cheer for the team given that it isn't really the team that played all year.
Is CFB a broken mess? Undoubtedly, when compared to years past that now appear to be orderly and coherent.
You know what broke CFB? Greed. Pure and simple. Add in a lack of respect for players as human beings that also carry a huge workload to be successful as students and you have the makings of a problem that will be resolved somehow. We're living through that resolution now, in slow motion.
It remains to be seen what brings stasis to a chaotic milieu, but there is also the distinct possibility that the number of institutions that will field a football team in future years will be winnowed bringing on a new status quo. I suspect that we'll know in about 5 to 10 years what the likely future of CFB will be. In that time, I doubt the offerings will look similar to what we have today, much less 5 years ago.
The irony in all of this is that the winnowing of institutions offering CFB means less kids offered a chance to go to college on scholarship, many of whom are first in their family to attend college. In the future, kids that don't possess the talent to make the roster of powerhouse CFB will lose a viable pathway to getting an education. Just one of many unforeseen consequences of greed and money infiltrating CFB. Also, the monopolization of riches for fewer institutions parallels our current age of plutocracy.
Fiat: You are 100% right. Even Joe Paterno back in the 1990s kept questioning why athletes didn't at least receive some kind of stipend outside of their scholarships to help them with things like rent, food, etc. I also find it interesting that this month, at least two college coaches (Mike Norvell at FSU and the coach at UCF) took PAY CUTS so more money could be funneled to NIL. College sports is more ruthless than ever. I just hope that Cal football will still be around and relevant in the next 5-10 years.
I certainly don't have a crystal ball, but I appreciate the need for cloud level discussions of what CFB needs to do to incorporate player payment with a stronger sense of equity among teams and implementation of movement guidelines that don't strip away meaning from team identity, bowl games or fan support. I've been saying recently that the painful process of detachment from CFB and Cal is ongoing. The NFL is exactly what I seek in terms of players paid and contracts and salary caps. I'm struggling to make this transition to just an NFL fan, but I think I more or less must. I'll never not be an enormous fan of Cal athletics, as an arm of UC Berkeley, but until this mess is resolved in some intelligent way, I can't see real benefit from a deep investment in Cal football when every year is a new roster, player development is almost non-existent over time, and the landscape is such that money alone drives player decisions instead of any academic or school loyalty connections.
Other than Mendoza and Hunter, who else opted out on either defense or offense? Seems Cal was mostly intact save the QB position. I don't fault kids that don't want to play in post-season play, especially if they have a future in the League.
Wilcox made clear that even some players who played had only agreed to play on a limited snap count and thus backups were in. We were missing most of our WR room for one reason or another. I'm not personally OK with players opting out because of NFL aspirations. I get it, but don't like it. An appealing thing about the new CFB playoff is that for the most part those teams are playing with their intact rosters because there is more exposure and draft stock potential in playing. But for the rest of us, it's hard to imagine a future where bowl games mean a good god damn.
I still proudly wear the 2003 Insight Bowl game Tshirt. Aaron Rodgers and the team played an outstanding game against V Tech. Those days are gone unless we poke into the final 12. Even then, it's just rent-a-team. I care a whole lot less about rent-a-team as I may as well watch great players in the NFL with salary cap and equity.
I'm okay with players opting out for NFL aspirations pre-NIL. Now, you're getting paid and it's your job. If you're not playing the bowl game, you forfeit one week's pay.
It’s also very likely that many of the 2nd and 3rd string players that we saw last night will not even be in a Cal uniform next season because they will have left via the portal for various reasons. So you are not even really getting the chance to watch future Bears get a little PT and show what they got. Tampering is rampant, so are we keeping Josiah Martin now after he had a solid 1H on national tv?
You're right, and this applies to all the non-playoff bowl games. What are they for any more? I think they used to be a venue to show off a talented program that was capable of training up guys, some of whom could (and did) develop into NFL careers. But if those guys jump all over to different programs, and don't bother playing in the bowl games, what's the point of watching the bowl games?
Personally, it's been a long year and I am taking most of December off to recover from some tough events I've had. Cal's bowl game coming to where I live was a perfect outlet. Listening to our fight song in the pre-game event almost made me cry for some reason. It felt home, with the whole Cal community in the stadium, even though I didn't really know anyone. It kind of felt like being back in Berkeley but the bond felt stronger when it happened far away from Berkeley. Regardless of the outcome of the game, I really appreciated the experience. SoFi is a heck of a stadium too. I've gone to a Rams game once but haven't returned because I couldn't really stand the aggressive pro football crowd and the traffic mess in Inglewood (and I was more of a Jared Goff fan anyways). Being there with a much smaller educated bunch in that fancy stadium at a reasonable ticket price made it super enjoyable.
This was my first Bowl game visit since 2009 in San Diego, and I was reminded that a Bowl game is more than just a sporting event for the alumni and fans. I doubt we will have a Bowl team next season, but will look forward to the next one.
Cal were BEGGING to get the fake punt by sending everyone every time on a blocking attempt. It came at critical juncture. Cal had just scored their only touchdown on an 89 yard drive to retake the lead for the last time. The defense had stopped UNLV after just four plays.
Hard to win with your 4th string totally inexperienced true freshman QB. However, the game turned on 4 key breakdowns: Fake punt, one poor punt return coverage/line drive punt, the game's solitary turnover on a blown backwards pass, and one fatal breakdown in pass coverage.
UNLV's QB was only 5/18, but 2 of those 5 were touchdowns.
Brutal game. How often have I said that as a Cal fan over the last 4 decades?
Good point, nb. Unfortunately, even on a good day with relative health, Justin Wilcox and his O coaching staff have consistently struggled to get the team prepared to play…especially against good teams.
Now with the NIL/portal disaster, give him a roster featuring 3rd stringers with questions surrounding who is calling the plays, and a complete mess was well within range of expected outcomes. ;-)
I will say that despite being a major critic of Wilcox as an HC, I am cautiously optimistic that the additions of legit coaches like Harsin, Rolovich, and ESPECIALLY Famika (OL), can add a new wrinkle of competence to that side of the ball…which would be massive.
I think Wilcox has assembled the best offensive staff that has coached at CAL during Wilcox's tenure. Our defensive staff is solid. Now we really need to land some portal transfers and its going to be very competitive. Wilcox did a great job last year, let's see if this new staff can to a repeat or even better than last year. Interesting to see that Nando has not made a choice for his next stop yet.
If those guys are worth an extra TD a game, Cal would have gone 10-3. An extra FG a game, Cal would’ve been 9-4. It’s marginal gains that can lead to glory.
Which admittedly is an entirely new neighborhood for me to be living in mentally regarding Cal football. ;-) Still not a huge fan of Wilcox, but realize nothing is happening on that front until Knowlton is gone. And….they’really not TOO far off from being maybe an 8-win team rather than a 6-win one, and once you’re an 8-win team, it’s not that far of a leap to, gulp, 9 or 10….
But for an HC with the chops Wilcox has shown to possess, you really need your coaching staff to do a better job than the guys he has has hired have done, at least on the offensive side of the football. I really like Famika Anae tho. Great hire.
Obviously this was nothing to watch. But amongst all of that I actually think CJ did an admirable job. Getting 3rd string snaps in season and spring and still came out and played well. Solid completion percentage and got some yards on the ground against a good defense.
The fourth quarter was a debacle, a slow-moving, heard-this-song-before wreck of a mess of dispiriting football. And yes, the NIL/portal era has killed the team aspect of what should be truly a team sport.
But: We were in it until Harris got hurt. Wearing down, perhaps, but still alive and very much in a game that, until that point, showed some wrinkles and some moxie and some reason to believe that the team and the staff had not, in fact, quit doing what we wanted and needed them to do. Hard to go with a third stringer, harder still when that third stringer goes down.
Sitting in the stadium, it was exciting in the first half. Less so in the second half. By the way, it seems a cop out to rip on the Coach or any individual player. Doing so doesn’t require any real analysis, and gives the shallow perception that the person complaining knows the first thing about the sport.
True, but this has been the story for much of the year. Cal repeatedly seemed right at the doorstep, but couldn’t finish. In this game, just a few plays swung the game: the fake punt by UNLV that led to a touchdown; the backward flip by Caminong that gave the Rebs a very short field in the fourth quarter; the non-touchdown by Endries that could have been ruled a TD. Fourteen points in the Rebs’ pocket, four points denied the Bears (as Cal had to settle for the FG), along with the early FG miss, and that’s more than the difference in this game. Bears out-gained the Rebs by a significant margin, just couldn’t capitalize.
The corporate sponsors of bowl games decimated by the transfer portal can't be happy with what they are getting for their money. Has there been a reduction of sponsor money because of the transfer portal ruining these games?
ESPN owns the vast majority of the bowl games. They don't particularly care if there are sponsors, since (at least right now) plenty of people tune in to the broadcasts to make them worth it.
Now if THAT were to change, then you might see a change to bowl offerings. But with enough degenerates tuning in at 9pm ET on a Wednesday to watch two coach- and player-decimated west coast teams struggle to move the ball, that may not be anytime soon.
Unfortunately, you are probably right. However, I noticed a few commenters didn't bother watching the Cal bowl game. That could mean hundreds, perhaps thousands of Cal fans (not to mention UNLV fans) passed on the 2nd & 3rd String Bowl. Plus, there are all of the true college football fans, expecting a decent game, hearing about all the missing talent, seeing the results of the missing talent, and deciding they have something better to do. It's good that ESPN carries all of the lesser bowls; the slightest down tick in expected ratings means lower advertising rates they can charge.
My two cents, for what it's worth (probably very little):
First, I have no problem with Wilcox playing second and third string players in the second half last night. Cal was in a "nothing" bowl and, considering players from this year who will not be playing next year, seeing what non-starters can do in an actual game situation was a good move. I think that the offense looked pretty good in the first half. Harris was not bad, he got some protection, and play calling was creative at times.
I believe that teams should have an above five hundred regular season to play in a bowl game, but there is too much money out there for cities to not have a bowl game. Money talks.
In my "fantasy" world of trying to get college sports back to at least a pretense of amateur sports (there will always be shit schools like sc that will try to buy championships):
1 The NCAA would once again have complete control (but running operations better and more fair than in the past) rather than the networks. Again, money talks.
2 The NIL would be cut off at the knees. No school would be able to promote the name, image or likeness of any individual player. Promotions would be limited to team photos and rosters. Maybe even not have players' names on their jerseys. I'm disgusted at seeing high school players tryng to negotiate the highest dollar agreement from colleges. Any player that negotiates a deal would be banned from college sports for a number of years. The same with schools that do the same.
3 The transfer portal would again have a one-year no play rule. That would restore a bit of stability.
4 Schools need to do a lot more to help student athletes. A fulltime course load for full time athletes should be either two classes or max of three classes per semester. All athletes should receive a 100% scholarship for as long as they are on a team. Scholarships should extend beyond when playing eligibilty runs out at a reduced amount (say, 50% for each additional year needed to get a degree). Scholarships should include tuition, room and board, and an amount for "incidentals." Very, very few student athletes will make it in the pros and I believe that a 100% scholarship with a reduced fulltime course load is enough compensation. For the very top student athletes, they will make their millions when they turn pro.
Unfortunately, none of the above will happen and college sports will be minor league affiliates of the pros. If student athletes are going to be allowed to essentially be pros, why not allow retired pros to go back to college and play? Wipe away the sham that college sports has become. Let Brady play for Michigan again.
Without a QB when Harris went out it was over. Not coaching when you have an 18 or 19 year old freshmen without having ever taken a snap in competition since high school. Therefore in the 2nd half Cal was playing a lot of reserves who had played little or none during the season. I think they were letting guys play because they had put out so much during the season and had little action. The coaches knew after Harris went out that it was basically over offensively. For instance, the WR, Martin, who caught scored the TD in the first half was a true freshman and he played most of the 2nd half. Uluave and Buchanan didn't play at all in the 2nd half. Barth and Johnson played for them at ILB. One final thing. Thanks Fernando for screwing us with your "my boys" crap.
A thought on Mendoza. Did he diminish his attractiveness to other programs by ditching the bowl game? If I was looking for a QB, I would be suspicious that if he does reasonably well in the rest of his colIege career, he would say “Later B—-ches, I’m off to the NFL, good luck in the bowl game,” just like he left Cal in the lurch.
And Wilcox (and the other HCs) understand it's not in Mendoza's personal interest to play. Are you really going to jeopardize a million dollar contract and a harem of southern belle's at Georgia to play in the LA Bowl?
Risk of career ending/damaging vs reward of maybe winning a middling bowl game. However if all else is equal, wouldn’t you go with the guy who puts himself out there?
1st and 2nd quarter, I thought we were going to run the ball and wear down the Rebels, then throw the ball, but instead we kept throwing the ball and giving their DL a chance to catch their breath. JUST ANOTHER OFFENSIVE DEBACLE BY WILCOX!
R: NIL.....Think Cal has it bad? Check out situation at U$C:
"The USC Trojans have had a brutal stretch ever since the transfer portal opened. The Trojans have had a whopping 19 players from the 2024 roster announce their intention to enter the transfer portal. On the flip side, USC has only gotten 2 incoming transfers to this point...."
Serves them right. The greedy bastards blew up the Pac-12 and helped contribute to the chaos that is college football today. Don't forget that it was Carol Folt (their chancellor) who shot down the idea of Pac-12 expansion at the same time that she was probably negotiating to leave for the Big-10.
Turning over a 6-6 team is no big deal. They are still USC and they still have some funds to buy a team every year. It takes a special kind of incompetence to really bottom out over there.
In the postgame it was good to hear Wilcox point out the broken mess that is college football today. Beautiful game that is broken and needs fixing. Aside from all my thoughts on Wilcox and coaching and such, it's my primary concern that the NIL and portal process prevent non-playoff teams from having any real meaningful post seasons. This wasn't Cal playing UNLV. This was Cal's 2nd and 3rd team playing UNLV 2nd and 3rd team. You can cheer for the jersey, but it's hard to cheer for the team given that it isn't really the team that played all year.
Is CFB a broken mess? Undoubtedly, when compared to years past that now appear to be orderly and coherent.
You know what broke CFB? Greed. Pure and simple. Add in a lack of respect for players as human beings that also carry a huge workload to be successful as students and you have the makings of a problem that will be resolved somehow. We're living through that resolution now, in slow motion.
It remains to be seen what brings stasis to a chaotic milieu, but there is also the distinct possibility that the number of institutions that will field a football team in future years will be winnowed bringing on a new status quo. I suspect that we'll know in about 5 to 10 years what the likely future of CFB will be. In that time, I doubt the offerings will look similar to what we have today, much less 5 years ago.
The irony in all of this is that the winnowing of institutions offering CFB means less kids offered a chance to go to college on scholarship, many of whom are first in their family to attend college. In the future, kids that don't possess the talent to make the roster of powerhouse CFB will lose a viable pathway to getting an education. Just one of many unforeseen consequences of greed and money infiltrating CFB. Also, the monopolization of riches for fewer institutions parallels our current age of plutocracy.
Fiat: You are 100% right. Even Joe Paterno back in the 1990s kept questioning why athletes didn't at least receive some kind of stipend outside of their scholarships to help them with things like rent, food, etc. I also find it interesting that this month, at least two college coaches (Mike Norvell at FSU and the coach at UCF) took PAY CUTS so more money could be funneled to NIL. College sports is more ruthless than ever. I just hope that Cal football will still be around and relevant in the next 5-10 years.
You might enjoy the substack podcast Who Killed College Football?
Thanks!
I certainly don't have a crystal ball, but I appreciate the need for cloud level discussions of what CFB needs to do to incorporate player payment with a stronger sense of equity among teams and implementation of movement guidelines that don't strip away meaning from team identity, bowl games or fan support. I've been saying recently that the painful process of detachment from CFB and Cal is ongoing. The NFL is exactly what I seek in terms of players paid and contracts and salary caps. I'm struggling to make this transition to just an NFL fan, but I think I more or less must. I'll never not be an enormous fan of Cal athletics, as an arm of UC Berkeley, but until this mess is resolved in some intelligent way, I can't see real benefit from a deep investment in Cal football when every year is a new roster, player development is almost non-existent over time, and the landscape is such that money alone drives player decisions instead of any academic or school loyalty connections.
Other than Mendoza and Hunter, who else opted out on either defense or offense? Seems Cal was mostly intact save the QB position. I don't fault kids that don't want to play in post-season play, especially if they have a future in the League.
Wilcox made clear that even some players who played had only agreed to play on a limited snap count and thus backups were in. We were missing most of our WR room for one reason or another. I'm not personally OK with players opting out because of NFL aspirations. I get it, but don't like it. An appealing thing about the new CFB playoff is that for the most part those teams are playing with their intact rosters because there is more exposure and draft stock potential in playing. But for the rest of us, it's hard to imagine a future where bowl games mean a good god damn.
I still proudly wear the 2003 Insight Bowl game Tshirt. Aaron Rodgers and the team played an outstanding game against V Tech. Those days are gone unless we poke into the final 12. Even then, it's just rent-a-team. I care a whole lot less about rent-a-team as I may as well watch great players in the NFL with salary cap and equity.
I'm okay with players opting out for NFL aspirations pre-NIL. Now, you're getting paid and it's your job. If you're not playing the bowl game, you forfeit one week's pay.
100 pct. They just need to be treated like employees because that’s what they are now. Need to be able to fire them too.
Bowl games feel like an exhibition game now. Only it's the players who are cutting the team instead of the other way round.
Great point, CB91.
It’s also very likely that many of the 2nd and 3rd string players that we saw last night will not even be in a Cal uniform next season because they will have left via the portal for various reasons. So you are not even really getting the chance to watch future Bears get a little PT and show what they got. Tampering is rampant, so are we keeping Josiah Martin now after he had a solid 1H on national tv?
Makes it somewhat hard to watch.
You're right, and this applies to all the non-playoff bowl games. What are they for any more? I think they used to be a venue to show off a talented program that was capable of training up guys, some of whom could (and did) develop into NFL careers. But if those guys jump all over to different programs, and don't bother playing in the bowl games, what's the point of watching the bowl games?
Things will likely get worse before they get better. Especially as NIL monies increase.
Personally, it's been a long year and I am taking most of December off to recover from some tough events I've had. Cal's bowl game coming to where I live was a perfect outlet. Listening to our fight song in the pre-game event almost made me cry for some reason. It felt home, with the whole Cal community in the stadium, even though I didn't really know anyone. It kind of felt like being back in Berkeley but the bond felt stronger when it happened far away from Berkeley. Regardless of the outcome of the game, I really appreciated the experience. SoFi is a heck of a stadium too. I've gone to a Rams game once but haven't returned because I couldn't really stand the aggressive pro football crowd and the traffic mess in Inglewood (and I was more of a Jared Goff fan anyways). Being there with a much smaller educated bunch in that fancy stadium at a reasonable ticket price made it super enjoyable.
This was my first Bowl game visit since 2009 in San Diego, and I was reminded that a Bowl game is more than just a sporting event for the alumni and fans. I doubt we will have a Bowl team next season, but will look forward to the next one.
Go Bears!
(Summary: Wilcox should still be fired.)
not going to happen because of$$$
The first game of spring practice.
Thanks Rick.
A rather predictable final tally for good old Justin…
Cal were BEGGING to get the fake punt by sending everyone every time on a blocking attempt. It came at critical juncture. Cal had just scored their only touchdown on an 89 yard drive to retake the lead for the last time. The defense had stopped UNLV after just four plays.
Hard to win with your 4th string totally inexperienced true freshman QB. However, the game turned on 4 key breakdowns: Fake punt, one poor punt return coverage/line drive punt, the game's solitary turnover on a blown backwards pass, and one fatal breakdown in pass coverage.
UNLV's QB was only 5/18, but 2 of those 5 were touchdowns.
Brutal game. How often have I said that as a Cal fan over the last 4 decades?
Good point, nb. Unfortunately, even on a good day with relative health, Justin Wilcox and his O coaching staff have consistently struggled to get the team prepared to play…especially against good teams.
Now with the NIL/portal disaster, give him a roster featuring 3rd stringers with questions surrounding who is calling the plays, and a complete mess was well within range of expected outcomes. ;-)
I will say that despite being a major critic of Wilcox as an HC, I am cautiously optimistic that the additions of legit coaches like Harsin, Rolovich, and ESPECIALLY Famika (OL), can add a new wrinkle of competence to that side of the ball…which would be massive.
I think Wilcox has assembled the best offensive staff that has coached at CAL during Wilcox's tenure. Our defensive staff is solid. Now we really need to land some portal transfers and its going to be very competitive. Wilcox did a great job last year, let's see if this new staff can to a repeat or even better than last year. Interesting to see that Nando has not made a choice for his next stop yet.
https://247sports.com/season/2025-football/transferportaltop/
If those guys are worth an extra TD a game, Cal would have gone 10-3. An extra FG a game, Cal would’ve been 9-4. It’s marginal gains that can lead to glory.
Bingo!
I share the optimism.
Which admittedly is an entirely new neighborhood for me to be living in mentally regarding Cal football. ;-) Still not a huge fan of Wilcox, but realize nothing is happening on that front until Knowlton is gone. And….they’really not TOO far off from being maybe an 8-win team rather than a 6-win one, and once you’re an 8-win team, it’s not that far of a leap to, gulp, 9 or 10….
But for an HC with the chops Wilcox has shown to possess, you really need your coaching staff to do a better job than the guys he has has hired have done, at least on the offensive side of the football. I really like Famika Anae tho. Great hire.
Brutal, sad, frustrating.....How many more adjectives can we come up with to describe Cal Football for the last ten years?
Thus ends one of the most memorable, frustrating, perplexing Cal seasons in living memory.
At least we won at Auburn and beat Furd again. But we should have won at least two of the stupid 4-game stretch against FSU, Pitt, Miami, and NC St.
Obviously this was nothing to watch. But amongst all of that I actually think CJ did an admirable job. Getting 3rd string snaps in season and spring and still came out and played well. Solid completion percentage and got some yards on the ground against a good defense.
The fourth quarter was a debacle, a slow-moving, heard-this-song-before wreck of a mess of dispiriting football. And yes, the NIL/portal era has killed the team aspect of what should be truly a team sport.
But: We were in it until Harris got hurt. Wearing down, perhaps, but still alive and very much in a game that, until that point, showed some wrinkles and some moxie and some reason to believe that the team and the staff had not, in fact, quit doing what we wanted and needed them to do. Hard to go with a third stringer, harder still when that third stringer goes down.
Sitting in the stadium, it was exciting in the first half. Less so in the second half. By the way, it seems a cop out to rip on the Coach or any individual player. Doing so doesn’t require any real analysis, and gives the shallow perception that the person complaining knows the first thing about the sport.
Great reply.
That blown touchdown call didn't help. We were in it until the end and never quit. 3td and 4th qbs, cmon. D held a top 20 team down much of the night.
It could have been worse
True, but this has been the story for much of the year. Cal repeatedly seemed right at the doorstep, but couldn’t finish. In this game, just a few plays swung the game: the fake punt by UNLV that led to a touchdown; the backward flip by Caminong that gave the Rebs a very short field in the fourth quarter; the non-touchdown by Endries that could have been ruled a TD. Fourteen points in the Rebs’ pocket, four points denied the Bears (as Cal had to settle for the FG), along with the early FG miss, and that’s more than the difference in this game. Bears out-gained the Rebs by a significant margin, just couldn’t capitalize.
The corporate sponsors of bowl games decimated by the transfer portal can't be happy with what they are getting for their money. Has there been a reduction of sponsor money because of the transfer portal ruining these games?
ESPN owns the vast majority of the bowl games. They don't particularly care if there are sponsors, since (at least right now) plenty of people tune in to the broadcasts to make them worth it.
Now if THAT were to change, then you might see a change to bowl offerings. But with enough degenerates tuning in at 9pm ET on a Wednesday to watch two coach- and player-decimated west coast teams struggle to move the ball, that may not be anytime soon.
Unfortunately, you are probably right. However, I noticed a few commenters didn't bother watching the Cal bowl game. That could mean hundreds, perhaps thousands of Cal fans (not to mention UNLV fans) passed on the 2nd & 3rd String Bowl. Plus, there are all of the true college football fans, expecting a decent game, hearing about all the missing talent, seeing the results of the missing talent, and deciding they have something better to do. It's good that ESPN carries all of the lesser bowls; the slightest down tick in expected ratings means lower advertising rates they can charge.
I've been thinking this thought exactly? How long with the sponsors put up with this BS.
What's the issue with keeping the portal shut until after the NC. Spring transfers? Something has to be done.
Good question.
My two cents, for what it's worth (probably very little):
First, I have no problem with Wilcox playing second and third string players in the second half last night. Cal was in a "nothing" bowl and, considering players from this year who will not be playing next year, seeing what non-starters can do in an actual game situation was a good move. I think that the offense looked pretty good in the first half. Harris was not bad, he got some protection, and play calling was creative at times.
I believe that teams should have an above five hundred regular season to play in a bowl game, but there is too much money out there for cities to not have a bowl game. Money talks.
In my "fantasy" world of trying to get college sports back to at least a pretense of amateur sports (there will always be shit schools like sc that will try to buy championships):
1 The NCAA would once again have complete control (but running operations better and more fair than in the past) rather than the networks. Again, money talks.
2 The NIL would be cut off at the knees. No school would be able to promote the name, image or likeness of any individual player. Promotions would be limited to team photos and rosters. Maybe even not have players' names on their jerseys. I'm disgusted at seeing high school players tryng to negotiate the highest dollar agreement from colleges. Any player that negotiates a deal would be banned from college sports for a number of years. The same with schools that do the same.
3 The transfer portal would again have a one-year no play rule. That would restore a bit of stability.
4 Schools need to do a lot more to help student athletes. A fulltime course load for full time athletes should be either two classes or max of three classes per semester. All athletes should receive a 100% scholarship for as long as they are on a team. Scholarships should extend beyond when playing eligibilty runs out at a reduced amount (say, 50% for each additional year needed to get a degree). Scholarships should include tuition, room and board, and an amount for "incidentals." Very, very few student athletes will make it in the pros and I believe that a 100% scholarship with a reduced fulltime course load is enough compensation. For the very top student athletes, they will make their millions when they turn pro.
Unfortunately, none of the above will happen and college sports will be minor league affiliates of the pros. If student athletes are going to be allowed to essentially be pros, why not allow retired pros to go back to college and play? Wipe away the sham that college sports has become. Let Brady play for Michigan again.
Enough of my rant and now back to reality.
Without a QB when Harris went out it was over. Not coaching when you have an 18 or 19 year old freshmen without having ever taken a snap in competition since high school. Therefore in the 2nd half Cal was playing a lot of reserves who had played little or none during the season. I think they were letting guys play because they had put out so much during the season and had little action. The coaches knew after Harris went out that it was basically over offensively. For instance, the WR, Martin, who caught scored the TD in the first half was a true freshman and he played most of the 2nd half. Uluave and Buchanan didn't play at all in the 2nd half. Barth and Johnson played for them at ILB. One final thing. Thanks Fernando for screwing us with your "my boys" crap.
A thought on Mendoza. Did he diminish his attractiveness to other programs by ditching the bowl game? If I was looking for a QB, I would be suspicious that if he does reasonably well in the rest of his colIege career, he would say “Later B—-ches, I’m off to the NFL, good luck in the bowl game,” just like he left Cal in the lurch.
The programs are selfish and don't give a rat's ass about the fate of the current team.
And Wilcox (and the other HCs) understand it's not in Mendoza's personal interest to play. Are you really going to jeopardize a million dollar contract and a harem of southern belle's at Georgia to play in the LA Bowl?
Sucks for us, but that's the reality.
You get harem's when you sign with an SEC team? I thought it was just money. I'm coming out of retirement.
Risk of career ending/damaging vs reward of maybe winning a middling bowl game. However if all else is equal, wouldn’t you go with the guy who puts himself out there?
It’s great to see I’m not alone in my Cal fandom. Enjoyed sharing the season with everyone. Go Bears!
1st and 2nd quarter, I thought we were going to run the ball and wear down the Rebels, then throw the ball, but instead we kept throwing the ball and giving their DL a chance to catch their breath. JUST ANOTHER OFFENSIVE DEBACLE BY WILCOX!
Really? What game were you watching.
R: NIL.....Think Cal has it bad? Check out situation at U$C:
"The USC Trojans have had a brutal stretch ever since the transfer portal opened. The Trojans have had a whopping 19 players from the 2024 roster announce their intention to enter the transfer portal. On the flip side, USC has only gotten 2 incoming transfers to this point...."
Source:
https://www.si.com/college/usc/football/usc-trojans-football-lincoln-riley-transfer-portal-los-angeles-memorial-coliseum-nil-big-ten-zachariah-branch-josh-pate
Serves them right. The greedy bastards blew up the Pac-12 and helped contribute to the chaos that is college football today. Don't forget that it was Carol Folt (their chancellor) who shot down the idea of Pac-12 expansion at the same time that she was probably negotiating to leave for the Big-10.
Turning over a 6-6 team is no big deal. They are still USC and they still have some funds to buy a team every year. It takes a special kind of incompetence to really bottom out over there.