If we beat North Carolina we will be 5-2. I suppose there are plenty of timelines where we finish 8-4 or even 9-3. In that scenario Wilcox will have alot of supporters, I won’t be one of them in that unlikely scenario but still.
Sure, and of course though I’d absolutely have taken 5-2 heading to Blacksburg, somehow, someway, things don’t feel any different than previous years. And while Wilcox has made a rather predictable habit of losing to dogschitt football teams going through highly public meltdowns (U of A, Colorado, Florida St, etc) we really should beat UNC.
I just wish I could say I was confident he will have them ready to play off the bye but historically he does not, and definitely not in OCT.
Bray & Franklin are out. I expect UNC to part ways with Belichick sooner than later. I can also see Florida, Florida State, Michigan State, and Wisconsin join the coaching carousel. Hell if the season goes sideways, I can see Oklahoma and Michigan part ways with their head coach as well.
List of colleges with head coach openings (for now):
Penn State
Oklahoma State
Virginia Tech
Arkansas
Oregon State
UCLA
Stanfurd
There will be extensive options considered “better” jobs than Cal. These are the downstream effects of giving Wilcox that extension. Now the market for a new head coach will be too competive. I hope Cal backs the Brinks truck to land a good hire or else we’re cooked.
Don't expect any bank vaults to be opened while Wilcox is under contract or even afterwards. No such thing as a record setting contract for Football HC at Cal. At best, upper end of the middle third of FBS contracts. Maybe the bottom end of the upper third.
The era of college football as we knew it is over. The market is rapidly bifurcating into two distinct groups: the full-fledged, professionally supported "semi-pro" programs, and those that are not. Cal must acknowledge this reality and commit to a massive, immediate investment, or face permanent irrelevance. That’s what I mean by “cooked”.
Cal has, at most, five years to shed its self-righteous, pompous reluctance, align its values with the competitive future of the sport, and get its financial affairs in order. To fail to do so is to join the ranks of the banished. Cal will go the way of the Rice.
The final warning is closer to home. Stanford's recent $50 million gift is the canary in the coal mine. Our nearest academic and athletic rival is not just keeping pace; they are making a game-changing financial play to secure their future. Cal needs the same commitment to survive.
Definitely not my intention haha. But it is the reality of the head coaching market at the moment. I hope Lyon’s Haas education and Rivera’s GM experience can succesfully navigate this market.
Problem is Cal is going to be competing with SO many better football situations for candidates:
fUCLA
Stanford
Va Tech
Arkansas
Oklahoma St
Plus, Wisconsin, Penn State, Michigan State, and Florida State ALL could be in the market as well.
And this isn’t a case like MBB, where literally ANYONE is an upgrade over Wyking and Fox. No way you can keep Wilcox, but Cal needs to absolutely nail this hire. Worrisome to say the least.
That's the perception: almost any of those openings are better than Cal. That could change if there are improvements in program support. Not sure exactly what that would entail, but it seems to me that academic support could be a help in attracting coaching candidates and recruiting athletes. I sense though that there's some resistance to that idea in general within the administration and faculty. We're also going to have to compete against schools with bigger NIL. budgets.
Sky's the limit, but there has to be a commitment amongst people who can make it happen.
I mentioned in another spot we’re gonna know pretty quick if anything has changed substantively.
Portal opens Jan 2 - you need to have terminated Wilcox AND have a new HC/staff in place by then. Nothing in Cal football’s history says they can really operate with that kind of direction, urgency and confidence.
You also need an HC with HS recruiting experience and contacts, rather than an NFL guy stepping in like Belichick. Given RR’s NFL pedigree, does he have the network to do so?
Living in New England the entirety of the Wilcox era and watching the Patriots here, I've always thought Justin modeled himself after Belichick in a lot of ways. I've seen a lot of parallels between the post-Brady Patriots and post-Covid Cal. So I see the UNC game as Wilcox's Superbowl, facing the master at rock bottom. If we win, he should be carried off the field, thanked for running a clean program, and then live happily ever after.. never to been seen again as our head coach. The latter especially if we lose.
In other “I’m blowing it up since I left Cal news” Nyziah Hunter had 2 massive TDs before halftime and a crucial 33 yard 2nd half catch for Nebraska. Last week he had game-winning 55 yarder while wearing only one shoe
All the Mendoza talk notwithstanding, Cignetti has built dominant lines at JMU and now Indiana. He wins in the trenches, an area where Wilcox has struggled in each of his 9 years.
I love the Colley Ranking. It has no priors to start the season, so reputation means nothing. For example, it has oregon ranked #14 and Indiana #4. pretty good. Also, it had Penn state ranked 55, BEFORE they lost to UCLA.
Good day so far. I got nutty during this morning's coffee and bet a 3 game parlay on Ohio State -14.5, Indiana +7.5, and Northwestern +21.5 to beat/cover spreads
I have another 50 on an IU+Northwestern+Purdue parlay, which I'm debating cash out now for 156 or let it ride for 330 for the Purdue +7.5 vs Minn game.
Week 1 I went in 1k on Cal to beat OSU which paid 2k.. banked 1700 and have been up and down playing with the 300 balance from that since.. and now am finally comfortably ahead on that..
DOOM! All of the Wilcox-must-go paying members here. What if ... the next best option is Tosh Lupoi? (https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/6711128/2025/10/12/oregon-state-coaching-candidates-brent-vigen/) Would you forget? Forgive? Ignore the past?
I've been wanting someone from the Saban coaching tree so that works
Absolutely. Times have changed - this is literally about survival.
My biggest issue with Tosh now is he’s a defensive guy, when after Wilcox, a dynamic offensive mind is sorely needed.
Honestly, after 9 seasons, the folks who are NOT in the Wilcox-must-go camp probably do not understand what really is at stake.
If we beat North Carolina we will be 5-2. I suppose there are plenty of timelines where we finish 8-4 or even 9-3. In that scenario Wilcox will have alot of supporters, I won’t be one of them in that unlikely scenario but still.
Sure, and of course though I’d absolutely have taken 5-2 heading to Blacksburg, somehow, someway, things don’t feel any different than previous years. And while Wilcox has made a rather predictable habit of losing to dogschitt football teams going through highly public meltdowns (U of A, Colorado, Florida St, etc) we really should beat UNC.
I just wish I could say I was confident he will have them ready to play off the bye but historically he does not, and definitely not in OCT.
Hopefully this year is different.
Yesterday, Ott had 1 carry for 2 yards. Endries had 2 catches for 4 yards. Be careful what you wish for!
Bray & Franklin are out. I expect UNC to part ways with Belichick sooner than later. I can also see Florida, Florida State, Michigan State, and Wisconsin join the coaching carousel. Hell if the season goes sideways, I can see Oklahoma and Michigan part ways with their head coach as well.
List of colleges with head coach openings (for now):
Penn State
Oklahoma State
Virginia Tech
Arkansas
Oregon State
UCLA
Stanfurd
There will be extensive options considered “better” jobs than Cal. These are the downstream effects of giving Wilcox that extension. Now the market for a new head coach will be too competive. I hope Cal backs the Brinks truck to land a good hire or else we’re cooked.
Define "cooked".
Don't expect any bank vaults to be opened while Wilcox is under contract or even afterwards. No such thing as a record setting contract for Football HC at Cal. At best, upper end of the middle third of FBS contracts. Maybe the bottom end of the upper third.
The era of college football as we knew it is over. The market is rapidly bifurcating into two distinct groups: the full-fledged, professionally supported "semi-pro" programs, and those that are not. Cal must acknowledge this reality and commit to a massive, immediate investment, or face permanent irrelevance. That’s what I mean by “cooked”.
Cal has, at most, five years to shed its self-righteous, pompous reluctance, align its values with the competitive future of the sport, and get its financial affairs in order. To fail to do so is to join the ranks of the banished. Cal will go the way of the Rice.
The final warning is closer to home. Stanford's recent $50 million gift is the canary in the coal mine. Our nearest academic and athletic rival is not just keeping pace; they are making a game-changing financial play to secure their future. Cal needs the same commitment to survive.
How about we get one of those fired ones? Are they any good?
Also those HC may not be any good, but they might have good coordinators that are looking for new jobs.
Franklin won 9 in back to back seasons at Vandy, which would absolutely play here.
Because of that, I wouldn’t expect Cal to be at all of interest to him, or really to any of the high profile guys.
We’re not going to be in the market for any of the top guys.
Wilcox apologist just got another reason why we shouldn’t fire Wilcox after this season
Definitely not my intention haha. But it is the reality of the head coaching market at the moment. I hope Lyon’s Haas education and Rivera’s GM experience can succesfully navigate this market.
We’re probably going to know pretty quick if Cal football really has much, if any, future.
And I think Golden meant apologistS…
Bye week is over. We did not fire Wilcox. 😢
Penn State just fired Franklin
Oregon State just fired Bray
No chance Cal will at all be in play for any of the high profile guys.
FIRE FIVE WIN WILCOX
Problem is Cal is going to be competing with SO many better football situations for candidates:
fUCLA
Stanford
Va Tech
Arkansas
Oklahoma St
Plus, Wisconsin, Penn State, Michigan State, and Florida State ALL could be in the market as well.
And this isn’t a case like MBB, where literally ANYONE is an upgrade over Wyking and Fox. No way you can keep Wilcox, but Cal needs to absolutely nail this hire. Worrisome to say the least.
That's the perception: almost any of those openings are better than Cal. That could change if there are improvements in program support. Not sure exactly what that would entail, but it seems to me that academic support could be a help in attracting coaching candidates and recruiting athletes. I sense though that there's some resistance to that idea in general within the administration and faculty. We're also going to have to compete against schools with bigger NIL. budgets.
Sky's the limit, but there has to be a commitment amongst people who can make it happen.
I mentioned in another spot we’re gonna know pretty quick if anything has changed substantively.
Portal opens Jan 2 - you need to have terminated Wilcox AND have a new HC/staff in place by then. Nothing in Cal football’s history says they can really operate with that kind of direction, urgency and confidence.
You also need an HC with HS recruiting experience and contacts, rather than an NFL guy stepping in like Belichick. Given RR’s NFL pedigree, does he have the network to do so?
And this is part of the problem of not firing him in previous cycles where you are competing with fewer programs for a new coach
Seeing former Cal players doing good to great things only further confirms that Five Win Wilcox is the problem.
I hope we fire him after the UNC loss
The next write up should read “ Guess Fernando was not the problem “ bonafide first round pick pooof
I mean, did a single person ever say Mendoza was the problem?
We know who the problem is.
Minnesota getting pushed around at home by….Purdue.
Oregon State routed by Wake Forest to fall to 0-7.
BC housed at home by Clemson.
UNC coming to town, boasting blow out wins v G5 Charlotte and Richmond…and blowout losses to P5 TCU, UCF and Clemson.
I mean, even in a bye week it’s all bad news.
Living in New England the entirety of the Wilcox era and watching the Patriots here, I've always thought Justin modeled himself after Belichick in a lot of ways. I've seen a lot of parallels between the post-Brady Patriots and post-Covid Cal. So I see the UNC game as Wilcox's Superbowl, facing the master at rock bottom. If we win, he should be carried off the field, thanked for running a clean program, and then live happily ever after.. never to been seen again as our head coach. The latter especially if we lose.
Wilcox should imitate Brady era Patriots, not post-Brady Patriots
yikes
In other “I’m blowing it up since I left Cal news” Nyziah Hunter had 2 massive TDs before halftime and a crucial 33 yard 2nd half catch for Nebraska. Last week he had game-winning 55 yarder while wearing only one shoe
That tracks.
I didn't watch the game but seeing the results, I can't fault anybody from leaving Cal. Look at the spotlight Mendoza is enjoying.
All the Mendoza talk notwithstanding, Cignetti has built dominant lines at JMU and now Indiana. He wins in the trenches, an area where Wilcox has struggled in each of his 9 years.
How about HC at Delaware State, is he any good?
It sure would be a splash.
Lot of avenues they can go.
Cignetti seems like he's high or something. he is a bit strange.
He is a total goof ball...hilarious
Rather a “goof ball” coach that’s a winner than a stoic that’s “Mr. Lower Body Injury” and can’t win in October or beat winless teams.
Yup.
https://www.colleyrankings.com/foot2025/rankings/rank06.html
And there’s Wilcox, humming along at….57.
Classic.
FSU could really use a Cal game next week to get their season back on track. Sorry FSU, we will be giving a get right win to UNC on Friday
Oh it's Friday?
Well I probably won't miss much.
I’m choosing to fly up with my wife and some Cal friends to watch us lose at Memorial
Here’s to a safe and delightful trip up. Maybe Cal gets lucky.
I love the Colley Ranking. It has no priors to start the season, so reputation means nothing. For example, it has oregon ranked #14 and Indiana #4. pretty good. Also, it had Penn state ranked 55, BEFORE they lost to UCLA.
Wow, can you send a link. I’ve never heard of this before
Heh heh heh. Int to seal it.
Good day so far. I got nutty during this morning's coffee and bet a 3 game parlay on Ohio State -14.5, Indiana +7.5, and Northwestern +21.5 to beat/cover spreads
Nice parlay, what did you put down and what are you winning?
100-->700, nothing life changing :)
Not a bad afternoons worth of work
I have another 50 on an IU+Northwestern+Purdue parlay, which I'm debating cash out now for 156 or let it ride for 330 for the Purdue +7.5 vs Minn game.
Week 1 I went in 1k on Cal to beat OSU which paid 2k.. banked 1700 and have been up and down playing with the 300 balance from that since.. and now am finally comfortably ahead on that..
Okay you Cal Degenerate! Keep winning
Nice work!
Oregon is fraudulent.
Their best W is Penn State, who is garbage.