Everyone here needs to take a chill pill and just be happy this season is happening. Forget about the W-L column and just enjoy watching Cal football. Based on what we've seen from Wilcox, a lot of what we're seeing this season is an anomaly due to COVID reasons. Shit, we didn't have a full practice until our first week of play. We're seeing improvements week over week. That's enough for me. I'm pretty excited for 2021 based on what I've seen from Musgrave, he's a MASSIVE improvement over Baldwin. Look at what he's doing with almost ZERO time to install his offense.
Great write-up; it just took me 4 days before I could read ANYTHING about this game...
Two things; didn’t Nikko fumble a punt against USC two years ago which, mercifully, tumbled out of bounds? Either way, I don’t think the #1 punt returner should be expected to fumble a catchable punt as a matter of statistics, but maybe that’s why I’m not a football coach. And maybe I’m just feeling salty....
Secondly, re: the running game I was super impressed with us pitching the ball. I really felt like we were hitting holes quicker than w a handoff contributing to those long runs. Was that my imagination and is it not a new Musgrave-ism?
Someone else commented (sorry, cant recall who) on a previous article.. If you are to be a defensive minded football team, you'd damn better also have good special teams. It's so true, and this needs to be a major focus going forward, and it seems it will be according to coach's post game presser. Also, great write-up as usual, Nick -- thank you, sir.
Might have been me. Defensive minded coaches have to also have very good special teams because field position and field goals are even more important since you don’t have an offense that can score often and win a shoot out.
Wilcox is not on the hot seat and the Bears are just fine...thank you very much.
Musgrave is doing a good job, +300 yards of total offense in the first half against OSU and +200 yards rushing against the 'furd. So the scheme can & will work at Cal.
Defense held the 'furd to 300 total yards of offense. Aside from perhaps 3 plays Cal held OSU in check. Also we are seeing some great play from our DL, who will second me in nominating them as the standout unit this year? The D staff continues to develop players and will send a handful to the League this year. This is good for recruiting. Speaking of which, Browning is bringing in some talent on the DL which should provide Cal with some depth real soon.
OL continues to be the weakest link. But it appears we have some lads that can play. I would view it as a mistake if the "starters" are handed their job back once they clear quarantine. The "starters" weren't good last year and in the one game they played this year they stunk the place up. The staff will have to develop more options at QB. Garbers is being outplayed by true freshman and red shirt freshman in the conference. Some of that is attributable to a new scheme but some of his throws, four years into college, are not acceptable. Too many overthrows or thrown out of bounds.
ST's: welp in the 3rd qrtr after the blocked FG they successfully converted the extra point and thought they had the problem fixed. We now know that they did not. Ragle is paid for his recruiting chops, so it would be in Wilcox's best interest to look for an outside solution.
Let's keep this year's recruiting class intact and focus on OL & QB improvement/replacement.
Also, I think Johnson and Tevis are going to anchor this defense for a couple/few years to come.. Hopefully we build/rebuild the other units just as well and eventually field something special on D (based on talent, not scheme). This is where the focus on tough, rangy, coachable players in recruiting the past few years should start to pay dividends.
I'm still enthused about Wilcox, and think that better times are ahead. Regarding 2021... Are there roster reasons to have high expections? Do we have a lot of seniors on the team this year that will be difficult to replace? I know some may be granted an extra year due to covid, but if they graduate they may decline to play... I wonder how much the D misses Weaver. Speaking of the Weave, I hope he gets elevated from the Cardinals' practice squad.
Also, not sure if i'd be happier with a brilliant offensively minded coach, like the one they got over there at Mississippi State. But losing to Furd when they are in a relatively weak state is very frustrating. I hope we get to see late 2019 Garbers in late 2020.
I'm 50/50 on Wilcox at this point, but I will give him the benefit of the doubt and wait til after 2021 to have a strong opinion. But that said there are some disturbing warning signs that have appeared.
Like anyone who read one of christopher_h's LSJU offense previews from the last couple seasons, I was extra salty about that offensive PI. They're as bad about OPI as Oregon was with holding during the Kelly/Helfrich years.
Quick typo help: you meant offense in "To the extent that Stanford’s defense got anything, it was mostly Davis Mills and his receivers finding soft spaces in Cal’s zone coverages." Great job and thank you for the write-up.
Thanks Nick, great write up as usual. I think this is probably our last game of the season. I don’t see how we get permission to play another game in Berkeley so perhaps the Oregon game is moved to Eugene. This Cal team has way to much experience to go winless in Wilcoxs 4th season. Anyone giving Wilcox a pass for this season is drinking too much Kool Aid while watching Newsmax and One American News Network.
Three hundred yards in the first half against Oregon State and than mind numbing conservative play calling in the third quarter that lost them the game. And that guy they have over at Mississippi State went 29-14 in Pac 12 play over the last five seasons with two 9-win seasons and one 11-win season. Sign me up for that.
Thanks Nick. Tough to read, but I suppose that goes with the Cal fandom territory. Newellbany & I were chatting about the game, and were lamenting the RAZOR thin margin for error...this is a team that cannot afford to make the mistakes they are making and still win. Sigh.
Spot on write-up and and analysis. For whatever reason the team was unprepared to start the season. We faced the same problems as other teams in the Pac-12 have, but we seem to have been more adversely impacted. Like you say $3 million for a coach is significant and as a fanbase we deserve better than watching this s***show. I'm also concerned with a few other factoids such as why we have so little depth and LB and D-Line given this is Wilcox' fourth year, has the recruiting been that bad? Or attrition? Also Clark and Remigio have something like 3 catches on the season between them, so something obviously is wrong.
Not necessarily true that "we faced the same problems as other teams in the Pac-12 have." Cal is the only Pac-12 school in a city with it's own public health restrictions, which is what complicated our first two weeks of the season.
In an effort to comply with those stronger standards, the coaching staff is keeping units/teammates separate for as much as possible. Compound that with the new offensive staff and scheme and it's little wonder we've been messy out there (but still disappointing!).
I am with this Kevin guy. We have a myriad of factors compounding into a cumulative mess. The pandemic is number one, with the City of Berkeley adding considerably more stringent restrictions. Offensively, Cal has player continuity but a new OC and system with no OOC weeks to even provide an opportunity to figure things out. Defensively, Cal has system continuity but without key players Weaver, Bequette, Davis, Hawkins, and Maldonado. Regarding special teams, I do not know but suspect that these groups have had little practice time. That doesn't explain away muffed punts but could contribute to the blocks. I think trying to make any sense of out of this season is a waste of time.
Ya. I am in no way excusing the horrific play thus far, but it is fair to say that Cal has definitely faced more hurdles than most teams in this COVID nonsense.
Yeah I agree with you and Nicks take that Wilcox and his staff need to be held accountable, especially since Wilcox wanted to play this season. It is my opinion that you don’t get to complain about wanting to play football during a pandemic and then also use the pandemic as an excuse for why your team is struggling.
If Wilcox doesn’t win a game in his 4th season with a veteran team next season needs to be a 9-10 win season and competing for the division lead. The Pac 12 is down in terms of talent and we have lost to three teams that are average to slightly below average.
Wilcox is gonna be a very good D coordinator for a big program in the future in the same way that Kiffin and Sarkisian got good coordinator jobs after their failed head coaching stints. But it is going to take a long time before he is shown the door at Cal. He just looks so good on the sidelines and says all the right things. I hope I am wrong on this, but his disconnect with offensive minded football doesn't seem fixable in an offensive minded conference.
I don't really have a good answer for you. Really kind of depends on how obvious you make the hold, as the bigger question is whether or not the ref notices. I think it's called every time a ref sees it, but there's plenty of incidental handling along the lines of that play that goes unnoticed.
I had a similar thought. But we had no timeouts left at that point. I'm speculating that we could have taken a delay of game penalty and tried to move the kicker back to counter some of what Stanford was doing. But given that it is a dead ball situation I am not sure it is even possible to do that. I googled the rulebook and couldn't find reference to this particular game situation. Does anybody know?
Totally within the rules and not questionable at all. If we are going to talk about bordering on cheating what Wilcox did his first season against North Carolina to help run clock was a much more questionable from a sportsmanship strategy.
Cal had all three timeouts. I also don't see this as poor sportsmanship or cheating to overload one side of the line. Our coaches should have recognized this, called a timeout, and developed a counterattack as it clearly left Stanfurd weak on the other side of the formation.
But calling this cheating is like saying it's cheating to have five wide receivers or three tight ends on the field.
Well, I suppose we should have called a timeout and switched to trying for a 2-pt conversion, maybe running out the wildcat or having Chase roll out to the unbalanced side of the field. There is a good chance he could have run it into the end zone himself.
Actually if were Wilcox I would have called timeout, used the same formation and have the holder run it into the end zone on the left side. Dykes in his first game called for a fake field goal against NW that went for a TD. I was at the game and remember it vividly.
There was enough time for a 3-and-out and a win. I'm thinking there was a little bit of tunnel vision going on here, with a dash of "we're not going to miss a PAT..."
Or instead of taking a delay of game penalty just use one of our three timeouts!! How did he not use one of our three timeouts?!?! That is poor coaching from Wilcox in that situation.
Everyone here needs to take a chill pill and just be happy this season is happening. Forget about the W-L column and just enjoy watching Cal football. Based on what we've seen from Wilcox, a lot of what we're seeing this season is an anomaly due to COVID reasons. Shit, we didn't have a full practice until our first week of play. We're seeing improvements week over week. That's enough for me. I'm pretty excited for 2021 based on what I've seen from Musgrave, he's a MASSIVE improvement over Baldwin. Look at what he's doing with almost ZERO time to install his offense.
Great write-up; it just took me 4 days before I could read ANYTHING about this game...
Two things; didn’t Nikko fumble a punt against USC two years ago which, mercifully, tumbled out of bounds? Either way, I don’t think the #1 punt returner should be expected to fumble a catchable punt as a matter of statistics, but maybe that’s why I’m not a football coach. And maybe I’m just feeling salty....
Secondly, re: the running game I was super impressed with us pitching the ball. I really felt like we were hitting holes quicker than w a handoff contributing to those long runs. Was that my imagination and is it not a new Musgrave-ism?
Someone else commented (sorry, cant recall who) on a previous article.. If you are to be a defensive minded football team, you'd damn better also have good special teams. It's so true, and this needs to be a major focus going forward, and it seems it will be according to coach's post game presser. Also, great write-up as usual, Nick -- thank you, sir.
Might have been me. Defensive minded coaches have to also have very good special teams because field position and field goals are even more important since you don’t have an offense that can score often and win a shoot out.
Wilcox is not on the hot seat and the Bears are just fine...thank you very much.
Musgrave is doing a good job, +300 yards of total offense in the first half against OSU and +200 yards rushing against the 'furd. So the scheme can & will work at Cal.
Defense held the 'furd to 300 total yards of offense. Aside from perhaps 3 plays Cal held OSU in check. Also we are seeing some great play from our DL, who will second me in nominating them as the standout unit this year? The D staff continues to develop players and will send a handful to the League this year. This is good for recruiting. Speaking of which, Browning is bringing in some talent on the DL which should provide Cal with some depth real soon.
OL continues to be the weakest link. But it appears we have some lads that can play. I would view it as a mistake if the "starters" are handed their job back once they clear quarantine. The "starters" weren't good last year and in the one game they played this year they stunk the place up. The staff will have to develop more options at QB. Garbers is being outplayed by true freshman and red shirt freshman in the conference. Some of that is attributable to a new scheme but some of his throws, four years into college, are not acceptable. Too many overthrows or thrown out of bounds.
ST's: welp in the 3rd qrtr after the blocked FG they successfully converted the extra point and thought they had the problem fixed. We now know that they did not. Ragle is paid for his recruiting chops, so it would be in Wilcox's best interest to look for an outside solution.
Let's keep this year's recruiting class intact and focus on OL & QB improvement/replacement.
Stay thirsty my friends, Go Bears!!
Also, I think Johnson and Tevis are going to anchor this defense for a couple/few years to come.. Hopefully we build/rebuild the other units just as well and eventually field something special on D (based on talent, not scheme). This is where the focus on tough, rangy, coachable players in recruiting the past few years should start to pay dividends.
A DL with 0 subs the entire game and respectable stats is almost unheard of (quality of opponent aside).. Damn fine job. DAMN FINE.
I'm still enthused about Wilcox, and think that better times are ahead. Regarding 2021... Are there roster reasons to have high expections? Do we have a lot of seniors on the team this year that will be difficult to replace? I know some may be granted an extra year due to covid, but if they graduate they may decline to play... I wonder how much the D misses Weaver. Speaking of the Weave, I hope he gets elevated from the Cardinals' practice squad.
Also, not sure if i'd be happier with a brilliant offensively minded coach, like the one they got over there at Mississippi State. But losing to Furd when they are in a relatively weak state is very frustrating. I hope we get to see late 2019 Garbers in late 2020.
I'm 50/50 on Wilcox at this point, but I will give him the benefit of the doubt and wait til after 2021 to have a strong opinion. But that said there are some disturbing warning signs that have appeared.
Like anyone who read one of christopher_h's LSJU offense previews from the last couple seasons, I was extra salty about that offensive PI. They're as bad about OPI as Oregon was with holding during the Kelly/Helfrich years.
So Santa Clara county has banned contact sports, what are the odds that Alameda does the same this week?
Quick typo help: you meant offense in "To the extent that Stanford’s defense got anything, it was mostly Davis Mills and his receivers finding soft spaces in Cal’s zone coverages." Great job and thank you for the write-up.
Thanks, fixed
Thanks Nick, great write up as usual. I think this is probably our last game of the season. I don’t see how we get permission to play another game in Berkeley so perhaps the Oregon game is moved to Eugene. This Cal team has way to much experience to go winless in Wilcoxs 4th season. Anyone giving Wilcox a pass for this season is drinking too much Kool Aid while watching Newsmax and One American News Network.
Three hundred yards in the first half against Oregon State and than mind numbing conservative play calling in the third quarter that lost them the game. And that guy they have over at Mississippi State went 29-14 in Pac 12 play over the last five seasons with two 9-win seasons and one 11-win season. Sign me up for that.
Thanks Nick. Tough to read, but I suppose that goes with the Cal fandom territory. Newellbany & I were chatting about the game, and were lamenting the RAZOR thin margin for error...this is a team that cannot afford to make the mistakes they are making and still win. Sigh.
Spot on write-up and and analysis. For whatever reason the team was unprepared to start the season. We faced the same problems as other teams in the Pac-12 have, but we seem to have been more adversely impacted. Like you say $3 million for a coach is significant and as a fanbase we deserve better than watching this s***show. I'm also concerned with a few other factoids such as why we have so little depth and LB and D-Line given this is Wilcox' fourth year, has the recruiting been that bad? Or attrition? Also Clark and Remigio have something like 3 catches on the season between them, so something obviously is wrong.
Not necessarily true that "we faced the same problems as other teams in the Pac-12 have." Cal is the only Pac-12 school in a city with it's own public health restrictions, which is what complicated our first two weeks of the season.
In an effort to comply with those stronger standards, the coaching staff is keeping units/teammates separate for as much as possible. Compound that with the new offensive staff and scheme and it's little wonder we've been messy out there (but still disappointing!).
I am with this Kevin guy. We have a myriad of factors compounding into a cumulative mess. The pandemic is number one, with the City of Berkeley adding considerably more stringent restrictions. Offensively, Cal has player continuity but a new OC and system with no OOC weeks to even provide an opportunity to figure things out. Defensively, Cal has system continuity but without key players Weaver, Bequette, Davis, Hawkins, and Maldonado. Regarding special teams, I do not know but suspect that these groups have had little practice time. That doesn't explain away muffed punts but could contribute to the blocks. I think trying to make any sense of out of this season is a waste of time.
Ya. I am in no way excusing the horrific play thus far, but it is fair to say that Cal has definitely faced more hurdles than most teams in this COVID nonsense.
We SHOULD be playing better, though, regardless
Yeah I agree with you and Nicks take that Wilcox and his staff need to be held accountable, especially since Wilcox wanted to play this season. It is my opinion that you don’t get to complain about wanting to play football during a pandemic and then also use the pandemic as an excuse for why your team is struggling.
If Wilcox doesn’t win a game in his 4th season with a veteran team next season needs to be a 9-10 win season and competing for the division lead. The Pac 12 is down in terms of talent and we have lost to three teams that are average to slightly below average.
This article isn’t helping the grieving process lol. But it is reassuring to see some of the stats.
2020 Resurrected Season: R.I.P.
Wilcox is gonna be a very good D coordinator for a big program in the future in the same way that Kiffin and Sarkisian got good coordinator jobs after their failed head coaching stints. But it is going to take a long time before he is shown the door at Cal. He just looks so good on the sidelines and says all the right things. I hope I am wrong on this, but his disconnect with offensive minded football doesn't seem fixable in an offensive minded conference.
His mind: "Offense is the enemy" Yeah, not sunshine, but you may be right.
I don't really have a good answer for you. Really kind of depends on how obvious you make the hold, as the bigger question is whether or not the ref notices. I think it's called every time a ref sees it, but there's plenty of incidental handling along the lines of that play that goes unnoticed.
I had a similar thought. But we had no timeouts left at that point. I'm speculating that we could have taken a delay of game penalty and tried to move the kicker back to counter some of what Stanford was doing. But given that it is a dead ball situation I am not sure it is even possible to do that. I googled the rulebook and couldn't find reference to this particular game situation. Does anybody know?
It also seems like the Stanford defensive formation was a questionable strategy from a sportsmanship perspective and borders on cheating.
Totally within the rules and not questionable at all. If we are going to talk about bordering on cheating what Wilcox did his first season against North Carolina to help run clock was a much more questionable from a sportsmanship strategy.
Cal had all three timeouts. I also don't see this as poor sportsmanship or cheating to overload one side of the line. Our coaches should have recognized this, called a timeout, and developed a counterattack as it clearly left Stanfurd weak on the other side of the formation.
But calling this cheating is like saying it's cheating to have five wide receivers or three tight ends on the field.
Well, I suppose we should have called a timeout and switched to trying for a 2-pt conversion, maybe running out the wildcat or having Chase roll out to the unbalanced side of the field. There is a good chance he could have run it into the end zone himself.
Actually if were Wilcox I would have called timeout, used the same formation and have the holder run it into the end zone on the left side. Dykes in his first game called for a fake field goal against NW that went for a TD. I was at the game and remember it vividly.
https://www.californiagoldenblogs.com/cal-vs-northwestern-2013/2013/8/31/4681604/cal-northwestern-2013-fake-field-goal
Oh. I thought we had no timeouts. Then why the heck did the coaches not call a timeout when they saw the Stanford formation?
There was enough time for a 3-and-out and a win. I'm thinking there was a little bit of tunnel vision going on here, with a dash of "we're not going to miss a PAT..."
Even if we had zero time outs, it's not cheating. It's part of the game.
I made the same mistake of thinking we were out of timeouts when we discussed this on the livestream.
Ive been wondering for years why nobody places the ball 10 yards back on extra points and short field goals
Or instead of taking a delay of game penalty just use one of our three timeouts!! How did he not use one of our three timeouts?!?! That is poor coaching from Wilcox in that situation.