Duke tried bringing more, faster pressure on JKS early on and JKS beat them with pinpoint NFL throws. Then they adjusted, dropped more into coverage, and only rushed 3 on a number of downs. They also left a spy on JKS to make sure to tackle him if he tried scrambling, especially to his left. They found they could still get pressure just by doing that and Cal's offense completely dried up. It doesn't matter how good a passer the QB is if the defense can drop 8 and get pressure with only 3 rushers.
The failures were primarily up front on the line, a common refrain under Wilcox. I do think this OL is a bit better than the last couple of years, but it's still not good.
Just to be clear, the pressures they brought would have worked against most O-Lines on most teams, not just ours. They got away with it because we have a freshman QB that couldn't negate their rush. It looks like they played press on our receivers as well, taking away the short/quick routes needed to beat this defensive strategy. We also had some dropped passes, again, that should have been easy catches..
Duke figured out early if they brought pressure against JKS they would force him into some freshman mistakes. They were right. We didn't bring pressure for the opposite reason, committing one or more additional players to the box would have allowed Mensah to chew us up bigger than he did. They played more guys up and in the box, stifled our run game and pressured JKS. I'll need t look at the tape, but it looks like they switched to that strategy in the 2nd quarter and when it worked they stayed with it.
Under Wilcox we've generally had good back 7s and at times have had good offensive backs and receivers, but we've never really had good lines on either side of the ball.
This isn't all on the OL. As Coach W explains, all the pieces need to work. When the QB holds the ball to long the OL will lose. When the receivers don't get open, the QB holds the ball too long and the OL loses. It's not one thing, but a combination of things. To be sure, our OL did not play well, but it was magnified by the other issues. Duke took away the short pass game and brought pressure.
Duke figured big risk but big reward. They figured they could force JKS into some freshman mistakes. They were right.
OK, yeah, I saw that our QB held the ball too long on several downs especially after the first interception. Couldn't find an open receiver, always looking for the play, reluctant to throw it away. He is super talented and is learning his trade.
Probably should add that one way to beat a spy is to throw the ball to a RB out of the backfield, but . . . well, we saw what happened with that. Duke was able to safely ignore our RBs as receivers, because they couldn't catch.
Might have tried running the ball more too, but there wasn't a ton of success with that either, and once Duke was up 2 scores and time was ticking down it wasn't viable anyway.
From what I here, Wilcox will be gone almost no matter what. You can root for us without worrying about him being retained unless we somehow go 9-3 or better
If we finish 6-6 (or worse)Wilcox is gone. I think the nightmare scenario is what happens if we go 7-5 and win a bowl game? Can the administration talk themselves into believing that was a successful season? Can we talk ourselves into believing that was a success?
I mean, does winning a low level bowl game the week before Xmas really even matter?
He made little effort to win the LA Bowl, using it more as a scrimmage, an awful look on national TV by a HC that has been unable to instill any type of winning culture.
We go 8-4 or 9-3. Wilcox gets hired by some other program. He probably sees the writing on the wall, or gets told by Rivera but gets to go out with dignity, we won't have to pay his buyout, and we get a new coach, and still enjoy many wins this season.
7-5 doesn't save Wilcox and if they decide to move on from him it will happen before a bowl game. HC market is too competitive and in the portal era you need to be recruiting your own roster. Can't afford to dawdle.
It's always interesting to see when the "Fire Wilcox" talk really heats up, and traditionally its not too far from mid season, which is right where we are.
My question is who is Cal going to get that will be an upgrade? I'm not immediately seeing any apparent candidates above the FCS level. Especially considering that the UCLA & Oklahoma St. & Va Tech jobs will all need to be filled. If the Belichick/NC experiment doesn't improve and fast, will that be another job that will absorb a quality candidate.
I've not heard any such talk, but one has to wonder how much more boat rowing Minnesota is willing to do if this season doesn't include a strong finish. That would be yet another better job than Cal.
I'm also concerned for Coach Sanders' health, and if he has to step aside for health reasons, there is another very attractive job that will open. I suspect that is what the New Mexico coach is angling for if neither UCLA nor Oklahoma St work out, even if it takes another year. Remember, the Mt West really opens up next year, and another strong season will only enhance his resume.
I've heard mention of the North Texas coach in other search pools too, and he won't need to settle for Cal if he can keep it rolling. Also, the route to the CFP is much clearer from there than it is at Cal, and in the cutthroat ACC, in the mean time.
Would Cal really turn to the Sac St coach this soon? It could be a shrewd move, but I get the sense a season or two more seasoning might be in order. SD St just turned over their job, so that's a very good program that's probably not a source for a couple of years.
Who else are the WtFC insiders hearing as a likely candidate to replace Wilcox? Elevate Harsin? I don't think it would be advisable to go with a coordinator unless they had considerable prior HC experience. That's proven to be a disastrous decision in some other places recently.
UCLA will be under a lot of pressure to take a big swing if they don’t get scammed by the Neuheisel kid. I don’t think the OSU job is an attractive one with their NIL issues. We don’t need a flashy hire, but we need the right one. These hires are a bit of a crap shoot even when it all looks like good fit on paper, but I at least feel confident Ron will take a good swing at it.
No bad employee is ever retained because you're worried that you can't find a worthy replacement. It's not even a consideration -- except among sports fans.
Yeah, I'm not at all worried that there won't be adequate alternatives on the market. The trick of course is identifying the right one(s). And the right one is often the less obvious ones (looking at you Coach Snyder and Tedford).
Historically, yes. But we also haven’t had an all-in chancellor and a football GM before either. Lyons has put a lot of eggs in this basket and I don’t think we have to worry about admin or bureaucratic interference holding us back from whichever direction RR wants to pursue.
I think most people know which direction this is headed.
Hopefully Ron has started a list of candidates already.
Imagine if this Wilcox decision had been made when it SHOULD have been (and likely would have been at a school with a competent AD): October 2022 following the loss at Colorado, the second straight season Wilcox lost to the worst Power Conference team in the country.
I see JKS as having a ceiling due to his side-arm delivery. He missed a couple of receivers (& threw a pick) due to it being really hard to accurately loft a medium-length pass with a soft arc in this style. Add to that an additional 15-20 knock-downs at the line of scrimmage per season, all of those become missed opportunitites. I don't see coaching changing his delivery, as he's probably thrown this way for 15 years, his accuracy may go out the window if they try to get his delivery more upright.
He has incredible accuracy and a rocket arm otherwise, but he also throws way too many 50-50 balls, and they stung big time on Saturday. That can be improved with coaching (and/or better O-line play ). But it reminds me of USC over the last decade where their QBs would throw the ball up for grabs, and their pre-NFL studs would just go up & take the ball, like Trond has had to do. SC's receivers translated better to the NFL than the QBs did.
Exactly. His sidearm delivery is going to hamper his performance in power type defenses. I think he's getting too much hype now and with this delivery in his throwing motion it'll be trouble for him throughout.
Great article -- spot on. I went to the BC game last weekend and it was just pure hairbrained, heartstopping fun. And also obvious it was a contest by two fairly bad teams. We have a few guys and a great qb but obviously not enough to compete with teams in the top 50. Sure, we may win a couple, but we're deeply flawed. And so... I look forward to those 1 or 2 surprises for the rest of the season and firmly believe it is time for a change up top. We need someone who will bring excitment and momentum to the program -- Wilcox has been around too long with an established at best-mid track record to do that, regardless of his ability to coach. Go Bears!
In BC and Duke, I am absolutely FLUMMOXED that Wilcox cannot find someone to kick the ball into the end zone? I'm so damn curious, I watched Wyoming/UNLV and some Fresno / Nevada only to find kickers there putting the ball AT LEAST on the 1!
I'll add that I would be very, very surprised if RR is not already creating a list of coaches he'd like to contact. Or has one of his team doing it for him. Maybe even talking to some people quietly. He's got a mandate, and the man is a no bullshit dude. He's not going to back down from his 8-9 wins statement, and he's not going to sit on his hands to make that decision in late December.
Perhaps Rivera can pull a miracle and find a Kenny Dillingham out there. What he has done at ASU is amazing. He cleaned up the Herm Edwards mess and took ASU to the College Football Playoffs in just his second season. There have to be a few more like that out there. Cal does not need a former pro coach and does not need a retread college coach.
You put them in the blender, like Mama Fratelli did with Chunk at the Lighthouse Lounge in Astoria when they’re trying to get answers as to Mikey & the crews whereabouts.
Nick, I think one thing that got somewhat overlooked because of the more spectacular plays involved in the SDSU debacle was that their QB was 15-18. A portent of evils to come. That made me fear what Mensah might do , and boy howdy were those fears realized.
I take your point, but if comfort with the staff and culture are important reasons for staying, then how do you explain Mendoza leaving for Indiana and Ott leaving for Oklahoma -- in the spring no less, after OK had all but finished spring ball and therefore put him at a disadvantage in learning a new system? I think firing mid-season under the circumstances following truly disastrous performances against SDSU and Duke would send a message that Cal is going to do whatever it takes to build a competitive football program.
Nice write up Nick. Again! When the game started I was encouraged when we were up 21-7 at the end of the first quarter. I was asking myself if the scouts were right about Duke. When Duke woke up, the scouts were right. Duke had more talent across the board. More talent in this case means more speed athleticism. Their receivers were flat out faster than ours and our DB's. Their O-Line was as big as ours and much more athletic. Their RB had breakaway speed that we don't have at the position. Their QB has more experience than JKS and chewed up our secondary.. And, their D-Line turned out to be as advertised after a slow start.
I don't blame Wilcox for the lack of talent. It's hard to recruit top talent when you don't have the money to sign top players on a team lacking a record of success. This is why Ron Rivera was brought in. If any of you watched his last interview he was clear that he is working on finding sponsors for players like JKS, so we can pay to keep him next year. With a QB like JKS we can lure some really good receivers who want to play for a QB like him, if we have the money. This means top OL will see the opportunity to play for a really good team.And it means that we can sign better defensive talent looking for a landing spot to contribute to a winning program.
It all starts with two things: keeping JKS and finding the money to bring in the talent. I know we are all tired of waiting, but hopefully Rivera will work some magic. Also, our easy season turned out not to be so easy. We should be able to pull out four more wins with our remaining season but a couple of them will be battles. Virginia and Louisville will be tough. If we win eight and a bowl game this season I'll be happy. But I want to see some big roster changes before Spring.
I think we have to assume that if nothing changes before the end of the season —and even if it does — any number of SEC or Big 10 teams with well organized and extremely well funded NIL syndicates are likely to get into a bidding war for JKS. For him to turn down literally millions of dollars to stay at Cal under the current program leadership seems almost laughable. If there’s any chance, albeit a slim one, of keeping JKS as the nucleus of a new team under what will have to be earthshaking (and very expensive) new leadership, Ron has to act now. Otherwise Cal will just continue to field “representative teams” like it has for the last 50 or more years.
I know this is hard for folks to understand given the prevailing poverty program narrative, but if JKS leaves--and he might--it's unlikely because we were outbid. It will be because JKS is not confident in the trajectory of the program. A large part of why JKS came here is because 1) opportunity to battle for QB1 and 2) because of his comfort with the staff and the culture. You may disagree, but changing the HC mid-year is more likely to signal program disfunction than it would that we're all of a sudden turning a corner. We fired Campinelli midseason, but that was largely because the players absolutely hated his guts at the same time he was exposed as coach unable to coach talent or coach with high expectations. By all accounts players like Wilcox and this staff and so they will need to execute a coaching change carefully if player retention is also a priorty.
MBB is unfortunately largely a lost cause for the foreseeable future. I've tried to let it go. If we can get football back into shape, then maybe there will be some momentum to fix MBB at some point. I also find the portal in MBB far more distracting as a fan than I do with football for some reason. Maybe simply because the rosters are smaller and the impact of losing guys is more severe.
Cal is capable of attracting (or ‘hatching’?) the occasional great player(s), but we have never had the ability or skill to attract a coach to put in place a program/system that raises the TEAM to the next level. Holmoe, Gilby, Mooch, Sonny, Wilcox? Tedford succeeded briefly with maybe the best quarterback and OL in recent memory but it wasn’t sustainable. Players will move and JKS will only be around a couple years at best. I really hope Ron Rivera will look with his deep understanding for a legacy coach, and that we can attract him to Berkeley, and we can use funds to pay that coach his worth and not use funds for buyouts. That is our best shot at success. Go Bears
I think Tedford's team/approach could have been sustainable, but he didn't get institutional support from the administration and eventually burned himself out (that might have happened anyway; he seems to have a really obsessive nature that can affect his health).
He got reasonable support from Barbour (honestly Barbour was way better than any AD we've had since), but the larger administration wasn't ready to do things like pay assistant coaches, help the players stay on top of classes, etc.
Reasonable support? She drove him out. She did not particularly like football and did not support him when he had one bad season. Where is she now? Penn State got rid of her for some reason. . .
Winebear your looking to the past instead of what college football is now. You manage these teams just like you manage a company. You perform you get rewarded, you underperform you get replaced. Its real simple. All these passionate feelings on keeping someone who does not win, I don't understand?
I agree it’s a new day with NIL. Good leadership will give you the option but not guarantee to succeed which is why I’m positive on Rivera vs Knowlton. Kids will still rotate (albeit more frequently now) based on $ that we all will need to pony up, but how and what you do with the talent is the coaching part you can control.
Duke tried bringing more, faster pressure on JKS early on and JKS beat them with pinpoint NFL throws. Then they adjusted, dropped more into coverage, and only rushed 3 on a number of downs. They also left a spy on JKS to make sure to tackle him if he tried scrambling, especially to his left. They found they could still get pressure just by doing that and Cal's offense completely dried up. It doesn't matter how good a passer the QB is if the defense can drop 8 and get pressure with only 3 rushers.
The failures were primarily up front on the line, a common refrain under Wilcox. I do think this OL is a bit better than the last couple of years, but it's still not good.
Just to be clear, the pressures they brought would have worked against most O-Lines on most teams, not just ours. They got away with it because we have a freshman QB that couldn't negate their rush. It looks like they played press on our receivers as well, taking away the short/quick routes needed to beat this defensive strategy. We also had some dropped passes, again, that should have been easy catches..
Duke figured out early if they brought pressure against JKS they would force him into some freshman mistakes. They were right. We didn't bring pressure for the opposite reason, committing one or more additional players to the box would have allowed Mensah to chew us up bigger than he did. They played more guys up and in the box, stifled our run game and pressured JKS. I'll need t look at the tape, but it looks like they switched to that strategy in the 2nd quarter and when it worked they stayed with it.
Under Wilcox we've generally had good back 7s and at times have had good offensive backs and receivers, but we've never really had good lines on either side of the ball.
This isn't all on the OL. As Coach W explains, all the pieces need to work. When the QB holds the ball to long the OL will lose. When the receivers don't get open, the QB holds the ball too long and the OL loses. It's not one thing, but a combination of things. To be sure, our OL did not play well, but it was magnified by the other issues. Duke took away the short pass game and brought pressure.
Duke figured big risk but big reward. They figured they could force JKS into some freshman mistakes. They were right.
It's on Harsin. If things aren't working, he should try something else.
OK, yeah, I saw that our QB held the ball too long on several downs especially after the first interception. Couldn't find an open receiver, always looking for the play, reluctant to throw it away. He is super talented and is learning his trade.
It's very hard to get good linemen through the portal. The best programs tend to recruit and develop those guys out of high school.
Wilcox has never had good recruiting rankings and we see the result of that.
Thank you sycasey for that very concise evaluation. It was hard to watch it happen while no adjustments were made on the other side of the ball.
Probably should add that one way to beat a spy is to throw the ball to a RB out of the backfield, but . . . well, we saw what happened with that. Duke was able to safely ignore our RBs as receivers, because they couldn't catch.
Might have tried running the ball more too, but there wasn't a ton of success with that either, and once Duke was up 2 scores and time was ticking down it wasn't viable anyway.
Yep. The impact of their adjustments sure happened fast.
To many defensive guys in the box after the beginning of the 2nd Quarter to successfully run the ball.
So Duke brought pressure, stacked the box, and covered receivers?
I know what the “right “ thing to believe is, but do I secretly wish for a 6-6 or worse season to push Wilcox out the door?
What’s best for this year may not be what’s best for our long term success.
Man this sucks.
From what I here, Wilcox will be gone almost no matter what. You can root for us without worrying about him being retained unless we somehow go 9-3 or better
9 wins is the benchmark for me. After this many years at the helm he should have been able to do that at least once.
Exactly.
Word is there are a number of situations where he moves on, regardless of the record.
If we finish 6-6 (or worse)Wilcox is gone. I think the nightmare scenario is what happens if we go 7-5 and win a bowl game? Can the administration talk themselves into believing that was a successful season? Can we talk ourselves into believing that was a success?
I mean, does winning a low level bowl game the week before Xmas really even matter?
He made little effort to win the LA Bowl, using it more as a scrimmage, an awful look on national TV by a HC that has been unable to instill any type of winning culture.
The best case scenario:
We go 8-4 or 9-3. Wilcox gets hired by some other program. He probably sees the writing on the wall, or gets told by Rivera but gets to go out with dignity, we won't have to pay his buyout, and we get a new coach, and still enjoy many wins this season.
7-5 doesn't save Wilcox and if they decide to move on from him it will happen before a bowl game. HC market is too competitive and in the portal era you need to be recruiting your own roster. Can't afford to dawdle.
It's always interesting to see when the "Fire Wilcox" talk really heats up, and traditionally its not too far from mid season, which is right where we are.
My question is who is Cal going to get that will be an upgrade? I'm not immediately seeing any apparent candidates above the FCS level. Especially considering that the UCLA & Oklahoma St. & Va Tech jobs will all need to be filled. If the Belichick/NC experiment doesn't improve and fast, will that be another job that will absorb a quality candidate.
I've not heard any such talk, but one has to wonder how much more boat rowing Minnesota is willing to do if this season doesn't include a strong finish. That would be yet another better job than Cal.
I'm also concerned for Coach Sanders' health, and if he has to step aside for health reasons, there is another very attractive job that will open. I suspect that is what the New Mexico coach is angling for if neither UCLA nor Oklahoma St work out, even if it takes another year. Remember, the Mt West really opens up next year, and another strong season will only enhance his resume.
I've heard mention of the North Texas coach in other search pools too, and he won't need to settle for Cal if he can keep it rolling. Also, the route to the CFP is much clearer from there than it is at Cal, and in the cutthroat ACC, in the mean time.
Would Cal really turn to the Sac St coach this soon? It could be a shrewd move, but I get the sense a season or two more seasoning might be in order. SD St just turned over their job, so that's a very good program that's probably not a source for a couple of years.
Who else are the WtFC insiders hearing as a likely candidate to replace Wilcox? Elevate Harsin? I don't think it would be advisable to go with a coordinator unless they had considerable prior HC experience. That's proven to be a disastrous decision in some other places recently.
UCLA will be under a lot of pressure to take a big swing if they don’t get scammed by the Neuheisel kid. I don’t think the OSU job is an attractive one with their NIL issues. We don’t need a flashy hire, but we need the right one. These hires are a bit of a crap shoot even when it all looks like good fit on paper, but I at least feel confident Ron will take a good swing at it.
No bad employee is ever retained because you're worried that you can't find a worthy replacement. It's not even a consideration -- except among sports fans.
Yeah, I'm not at all worried that there won't be adequate alternatives on the market. The trick of course is identifying the right one(s). And the right one is often the less obvious ones (looking at you Coach Snyder and Tedford).
Historically, though, that’s exactly what Cal would do….dawdle.
It will be interesting to see if RR is strong and assertive and moves with urgency and confidence. Here’s hoping.
Historically, yes. But we also haven’t had an all-in chancellor and a football GM before either. Lyons has put a lot of eggs in this basket and I don’t think we have to worry about admin or bureaucratic interference holding us back from whichever direction RR wants to pursue.
I agree.
But still, it’s Cal….I’m hopeful, and honestly think the Wilcox decision has already been made.
Awesome article Nick.
I think most people know which direction this is headed.
Hopefully Ron has started a list of candidates already.
Imagine if this Wilcox decision had been made when it SHOULD have been (and likely would have been at a school with a competent AD): October 2022 following the loss at Colorado, the second straight season Wilcox lost to the worst Power Conference team in the country.
I see JKS as having a ceiling due to his side-arm delivery. He missed a couple of receivers (& threw a pick) due to it being really hard to accurately loft a medium-length pass with a soft arc in this style. Add to that an additional 15-20 knock-downs at the line of scrimmage per season, all of those become missed opportunitites. I don't see coaching changing his delivery, as he's probably thrown this way for 15 years, his accuracy may go out the window if they try to get his delivery more upright.
He has incredible accuracy and a rocket arm otherwise, but he also throws way too many 50-50 balls, and they stung big time on Saturday. That can be improved with coaching (and/or better O-line play ). But it reminds me of USC over the last decade where their QBs would throw the ball up for grabs, and their pre-NFL studs would just go up & take the ball, like Trond has had to do. SC's receivers translated better to the NFL than the QBs did.
Exactly. His sidearm delivery is going to hamper his performance in power type defenses. I think he's getting too much hype now and with this delivery in his throwing motion it'll be trouble for him throughout.
Great article -- spot on. I went to the BC game last weekend and it was just pure hairbrained, heartstopping fun. And also obvious it was a contest by two fairly bad teams. We have a few guys and a great qb but obviously not enough to compete with teams in the top 50. Sure, we may win a couple, but we're deeply flawed. And so... I look forward to those 1 or 2 surprises for the rest of the season and firmly believe it is time for a change up top. We need someone who will bring excitment and momentum to the program -- Wilcox has been around too long with an established at best-mid track record to do that, regardless of his ability to coach. Go Bears!
I can’t even remember the last season where we had good OL. It wasn’t even good with sonny
Probably 2008, but that proves your point, I think. 2008 was the season that ended with the Emerald Bowl in SF vs. Miami.
Probably the 2011-12 timeframe, with Mitchell Schwartz and a few others that got drafted and play in the league.
Brian Schwenke, Matt Summers Gavin, Dominic Galas were all seniors in 2012. Mitchell Schwartz graduated in 2011 so I would say 2011 was pretty good.
How the hell did Abram Murray even hurt himself? Was it during a game?
And since Murray, being a kicker, likely has the dreaded “lower body injury”, that means we may never see him alive again, correct?
At what point do we put his photo on a milk carton?
In BC and Duke, I am absolutely FLUMMOXED that Wilcox cannot find someone to kick the ball into the end zone? I'm so damn curious, I watched Wyoming/UNLV and some Fresno / Nevada only to find kickers there putting the ball AT LEAST on the 1!
I mean, with Wilcox’s history of complete and utter ineptitude with special teams and the kicking game, nothing should really surprise anymore. ;-)
I'll add that I would be very, very surprised if RR is not already creating a list of coaches he'd like to contact. Or has one of his team doing it for him. Maybe even talking to some people quietly. He's got a mandate, and the man is a no bullshit dude. He's not going to back down from his 8-9 wins statement, and he's not going to sit on his hands to make that decision in late December.
Perhaps Rivera can pull a miracle and find a Kenny Dillingham out there. What he has done at ASU is amazing. He cleaned up the Herm Edwards mess and took ASU to the College Football Playoffs in just his second season. There have to be a few more like that out there. Cal does not need a former pro coach and does not need a retread college coach.
Another 6-6 year would make this our 16th consecutive year without a winning record in conference.
Also, Nick, you probably shouldn't be putting whole tomatoes down your garbage disposal :-D
Exactly.
You put them in the blender, like Mama Fratelli did with Chunk at the Lighthouse Lounge in Astoria when they’re trying to get answers as to Mikey & the crews whereabouts.
Cal is Cal, and will always be Cal. I've resigned myself to this sad reality.
Nick, I think one thing that got somewhat overlooked because of the more spectacular plays involved in the SDSU debacle was that their QB was 15-18. A portent of evils to come. That made me fear what Mensah might do , and boy howdy were those fears realized.
I take your point, but if comfort with the staff and culture are important reasons for staying, then how do you explain Mendoza leaving for Indiana and Ott leaving for Oklahoma -- in the spring no less, after OK had all but finished spring ball and therefore put him at a disadvantage in learning a new system? I think firing mid-season under the circumstances following truly disastrous performances against SDSU and Duke would send a message that Cal is going to do whatever it takes to build a competitive football program.
Nice write up Nick. Again! When the game started I was encouraged when we were up 21-7 at the end of the first quarter. I was asking myself if the scouts were right about Duke. When Duke woke up, the scouts were right. Duke had more talent across the board. More talent in this case means more speed athleticism. Their receivers were flat out faster than ours and our DB's. Their O-Line was as big as ours and much more athletic. Their RB had breakaway speed that we don't have at the position. Their QB has more experience than JKS and chewed up our secondary.. And, their D-Line turned out to be as advertised after a slow start.
I don't blame Wilcox for the lack of talent. It's hard to recruit top talent when you don't have the money to sign top players on a team lacking a record of success. This is why Ron Rivera was brought in. If any of you watched his last interview he was clear that he is working on finding sponsors for players like JKS, so we can pay to keep him next year. With a QB like JKS we can lure some really good receivers who want to play for a QB like him, if we have the money. This means top OL will see the opportunity to play for a really good team.And it means that we can sign better defensive talent looking for a landing spot to contribute to a winning program.
It all starts with two things: keeping JKS and finding the money to bring in the talent. I know we are all tired of waiting, but hopefully Rivera will work some magic. Also, our easy season turned out not to be so easy. We should be able to pull out four more wins with our remaining season but a couple of them will be battles. Virginia and Louisville will be tough. If we win eight and a bowl game this season I'll be happy. But I want to see some big roster changes before Spring.
Go Bears!
I think we have to assume that if nothing changes before the end of the season —and even if it does — any number of SEC or Big 10 teams with well organized and extremely well funded NIL syndicates are likely to get into a bidding war for JKS. For him to turn down literally millions of dollars to stay at Cal under the current program leadership seems almost laughable. If there’s any chance, albeit a slim one, of keeping JKS as the nucleus of a new team under what will have to be earthshaking (and very expensive) new leadership, Ron has to act now. Otherwise Cal will just continue to field “representative teams” like it has for the last 50 or more years.
I know this is hard for folks to understand given the prevailing poverty program narrative, but if JKS leaves--and he might--it's unlikely because we were outbid. It will be because JKS is not confident in the trajectory of the program. A large part of why JKS came here is because 1) opportunity to battle for QB1 and 2) because of his comfort with the staff and the culture. You may disagree, but changing the HC mid-year is more likely to signal program disfunction than it would that we're all of a sudden turning a corner. We fired Campinelli midseason, but that was largely because the players absolutely hated his guts at the same time he was exposed as coach unable to coach talent or coach with high expectations. By all accounts players like Wilcox and this staff and so they will need to execute a coaching change carefully if player retention is also a priorty.
Cal FB absolutely has $. They don’t have blue blood, tOSU/Oregon $, but Cal NIL is competitive.
MBB is unfortunately a different story altogether from a revenue sports standpoint.
MBB is unfortunately largely a lost cause for the foreseeable future. I've tried to let it go. If we can get football back into shape, then maybe there will be some momentum to fix MBB at some point. I also find the portal in MBB far more distracting as a fan than I do with football for some reason. Maybe simply because the rosters are smaller and the impact of losing guys is more severe.
Cal is capable of attracting (or ‘hatching’?) the occasional great player(s), but we have never had the ability or skill to attract a coach to put in place a program/system that raises the TEAM to the next level. Holmoe, Gilby, Mooch, Sonny, Wilcox? Tedford succeeded briefly with maybe the best quarterback and OL in recent memory but it wasn’t sustainable. Players will move and JKS will only be around a couple years at best. I really hope Ron Rivera will look with his deep understanding for a legacy coach, and that we can attract him to Berkeley, and we can use funds to pay that coach his worth and not use funds for buyouts. That is our best shot at success. Go Bears
I think Tedford's team/approach could have been sustainable, but he didn't get institutional support from the administration and eventually burned himself out (that might have happened anyway; he seems to have a really obsessive nature that can affect his health).
Tedford has won more games than any other coach in Cal history and he got not support from the AD, Sandy Barbour.
He got reasonable support from Barbour (honestly Barbour was way better than any AD we've had since), but the larger administration wasn't ready to do things like pay assistant coaches, help the players stay on top of classes, etc.
Reasonable support? She drove him out. She did not particularly like football and did not support him when he had one bad season. Where is she now? Penn State got rid of her for some reason. . .
She retired in 2022 on her own volition.
Winebear your looking to the past instead of what college football is now. You manage these teams just like you manage a company. You perform you get rewarded, you underperform you get replaced. Its real simple. All these passionate feelings on keeping someone who does not win, I don't understand?
I agree it’s a new day with NIL. Good leadership will give you the option but not guarantee to succeed which is why I’m positive on Rivera vs Knowlton. Kids will still rotate (albeit more frequently now) based on $ that we all will need to pony up, but how and what you do with the talent is the coaching part you can control.