I considered coming to this game but feel like a jinx. Came to Auburn at Cal last year and felt like the misses FGs were my fault because I was there….. if is come to this one I’d assume it was my fault again
Just had a conversation about whether Cal could blow a 20 point lead and the answer is "yes but Cal football is an idea and you cannot kill a revolution"
We do not condone doxxing of individuals in the athletic department or people doing their jobs. Taking any personal shots at individuals with no factual information is against our community rules. We will be deleting some of these posts and if they continue to do so you will be warned and/or banned as part of our community agreement.
I didn't find those posts to be doxxing AT ALL, but a an appropriately measured call for fans to vocalize their concerns in a respectful and polite manner. Still, I can understand WFC concern about fans taking action based on one person's point of view and posting email contacts for folks. That could get out of hand quickly, even if our mic man did not intend it this way.
At the risk of going GB 49 here: I wonder if WFC would consider a post addressing this concerns here? I don't know how staff at WFC envisions itself, but seems like y'all have a role as the 4th Estate. Its been a while, but I even recall long-form journalism back in the CGB days. Either way, it could help us all to know how the AD Department envisions the fan experience at CMS and how they plan to bring a modern CFB experience while balancing tradition (and ensuring the hype man knows basics of the job). Seems like a legitimate concern that many folks care about and that WFC may be poised to address.
I think the second part is a very good question to have defn a topic for an article I’ll have in the docket for after the season is over. Appreciate your understanding of the situation. And you nailed the biggest reason from our end of moderating here. Yes the email addresses are public but we also didn’t want the site and this article be the staging ground for a bombardment of emails to individuals when we don’t know the full extent of the story. And as you said. It could end up being snowballing a lot quicker and into something that was not intended. So appreciate your understanding. And hopefully everyone else understands as well.
Understand about being careful re doxxing concerns, but why also remove the original mic man post? I was glad to hear from current students on this site, particularly one with unique insights on an issue that has been of concern for many W4C commentators.
Hey Macarolina, It was me who took down my original post. (Although my comment and other replies were deleted by the mods) Upon further reflection there is a more professional way to handle my/our issues with my superiors, even though I still stand by everything I said in the post. They are good people who are just trying to do their jobs and I don't want to spread negativity on this forum. If my negotiations with them don't improve in the coming weeks I will find a more professional and organized way to ask the Cal community for help.
Since my original comment was deleted, I want to once again thank you all collectively for the spirit and enthusiasm you bring to games! I can respect your desire to handle this internally, but should you get nowhere (as is many of our experience with Cal Athletics), I hope you do appeal to the alumni and fanbase for help. It is patently absurd that negotiation is needed to keep our traditions alive. Especially in light of the fact that the new f$&@ing ad we play on tv broadcasts is narrated by perhaps the greatest mic “man” to ever grace Strawberry Canyon. I just do not understand where the disconnect is down there. I get that the current landscape of college athletics requires more commercialization of the game experience, but this can be done in a way that doesn’t destroy tradition. The band and the mic men are two of our greatest traditions, and minimizing/diminishing/phasing out either of them would be a criminal offense. This is a hill I will die on.
Many thanks for the reply. Glad you will still pursue the student cause, we all wish you well and want to see the students maximizing their fun and contributions to game days. I hope we can all find a professional yet persuasive arguments to make desired improvements to the stadium experience.
Thanks my guy. Appreciate the mature response here to come back and explain the decisions and own up to it. Mucho respect. And nothing but love from my end.
What seemed to me like an increasingly canned music emphasis at games over the past two years was revealed by the current mic man indeed to be part of a systematic plan by the Assistant Athletic Director in Charge of Marketing to phase out the student yell leader altogether, and to decrease the role of the Cal Band as a featured component during the Golden Bears’ football games (especially between plays), in favor of piped in, extremely high volume, amplified pulsations, curated by a hype man/DJ who is a paid professional. This person was specifically hired to “professionalize” the game day experience, said the mic man who provided his thoughts on the matter (WFC handle of this brave student is abbreviated TOTRS). I just edited this to reflect that his post was not blocked. He removed it himself. Anyway, in the original post he was just trying to give folks a glimpse of what is going on, from his perspective. His post was a voice from the inside, shall we say, and he was respectful about it. I didn’t think it was a hit job, though he did name the person whose plan is being implemented. I am grateful to TOTRS for speaking up.
I don’t know that appealing to email those who are destroying important traditions is doxxing. Their email addresses are publicly listed on the athletic department’s website, so nobody has outed anything that isn’t publicly available. And these are people that some of us have tried to have respectful interactions with and have been completely blown off. I know you guys need to keep press credentials and maintain a positive relationship with the athletic department, so I get it, but at the same time, alums, fans, and donors deserve a voice. Our athletic department is largely comprised of people from outside the “Cal family” that they love to highlight. Their words are hollow and they deserve to hear about it.
Cal fans: One positive that came out of Saturday's gut-punch of a game was that the entire country knows that we have passionate, enthusiastic fans who absolutely love their Golden Bears. I hope that Saturday's game and ESPN Game Day will go a long way towards dispelling the notion that we are somehow a college football wasteland where nobody gives a shit. Memorial was rocking! Hell, I was getting "GO BEARS!" before the game when I was out walking my dog! We absolutely have to beat Pitt this Saturday but I think that the entire team, coaches and players, are going to learn from Saturday's experience and be better off for it. Cal still has a chance to make its mark on college football this season. GO BEARS!!!!
At the end of the game I was disappointed. But I also chose to see the positives.
* That first half (+ the pick 6) was the most fun I've had at a Cal game in a long time. You could see our big plays unfold. The stadium was full. The crowd around me was electric. Kudos to the OC, for drawing up some good misdirection (4th and 1 for the TD), Mendoza for some big passes downfield and plays at the line of scrimmage that busted open for huge gains.
* At the beginning of the season, I had this as a loss. Going into the game, I was worried we'd have a let down game -- we usually don't do well after bye's. And I know how electric Cam Ward can be. I knew we had a chance to win but it would mean us playing our best and them playing below their level. That's what I saw for the first half.
* Is it better to lose a close one or to get stomped? I think it's better to lose a close one. It's more heartbreaking but less demoralizing. It just feels like we're on the cusp when your team can play like this against a top 10 team. Getting stomped just means we're a bad team.
We've had 2 close losses, this one worse than the last. But we've still got a good team -- I think one good enough to win out from here. As they say, you go from losing big to losing close ones to winning close ones to winning big. I think we'll have a 1 or 2 more close ones for the rest of the season and I won't be surprised if we won those.
The only thing that's mitigating my enormous disappointment is the fact Miami might have the best player in the country in Cam Ward and the 4th quarter he put on was an absolute clinic.
Respectfully, you cannot rely on the refs to bail you out on a single play in order to win the game. Yes, that play was textbook targeting - lowering the crown of the helmet and launching. But that ignored targeting call was not what got our team outscored 29-3 over the final 18ish minutes. It wasn't why our offensive line got absolutely no push and could not establish a running game and sustain drives. it was not why coverage breakdowns gave up massive plays down the stretch. Yeah, we get the call, they have to burn their three timeouts and we're close to field goal range and likely win, but you just can't rely on that.
The thing that’s frustrating to me is that people are going to use this gut-puncher to add to the Fire Wilcox pile when, in this case I feel like coaching was a big reason we were in a position to win in the first place. We can criticize them for not doing a good enough job on bringing in/developing O-line recruits, but then again, if it was easy, every school would be doing it. Decision-making wise, i thought the coaches called a pretty good game. They can’t play defense in lieu of exhausted players and they can’t go on the field and block in lieu of an overmatched offensive line. A blown coverage on Miami’s best receiver at literally the worst time possible in the entire game sucks, but you could also argue they shouldn’t have been in that position to begin with if that stupid targeting non call wasn’t a thing. You shouldn’t have to depend on the refs, but if you’re an inferior team and you did enough to squeak by, the refs shouldn’t be giving the other team a helping hand either.
I’ve been here for long time so trust me, I get it. Im just curious what the alternative is. If you could promise me the next guy has the ability to magically pull 4 and 5* linemen out of his butthole on command that won’t turn around and transfer to greener pastures and on an equitable budget, then by all means, let’s make some wholesale changes. Otherwise we’re just going to keep having the same problems no matter who our coach is and we’re never going to pay people enough to poach the all world talents from other schools or out-NIL anyone else. College football is a completely different animal than it was even 5 or 6 years ago. I can’t even fathom trying to deal with the actual scheming/Xs and Os stuff let alone having to navigate the change from the world of college football with no transfer portal/No NIL to all of those things and the People’s Republic of Berkeley Covid stuff in the very middle of all that. I guess what I’m saying is, I think judging his tenure as a single linear period of time is different than how I would judge 7 consecutive years of Sonny Dykes, or Tedford or something. If his teams were quitting on him or our players were flunking out in addition to the mediocre overall record I’d be on board. I’m not there, yet.
I think Cal’s future coaches they should look into are:
Bret Beliema (Ilinois)
Curt Cignetti (Indiana)
D’Anton Lynn (DC USC)*
I believe these coaches are within reach for Cal’s donor budget and undstand the balance of performing well and academic compliance. I would love to see what they can do with Cal’s roster composition. As I stated before, year 8 is YEAR 8! “There is no tomorrow,” if Cal does not make waves before the next round of realignment and future power 2 conference; they’re out! I like JW as a personality and leader but the quant data displays he is not the person that will lead this program to the promise land. This is Silicon Valley after all, I want to see positive disruption for the better, why not see what another talent could do at the helm, unless you’re okay with a mediocre program and being outside looking in.
*this pick is more wishful thinking, he seems to be a wizard in tranforming defenses overnight
Your comment is the first one I’ve read in multiple comment sections to actually suggest actual replacements so thank you. I’m not as plugged into the greater college football universe and I genuinely don’t know who the up and comers are that would also be good fits for Cal’s unique program quirks.
Doc, these are good points. And great respect. I honestly believe we all want what’s best for Cal.
But, as a loud advocate for, and ardent supporter of, a change in leadership atop the Cal football program, here’s my thing: Cal simply does not have time to wait to see if Wilcox will EVER get us over the hump. It’s been 7.5 years and that’s more than enough time for a Head Coach to show what he’s got. I mean, he has had so many opportunities to deliver that signature win or season, and has so often come up short, and oftentimes painfully. Hell, even his wins are painful to watch. COVID was 4 seasons ago. It’s an unfortunate byproduct of the sheer lunacy that college athletics has become, but it is what it is.
Jeff Tedford inherited Holmoe’s utter disaster of a roster and built Cal into a top-10 team in 3 seasons. Winner’s win…even at Cal. Wilcox is 18-games below .500 against conference foes…18. That’s just brutal, and all we have heard is a parade of excuses for why he can’t win. Lack of institutional support, COVID, NIL, etc. How about the eye test though?
We have seen what a change in leadership atop the Men’s Basketball program has done. We absolutely have momentum - the pup and I were at GameDay and it was f-ing amazing. Just awesome. Saturday could very well have been the greatest day in program history - it was still a game-changer.
Losing at Florida State and home to a top-10 Miami don’t cost you your job. But it’s more than just 1 or 2 games…it’s a pattern. If you want to remain a Power 4 school, you may not have more time.
Sadly, this is all right on, and I absolutely love Wilcox as a person. He’s the perfect leader for our program… except for the winning part. The record, especially the conference record, is just not good enough. The florida state and Miami losses were just absolutely soul crushing. Now all this to say, if he can really get us going from here and get to 8 wins, I would advocate letting him continue trying to build. But the expectations just have to be higher.
Agree. I think Wilcox is a great dude. He gets Cal. He wants to be here. The players seem to like him. I mean, he checks SO many boxes. So many. This is not a Mark Fox or Wyking Jones situation where these detestable human beings were in charge of things.
And honestly, I am really hoping things perhaps eventually click. Maybe a switch is flipped with this O-line and they gel and start opening up some holes. That could change the equation. I am just not confident.
It’s just times are different…we do not have the luxury to wait out a Rich Brooks-type of evolution here over the course of a decade and a half. The O put 31 points on the board…Wilcox simply has to win that game.
I love Wilcox and I want him to have success at Cal. I am not saying "fire Wilcox" but honestly, what P4 program has a HC for 8 years and has a losing record, and only one winning season? Isn't 8 years really long for someone who hasn't had much success? Just wondering.
But Wilcox has gotten a lot of institutional support and NIL money. I think the portal and NIL have been a net positive for Cal and Wilcox. I can only think of maybe 2 guys who we lost to the portal who were starters, a OG to Oklahoma and a WR to ucla. Other than that Wilcox and Cal have dependent heavily on portal transfers these last 3 seasons and have gotten a lot of starters from the portal, while losing very few to it.
Yes, I couldn’t remember their names off the top of my head and didn’t feel like searching for them. Yeah, we lost some guys but every program loses someone each year. Losing only a couple of contributors in today’s NIL/portal CFB, IMO, isn’t that bad. How many transfers have we picked up that are starters or contributors?
Wilcox’s HS recruiting has been underwhelming but I do think he has done a very good job in the portal, both retaining players and adding players through it.
It’s my understanding that linemen are, now, at a premium, with some getting 6 figure NIL deals. So, it’s all of the schools that have been standing flat-footed and not getting up to speed on this new CFB landscape.
Berkeley on October 5th 2024 was a magical time and place to be a part of..
There was madness in any direction, at any hour. If not across the Bay, then up the Golden Gate or down 101 to Los Altos or La Honda...
You could strike sparks anywhere. There was a fantastic universal sense that whatever we were doing was right, that we were winning...
And that, I think, was the handle-- that sense of inevitable victory over the forces of Old and Evil. Not in any mean or military sense; we didn’t need that. Our energy would simply prevail. There was no point in fighting—on our side or theirs. We had all the momentum; we were riding the crest of a high and beautiful wave. . . .
So now, less than 3 days later, you can go up on a steep hill in Las Vegas and look West, and with the right kind of eyes you can almost see the high-water mark-- that place where the wave finally broke and rolled back.”
I can barely stomach to comment. This is beautifully written and has the appropriate point of view. Disbelief. I was there for Game Day. It was grand. I hung out in Berkeley all day, soaking up campus life. I expected us to lose, but that first half filled me and everyone around me with the hopes of an upset.
The moment we started going 3 and out in the second half I feared we were doomed.
This is such a Charlie Brown moment. To me, it's mostly on Bloesch. It was like the Bowl game. Our offensive line is horrendous. I mean, holy shit, how can every team in America seemingly have a decent offensive line and we can't?!?! I saw Nick Morrow start at left tackle for all of one series. I saw Mendoza running for his life all game. We COULD NOT RUN the ball. Then, we score all of 3 points in the entire second half?!?! What the hell with the play calling? Better football minds than mine can diagnose if Miami did anything differently on defense, but why did we stop calling effective pass plays? We cannot expect to win games with an offensive line this bad. It's horrendous. How I wish for the days of yore. Ultimately, it's on Wilcox, but Bloesch's job is coach and recruit the line. Results don't look good.
Clutching defeat from the jaws of victory. So Wilcox Cal. Losing to both Florida schools for essentially the same reasons? So Wilcox and Cal. I honor the players effort. But it's obvious that if we had Dykes or Tedford or just a solid D1 line and play calling, we are undefeated right now.
I don't know. Maybe I'm being impatient or unrealistic. But he's been our O line coach for two cycles now. With NIL money. I can't help but expect a better performance. I can't help but believe if Jim Mahaliczek (sp?) was our O line coach we'd have a way more capable line.
I guess this is where I need input from people who know and understand the micro levels of college football better than me. Tedford’s early O-lines were forces of nature who imposed their will on opposing defenses. I was at Cal 2004 and 2005, but 06 and 07 had good lines too. I can still remember what it was like where the defense knew what play they were going to run and it didn’t matter because they would still blow them off the line of scrimmage and push them backwards. They didn’t stay that way though, so what changed? I know Coach M left in 08 but then came back in 2011 I think? I have to confess I dipped out of my football obsession during Tedford’s last few years and the Dykes years just from where I was at in life with marriage and small kids and stuff, so that whole period of time is a giant gap in information. What worked so well in Tedford’s earlier years that couldn’t be sustained in the later years? I also remember the academics were in the shitter too.
I think the Transfer Portal helps us with the academics, since, even if the recruit is at a diploma mill, we only need a year or two of their eligibility, sort of a controlled fall, if they can handle the academics. Cynical, yeah, but that's the game and you can't tell me that Alabama's team is full of scholars. We need to play the same game as others. Hobbling ourselves does not help.
Yeah, the Tedford years were this glimmer of hope. We looked back on track to be a serious program, then it's been the rollercoaster since then. I think Wilcox finally has us on track, again, but, obviously, winning the line of scrimmage needs to be the foundation.
Cal's recruiting competes with schools with low academic standards for football players. I know of one "diploma mill" whose FB players take their classes from the football coaches. Cal and furd can only recruit kids from high school who have 3 point or higher GPA's. Those we want from the portal also have to qualify academically. Would a new head coach change this?
Exactly. Furd is struggling with The Portal because of this. We have a more narrow field to recruit and, honestly, we need mouth-breathing brutes on both sides of the lines, but it's tough to find such brutes that can meet our academics. Couple that with the rarity of linemen, we need to be creative.
I know you're a coach. I thought occurred to me. Competent line coaches could do a possible start-up gig of coaching overlooked or raw line talent. I know Bloesch gives us a Texas connection. I was raised in the Central Valley. Carlton is from my hometown. I can say with certainty that there's big beefy farm boys out there that may have played a bit, but skipped college.
Strength? Go watch a Portuguese bull fight. One event is where men form a line and wrestle a bull. They may have skipped college because they speak English as a second language.
All of our problems come down to controlling the LOS. Finding and developing line talent should be a priority. As for academic standards, tutoring and select classes, one would hope is available. And, maybe an increase in academic exceptions would help.
I agree with everything you said in the fan culture section. Chants were basically non existent due to the DJ playing music over anything and everything. The sound system for the mic man isn’t good at all so even when they tried, you couldn’t hear them clearly or at all. Granted we had a lot of quick strikes and not long sustained drives so we couldn’t really get any “roll on you Bears…” chants going. I don’t mind the DJ/music but it was just too much and overwhelming at times. They kept playing it while we were on offense and huddled up, which made no sense at all. The band hardly played due to the DJ music. If this is how gameday experience in Memorial is going to be going forward, I would rather just stay home and watch from my TV.
I sit in section T every game, right next to the students, on the aisle. I like the DJ music, but it is a bit too loud and played too often with no context to the game. It needs to be choreographed better with what is actually happening in the game on the field. The connectivity is lacking. The students are amusing, great, and wonderful, mostly. But they could use more direction to channel that young energy. Football isn't in their blood, being a fan takes some practice, when to make noise when to not. And yes, that mic man's system sucks. I hope they come back for the NC State game on the 19th.
Another exhausting game with a nasty outcome, saw it coming early in the 4th Q, and there it was. Gotta move forward; Pitt is a good team, better get ready. Go Bears!
I considered coming to this game but feel like a jinx. Came to Auburn at Cal last year and felt like the misses FGs were my fault because I was there….. if is come to this one I’d assume it was my fault again
Saw this on Twitter...
Just had a conversation about whether Cal could blow a 20 point lead and the answer is "yes but Cal football is an idea and you cannot kill a revolution"
I think that was by Spencer of the Shutdown Fullcast. He’s great. Defn loves us.
Regarding the thread that is happening below.
We do not condone doxxing of individuals in the athletic department or people doing their jobs. Taking any personal shots at individuals with no factual information is against our community rules. We will be deleting some of these posts and if they continue to do so you will be warned and/or banned as part of our community agreement.
I didn't find those posts to be doxxing AT ALL, but a an appropriately measured call for fans to vocalize their concerns in a respectful and polite manner. Still, I can understand WFC concern about fans taking action based on one person's point of view and posting email contacts for folks. That could get out of hand quickly, even if our mic man did not intend it this way.
At the risk of going GB 49 here: I wonder if WFC would consider a post addressing this concerns here? I don't know how staff at WFC envisions itself, but seems like y'all have a role as the 4th Estate. Its been a while, but I even recall long-form journalism back in the CGB days. Either way, it could help us all to know how the AD Department envisions the fan experience at CMS and how they plan to bring a modern CFB experience while balancing tradition (and ensuring the hype man knows basics of the job). Seems like a legitimate concern that many folks care about and that WFC may be poised to address.
I think the second part is a very good question to have defn a topic for an article I’ll have in the docket for after the season is over. Appreciate your understanding of the situation. And you nailed the biggest reason from our end of moderating here. Yes the email addresses are public but we also didn’t want the site and this article be the staging ground for a bombardment of emails to individuals when we don’t know the full extent of the story. And as you said. It could end up being snowballing a lot quicker and into something that was not intended. So appreciate your understanding. And hopefully everyone else understands as well.
Understand about being careful re doxxing concerns, but why also remove the original mic man post? I was glad to hear from current students on this site, particularly one with unique insights on an issue that has been of concern for many W4C commentators.
Hey Macarolina, It was me who took down my original post. (Although my comment and other replies were deleted by the mods) Upon further reflection there is a more professional way to handle my/our issues with my superiors, even though I still stand by everything I said in the post. They are good people who are just trying to do their jobs and I don't want to spread negativity on this forum. If my negotiations with them don't improve in the coming weeks I will find a more professional and organized way to ask the Cal community for help.
Since my original comment was deleted, I want to once again thank you all collectively for the spirit and enthusiasm you bring to games! I can respect your desire to handle this internally, but should you get nowhere (as is many of our experience with Cal Athletics), I hope you do appeal to the alumni and fanbase for help. It is patently absurd that negotiation is needed to keep our traditions alive. Especially in light of the fact that the new f$&@ing ad we play on tv broadcasts is narrated by perhaps the greatest mic “man” to ever grace Strawberry Canyon. I just do not understand where the disconnect is down there. I get that the current landscape of college athletics requires more commercialization of the game experience, but this can be done in a way that doesn’t destroy tradition. The band and the mic men are two of our greatest traditions, and minimizing/diminishing/phasing out either of them would be a criminal offense. This is a hill I will die on.
Many thanks for the reply. Glad you will still pursue the student cause, we all wish you well and want to see the students maximizing their fun and contributions to game days. I hope we can all find a professional yet persuasive arguments to make desired improvements to the stadium experience.
Thanks my guy. Appreciate the mature response here to come back and explain the decisions and own up to it. Mucho respect. And nothing but love from my end.
What seemed to me like an increasingly canned music emphasis at games over the past two years was revealed by the current mic man indeed to be part of a systematic plan by the Assistant Athletic Director in Charge of Marketing to phase out the student yell leader altogether, and to decrease the role of the Cal Band as a featured component during the Golden Bears’ football games (especially between plays), in favor of piped in, extremely high volume, amplified pulsations, curated by a hype man/DJ who is a paid professional. This person was specifically hired to “professionalize” the game day experience, said the mic man who provided his thoughts on the matter (WFC handle of this brave student is abbreviated TOTRS). I just edited this to reflect that his post was not blocked. He removed it himself. Anyway, in the original post he was just trying to give folks a glimpse of what is going on, from his perspective. His post was a voice from the inside, shall we say, and he was respectful about it. I didn’t think it was a hit job, though he did name the person whose plan is being implemented. I am grateful to TOTRS for speaking up.
Wait are you serious? Their emails are publicly listed. It’s not like we are putting their home address and telling people to go harass them.
I don’t know that appealing to email those who are destroying important traditions is doxxing. Their email addresses are publicly listed on the athletic department’s website, so nobody has outed anything that isn’t publicly available. And these are people that some of us have tried to have respectful interactions with and have been completely blown off. I know you guys need to keep press credentials and maintain a positive relationship with the athletic department, so I get it, but at the same time, alums, fans, and donors deserve a voice. Our athletic department is largely comprised of people from outside the “Cal family” that they love to highlight. Their words are hollow and they deserve to hear about it.
Cal fans: One positive that came out of Saturday's gut-punch of a game was that the entire country knows that we have passionate, enthusiastic fans who absolutely love their Golden Bears. I hope that Saturday's game and ESPN Game Day will go a long way towards dispelling the notion that we are somehow a college football wasteland where nobody gives a shit. Memorial was rocking! Hell, I was getting "GO BEARS!" before the game when I was out walking my dog! We absolutely have to beat Pitt this Saturday but I think that the entire team, coaches and players, are going to learn from Saturday's experience and be better off for it. Cal still has a chance to make its mark on college football this season. GO BEARS!!!!
At the end of the game I was disappointed. But I also chose to see the positives.
* That first half (+ the pick 6) was the most fun I've had at a Cal game in a long time. You could see our big plays unfold. The stadium was full. The crowd around me was electric. Kudos to the OC, for drawing up some good misdirection (4th and 1 for the TD), Mendoza for some big passes downfield and plays at the line of scrimmage that busted open for huge gains.
* At the beginning of the season, I had this as a loss. Going into the game, I was worried we'd have a let down game -- we usually don't do well after bye's. And I know how electric Cam Ward can be. I knew we had a chance to win but it would mean us playing our best and them playing below their level. That's what I saw for the first half.
* Is it better to lose a close one or to get stomped? I think it's better to lose a close one. It's more heartbreaking but less demoralizing. It just feels like we're on the cusp when your team can play like this against a top 10 team. Getting stomped just means we're a bad team.
We've had 2 close losses, this one worse than the last. But we've still got a good team -- I think one good enough to win out from here. As they say, you go from losing big to losing close ones to winning close ones to winning big. I think we'll have a 1 or 2 more close ones for the rest of the season and I won't be surprised if we won those.
Cover 3 Podcast discussing the Miami-Cal game:
https://www.youtube.com/live/Z0n2eY3-51M?t=2381&si=ZYsZZKzrL3ooqRg1
The only thing that's mitigating my enormous disappointment is the fact Miami might have the best player in the country in Cam Ward and the 4th quarter he put on was an absolute clinic.
it me. AI photographer.
Thanks Nick. Great article!
Cal did what it needed to do to win that game. It’s not their fault they got f—ked by the referees at the end.
Respectfully, you cannot rely on the refs to bail you out on a single play in order to win the game. Yes, that play was textbook targeting - lowering the crown of the helmet and launching. But that ignored targeting call was not what got our team outscored 29-3 over the final 18ish minutes. It wasn't why our offensive line got absolutely no push and could not establish a running game and sustain drives. it was not why coverage breakdowns gave up massive plays down the stretch. Yeah, we get the call, they have to burn their three timeouts and we're close to field goal range and likely win, but you just can't rely on that.
The thing that’s frustrating to me is that people are going to use this gut-puncher to add to the Fire Wilcox pile when, in this case I feel like coaching was a big reason we were in a position to win in the first place. We can criticize them for not doing a good enough job on bringing in/developing O-line recruits, but then again, if it was easy, every school would be doing it. Decision-making wise, i thought the coaches called a pretty good game. They can’t play defense in lieu of exhausted players and they can’t go on the field and block in lieu of an overmatched offensive line. A blown coverage on Miami’s best receiver at literally the worst time possible in the entire game sucks, but you could also argue they shouldn’t have been in that position to begin with if that stupid targeting non call wasn’t a thing. You shouldn’t have to depend on the refs, but if you’re an inferior team and you did enough to squeak by, the refs shouldn’t be giving the other team a helping hand either.
We currently have the 65th ranked recruiting class for 2025, so our line and depth issues aren't getting fixed there.
It’s not this one game people have a problem with - it’s the past 7 years.
If this was his first or second year as HC, we would be excited that the program is on the way up.
We’ve seen this show before but most of us here will still show up every week to cheer Cal and even Wilcox on to victory.
Such is our purgatory.
I’ve been here for long time so trust me, I get it. Im just curious what the alternative is. If you could promise me the next guy has the ability to magically pull 4 and 5* linemen out of his butthole on command that won’t turn around and transfer to greener pastures and on an equitable budget, then by all means, let’s make some wholesale changes. Otherwise we’re just going to keep having the same problems no matter who our coach is and we’re never going to pay people enough to poach the all world talents from other schools or out-NIL anyone else. College football is a completely different animal than it was even 5 or 6 years ago. I can’t even fathom trying to deal with the actual scheming/Xs and Os stuff let alone having to navigate the change from the world of college football with no transfer portal/No NIL to all of those things and the People’s Republic of Berkeley Covid stuff in the very middle of all that. I guess what I’m saying is, I think judging his tenure as a single linear period of time is different than how I would judge 7 consecutive years of Sonny Dykes, or Tedford or something. If his teams were quitting on him or our players were flunking out in addition to the mediocre overall record I’d be on board. I’m not there, yet.
I think Cal’s future coaches they should look into are:
Bret Beliema (Ilinois)
Curt Cignetti (Indiana)
D’Anton Lynn (DC USC)*
I believe these coaches are within reach for Cal’s donor budget and undstand the balance of performing well and academic compliance. I would love to see what they can do with Cal’s roster composition. As I stated before, year 8 is YEAR 8! “There is no tomorrow,” if Cal does not make waves before the next round of realignment and future power 2 conference; they’re out! I like JW as a personality and leader but the quant data displays he is not the person that will lead this program to the promise land. This is Silicon Valley after all, I want to see positive disruption for the better, why not see what another talent could do at the helm, unless you’re okay with a mediocre program and being outside looking in.
*this pick is more wishful thinking, he seems to be a wizard in tranforming defenses overnight
Your comment is the first one I’ve read in multiple comment sections to actually suggest actual replacements so thank you. I’m not as plugged into the greater college football universe and I genuinely don’t know who the up and comers are that would also be good fits for Cal’s unique program quirks.
Doc, these are good points. And great respect. I honestly believe we all want what’s best for Cal.
But, as a loud advocate for, and ardent supporter of, a change in leadership atop the Cal football program, here’s my thing: Cal simply does not have time to wait to see if Wilcox will EVER get us over the hump. It’s been 7.5 years and that’s more than enough time for a Head Coach to show what he’s got. I mean, he has had so many opportunities to deliver that signature win or season, and has so often come up short, and oftentimes painfully. Hell, even his wins are painful to watch. COVID was 4 seasons ago. It’s an unfortunate byproduct of the sheer lunacy that college athletics has become, but it is what it is.
Jeff Tedford inherited Holmoe’s utter disaster of a roster and built Cal into a top-10 team in 3 seasons. Winner’s win…even at Cal. Wilcox is 18-games below .500 against conference foes…18. That’s just brutal, and all we have heard is a parade of excuses for why he can’t win. Lack of institutional support, COVID, NIL, etc. How about the eye test though?
We have seen what a change in leadership atop the Men’s Basketball program has done. We absolutely have momentum - the pup and I were at GameDay and it was f-ing amazing. Just awesome. Saturday could very well have been the greatest day in program history - it was still a game-changer.
Losing at Florida State and home to a top-10 Miami don’t cost you your job. But it’s more than just 1 or 2 games…it’s a pattern. If you want to remain a Power 4 school, you may not have more time.
Sadly, this is all right on, and I absolutely love Wilcox as a person. He’s the perfect leader for our program… except for the winning part. The record, especially the conference record, is just not good enough. The florida state and Miami losses were just absolutely soul crushing. Now all this to say, if he can really get us going from here and get to 8 wins, I would advocate letting him continue trying to build. But the expectations just have to be higher.
Agree. I think Wilcox is a great dude. He gets Cal. He wants to be here. The players seem to like him. I mean, he checks SO many boxes. So many. This is not a Mark Fox or Wyking Jones situation where these detestable human beings were in charge of things.
And honestly, I am really hoping things perhaps eventually click. Maybe a switch is flipped with this O-line and they gel and start opening up some holes. That could change the equation. I am just not confident.
It’s just times are different…we do not have the luxury to wait out a Rich Brooks-type of evolution here over the course of a decade and a half. The O put 31 points on the board…Wilcox simply has to win that game.
I love Wilcox and I want him to have success at Cal. I am not saying "fire Wilcox" but honestly, what P4 program has a HC for 8 years and has a losing record, and only one winning season? Isn't 8 years really long for someone who hasn't had much success? Just wondering.
But Wilcox has gotten a lot of institutional support and NIL money. I think the portal and NIL have been a net positive for Cal and Wilcox. I can only think of maybe 2 guys who we lost to the portal who were starters, a OG to Oklahoma and a WR to ucla. Other than that Wilcox and Cal have dependent heavily on portal transfers these last 3 seasons and have gotten a lot of starters from the portal, while losing very few to it.
I'm guessing you are referring to Mettauer and Sturdivant.
We also lost KEO and Hunter this past off season. They were our top level contributors.
Yes, I couldn’t remember their names off the top of my head and didn’t feel like searching for them. Yeah, we lost some guys but every program loses someone each year. Losing only a couple of contributors in today’s NIL/portal CFB, IMO, isn’t that bad. How many transfers have we picked up that are starters or contributors?
Wilcox’s HS recruiting has been underwhelming but I do think he has done a very good job in the portal, both retaining players and adding players through it.
Yeah we are getting more than losing transfers.
Marcus Harris and Nohl Williams are transfers from I think Idaho and UNLV too. So is Teddye from UCD. We haven't lost as much i would have feared.
It’s my understanding that linemen are, now, at a premium, with some getting 6 figure NIL deals. So, it’s all of the schools that have been standing flat-footed and not getting up to speed on this new CFB landscape.
it was a harsh toke at the end, but a lot of fun otherwise. It would hurt a lot more, but for the familiarity in the outcome.
Berkeley on October 5th 2024 was a magical time and place to be a part of..
There was madness in any direction, at any hour. If not across the Bay, then up the Golden Gate or down 101 to Los Altos or La Honda...
You could strike sparks anywhere. There was a fantastic universal sense that whatever we were doing was right, that we were winning...
And that, I think, was the handle-- that sense of inevitable victory over the forces of Old and Evil. Not in any mean or military sense; we didn’t need that. Our energy would simply prevail. There was no point in fighting—on our side or theirs. We had all the momentum; we were riding the crest of a high and beautiful wave. . . .
So now, less than 3 days later, you can go up on a steep hill in Las Vegas and look West, and with the right kind of eyes you can almost see the high-water mark-- that place where the wave finally broke and rolled back.”
Shrooms?
From a fan perspective this was so painful that it makes you want to tune out for a while and follow less gut wrenching pasttimes…
I can barely stomach to comment. This is beautifully written and has the appropriate point of view. Disbelief. I was there for Game Day. It was grand. I hung out in Berkeley all day, soaking up campus life. I expected us to lose, but that first half filled me and everyone around me with the hopes of an upset.
The moment we started going 3 and out in the second half I feared we were doomed.
This is such a Charlie Brown moment. To me, it's mostly on Bloesch. It was like the Bowl game. Our offensive line is horrendous. I mean, holy shit, how can every team in America seemingly have a decent offensive line and we can't?!?! I saw Nick Morrow start at left tackle for all of one series. I saw Mendoza running for his life all game. We COULD NOT RUN the ball. Then, we score all of 3 points in the entire second half?!?! What the hell with the play calling? Better football minds than mine can diagnose if Miami did anything differently on defense, but why did we stop calling effective pass plays? We cannot expect to win games with an offensive line this bad. It's horrendous. How I wish for the days of yore. Ultimately, it's on Wilcox, but Bloesch's job is coach and recruit the line. Results don't look good.
Clutching defeat from the jaws of victory. So Wilcox Cal. Losing to both Florida schools for essentially the same reasons? So Wilcox and Cal. I honor the players effort. But it's obvious that if we had Dykes or Tedford or just a solid D1 line and play calling, we are undefeated right now.
You expect Bloesch to turn around the Oline in 2 years?
This is an ongoing problem.
Remember Goff’s three alligator offense? He got creamed his whole first year.
I don't know. Maybe I'm being impatient or unrealistic. But he's been our O line coach for two cycles now. With NIL money. I can't help but expect a better performance. I can't help but believe if Jim Mahaliczek (sp?) was our O line coach we'd have a way more capable line.
I guess this is where I need input from people who know and understand the micro levels of college football better than me. Tedford’s early O-lines were forces of nature who imposed their will on opposing defenses. I was at Cal 2004 and 2005, but 06 and 07 had good lines too. I can still remember what it was like where the defense knew what play they were going to run and it didn’t matter because they would still blow them off the line of scrimmage and push them backwards. They didn’t stay that way though, so what changed? I know Coach M left in 08 but then came back in 2011 I think? I have to confess I dipped out of my football obsession during Tedford’s last few years and the Dykes years just from where I was at in life with marriage and small kids and stuff, so that whole period of time is a giant gap in information. What worked so well in Tedford’s earlier years that couldn’t be sustained in the later years? I also remember the academics were in the shitter too.
I think the Transfer Portal helps us with the academics, since, even if the recruit is at a diploma mill, we only need a year or two of their eligibility, sort of a controlled fall, if they can handle the academics. Cynical, yeah, but that's the game and you can't tell me that Alabama's team is full of scholars. We need to play the same game as others. Hobbling ourselves does not help.
Yeah, the Tedford years were this glimmer of hope. We looked back on track to be a serious program, then it's been the rollercoaster since then. I think Wilcox finally has us on track, again, but, obviously, winning the line of scrimmage needs to be the foundation.
Linemen are going at a premium, some are into 6 figures and we're competing with schools with existing, national brands.
Cal's recruiting competes with schools with low academic standards for football players. I know of one "diploma mill" whose FB players take their classes from the football coaches. Cal and furd can only recruit kids from high school who have 3 point or higher GPA's. Those we want from the portal also have to qualify academically. Would a new head coach change this?
Exactly. Furd is struggling with The Portal because of this. We have a more narrow field to recruit and, honestly, we need mouth-breathing brutes on both sides of the lines, but it's tough to find such brutes that can meet our academics. Couple that with the rarity of linemen, we need to be creative.
I know you're a coach. I thought occurred to me. Competent line coaches could do a possible start-up gig of coaching overlooked or raw line talent. I know Bloesch gives us a Texas connection. I was raised in the Central Valley. Carlton is from my hometown. I can say with certainty that there's big beefy farm boys out there that may have played a bit, but skipped college.
Strength? Go watch a Portuguese bull fight. One event is where men form a line and wrestle a bull. They may have skipped college because they speak English as a second language.
All of our problems come down to controlling the LOS. Finding and developing line talent should be a priority. As for academic standards, tutoring and select classes, one would hope is available. And, maybe an increase in academic exceptions would help.
We actually scored 17 points in the second half, we only scored 3 points in the 4th quarter. Offense scored 10 and defense scored 7.
I agree with everything you said in the fan culture section. Chants were basically non existent due to the DJ playing music over anything and everything. The sound system for the mic man isn’t good at all so even when they tried, you couldn’t hear them clearly or at all. Granted we had a lot of quick strikes and not long sustained drives so we couldn’t really get any “roll on you Bears…” chants going. I don’t mind the DJ/music but it was just too much and overwhelming at times. They kept playing it while we were on offense and huddled up, which made no sense at all. The band hardly played due to the DJ music. If this is how gameday experience in Memorial is going to be going forward, I would rather just stay home and watch from my TV.
I sit in section T every game, right next to the students, on the aisle. I like the DJ music, but it is a bit too loud and played too often with no context to the game. It needs to be choreographed better with what is actually happening in the game on the field. The connectivity is lacking. The students are amusing, great, and wonderful, mostly. But they could use more direction to channel that young energy. Football isn't in their blood, being a fan takes some practice, when to make noise when to not. And yes, that mic man's system sucks. I hope they come back for the NC State game on the 19th.
Another exhausting game with a nasty outcome, saw it coming early in the 4th Q, and there it was. Gotta move forward; Pitt is a good team, better get ready. Go Bears!