Jackson Brousseau is the best back up QB we’ve had since Mendoza’s year when he was the back-up. That’s not nothing.
I got a sunburn because I didn’t put enough sunscreen on my neck.
I was initially not in favor of the Train post game concert, but it was done really well - the set up took like three minutes, fans were on the field midway through their first song. Felt like a really good dry run for a band that is both nationally known and has very local ties. Even if it’s not my first choice of band, they have enough songs that everyone knows and can sing together on the field and I think we probably paid under their appearance rate,
Did my wife tell you to write this: If you left this game angrier about Cal football, may I suggest that you might need to dial down the passion for your own self-preservation.
She literally tells me all the time that I need to care 15% less. I know she's right. But I can't quit you Cal football!
Even the ACC TV announcers criticized the Cal coaching staff for the play calling, saying these plays would not work against ACC competition. They also pointed out that JKS and his receivers were not on the same page, and that seemed obvious to me too. I just hope the O clicks against Clemson this Friday night so we can bank three wins early before the big travel miles hit us. Also glad we are playing UNLV - the plane flight to Vegas is just over an hour! Go Bears!
I really wish Rolo was calling the plays on offense. There is no rhythm. JKs does a hell of a lot in spite of it, so does our running back. The defense is doing better, got to stay aggressive. Special teams are not good, except for the punter, thank goodness. I have no idea how the Friday night game will go against Clemson. I still look forward to being there for it. Maybe with earplugs this time.
I agree with Taco, I doubt he is strategically holding anything back for later in the season. I just don't think there is anything else. But that sounds pretty negative doesn't it. I would just rather see Rolo calling the plays. I bet he gets how this team rolls better than the OC due to his coaching experience and relationship with JKS. And it would be a heck of a great deal more fun to watch because he would let him rip, short, medium, and long. Just my opinion.
Politically, if Tosh turned the play calling over to Rolo that means Somerville is a dead man walking. I doubt he would do that since they're buddies, and would wait to the end of the season if he did decide to make the bold move.
Pawlawski echoed the same things on the radio. Route concepts and play calling were atrocious throughout the game. We have a SERIOUS issue at the OC position. Is he holding the playbook back? Doubt it.
I think this game reinforced the fact that our perceived weaknesses are very real and unlikely to improve this season: Offensive line and special teams. (Special teams kick/punt coverage, maybe improves with coaching)
Main takeaway: expect the worst against the remaining schedule and hope to be surprised.
I've thought since I saw the schedule that the Clemson game was critical to the Bears' success this season. Even more so now. I don't mind the vanilla play calling vs. Wagner - why give ACC opponents more film on more sophisticated plays? I am WAY concerned about special teams. If they don't get better in a real hurry it's going to cost us a game or two.
At this point it is clear the Cal athletic events planners are ignoring the requests from the many fans that have voiced their displeasure regarding the crap emanating from the loudspeakers all game. And, speaking for myself, it’s not that it’s loud (I love good, loud music, especially live). I want to hear marching bands play, at a college football game. If I want to bump and grind, I’ll go to a club.
So Nick's thoughts made me look at https://fbschedules.com/ncaa/california/ to remind me what Cal's out of conference schedule at this point looks like. And for me this raised a lot of questions. We already have lots of travel across a broad range of the U.S. in any year from Syracuse to Miami. And those East Coast ACC teams have an array of matchups with Big10 and SEC and Big12 teams in the Central and Eastern time zones and then we play those ACC teams. So I'm a bit puzzled by the strategy in our scheduling.
I would think our out of conference games would be completely dominated by these teams: UCLA, SDST, UNLV, ASU, Colorado, UW, Utah, and Ore St. Maybe Hawaii. They are all easy to reach for Cal Fans and the team, maintain a recruiting presence in a region where family would have opportunity to then watch play, and these teams then have comparative play against other worthy teams.
I guess I can see playing SacSt and SJ St for occasional local Cal Fan interest and low cost travel and also recruiting presence as semi-home games. But at Wyoming, at Minnesota, and at Wisconsin? And in 2027 we host both SacSt and Old Dominion? To what purpose? Maybe Minnesota and Wisconsin have a pool of potential players who would be interested in getting a Cal degree? But in a world of constant player shuffling, does that carry as much weight at such distance?
When we were in Pac-12, it certainly made sense playing distant Big10 teams and there also was the old Rose Bowl connection between conferences. But given fragmentation of the Pac-12 we actually have a diversity of teams in the West across different conferences that provide great comparative stats for rankings, etc from Colorado to Hawaii, provide more interest for Cal fans, and reduced travel time and costs. I just don't see a strategy.
That's when the Pac-12 was still together and these road trips were more beneficial. (At least the Minnesota one. Why TF would we ever go to play at Wyoming, where nothing good can come out of it, even in a win? Scheduling malpractice.)
The Wisconsin home-and-home series was announced in 2024 during our lame duck period after the ACC move had already been announced. It was probably in the works earlier to make sure we maintained visibility. But it shouldn't have been scheduled.
The biggest factor: All of these matchups were scheduled under previous AD Jim Knowlton.
All the power conference programs are cutting OOC matchups right now as the conferences move to 9-game conference schedules, so I doubt all 6 of these games (home and away) happen. Maybe only one does: Wyoming @ CMS, and we buy out of the Laramie visit.
Hopefully then more adjustments coming soon, very soon. The four-game UCLA scheduling was good, of course, but we still are just absent from most of the West. And going back to Nick's post, though that was about the game itself as it unfolded, and Ivan's point about this game being scheduled because of the short week vs Clemson, yeah, it is short by 18 hours but we don't have to travel and does that win earn us anything? And given the system in place for scheduling games so far in advance, it isn't just Cal, of course. But with this type of scheduling vs a system of only 64 of the teams with the best historic records over the past moving 20 years or whatever and they only play each other given the very limited number of data points a season, you certainly aren't creating compelling TV.
Yeah, I think we learned a lot ~ as you pointed out. Let's face it, our OL did not push Wagner off of the scrimmage line for a majority of the game. In turn, our DL (where are you JJ) did not get much penetration. I've just become tired of discussing our line play (both sides of the ball).
BTW, no chance our OL pushes Clemson around like UNC did in the first half of their game. I doubt we have the running success UNC had. How Belichick got out coached after the weather delay is a real head scratcher; UNC should have put that game away in the 1st half.
I can agree to varying degrees with this post and all the comments ( and am particularly riled by pumped in stadium noise...I warned about this when we hired a DJ...ugh says the boomer). Will only add that I watched the game with about 10 old blues, my childhood friends who also happened to go to Cal, at our annual retreat. (One of them may or may not be a certain loquacious participant on this site). We try to schedule our retreats each year not to conflict with a major home game. This game stood out in the mellowness of the room...no pulling of receding gray hair, no coaching from the couches spread around the room, and no post game vows to reassess our commitment, etc. In other words, a full on win in every respect. Go Bears forever!
Sad they didn't run more plays they WOULD run against the ACC - esp working on timing with receivers..
But it feels good to see CAL dish a beating. Let's face it yall, if the score was 36-24... would we have NOT been surprised despite Wagner being ranked so low. I remember other FCC games that should have been blow outs, that never was.
Either way - this will be my 3rd week straight picking CAL on our fantasy play. Just have to - for better or worse! let's go bears!
Seeing them make plays based on talent against Wagner reminds you of how they lack this capacity against FBS teams. Think of the mid 00s when you could just hand it to Marshawn or toss it to DeSean and they would just make a play. Now only JKS has that ability, but none of the guys he’s throwing to or handing to share it. So we need the right playcall plus the right execution to make any positive yardage…
Yeah, the game told us almost nothing. I thought that maybe it looked like the timing was a bit better between JKS and the receivers, but that's it. There was no reason to think that the issues we've seen on the lines or on special teams will be any better when we return to conference play. At least it wasn't a struggle session like some of the Wilcox games against FCS teams (though granted, those were against better FCS teams).
sorry this is off topic but I had to share - hezekiah masses 2 interceptions in raiders debut :o
Jackson Brousseau is the best back up QB we’ve had since Mendoza’s year when he was the back-up. That’s not nothing.
I got a sunburn because I didn’t put enough sunscreen on my neck.
I was initially not in favor of the Train post game concert, but it was done really well - the set up took like three minutes, fans were on the field midway through their first song. Felt like a really good dry run for a band that is both nationally known and has very local ties. Even if it’s not my first choice of band, they have enough songs that everyone knows and can sing together on the field and I think we probably paid under their appearance rate,
I burned as well.
Did my wife tell you to write this: If you left this game angrier about Cal football, may I suggest that you might need to dial down the passion for your own self-preservation.
She literally tells me all the time that I need to care 15% less. I know she's right. But I can't quit you Cal football!
Even the ACC TV announcers criticized the Cal coaching staff for the play calling, saying these plays would not work against ACC competition. They also pointed out that JKS and his receivers were not on the same page, and that seemed obvious to me too. I just hope the O clicks against Clemson this Friday night so we can bank three wins early before the big travel miles hit us. Also glad we are playing UNLV - the plane flight to Vegas is just over an hour! Go Bears!
I really wish Rolo was calling the plays on offense. There is no rhythm. JKs does a hell of a lot in spite of it, so does our running back. The defense is doing better, got to stay aggressive. Special teams are not good, except for the punter, thank goodness. I have no idea how the Friday night game will go against Clemson. I still look forward to being there for it. Maybe with earplugs this time.
Ron Rivera must seeing this too, right? With even more keen eyes?
I'm hoping this playcalling has been a combination of OC learning curve and setting up game tape against the harder part of the schedule.
I agree with Taco, I doubt he is strategically holding anything back for later in the season. I just don't think there is anything else. But that sounds pretty negative doesn't it. I would just rather see Rolo calling the plays. I bet he gets how this team rolls better than the OC due to his coaching experience and relationship with JKS. And it would be a heck of a great deal more fun to watch because he would let him rip, short, medium, and long. Just my opinion.
Politically, if Tosh turned the play calling over to Rolo that means Somerville is a dead man walking. I doubt he would do that since they're buddies, and would wait to the end of the season if he did decide to make the bold move.
You are probably right for now I suppose. We will see if things improve and flow better Friday night. It could happen; I hope so.
Pawlawski echoed the same things on the radio. Route concepts and play calling were atrocious throughout the game. We have a SERIOUS issue at the OC position. Is he holding the playbook back? Doubt it.
I think this game reinforced the fact that our perceived weaknesses are very real and unlikely to improve this season: Offensive line and special teams. (Special teams kick/punt coverage, maybe improves with coaching)
Main takeaway: expect the worst against the remaining schedule and hope to be surprised.
I've thought since I saw the schedule that the Clemson game was critical to the Bears' success this season. Even more so now. I don't mind the vanilla play calling vs. Wagner - why give ACC opponents more film on more sophisticated plays? I am WAY concerned about special teams. If they don't get better in a real hurry it's going to cost us a game or two.
Nailed it. Boring game with WAY TOO LOUD music blaring over the PA system throughout. Too many big penalties, too.
At this point it is clear the Cal athletic events planners are ignoring the requests from the many fans that have voiced their displeasure regarding the crap emanating from the loudspeakers all game. And, speaking for myself, it’s not that it’s loud (I love good, loud music, especially live). I want to hear marching bands play, at a college football game. If I want to bump and grind, I’ll go to a club.
So Nick's thoughts made me look at https://fbschedules.com/ncaa/california/ to remind me what Cal's out of conference schedule at this point looks like. And for me this raised a lot of questions. We already have lots of travel across a broad range of the U.S. in any year from Syracuse to Miami. And those East Coast ACC teams have an array of matchups with Big10 and SEC and Big12 teams in the Central and Eastern time zones and then we play those ACC teams. So I'm a bit puzzled by the strategy in our scheduling.
I would think our out of conference games would be completely dominated by these teams: UCLA, SDST, UNLV, ASU, Colorado, UW, Utah, and Ore St. Maybe Hawaii. They are all easy to reach for Cal Fans and the team, maintain a recruiting presence in a region where family would have opportunity to then watch play, and these teams then have comparative play against other worthy teams.
I guess I can see playing SacSt and SJ St for occasional local Cal Fan interest and low cost travel and also recruiting presence as semi-home games. But at Wyoming, at Minnesota, and at Wisconsin? And in 2027 we host both SacSt and Old Dominion? To what purpose? Maybe Minnesota and Wisconsin have a pool of potential players who would be interested in getting a Cal degree? But in a world of constant player shuffling, does that carry as much weight at such distance?
When we were in Pac-12, it certainly made sense playing distant Big10 teams and there also was the old Rose Bowl connection between conferences. But given fragmentation of the Pac-12 we actually have a diversity of teams in the West across different conferences that provide great comparative stats for rankings, etc from Colorado to Hawaii, provide more interest for Cal fans, and reduced travel time and costs. I just don't see a strategy.
We scheduled this game on purpose, because of the Short week vs Clemson.
You're not wrong. But for some reason, OOC CFB matchups get announced a decade in the future. For instance, the Wyoming and Minnesota matchups were announced in 2020: https://calbears.com/news/2020/2/11/football-cal-adds-minnesota-and-wyoming-to-future-schedules
That's when the Pac-12 was still together and these road trips were more beneficial. (At least the Minnesota one. Why TF would we ever go to play at Wyoming, where nothing good can come out of it, even in a win? Scheduling malpractice.)
The Wisconsin home-and-home series was announced in 2024 during our lame duck period after the ACC move had already been announced. It was probably in the works earlier to make sure we maintained visibility. But it shouldn't have been scheduled.
The biggest factor: All of these matchups were scheduled under previous AD Jim Knowlton.
All the power conference programs are cutting OOC matchups right now as the conferences move to 9-game conference schedules, so I doubt all 6 of these games (home and away) happen. Maybe only one does: Wyoming @ CMS, and we buy out of the Laramie visit.
For what it’s worth, we also had home and home games scheduled with the University of Florida which disappeared when Cal moved to the ACC.
Hopefully then more adjustments coming soon, very soon. The four-game UCLA scheduling was good, of course, but we still are just absent from most of the West. And going back to Nick's post, though that was about the game itself as it unfolded, and Ivan's point about this game being scheduled because of the short week vs Clemson, yeah, it is short by 18 hours but we don't have to travel and does that win earn us anything? And given the system in place for scheduling games so far in advance, it isn't just Cal, of course. But with this type of scheduling vs a system of only 64 of the teams with the best historic records over the past moving 20 years or whatever and they only play each other given the very limited number of data points a season, you certainly aren't creating compelling TV.
There was no need to tip their hand too much and show anything deep in the playbook.
Yeah, I think we learned a lot ~ as you pointed out. Let's face it, our OL did not push Wagner off of the scrimmage line for a majority of the game. In turn, our DL (where are you JJ) did not get much penetration. I've just become tired of discussing our line play (both sides of the ball).
BTW, no chance our OL pushes Clemson around like UNC did in the first half of their game. I doubt we have the running success UNC had. How Belichick got out coached after the weather delay is a real head scratcher; UNC should have put that game away in the 1st half.
I can agree to varying degrees with this post and all the comments ( and am particularly riled by pumped in stadium noise...I warned about this when we hired a DJ...ugh says the boomer). Will only add that I watched the game with about 10 old blues, my childhood friends who also happened to go to Cal, at our annual retreat. (One of them may or may not be a certain loquacious participant on this site). We try to schedule our retreats each year not to conflict with a major home game. This game stood out in the mellowness of the room...no pulling of receding gray hair, no coaching from the couches spread around the room, and no post game vows to reassess our commitment, etc. In other words, a full on win in every respect. Go Bears forever!
I agree. It was a nice day and I enjoyed being there but the game was pretty boring. Kicking was really bad.
Didn't learn much.
Sad they didn't run more plays they WOULD run against the ACC - esp working on timing with receivers..
But it feels good to see CAL dish a beating. Let's face it yall, if the score was 36-24... would we have NOT been surprised despite Wagner being ranked so low. I remember other FCC games that should have been blow outs, that never was.
Either way - this will be my 3rd week straight picking CAL on our fantasy play. Just have to - for better or worse! let's go bears!
Seeing them make plays based on talent against Wagner reminds you of how they lack this capacity against FBS teams. Think of the mid 00s when you could just hand it to Marshawn or toss it to DeSean and they would just make a play. Now only JKS has that ability, but none of the guys he’s throwing to or handing to share it. So we need the right playcall plus the right execution to make any positive yardage…
Yeah, the game told us almost nothing. I thought that maybe it looked like the timing was a bit better between JKS and the receivers, but that's it. There was no reason to think that the issues we've seen on the lines or on special teams will be any better when we return to conference play. At least it wasn't a struggle session like some of the Wilcox games against FCS teams (though granted, those were against better FCS teams).
Strong needs to play with more physicality. Glad he got a good block to hopefully juice the system.