Great write up! I only disagree with calling this an "unimportant game against Washington State".
The narrative I'm now deluding myself into believing is that Cal keeps the axe and brings it back home from Stanfurd, says F-U to its shitheaded (and $10M poorer) fUCLA little brother. Then Fernando, with 7 games of very solid experience by then has a national coming out party and plays a great game in whatever Bowl we play, and Cal finishes the season 7-6 overall and 4-5 conference.
If we do that, then this Wazzu game becomes the game in which this team, which is not the team we started off the season with, turned around its fortunes and started building a new identity for itself.
Yeah, the Wilcox situation and program trajectory is not where we all wanted to be, but the above scenario and lots of NIL donations will put me very high on going into the off-season as the team gets ready to make a splash in its ACC debut in 2024.
These are the dreams I take with me to Nelson Road down on the farm this Saturday where I will drink their tears and overflow their porta potties with my revelry.
The coaches smartly decided going into the game to run Ott over and over and challenge our offensive line to gradually wear down the WS defensive line (a very good one) and not give up on the running game. It worked. Ott’s big 50+ run late in game broke their back, and but for the unfortunate fumble Cal was putting the game on ice. I’m certain that Ott in the future will not make the mistake again of fighting for an extra yard or two when the goal is to run out the clock and make the other team go at least 80 yards for a TD…..doable with our kicker. Great job by our team of not letting that fumble ( a great play by the WS linebacker btw) lead to a crushing loss.
Better yet....hire on as an Under Armour quarter zip model. Looks pretty good in Cal gear for an unmarried guy (free to travel to film shoots) who just turned 48.
we got lucky on the tush push fumble and lucky the refs didn't call forward pass on the cam ward fumble. These are not likely to happen again and if you take these out, the defense struggled to consistently stop their drives. D needs to get better and fast.
I know FPI is very flawed, but for what it's worth it gives us a 76.4% chance against Stanford and a 30.3% chance against UCLA, for a 23.1% chance at making a bowl game. (Oddly enough, the FPI page says we have a 24.2% chance at winning out… Not sure about the discrepancy).
discrepancy: if we beat furd we'll have a better record, therefore rated higher , therefore better chance of beating UCLA. Today's 30.3% chance of beating UCLA should include the possibility that we lose to furd. (Just guessing)
This team... Being a Cal fan is pretty much just pain and "what if". What if we were just a little less terrible in the Auburn game? Result, pain. What if we were just a little less self-destructive agains $C? Result, pain. What if whatever Holy Spirit that may exist shines upon us on a beautiful, late fall day in Strawberry Canyon and we win a shootout with barely any offense? Result, confused elation? And yet, I just keep coming back to these damn Golden Bears. GO BEARS!
Feels like a cosmic gift as an apology for the Auburn game. Back then, the refs took away a pick-six and we missed some key field goals. In this one, the refs gifted us a fumble-recovery-touchdown (that 95% should have been called as an incomplete forward pass) and WSU missed a couple field goals.
Oddly, these Bears, who in my opinion have somewhat underperformed, but have been greatly under-coached (mainly on defense though injuries like Sirmon have hurt), are a whisper away from an 8-4 season...or they could easily collapse to 4-8. That's the mark of Wilcox teams, playing to the .500 line his entire tenure. Given that it's mainly about dollars to send him packing, expect more of the same in the future as a 7 year track record is well within reason to know what the results will be.
Can't help but think about how the program might look different if Spav joined in 2016, we had better records those first few years, and recruiting picked up accordingly. Program momentum is huge in college football (granted the portal and NIL have changed things these past couple years) and ours was slowed early on.
ASU is a team that lost to Cal and got crushed by Utah nine days ago. But they somehow found a way to stifle UCLA and its third string quarterback on the road Saturday night. Arizona did the same thing to the slumping Bruins two weeks ago. So only a 25% chance to beat UCLA with a bowl on line, really? Oops, lost myself for a minute....This is a Cal team that cannot find a way to put its throat on pretty much any opponent in the Justin Wilcox era. All the giddiness I felt after that 18-point 4th quarter lead was annihilated by the litany of blown coverages, penalties and a key fumble that led to a very lucky Cal win. It just wasn't that much fun at the end, and I felt the same way after the Idaho and ASU wins. See you next year while I do some early research on who has the ACC TV network.
I agree retooling the running game/building on the successful steps taken by the offensive line this year will be paramount to Cal being an upper-half ACC offense. Regaining a healthy running back corps is possible heading into next year, but who will be the #1 back? Ifanse will be gone, and (though of course I hope I am wrong about this) Ott will transfer to another program for a top $$ NIL deal.
It struck me as odd that espn2 make announcer seemed so down on Cal so I looked him up. Turned out he attended Bishop O’Dowd in Oakland then played at San Diego State. Had pro career with Raiders. Cal probably screwed up and didn’t recruit him or the academic types wouldn’t let him in.
Great write up! I only disagree with calling this an "unimportant game against Washington State".
The narrative I'm now deluding myself into believing is that Cal keeps the axe and brings it back home from Stanfurd, says F-U to its shitheaded (and $10M poorer) fUCLA little brother. Then Fernando, with 7 games of very solid experience by then has a national coming out party and plays a great game in whatever Bowl we play, and Cal finishes the season 7-6 overall and 4-5 conference.
If we do that, then this Wazzu game becomes the game in which this team, which is not the team we started off the season with, turned around its fortunes and started building a new identity for itself.
Yeah, the Wilcox situation and program trajectory is not where we all wanted to be, but the above scenario and lots of NIL donations will put me very high on going into the off-season as the team gets ready to make a splash in its ACC debut in 2024.
These are the dreams I take with me to Nelson Road down on the farm this Saturday where I will drink their tears and overflow their porta potties with my revelry.
Go BEARS!!!
Half-full bourbon glass!
3 ice cubes, 2 fingers, and a Wazzu win. It's gonna be a great week!
https://ucrc.berkeley.edu/big-game-week/
I thought the Los Angeles game was a sure loss, but the Bruins really made a mess of things on Saturday. Giddy up.
Good reading.
Just two more rollercoaster rides to get thru. I’m running low on barf bags and the seatbelt is frayed.
The coaches smartly decided going into the game to run Ott over and over and challenge our offensive line to gradually wear down the WS defensive line (a very good one) and not give up on the running game. It worked. Ott’s big 50+ run late in game broke their back, and but for the unfortunate fumble Cal was putting the game on ice. I’m certain that Ott in the future will not make the mistake again of fighting for an extra yard or two when the goal is to run out the clock and make the other team go at least 80 yards for a TD…..doable with our kicker. Great job by our team of not letting that fumble ( a great play by the WS linebacker btw) lead to a crushing loss.
Field Goals CAN win games and they can lose them. Case in point, the Auburn game. We missed 3 easy FG's, 2 of which would have won it for the Bears.
Making them can win a game, but I’m factoring the chance that you miss into the decision making. Touchdowns win games
You just had to bring that pain up again, didn't you?
The CFB coaching carousel is heating up. We can only hope someone hires Wilcox away from us.
Trade proposal: Wilcox for Taylor.
Hoke is retiring from SDSU at the end of the season, that would be a great place for Wilcox to coach.
Better yet....hire on as an Under Armour quarter zip model. Looks pretty good in Cal gear for an unmarried guy (free to travel to film shoots) who just turned 48.
we got lucky on the tush push fumble and lucky the refs didn't call forward pass on the cam ward fumble. These are not likely to happen again and if you take these out, the defense struggled to consistently stop their drives. D needs to get better and fast.
I know FPI is very flawed, but for what it's worth it gives us a 76.4% chance against Stanford and a 30.3% chance against UCLA, for a 23.1% chance at making a bowl game. (Oddly enough, the FPI page says we have a 24.2% chance at winning out… Not sure about the discrepancy).
discrepancy: if we beat furd we'll have a better record, therefore rated higher , therefore better chance of beating UCLA. Today's 30.3% chance of beating UCLA should include the possibility that we lose to furd. (Just guessing)
This team... Being a Cal fan is pretty much just pain and "what if". What if we were just a little less terrible in the Auburn game? Result, pain. What if we were just a little less self-destructive agains $C? Result, pain. What if whatever Holy Spirit that may exist shines upon us on a beautiful, late fall day in Strawberry Canyon and we win a shootout with barely any offense? Result, confused elation? And yet, I just keep coming back to these damn Golden Bears. GO BEARS!
Eh. We've had four games this year that could have easily gone either way and we've won two of them, which is what you should expect.
Feels like a cosmic gift as an apology for the Auburn game. Back then, the refs took away a pick-six and we missed some key field goals. In this one, the refs gifted us a fumble-recovery-touchdown (that 95% should have been called as an incomplete forward pass) and WSU missed a couple field goals.
Oddly, these Bears, who in my opinion have somewhat underperformed, but have been greatly under-coached (mainly on defense though injuries like Sirmon have hurt), are a whisper away from an 8-4 season...or they could easily collapse to 4-8. That's the mark of Wilcox teams, playing to the .500 line his entire tenure. Given that it's mainly about dollars to send him packing, expect more of the same in the future as a 7 year track record is well within reason to know what the results will be.
Can't help but think about how the program might look different if Spav joined in 2016, we had better records those first few years, and recruiting picked up accordingly. Program momentum is huge in college football (granted the portal and NIL have changed things these past couple years) and ours was slowed early on.
ASU is a team that lost to Cal and got crushed by Utah nine days ago. But they somehow found a way to stifle UCLA and its third string quarterback on the road Saturday night. Arizona did the same thing to the slumping Bruins two weeks ago. So only a 25% chance to beat UCLA with a bowl on line, really? Oops, lost myself for a minute....This is a Cal team that cannot find a way to put its throat on pretty much any opponent in the Justin Wilcox era. All the giddiness I felt after that 18-point 4th quarter lead was annihilated by the litany of blown coverages, penalties and a key fumble that led to a very lucky Cal win. It just wasn't that much fun at the end, and I felt the same way after the Idaho and ASU wins. See you next year while I do some early research on who has the ACC TV network.
If we get to face Collin Schlee, we got a shot. If Dante Moore or Ethan Garbers are healthy, we’re in trouble.
WTF ever happened to Justyn Martin?
Well done
I agree retooling the running game/building on the successful steps taken by the offensive line this year will be paramount to Cal being an upper-half ACC offense. Regaining a healthy running back corps is possible heading into next year, but who will be the #1 back? Ifanse will be gone, and (though of course I hope I am wrong about this) Ott will transfer to another program for a top $$ NIL deal.
speaking of ACC.
Anyone noticed women's basketball has 5 pac12 teams in the top 10? Including 3,4,5,6?
no?
ok.
He’s listed as one of the many announcers for espn sports.
It struck me as odd that espn2 make announcer seemed so down on Cal so I looked him up. Turned out he attended Bishop O’Dowd in Oakland then played at San Diego State. Had pro career with Raiders. Cal probably screwed up and didn’t recruit him or the academic types wouldn’t let him in.
Who was it?
Kirk Morrison:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kirk_Morrison
Thanks. Hmm I don't know him.
Btw it's been a while I saw a link to Wikipedia page. All I see now are links to SI articles.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sports_Illustrated
A great read! Thank you for the article!