I’ve said this before but I will never understand why Wilcox, a defensive and conservative oriented coach can’t get the special teams to perform better. If your philosophy is grind out defensive wins, you better have stellar special teams that can win the field position battle and make big FGs when needed.
Agree. I've said this before but I just don't understand how a coach of Wilcox's ilk has yet to improve his lines both OL and DL. As you said he's a defensive minded conservative coach, to be that you need good lines. On either side of the ball he has not had that for the ENTIRE time of his tenure.
IMO, that is based on his coaching hires. Greatwood was a dead man walking prior to the HIRE ~ at the time I said this was a 3 - 5 year setback. McClure was a "WTF are you kidding me?" hire (I believe he has been let go by Nevada as well). Browning isn't bad but has yet to 'cruit anyone to change the DL. But on OL hires Wilcox has been an abject failure at the most crucial of position coaches. Now the OL coach is a 3 year GA with no previous coaching experience. It is just dumbfounding the decisions Wilcox has made with respect to his lines given his coaching philosophy.
That said, Wilcox has failed in other coaching hires as well. Two DB coaches and no ST's coach. And yes, Sirmon has to go or demoted to LB coach w/ a new DC. This change is a must.
Why oh why didn't a journalist ask Wilcox after the TT game which COACHING changes he would be making in the next 2 weeks to improve things is untenable.
Frankly I was a bit peeved at Wilcox's TT post-game presser. He reiterated how the players had to change, get committed, work hard during the off-season yada yada yada. But said absolutely nothing about what he was going to change. And not one journalist had the balls to ask him specifically (like they ask players), "coach, what are you going to change either in philosophy or staff?" Nothing was asked of HIM.
I agree with all of this. I thought his initial hirings were good and inspiring. TDR and GA were home runs. Greatwood had a good resume and was at least a solid hire. Even Baldwin was an exciting and intriguing hire who had success at the FCS and HC experience.
However, since those initial hires, the majority of his replacements have been failures: Musgrave and McClure being his biggest. Special teams continues to be neglected. Our OL has constantly underachieved and been under developed, hiring a GA in Saffell is such a big gamble. This was the biggest head scratching hire he has made in his 7 years.
Sure but Baldwin also had success as the OC at EWU before he became the head coach at EWU so you can’t just contribute all his success at EWU to Troy Taylor.
Boesch is the OL coach. The rushing stats show that the OL did a good job. The GA is an assistant OL line coach. You might look at the offensive record this year as opposed to last year. Spatival was a good hire as Offensive Coordinator but he was hired by Baylor before the bowl game and that hurt the offense severly. Also, we lost our best ILB, Orr, to the portal before the game and had 2nd and 3rd stringers at that spot along with a true freshman who is going to be great.
The issues with offense, blocking, defense, tackling and coverage, and special teams, and team inconsistency generally, will be solved when (if) Cal (under Wilcox or someone else) recruits more better players, instead of a sprinkling of good players, and a sprinkling of fair ones, but not enough of them.
Watching the Independence Bowl looked like a .500 team that's slightly on the upside of that, and a team that was reasonably and generally expected to go 4-8, and scraped out a couple of wins above talent and depth that produced a team that looked like a near .500 team on its best days.
Recruiting is a responsibility of the coaching, but until better talent is acquired in some quantity, other aspects of coaching will have only mixed success.
The thing is that TT team sorely underachieved. They were ranked in the preseason and expected to challenge for their league title. Instead they dropped their opener at Wyoming, lost a close game to Oregon, then lost against both West Virginia and BYU. Out of those four games they were heavy favorites in 3 but went 0-4. Assuming they won the games they were double digit favorites in, they would have been 9-3 instead of 6-6. So, I saw the game as underachievers vs. overachievers and both teams played closer to their preseason expectations.
Yeah, at this point we're recruiting at a high G5 level and that's not going to change without major changes. Spav was that change, but we couldn't keep him. Barring massive performance improvements from our current coaching staff of an unprecedented nature, I don't know what fixes that outside of moving on from Wilcox.
I wanted to see more of JWT, he showed power in other games. But I guess the calculus was "we must be able to open a big hole at some point, and we need a guy who can make a house call when it opens up"
Watched both Cal and the 9ers this weekend, so many similarities between Ott and McCaffery. Patience, vision, 2nd gear. Difference was the ability of the OL and receivers to execute blocks at the point of attack and downfield. Looking in the rear view mirror, when we executed this part of our game we’ll with NFL-grade linemen and solid coaches (Michalczik - ORSt seems to be doing ok) now..) everything else felll into place. Are we looking at too many of the specialty (QBs, backs, and special teams) parts of Cal’s game when a good dose of basics is where we need improvement most? Hope this staff can figure it out and get the pieces in place this off-season. Go Bears!
In the end, TT made plays and we didn't. Mendoza wasted away every drive for the second and third quarters in a display of youth that I suppose was overdue. Also their receivers were making clutch catches drive after drive.
With two fairly evenly matched teams (as far as skill and coaching), mistakes are what separates the teams. We made many more than they did. Some questionable tackling techniques also didn't help (it looked like too many arm tackle attempts, and going for the ball rather than solid tackles of the ball carrier).
This is the analysis I needed to read, thank you. It agrees with what I saw sitting in the stadium. Sober, less emotional take, but still clear sighted about the issues. Whose team is it? Wilcox's team.
So what's the upside, 7 wins next year? Looking ahead, there are 4 "should be wins" games: UC Davis, SDSU (they are awful right now), Oregon State (they will be gutted, new coach), Stanford (still a hot mess). Auburn was crap this year and Cal couldn't beat them, next year it's a road game, no chance. And while there are some "weak" ACC teams, there are some definite ass kickings on the way. While rosters are not set, when you look at the big picture, it's looking like another .500 level type of year. And if the bowl game was the debut of Bloesch at OC, it's a little scary. He knows what he's doing on the OL, but calling plays at FBS level is going to be a test.
Pondering some of the program's issues a couple of days after the fact.
1. Why can't our receivers block? This is a perennial problem - Toler?
2. Why can't we coach up the O-line? I suppose Bloesch has provided a brief ray of sunshine this season.
3. Why can't we prioritize special teams? We all saw in the UCLA game its impact when well executed.
4. Why can't we develop and coach up our secondary unit? Since GA left it has been mostly regression.
While many of us were willing to accept a 6-6 record after running the gauntlet and started to give Wilcox a pass because of the afterglow of the big game and UCLA victories, all of our problems were on vivid display in the Bowl game.
Are we really improving or is our ceiling 6-6? Why do we accept mediocrity year after year?
Hopefully Saffell moving to full-time TE coach (after playing and asst coaching at OL) will get him more involved in blocking practice for all of our receivers.
i hear these news about getting new solid recruits via portal but so what? it doesn't matter unfortunately because wilcox is still our fb coach. we really need to change our fb culture. mediocrity ho hum football seems to be the goal every year. there's no sense of urgency or wow factor. where's the passion to win? wilcox is not the leader that will bring excitement. hopefully the change in administration will happen very soon and bring an AD that understands all of this. ugh
Ok, yes I was still "drunk" on the fUCLA game...so be it. This one kind of hurt but agree with your excellent analysis...and as Charlie Brown once said when the little red haired girl showed some interest, "how will I live until next September!" Go Bears, rock the ACC!
The operative word phrase being "you just keep posting it," as in ad naseum. It is getting tiring. The inability to take a hint when you've posted this same topic multiple times with little engagement, should tell you the most of us think this is a useless thought experiment that, though would have been entertaining prior to our joining the ACC, is now a total f'ing waste of time.
The play was a stupid play. If Ott is the guy receiving the snap then it's so obvious that he's going to carry the ball. There's no chance of a pass so the defense is all out for him. maybe a counter or a quick "look in" pass, etc.
Except, Cal wasn't down 20 at the time, and failure (which was probable) adversely affected future events (by Wilcox's own admission). It's not a good idea to do things that contribute to losing a game before you even have a chance to try to win it.
Reckless mistakes early makes taking bigger risks (with lower possibility of actual success) later necessarily occur sooner. While not by itself a game outcome changer, its indicative of desperation, and a bigger thought pattern that produces losses, not wins.
I’ve said this before but I will never understand why Wilcox, a defensive and conservative oriented coach can’t get the special teams to perform better. If your philosophy is grind out defensive wins, you better have stellar special teams that can win the field position battle and make big FGs when needed.
Agree. I've said this before but I just don't understand how a coach of Wilcox's ilk has yet to improve his lines both OL and DL. As you said he's a defensive minded conservative coach, to be that you need good lines. On either side of the ball he has not had that for the ENTIRE time of his tenure.
IMO, that is based on his coaching hires. Greatwood was a dead man walking prior to the HIRE ~ at the time I said this was a 3 - 5 year setback. McClure was a "WTF are you kidding me?" hire (I believe he has been let go by Nevada as well). Browning isn't bad but has yet to 'cruit anyone to change the DL. But on OL hires Wilcox has been an abject failure at the most crucial of position coaches. Now the OL coach is a 3 year GA with no previous coaching experience. It is just dumbfounding the decisions Wilcox has made with respect to his lines given his coaching philosophy.
That said, Wilcox has failed in other coaching hires as well. Two DB coaches and no ST's coach. And yes, Sirmon has to go or demoted to LB coach w/ a new DC. This change is a must.
Why oh why didn't a journalist ask Wilcox after the TT game which COACHING changes he would be making in the next 2 weeks to improve things is untenable.
Frankly I was a bit peeved at Wilcox's TT post-game presser. He reiterated how the players had to change, get committed, work hard during the off-season yada yada yada. But said absolutely nothing about what he was going to change. And not one journalist had the balls to ask him specifically (like they ask players), "coach, what are you going to change either in philosophy or staff?" Nothing was asked of HIM.
I agree with all of this. I thought his initial hirings were good and inspiring. TDR and GA were home runs. Greatwood had a good resume and was at least a solid hire. Even Baldwin was an exciting and intriguing hire who had success at the FCS and HC experience.
However, since those initial hires, the majority of his replacements have been failures: Musgrave and McClure being his biggest. Special teams continues to be neglected. Our OL has constantly underachieved and been under developed, hiring a GA in Saffell is such a big gamble. This was the biggest head scratching hire he has made in his 7 years.
Saffell is not the head OL coach. Bloesch is, and the OL performed well this year. Look up the rushihg stats. Saffell is an assitant.
Saffell has been promoted to the OL coach for next season.
The OL did perform well this year with Bloesch but Bloesch is now the OC.
He's been promoted to TE coach to replace Plough and Bloesch is maintaining OL duties.
Saffell is TE coach
Sure but Baldwin also had success as the OC at EWU before he became the head coach at EWU so you can’t just contribute all his success at EWU to Troy Taylor.
He also had Cooper Kupp
Yes this is true, it was Troy that really made that EW offense explode.
Boesch is the OL coach. The rushing stats show that the OL did a good job. The GA is an assistant OL line coach. You might look at the offensive record this year as opposed to last year. Spatival was a good hire as Offensive Coordinator but he was hired by Baylor before the bowl game and that hurt the offense severly. Also, we lost our best ILB, Orr, to the portal before the game and had 2nd and 3rd stringers at that spot along with a true freshman who is going to be great.
FYI - Saffell was promoted to TE coach. Bloesch still coaching OL along with his OC duties
Thanks for the clarification. For some reason I thought or maybe just assumed he went from GA OL coach to the actual OL coach.
I've read elsewhere that TDR was forced out so that Wilcox could bring in Sirmon.
Does anyone know where this assertion is coming from?
Most likely true. Wilcox and Sirmon are best friends. Wilcox, Sirmon, and Hayward have been coaching together for the most of last 13 years.
Strange if true. I'd never push out a high-performing employee just so I could work with a friend.
If I had a lot of money, I'd be a big donor, if only to have access to all the inside info, without which I'm baffled.
Yeah but Oregon wanted TDR so it was probably a salary optimization thing. We were never going to beat them in a price war.
The issues with offense, blocking, defense, tackling and coverage, and special teams, and team inconsistency generally, will be solved when (if) Cal (under Wilcox or someone else) recruits more better players, instead of a sprinkling of good players, and a sprinkling of fair ones, but not enough of them.
Watching the Independence Bowl looked like a .500 team that's slightly on the upside of that, and a team that was reasonably and generally expected to go 4-8, and scraped out a couple of wins above talent and depth that produced a team that looked like a near .500 team on its best days.
Recruiting is a responsibility of the coaching, but until better talent is acquired in some quantity, other aspects of coaching will have only mixed success.
The thing is that TT team sorely underachieved. They were ranked in the preseason and expected to challenge for their league title. Instead they dropped their opener at Wyoming, lost a close game to Oregon, then lost against both West Virginia and BYU. Out of those four games they were heavy favorites in 3 but went 0-4. Assuming they won the games they were double digit favorites in, they would have been 9-3 instead of 6-6. So, I saw the game as underachievers vs. overachievers and both teams played closer to their preseason expectations.
Yeah, at this point we're recruiting at a high G5 level and that's not going to change without major changes. Spav was that change, but we couldn't keep him. Barring massive performance improvements from our current coaching staff of an unprecedented nature, I don't know what fixes that outside of moving on from Wilcox.
We really missed Ifanse. It would have given Tech another ball-carrier to think about. A bruiser like they have. And Ott would have gotten more rest.
I wanted to see more of JWT, he showed power in other games. But I guess the calculus was "we must be able to open a big hole at some point, and we need a guy who can make a house call when it opens up"
Watched both Cal and the 9ers this weekend, so many similarities between Ott and McCaffery. Patience, vision, 2nd gear. Difference was the ability of the OL and receivers to execute blocks at the point of attack and downfield. Looking in the rear view mirror, when we executed this part of our game we’ll with NFL-grade linemen and solid coaches (Michalczik - ORSt seems to be doing ok) now..) everything else felll into place. Are we looking at too many of the specialty (QBs, backs, and special teams) parts of Cal’s game when a good dose of basics is where we need improvement most? Hope this staff can figure it out and get the pieces in place this off-season. Go Bears!
But Wilcox is no Shanahan calling plays!
Wilcox doesn't call plays. The OC does. He doesn't call defenses either. The DC does.
In the end, TT made plays and we didn't. Mendoza wasted away every drive for the second and third quarters in a display of youth that I suppose was overdue. Also their receivers were making clutch catches drive after drive.
With two fairly evenly matched teams (as far as skill and coaching), mistakes are what separates the teams. We made many more than they did. Some questionable tackling techniques also didn't help (it looked like too many arm tackle attempts, and going for the ball rather than solid tackles of the ball carrier).
This is the analysis I needed to read, thank you. It agrees with what I saw sitting in the stadium. Sober, less emotional take, but still clear sighted about the issues. Whose team is it? Wilcox's team.
Will PFF grade the bowl game? I thought there was relatively poor DL and OL play (vs. last three games) but mine is an untrained eye.
One thought for the game and all the trimmings front and back: Dreary.
So what's the upside, 7 wins next year? Looking ahead, there are 4 "should be wins" games: UC Davis, SDSU (they are awful right now), Oregon State (they will be gutted, new coach), Stanford (still a hot mess). Auburn was crap this year and Cal couldn't beat them, next year it's a road game, no chance. And while there are some "weak" ACC teams, there are some definite ass kickings on the way. While rosters are not set, when you look at the big picture, it's looking like another .500 level type of year. And if the bowl game was the debut of Bloesch at OC, it's a little scary. He knows what he's doing on the OL, but calling plays at FBS level is going to be a test.
Pondering some of the program's issues a couple of days after the fact.
1. Why can't our receivers block? This is a perennial problem - Toler?
2. Why can't we coach up the O-line? I suppose Bloesch has provided a brief ray of sunshine this season.
3. Why can't we prioritize special teams? We all saw in the UCLA game its impact when well executed.
4. Why can't we develop and coach up our secondary unit? Since GA left it has been mostly regression.
While many of us were willing to accept a 6-6 record after running the gauntlet and started to give Wilcox a pass because of the afterglow of the big game and UCLA victories, all of our problems were on vivid display in the Bowl game.
Are we really improving or is our ceiling 6-6? Why do we accept mediocrity year after year?
Hopefully Saffell moving to full-time TE coach (after playing and asst coaching at OL) will get him more involved in blocking practice for all of our receivers.
i hear these news about getting new solid recruits via portal but so what? it doesn't matter unfortunately because wilcox is still our fb coach. we really need to change our fb culture. mediocrity ho hum football seems to be the goal every year. there's no sense of urgency or wow factor. where's the passion to win? wilcox is not the leader that will bring excitement. hopefully the change in administration will happen very soon and bring an AD that understands all of this. ugh
He's locked in with a big contract. Cal can't afford to fire him.
Ok, yes I was still "drunk" on the fUCLA game...so be it. This one kind of hurt but agree with your excellent analysis...and as Charlie Brown once said when the little red haired girl showed some interest, "how will I live until next September!" Go Bears, rock the ACC!
Bob, you're keenly aware of the fact that the daily DBD posts are the exact place to place these links and off topic discussions?
https://writeforcalifornia.com/p/dbd-12-18-2023-off-season/comments
We don’t want his garbage over there either
Bob has been banned again lol
There's nothing wrong with discussing it or posting this topic. You just keep posting it in the wrong comment section.
The operative word phrase being "you just keep posting it," as in ad naseum. It is getting tiring. The inability to take a hint when you've posted this same topic multiple times with little engagement, should tell you the most of us think this is a useless thought experiment that, though would have been entertaining prior to our joining the ACC, is now a total f'ing waste of time.
And, Cal and Furd didn't want to play those teams
This is from a year ago Bob
Coach Wilcox at least admitted to the error, but similar (and more impactful) errors have happened before. So why did it happen (yet) again?
I reject the premise that trying to score a touchdown in a game you ended up losing by 20 was a bad decision.
The play was a stupid play. If Ott is the guy receiving the snap then it's so obvious that he's going to carry the ball. There's no chance of a pass so the defense is all out for him. maybe a counter or a quick "look in" pass, etc.
Except, Cal wasn't down 20 at the time, and failure (which was probable) adversely affected future events (by Wilcox's own admission). It's not a good idea to do things that contribute to losing a game before you even have a chance to try to win it.
Reckless mistakes early makes taking bigger risks (with lower possibility of actual success) later necessarily occur sooner. While not by itself a game outcome changer, its indicative of desperation, and a bigger thought pattern that produces losses, not wins.
You are so right. You must have played a lot of FB or you were a coach.