Some guy I was standing next to the last time I saw the Bears live (oh wait, it was Nick) said "Good things happen when we throw downfield" - and it's not just limited to passes and catches. PI penalties and also a loosening of the underneath coverage are other things that can happen even with attempts downfield.
"I still don’t quite understand why Cal couldn’t/didn’t pass downfield against Nevada, and that refusal and/or inability cost them a winnable game."
I haven't gone back and rewatched the game or anything, but my recollection from watching it live was that Garbers was pretty often looking downfield first, but then checking down to a receiver in the flat for a minimal gain. I'd have to rewatch tape (and you can't always see it on TV) to understand what Garbers was or wasn't seeing, so I couldn't say whether Nevada simply played/schemed better in coverage, or whether we've done something since schematically to free up receivers downfield, but I don't think not throwing downfield vs. Nevada was a choice we made so much as a result what was available to the offense.
I was astounded by a comment that Wilcox made in the past game presser, something to the effect of "it's difficult to beat any team in college football." C,mon coach, you might think that, but why would you admit that thought to the whole world? Most Power 5 schools schedule an FCS team with the thought it's an automatic W, and realistically, a chance to put that team away by halftime and give the subs a well deserved chance to play.
Sac State has a wonderful coach in former Cal alum Troy Taylor, but this was not the same team that gave Arizona State fits in 2019 in a 19-7 decision that was not decided until late into the fourth quarter. Sac State was one of those Big Sky teams that decided not to play in 2020, and they showed plenty of rust in their first two games. The first was a squeaker win against Dixie State (Dixie who?) and the second was a thumping at home against Northern Iowa in which the Hornets turned the ball over five times and scored 7 points in the second half. Sac State entered the season with a JC guy at QB whose previous experience was a grand total of under 700 yards throwing against FCS competition. He came out looking like YA Tittle against the Bears and almost by himself prevented a lot of those young Cal subs from getting into the game.
Bruce Snyder is my all-time favorite coach at Cal because for the most part he had his teams fired up to play to their maximum ability in every game. Despite inheriting an empty cubboard from Joe Kapp (the only Cal player taken in 11 rounds of the 1988 draft was their punter) and posting three losing seasons, Cal beat the teams they were supposed to beat in resounding fashion. Cal opened the 1987 season with a 41-0 beatdown of UOP. The next year, they destroyed Kansas 55-21. And then when that team got really good with Snyder players, they destroyed UOP again 88-24. I am guessing the subs got to play a lot in all of those games.
So now we have Wilcox at a coaching crossroads and by all accounts royally pissed at the results so far. I am hoping he is not trying to be friends with anybody on his staff or his players this week. In fact, I am hoping the players are running steps in Memorial as we speak. Washington coach Jimmy Lake faced a similar crossroads after game one in which his Huskies were flat out embarrassed by Montana. Something he said or did got through to the team. They started to show signs of life against Michigan in the second half of a loss on the road, and last week just crushed Arkansas State 52-3. Arkansas State is no FCS team, and in fact, scored 50 points on undefeated Memphis in their second game.
If Wilcox can get through to his players and start demanding they play up to their ability level, they have a chance of competing against Washington Saturday night. If not, Washington is going to crush them John Ross style.
>I was astounded by a comment that Wilcox made in the past game presser, something to the effect of "it's difficult to beat any team in college football." C,mon coach, you might think that, but why would you admit that thought to the whole world? Most Power 5 schools schedule an FCS team with the thought it's an automatic W, and realistically, a chance to put that team away by halftime and give the subs a well deserved chance to play.
Wilcox would say that line if we were playing a Division V former Quidditch turned football team. It's part of his MO of never giving anyone any bulletin board material ever.
I get it, but you guys found it quote worthy. And you know he didn't mean it by all the the other comments about how pissed he is by the team's performance.
I've watched the tape twice. Val Daltoso was getting beat like a drum. Happily, Val's protection has improved immensely since then. (I am happy about this because I am a fan of Daltoso).
To be fair wilcox has said that quite a few times regardless of opponent so it’s not something he’s just bringing up just this week. Just to give that quote some context.
Had he stayed at Cal, and if the AD hadn't been so cheap in not renewing his contract, there is no doubt in my mind Snyder would have taken Cal to the Rose Bowl in a few short years. After Cal, he jumped over to Arizona State and had them in the Rose Bowl in short order.
One thing I don't understand is the lack of pressure on QB. Is it scheme issue? We are only rushing 3 or 4 (yet receivers are wide open!?? but that's a different issue). No blitz. Is any of our DL getting double teamed? Who called plays last year? Sirmon or TDR?
Wilcox's and Sermon's defenses are designed to force opposing teams to drive the entire field and not to give up the big play. They would rather slow the game down, give up 3 versus 7 and let our offense do it's thing. nWith 3 down lineman and even a 4th that comes up, it can be difficult to get to the QB against 5 decent o-linemen. With a shitty secondary the down linemen will never have a chance to pressure the opposing QB. With 7 guys in coverage we should have lots of coverage sacks. We should not give up the seam in zone. The problem right now is with our secondary and Wilcox knows it. Plus we need to learn how to tackle instead of reaching.
The poor tackling was especially egregious IMO. I remember a few short years ago we were praising how Wilcox took a Dykesian defense and taught them proper tackling form to great effect. And now, astonishingly, we're back in the same spot with poor one-arm reach tackles.
Maybe this is due to rust and not having many live reps actually "going for it", and if so it should begin improving immediately or we're in deep doodoo.
Could be a scheme thing, not a lot of blitzes, but those that did go did affect the game. The QB had a 2.5 time to throw which is on the mid-low side of the FBS spectrum so that aided in stopping the pass rush.
This was really disturbing on the last Sac State drive, when everyone knows they have to pass and the DL should be able to just pin their ears back and get after the QB. There was no pressure at all as they marched right down the field on us. Getting physically dominated by an FCS O-line?
I'm (somewhat) willing to take the end of that game with a grain of salt. When we went deep on 4th-and-8 from our own territory, it seemed to me that the rest of the game was going to be a bit of "playing with a handicap". I wouldn't be surprised if Wilcox wanted to leave the secondary in coverage to try to force them to make the play, as opposed to just blitzing because we knew they had to throw the ball.
Idk, just my two cents. Obviously, he (and we) didn't like the end result, as CSUS diced us up the middle over and over. The sunshine pumper in me wants to hope that Wilcox saw what we saw and wanted to use it as a learning opportunity for the players, and not that we were just being out-schemed.
I still want to believe that Wilcox can fix the defense. I understand we don't have TDR, GA, Weaver, Bynum, Hawkins, etc. anymore and our defense likely won't be elite like previous years. But it should still have potential to be at least average to good defense, and Wilcox wants to win more than anyone in the fan base. So let's see how we play against UW and see if I have to say "fire Sirmon" again.
>>> Wonder what the average scoring against Cal has been in the last three games versus what we have averaged under Wilcox from 2020 back to when Wilcox started being out head coach. Might be ten points or slightly more higher.
It's 5 points. We're giving up 28.7 pts/game this year vs 23.7 over Wilcox's first four years. So far this year is about like 2017. (Actually the Sac State game reminded me a lot of the 2017 Colorado game in which we had huge breaks in our coverage - we made Montez look like Aaron Rodgers.)
And as for Cal scoring, so far this year we are averaging more than 7 points/game higher this year than the previous four.
Wow, that perspective is actually a little heartening... if our defense can improve as the 2017 defense did, and our offense can maintain a pulse, we may salvage the season yet.
After all, I'd choose 1-2 OOC and a winning Pac-12 record any day over 3-0 OOC and 4-5 in the Pac...
We’ve stated our opinions in firing coaches in the past I don’t think we’re just polite. Some of us prefer to be optimistic and nicer but there are defn others on the staff that will and have called for firings. 🤷🏻♂️🤷🏻♂️🤷🏻♂️
Possibility? Sure so is us making the CFP in a 2007-esque season and then dropping 222 points against Clemson causing Dabo to retire and become a full time preacher.
Good-god-cover-your-eyes...I like that. Nice article that actually pumps a bit of sunshine. Again, I'm not good enough to dissect player vs. coaching issues, but Wilcox acts like it is heavily on players to execute, as he pounded that he is looking for "competitiveness" at the position.
Wilcox knows it starts with him and has said so many times. He's holding himself accountable and is doing the same about the players. And let's face it he is right some of the upper classmen in the secondary aren't playing well and they should be!!
Some guy I was standing next to the last time I saw the Bears live (oh wait, it was Nick) said "Good things happen when we throw downfield" - and it's not just limited to passes and catches. PI penalties and also a loosening of the underneath coverage are other things that can happen even with attempts downfield.
"I still don’t quite understand why Cal couldn’t/didn’t pass downfield against Nevada, and that refusal and/or inability cost them a winnable game."
I haven't gone back and rewatched the game or anything, but my recollection from watching it live was that Garbers was pretty often looking downfield first, but then checking down to a receiver in the flat for a minimal gain. I'd have to rewatch tape (and you can't always see it on TV) to understand what Garbers was or wasn't seeing, so I couldn't say whether Nevada simply played/schemed better in coverage, or whether we've done something since schematically to free up receivers downfield, but I don't think not throwing downfield vs. Nevada was a choice we made so much as a result what was available to the offense.
Garbers never had time to throw a deep ball. Watch the tape.
you can thank Daltoso for that
I can believe that was part of it -- he didn't always have time to let the play develop. But that wasn't always the case.
I was astounded by a comment that Wilcox made in the past game presser, something to the effect of "it's difficult to beat any team in college football." C,mon coach, you might think that, but why would you admit that thought to the whole world? Most Power 5 schools schedule an FCS team with the thought it's an automatic W, and realistically, a chance to put that team away by halftime and give the subs a well deserved chance to play.
Sac State has a wonderful coach in former Cal alum Troy Taylor, but this was not the same team that gave Arizona State fits in 2019 in a 19-7 decision that was not decided until late into the fourth quarter. Sac State was one of those Big Sky teams that decided not to play in 2020, and they showed plenty of rust in their first two games. The first was a squeaker win against Dixie State (Dixie who?) and the second was a thumping at home against Northern Iowa in which the Hornets turned the ball over five times and scored 7 points in the second half. Sac State entered the season with a JC guy at QB whose previous experience was a grand total of under 700 yards throwing against FCS competition. He came out looking like YA Tittle against the Bears and almost by himself prevented a lot of those young Cal subs from getting into the game.
Bruce Snyder is my all-time favorite coach at Cal because for the most part he had his teams fired up to play to their maximum ability in every game. Despite inheriting an empty cubboard from Joe Kapp (the only Cal player taken in 11 rounds of the 1988 draft was their punter) and posting three losing seasons, Cal beat the teams they were supposed to beat in resounding fashion. Cal opened the 1987 season with a 41-0 beatdown of UOP. The next year, they destroyed Kansas 55-21. And then when that team got really good with Snyder players, they destroyed UOP again 88-24. I am guessing the subs got to play a lot in all of those games.
So now we have Wilcox at a coaching crossroads and by all accounts royally pissed at the results so far. I am hoping he is not trying to be friends with anybody on his staff or his players this week. In fact, I am hoping the players are running steps in Memorial as we speak. Washington coach Jimmy Lake faced a similar crossroads after game one in which his Huskies were flat out embarrassed by Montana. Something he said or did got through to the team. They started to show signs of life against Michigan in the second half of a loss on the road, and last week just crushed Arkansas State 52-3. Arkansas State is no FCS team, and in fact, scored 50 points on undefeated Memphis in their second game.
If Wilcox can get through to his players and start demanding they play up to their ability level, they have a chance of competing against Washington Saturday night. If not, Washington is going to crush them John Ross style.
>I was astounded by a comment that Wilcox made in the past game presser, something to the effect of "it's difficult to beat any team in college football." C,mon coach, you might think that, but why would you admit that thought to the whole world? Most Power 5 schools schedule an FCS team with the thought it's an automatic W, and realistically, a chance to put that team away by halftime and give the subs a well deserved chance to play.
Wilcox would say that line if we were playing a Division V former Quidditch turned football team. It's part of his MO of never giving anyone any bulletin board material ever.
I get it, but you guys found it quote worthy. And you know he didn't mean it by all the the other comments about how pissed he is by the team's performance.
I've watched the tape twice. Val Daltoso was getting beat like a drum. Happily, Val's protection has improved immensely since then. (I am happy about this because I am a fan of Daltoso).
To be fair wilcox has said that quite a few times regardless of opponent so it’s not something he’s just bringing up just this week. Just to give that quote some context.
"...a squeaker win against Dixie State (Dixie who?)..."
Presumably the same Dixie State that was beaten by UC Davis last weekend, 60-27.
Good thing we're not playing UC Davis this year.
Had he stayed at Cal, and if the AD hadn't been so cheap in not renewing his contract, there is no doubt in my mind Snyder would have taken Cal to the Rose Bowl in a few short years. After Cal, he jumped over to Arizona State and had them in the Rose Bowl in short order.
One thing I don't understand is the lack of pressure on QB. Is it scheme issue? We are only rushing 3 or 4 (yet receivers are wide open!?? but that's a different issue). No blitz. Is any of our DL getting double teamed? Who called plays last year? Sirmon or TDR?
Wilcox's and Sermon's defenses are designed to force opposing teams to drive the entire field and not to give up the big play. They would rather slow the game down, give up 3 versus 7 and let our offense do it's thing. nWith 3 down lineman and even a 4th that comes up, it can be difficult to get to the QB against 5 decent o-linemen. With a shitty secondary the down linemen will never have a chance to pressure the opposing QB. With 7 guys in coverage we should have lots of coverage sacks. We should not give up the seam in zone. The problem right now is with our secondary and Wilcox knows it. Plus we need to learn how to tackle instead of reaching.
The poor tackling was especially egregious IMO. I remember a few short years ago we were praising how Wilcox took a Dykesian defense and taught them proper tackling form to great effect. And now, astonishingly, we're back in the same spot with poor one-arm reach tackles.
Maybe this is due to rust and not having many live reps actually "going for it", and if so it should begin improving immediately or we're in deep doodoo.
Could be a scheme thing, not a lot of blitzes, but those that did go did affect the game. The QB had a 2.5 time to throw which is on the mid-low side of the FBS spectrum so that aided in stopping the pass rush.
This was really disturbing on the last Sac State drive, when everyone knows they have to pass and the DL should be able to just pin their ears back and get after the QB. There was no pressure at all as they marched right down the field on us. Getting physically dominated by an FCS O-line?
I'm (somewhat) willing to take the end of that game with a grain of salt. When we went deep on 4th-and-8 from our own territory, it seemed to me that the rest of the game was going to be a bit of "playing with a handicap". I wouldn't be surprised if Wilcox wanted to leave the secondary in coverage to try to force them to make the play, as opposed to just blitzing because we knew they had to throw the ball.
Idk, just my two cents. Obviously, he (and we) didn't like the end result, as CSUS diced us up the middle over and over. The sunshine pumper in me wants to hope that Wilcox saw what we saw and wanted to use it as a learning opportunity for the players, and not that we were just being out-schemed.
Very concerning that we couldn't get any pressure on the QB against an FCS foe. We actually got more pressure on the QB during the TCU game.
I wasn't able to watch, but it seems like missing Deng is huge on the QB pressure front. Hopefully he'll be back soon
I still want to believe that Wilcox can fix the defense. I understand we don't have TDR, GA, Weaver, Bynum, Hawkins, etc. anymore and our defense likely won't be elite like previous years. But it should still have potential to be at least average to good defense, and Wilcox wants to win more than anyone in the fan base. So let's see how we play against UW and see if I have to say "fire Sirmon" again.
>>> Wonder what the average scoring against Cal has been in the last three games versus what we have averaged under Wilcox from 2020 back to when Wilcox started being out head coach. Might be ten points or slightly more higher.
It's 5 points. We're giving up 28.7 pts/game this year vs 23.7 over Wilcox's first four years. So far this year is about like 2017. (Actually the Sac State game reminded me a lot of the 2017 Colorado game in which we had huge breaks in our coverage - we made Montez look like Aaron Rodgers.)
And as for Cal scoring, so far this year we are averaging more than 7 points/game higher this year than the previous four.
Wow, that perspective is actually a little heartening... if our defense can improve as the 2017 defense did, and our offense can maintain a pulse, we may salvage the season yet.
After all, I'd choose 1-2 OOC and a winning Pac-12 record any day over 3-0 OOC and 4-5 in the Pac...
We’ve stated our opinions in firing coaches in the past I don’t think we’re just polite. Some of us prefer to be optimistic and nicer but there are defn others on the staff that will and have called for firings. 🤷🏻♂️🤷🏻♂️🤷🏻♂️
Reminds me of the Ben Braun watch back in the day lol
The conference is so bad...but the question is if the Bears can run the table of the crappy teams if they get the LB/secondary issues fixed.
Am I the only one looking at Pac-12 results and thinking that Cal in the Rose Bowl this season is a realistic possibility?
Possibility? Sure so is us making the CFP in a 2007-esque season and then dropping 222 points against Clemson causing Dabo to retire and become a full time preacher.
Realistic? What makes you think that?
The fact that the conference is currently a shit show and that we don't need to be good, just...better.
Oregon is not really a shit show.
You might be. But I’m way more optimistic than most of what I’ve seen from other people. I think 6 wins is the most like outcome.
Good-god-cover-your-eyes...I like that. Nice article that actually pumps a bit of sunshine. Again, I'm not good enough to dissect player vs. coaching issues, but Wilcox acts like it is heavily on players to execute, as he pounded that he is looking for "competitiveness" at the position.
Wilcox knows it starts with him and has said so many times. He's holding himself accountable and is doing the same about the players. And let's face it he is right some of the upper classmen in the secondary aren't playing well and they should be!!
^This