This will, sadly, will be Cal football till Wilcox gets a top notch, creative, exciting, offensive coordinator. Mediocre coordinators combined with mid-level talent lead to inconsistent, lackluster, frustrating results. If Cal gets very lucky and is invited to join the Big 10, Northwestern, Purdue, and Indiana will rejoice because the l…
This will, sadly, will be Cal football till Wilcox gets a top notch, creative, exciting, offensive coordinator. Mediocre coordinators combined with mid-level talent lead to inconsistent, lackluster, frustrating results. If Cal gets very lucky and is invited to join the Big 10, Northwestern, Purdue, and Indiana will rejoice because the league will have a new doormat. To compete, as his first step, Wilcox will need to add an offensive wunderkind to pair up things with his solid, but undermanned defenses. Knowlton (sp?), the empty suit, will have to be replaced by a dynamic athletics director and the administration will have to get it's head out of its southern parts and commit to football as being a critical component of a university's essence. Otherwise, in a few years Cal will end up in the Greater Central Valley Conference playing the likes of Chico State, Sac State, Sonoma State, and UC Davis and parking will no longer be a problem at Memorial Stadium.
Knowlton the empty suit... love it. I couldn't believe what I was watching when I turned on the Zoom press conference he had in the midst of last year's Arizona Covid debacle. Unprepared, deflecting questions to the SID. One of the reporters actually had to respond with something along the lines of "...but you're the AD." If I was the Chancellor he would've been fired immediately for the optics of that alone. But, you know, we had just extended him through 2029 sooooo... Good lord, Cal Athletics in a nutshell.
Despite how negative I've been these last couple days, I don't actually think Musgrave is a mediocre coordinator. I'm starting to think Wilcox doesn't actually let his OC's work autonomously and they have to fit within his game script. There's no way any OC with any self-respect calls the game Musgrave did yesterday and just decides not to try to score for an entire half in the interest of burning clock.
I like the sound of that...at least in the Greater Central Valley Conference, we would maybe have a chance to play for a championship in the Fresno Bowl?!?
They should probably go ahead and use Memorial for the championship game since it will be the best stadium in the conference.
Will the Sonoma vs. Chico championship game be a bigger draw than Cal games in recent years? It’s painful to honestly consider the answer to that question.
Has Wilcox ever fired someone on his staff? I think Beau Baldwin left on his own to take the Cal Poly gig. He has shown no inclination to part ways with Musgrave or McClure, either. So if you have continual inconsistency and mediocrity with a head coach who will not change things, then why not part ways with the head coach? The Cal administration obviously does not think that way, and I don't think Wilcox' seat will be warm after what I now predict will be a 5-7 season at best. Still trying to figure out where Cal will get three more wins with that O line.
No he hasn't, and you're hitting the nail on the head here. Despite the tough talk and the frustration from Wilcox in his press conferences, I wonder how much of a demand for excellence there really is in the football building. There sure as hell isn't any coming from the athletic department that employs him. Flirt with Oregon, turn them down, and get a raise and extension. Why leave for a place that demands excellence and results on the field when you can pull a sub .500 overall record and get a longer contract and more money from your current employer? In spite of all this, I'd still love to see Wilcox succeed, but he has to have the guts to make changes when we're in year 6 of anemic offense and dumbfounding personnel decisions. If not, cut him loose and hand the program to the guy 80 miles up the road in Sacramento.
How bout Oregon State's Jonathan Smith firing his D coordinator in mid season last year just one day after Cal embarrassed his team. (If a Cal offense puts up 39 points and makes your defense look foolish, it's probably time to pull some kind of lever.) The Portland Oregonian put it this way: "It marked the first firing by Jonathan Smith and serves as evidence that the fourth year coach is willing to make tough professional decisions."
But, the 4 teams being replaced on our conference schedule in a given year will likely be a combined higher quality than Oregon State + Washington State + 2 (ASU/UA/CU/UU), so our W/L record likely declines, ceteris paribus. I would look forward to never playing Utah again though :).
Will they be? Utah has been great lately. WSU and ASU have been pretty good. We seem to always be snakebit against Arizona.
Not sure the average four-team rotation from the current B1G would be all that much tougher, in most years. Maybe if it includes OSU/Michigan, but otherwise no.
Went to mediocre bowls - 2019 (Redbox), 2018 (Cheez-It), 2015 (Armed Forces)
Purdue got a couple bigger gets in there with knocking off two (2)s, but overall pretty similar results. I bet if I go back to Tedford we look pretty good but that's getting to be ancient history, sadly.
This will, sadly, will be Cal football till Wilcox gets a top notch, creative, exciting, offensive coordinator. Mediocre coordinators combined with mid-level talent lead to inconsistent, lackluster, frustrating results. If Cal gets very lucky and is invited to join the Big 10, Northwestern, Purdue, and Indiana will rejoice because the league will have a new doormat. To compete, as his first step, Wilcox will need to add an offensive wunderkind to pair up things with his solid, but undermanned defenses. Knowlton (sp?), the empty suit, will have to be replaced by a dynamic athletics director and the administration will have to get it's head out of its southern parts and commit to football as being a critical component of a university's essence. Otherwise, in a few years Cal will end up in the Greater Central Valley Conference playing the likes of Chico State, Sac State, Sonoma State, and UC Davis and parking will no longer be a problem at Memorial Stadium.
Knowlton the empty suit... love it. I couldn't believe what I was watching when I turned on the Zoom press conference he had in the midst of last year's Arizona Covid debacle. Unprepared, deflecting questions to the SID. One of the reporters actually had to respond with something along the lines of "...but you're the AD." If I was the Chancellor he would've been fired immediately for the optics of that alone. But, you know, we had just extended him through 2029 sooooo... Good lord, Cal Athletics in a nutshell.
Nailed him!!! Well done!
Despite how negative I've been these last couple days, I don't actually think Musgrave is a mediocre coordinator. I'm starting to think Wilcox doesn't actually let his OC's work autonomously and they have to fit within his game script. There's no way any OC with any self-respect calls the game Musgrave did yesterday and just decides not to try to score for an entire half in the interest of burning clock.
not so sure, Musgrave has had lots of lackluster moments and can be very predictable
I like the sound of that...at least in the Greater Central Valley Conference, we would maybe have a chance to play for a championship in the Fresno Bowl?!?
They should probably go ahead and use Memorial for the championship game since it will be the best stadium in the conference.
Will the Sonoma vs. Chico championship game be a bigger draw than Cal games in recent years? It’s painful to honestly consider the answer to that question.
Has Wilcox ever fired someone on his staff? I think Beau Baldwin left on his own to take the Cal Poly gig. He has shown no inclination to part ways with Musgrave or McClure, either. So if you have continual inconsistency and mediocrity with a head coach who will not change things, then why not part ways with the head coach? The Cal administration obviously does not think that way, and I don't think Wilcox' seat will be warm after what I now predict will be a 5-7 season at best. Still trying to figure out where Cal will get three more wins with that O line.
No he hasn't, and you're hitting the nail on the head here. Despite the tough talk and the frustration from Wilcox in his press conferences, I wonder how much of a demand for excellence there really is in the football building. There sure as hell isn't any coming from the athletic department that employs him. Flirt with Oregon, turn them down, and get a raise and extension. Why leave for a place that demands excellence and results on the field when you can pull a sub .500 overall record and get a longer contract and more money from your current employer? In spite of all this, I'd still love to see Wilcox succeed, but he has to have the guts to make changes when we're in year 6 of anemic offense and dumbfounding personnel decisions. If not, cut him loose and hand the program to the guy 80 miles up the road in Sacramento.
How bout Oregon State's Jonathan Smith firing his D coordinator in mid season last year just one day after Cal embarrassed his team. (If a Cal offense puts up 39 points and makes your defense look foolish, it's probably time to pull some kind of lever.) The Portland Oregonian put it this way: "It marked the first firing by Jonathan Smith and serves as evidence that the fourth year coach is willing to make tough professional decisions."
Yep!
Baldwin seemed like an example of a guy being pushed out nicely.
But his "multiple" offense was chock full of guys with the "want to", and on the verge of taking off.
There's no reason to think Cal would be a "new doormat" in the Big 10. We'd likely be in about the same position as we are in the Pac.
But, the 4 teams being replaced on our conference schedule in a given year will likely be a combined higher quality than Oregon State + Washington State + 2 (ASU/UA/CU/UU), so our W/L record likely declines, ceteris paribus. I would look forward to never playing Utah again though :).
Will they be? Utah has been great lately. WSU and ASU have been pretty good. We seem to always be snakebit against Arizona.
Not sure the average four-team rotation from the current B1G would be all that much tougher, in most years. Maybe if it includes OSU/Michigan, but otherwise no.
Sounds like we need one of our intrepid WFC analytics gurus to run some simulations!
Bob,
Please request someone from WFC put these numbers together for us, stat.
Which has basically been the doormat of the Pac 12 north. I can’t remember the last time we finished above 4th in the north.
"Doormat" suggests finishing last, which has not been our usual place. We've typically finished about 4th, in the middle of the pack.
And technically, in 2019 we tied for second place in the North!
There are worse things than being Purdue, who usually qualifies for a mediocre bowl and screws over a few ranked teams in the process.
It's actually a pretty good analogy. Since the end of the Tedford Era the two teams are pretty similar:
Purdue
Screwed over: 2021 - (2) Iowa, (5) Michigan State; 2018 - (23) Boston College, (2) Ohio State, (19) Iowa
Went to mediocre bowls - 2021 (Music City), 2018 (Music City), 2017 (Foster Farms)
Cal
Screwed over: 2019 - (14) Washington, 2018 - (15) Washington, 2017 - (8) Washington State, 2016 - (11) Texas, (18) Utah
Went to mediocre bowls - 2019 (Redbox), 2018 (Cheez-It), 2015 (Armed Forces)
Purdue got a couple bigger gets in there with knocking off two (2)s, but overall pretty similar results. I bet if I go back to Tedford we look pretty good but that's getting to be ancient history, sadly.
How fitting is that a Purdue QB is starting for Cal now.
Wow. This made me sad.
Chico State is still a party school though, right? I'd hate to think they gave *THAT* up!
That's the future of Cal football, is what Rick means.
I'm aware of that Bob. Underscores my point