For 353 days each year, I like to think of myself as a rational person. Or at least as rational as a college football fan can be. I understand how this sport works. I understand that when Cal plays USC, the odds are stacked up against the Bears. But on game day, I am not a rational person. I am a raving lunatic. I have to actively restrain myself from saying and doing stupid things. My mind makes irrational connections and creates idiotic beliefs because apparently that’s the only way for me to emotionally handle a football game.
Nick, you were brave to write a column the day after Avi's brilliant piece but you rose to the occasion. You captured the essence of the game and of Cal fandom in these recent dark years. Well done.
Great writing. The article summed up exactly the way I and so many others feel about the game and the demise of the PAC 12 which was started by USC but was not helped to stop it by the inept administrators of Cal and Stanford and probably some other PAC 12 administrations.
It’s going to be hard to get excited for any Wilcox coached team, given his clear limitations as a Head Coach.
Even in a weaker ACC, there’s a decided ceiling on his program. That said, a 6-6 season and a bowl bid is probably do-able…just wish they could have pulled that off this year.
Can't fault Wilcox for be willing to try something different. Not defending him or his record here, but so long as he is our HC, it is refreshing to see him at least try to adapt and change even if it leads to the same record and same feeling of frustration and futility.
Wilcox does not cause the many very costly fumbles/interceptions and passes dropped in key situations, or the ridiculous calls/non calls by refs who are intimidated by USC etc and have no fear of screwing Cal. The most egregious example of the latter was the 15 yard unsportsmanlike penalty called against a Cal receiver (which killed a great drive and momentum) for simply getting up and pointing to the end zone vs no call against usc when their entire team started pointing to the end zone and dancing half way there after Cal 1st fumble. Without the players giving up fumbles, Cal wins this game going away (notwithstanding the refs). Have to give usc credit for causing the strip the ball fumbles, but our players knew going into the game that causing fumbles and sacks was their primary weapon in defense. Our O line gave up NO sacks, and we sacked college footballs best/strongest scrambling QB four times. All coaches preach not to allow fumbles. I’m sure Wilcox etc did the same. Hard to explain why Cal started fumbling 3 or so games ago after causing more fumbles/interceptions than they gave up in the 1st 4-5 games. Cal players need a good therapist to help them understand why they are somehow afraid to win. They must get it into their brains that they are damn good and DESERVE to win. This seems to be a serious issue only for the football program, and has been for decades ( with occasional short breaks in the mid 70s and early 2000s. Wilcox etc have not caused this phenomenon. To my of of thinking this is the true challenge for Cal football. To borrow a theme of Ted Lasso……you’ve got to “Believe”. Go Bears!!!
I disagree with this because it has taken him 7 years to finally adapt and change the offense. If he had done so after year 3 or 4 I would give him more credit but he doubled down on bad offense with the hire of Musgrave. Let’s see what he does with the defense because the status quo with Sirmon and the rest of his defensive staff clearly isn’t working.
That's not fair. He stuck with Beau for the 3 years, and despite the improvements year-over-year he still moved on to Musgrave in hopes to revitalize the offense. Just because it was a huge failure, it doesn't mean the experimentation/adaption didn't happen. Once that was clearly not working, he was willing to fire his staff mid-season and figure out how to run an offense without an OC for half the season.
His stubbornness on offense wasn’t so much moving on from staff, it was his offensive philosophy of a two tight end, pro style offense when CFB had clearly moved on to more spread offenses.
The Wisconsin or Stanford offense that Wilcox wanted at Cal and weren't even working anymore for Wisconsin or Stanford.
I can't help but think that the pivotal play in this game was the fumble on the punt return. That really altered the trajectory of the final score, unfortunately.
Anyone who has watched Cal for more than a few games knows the backbreaker is inevitable, and once the fumble happened, the game was clearly over. Memorial needs an exorcism after this season to cleanse the program of bad vibes as it enters a new era.
Hey, the decision is what it is…Wilcox had his reasons. Sure, they were banged up. If he had proven up to now to be a better head coach, maybe they were even the correct ones, but he hasn’t really earned the benefit of the doubt. My issue was the time…you can’t actually win the game by going for 2 there, especially after you have to waste the TO…you can only lose it, as they did. Would have liked to see him kick the PAT after the clear confusion that was evident as the O prepared for the 2-point try. His teams are seemingly never prepared, the sign of a poorly run program. And there was absolutely nothing there on the attempt - everyone was wrapped up. Good luck getting the call for the hold.
In the end, if he didn’t have enough confidence in the team to even play for OT, then they were probably not stopping the Heisman Trophy winner from getting in FG range with :58 and 2 TO’s left, so whether it’s 50-50 or 51-50 Cal, the point is pretty much moot.
He's a good dude. He's just not the right guy to fix what ills the football program, especially now given how vital improvement is to the Athletic Department's continued existence.
Here's the thing tho: I don't care if he's a good dude. I'm an even better dude, but we both have the same problem: him! He was never the right guy when he was hired, he was not the right guy when the equally misguided Knowlton extended him. By next year, Wilcox will have coached Cal for 2 entire recruiting classes -- Fox & Wyking combined to ruin MBB in 6, so no one will ever convince me that Wilcox deserves/deserved 8 years, practically a generation's worth! He can go be a good dude as DC somewhere else. Worse is feeling helpless that we can't do a damn thing about any of it! Back to the daily distraction of war, inequality & corporate greed. Speaking of, sorry last thing, can we finally acknowledge that as evil as SC is on many fronts, their particular selfish brand of evil makes a mockery of the NCAA's more generalized hypocrisy re: the student-athlete. [mockery of hypocrisy = hymockrisy]
College football has long been the minor leagues of the NFL, now the conference realignment lays it bare. Fck those guys & all the Travelers they rode in on!
Sht, forgot climate change already! Given that yesterday I sat in the blazing sun at what I can only describe as not even a practice field level of decay w/ my transferred-to-SC daughter to watch Cal women's soccer lose, I should've included climate change on the list. Even she wondered why a D1, P5 soccer program has to play at a place w/ no facilities to speak of: just rusting metal benches, porta-potties, pop-up snack & water tent... no wonder SC wants millions more in revenue, altho it's not like the football team will share. Is it me, or does Caleb look even older than his usual 35-yr-old Dak Prescott self? Is he playing this season stoned cuz what is up with how bad he looks?
I agree with your point regarding the two-point try, but Nick makes a great point regarding the variance in playing OT, particularly if we are relying on a FG kicking duel to determine the outcome. We can criticize Wilcox for the state of our kicking game, but given the choice between producing on offense (PAT and OT) or producing on defense (a 2-point try and defense holding the line) it is a total coinflip IMHO.
Everything about Wilcox is variance, and we usually don't make enough plays to win. And of course, that 7-year trend continued.
Hey, usually I'm all for going for the win, but not with a minute left. If we'd scored with :08 left, F-CK yes, go for the win. But with :58? It's a low percentage move. He's saying we can't win this game in OT, despite what the analytics say...because the analytics say kick the PAT, play D and take your chances in OT at home against a defense you've hung 527 total yards and 50 points on.
At the end of the day, he's not the right coach, and when he's forced to make important decisions, they're almost always the wrong ones. That's what bad head coaches do. But if you're gonna go for the win with a minute left, why not go for 2 with 3 minutes left, or 5 minutes....once Hunter fumbled the punt, this almost certainly became an L.
If we had a nice two point play up our sleeves then I would agree with it, but we clearly did not so yeah seems like kicking would have been better. But I do see the thought of not wanting to meekly set yourself yup for a game winning FG by SC
Even if we converted USC could've still won by a FG. It's a matter of what you see as more likely to happen, converting a 2 point conversion, or winning in OT (either way, we would've had to hold the USC offense for one last regulation possession).
Exactly - there was WAY too much time left on the clock. Dunno why everyone thinks we wouldn't have fared well in OT. We'd been moving the ball on that porous D just fine all day...if not for the 2 fluke fumbles, we're up by 2 scores.
I'd have been all for going for 2 if converting meant you pretty much had the W. That wasn't the case. If you go for 2 and MISS, the game is for sure over, it's done. If you go for 2 and make it, you've left a ton of time for the Heisman Trophy winner to put together a drive for a FG. It wasn't a great shot either way. But once you burn the time out, you should've probably kicked the PAT.
At home, you need to extend the game, but I guess if your roster is THAT banged up, you're not deep enough and are probably losing the game anyway, whether it's a FG at the gun or in OT.
We were whooping that ass all day. Our 4th and 5th string running backs were breaking off huge plays. Their kicker was struggling. I don't think it was a foregone conclusion that we would've lost in OT.
On the topic of their kicker, that's another reason why I would've settled for the PAT. MAKE them kick it.
I dunno - the 1st one was non-contact, as Mendoza flubbed the exchange on an RPO…that’s not standard in college football, especially how often RPO’s take place on a given game day.
The Hunter fumble on the punt was just your typical back breaker that always seems to happen to Justin Wilcox-coached (i.e. bad) teams.
Wilcox mentioned that the total lack of depth was a deciding factor though. Our chances on the 2 point conversion were probably as good or better than our chances in OT, or the off chance we'd get the ball back in regulation.
Cal did USC a favor by calling the time out and giving them a chance to catch their breath and set their D. Bummer the hold on Endries wasn't called on the attempt, but there was NOTHING Mendoza could do. Their athletes are just that much better than ours.
The two point failure is of course easy to criticize, but legitimately so. After the timeout SC was loaded for bear and regained its bearings; I’m sure the DC knew that holding onto receivers had just as good a chance of not being called as being called, and advised the cover guys accordingly. The worst it would cost them was half the distance. Further, a minute is plenty of time for the Trojans to score. Couple these factors with the fact Cal didn’t appear to have a whole lot of options up it’s sleeve for the two point try (by the way, anyone seen Sam Jackson V on the field at all over the past three games? This would at least by now have made opposing defenses guess among more possibilities, that this weapon could be on the field). Instead it felt like SC did not have to overthink its scheme. Sure, Cal was down two starting O-linemen and two RBs (actually this might have helped SC conclude a pass was most likely on the try); kicking the PAT there would have been prudent. Let the crowd get super into it for the final minute/overtime (if they’d held against SC). But, of course if somehow the Bears had converted the two-pt try and managed to hold Williams and company from getting into FG range, I admit I’d be singing a different song (Palms of Victory, loudly) and praising the Bears’ coaching staff for proving me wrong. Damn, this loss is hard to swallow. Still in the Anger stage of grief, I need someone to blame.
here i stand, beaten and battered mid-season after yet another loss to fucking SC and I can't help but smile as I whisper to God and Caleb Williams' paid social media hypesters: fuck USC
Nick, thanks for this. It is refreshing to see a well-reasoned take juxtaposed with all the armchair qb reactions from people who don't really understand football beyond TOUCHDOWN GOOD / GET TACKLED BAD. I think Wilcox has a lot for which to answer over the last 7 years, but Saturday's performance was solid (and soooo on brand).
I hope we didn’t witness Jaydn Ott putting together his ‘transfer portal’ highlight reel vs. SC. He’s wonderful, but I can’t help but think he’s looking at other programs (and other coaches, of course)😕
I can imagine that if Bloesch stays around, the "other coaches" part won't be so important… He and Spav have really improved things for the RBs and set up Ott to put together highlight reels for the NFL. Otherwise what I heard coming off last season is he really likes it in Berkeley and as long as NIL gives reasonable support, he's more likely to stay than jump ship.
Regardless of any coaching considerations, Ott could be lured away by crazy NIL $$$. I just hope Mendoza doesn’t transfer to his hometown Hurricanes. With any standouts on the roster, though, it could basically just come down to money.
The handoff to #22 on this was a very obvious call: "4th and 1 from the Cal 45 - If you don’t trust your team to gain a yard you deserve to lose. GOOD DECISION, BAD RESULT, JUST RUN THE QB SNEAK". SPAV has to have something BETTER than that for that time. This was like "Hey Ifanse is a tough runner, so of course he can get 1+ yard."
Wilcox idiocy in a microcosm! Needing inches, they lined up in shotgun 5 yds back. If they could tush-push later, they should've done so there as well. Horrible! Terrible! Absolutely dismissible!
Great point that I thought exactly as well: "Because Cal had a clear field position advantage all game long thanks to USC stupidly returning a bunch of kickoffs and getting punished. Was it just me or did Michael Luckhurst break out some kind of specialized high hang-time pop-up kickoff that encourages the opponent to attempt a return when they really shouldn’t?"
Luckhurst has a decent leg. You could see it when he made a roughly 53 yard field goal vs Auburn that was offset by a dumb penalty. He's got the yips on attempting field goals, but the kickoff game is much better with him out there.
UC69. Very sad to see the end of the PCC-Pac 8-Pack 10 Pack 12 and the $C rivalry. Proud of our team's effort vs. a team with far greater talent/depth. Futile effort by officials to hose us. 100% correct call on 2-point conversion. Do we know precisely what led to our using 5th string running back? GO BEARS!
Ott was hit helmet to helmet by a USC tackler on his last possession and was not permitted to return to the game. Efanse hurt his ankle and was taken off the field in a cart. That left us with the 3rd and 4th string RB's. Our best ILB was also playing hurt and we had a true freshman, number 27, playing one ILB.
Well that's why he was passed by Javian Thomas for the third string spot, and it now looks like Justin Williams Thomas might haved passes him for the fourth string spot too.
It's called targeting. It is called when an opponent deliberately uses the crown of his helmet to strike your player in the head or neck area. The opponents team is then penalized 15 yards and the player who did this with his helmet is disqualified for the remainder of the game and if its in the 2nd half, he also is disqualified for the 1st half of the next game.
Yeah, that's true as well. It was just a weird game where a lot of stuff happened. The O almost dropped 50 despite turning the ball over a bunch. And the D looked pretty decent despite getting 50 dropped on them.
Geoff: Were they exhausted because they were out of shape or because they were on the field too much? Although I'm glad that Spav is our OC, but that game sure did remind me of the old Sonny/Spav offenses that scored quickly but then forced the defense right back on the field. Sonny's current record at TCU is 4-4 (which I would be THRILLED if that was us) but he seems to be having some of the same problems as when he coached at Cal; exhausted defenses that are on the field too long.
“…[W]in anyway because this final game against those soulless, arrogant, conference destroying monsters will somehow exorcize all of our bad feelings from decades of sports pain and misery.”
Nick, you were brave to write a column the day after Avi's brilliant piece but you rose to the occasion. You captured the essence of the game and of Cal fandom in these recent dark years. Well done.
Great writing. The article summed up exactly the way I and so many others feel about the game and the demise of the PAC 12 which was started by USC but was not helped to stop it by the inept administrators of Cal and Stanford and probably some other PAC 12 administrations.
Would love to feel crazy-excited for Cal games again, but I just feel numb and an overwhelming sense of doom.
Maybe next year in a weaker ACC.
It’s going to be hard to get excited for any Wilcox coached team, given his clear limitations as a Head Coach.
Even in a weaker ACC, there’s a decided ceiling on his program. That said, a 6-6 season and a bowl bid is probably do-able…just wish they could have pulled that off this year.
Can't fault Wilcox for be willing to try something different. Not defending him or his record here, but so long as he is our HC, it is refreshing to see him at least try to adapt and change even if it leads to the same record and same feeling of frustration and futility.
Wilcox does not cause the many very costly fumbles/interceptions and passes dropped in key situations, or the ridiculous calls/non calls by refs who are intimidated by USC etc and have no fear of screwing Cal. The most egregious example of the latter was the 15 yard unsportsmanlike penalty called against a Cal receiver (which killed a great drive and momentum) for simply getting up and pointing to the end zone vs no call against usc when their entire team started pointing to the end zone and dancing half way there after Cal 1st fumble. Without the players giving up fumbles, Cal wins this game going away (notwithstanding the refs). Have to give usc credit for causing the strip the ball fumbles, but our players knew going into the game that causing fumbles and sacks was their primary weapon in defense. Our O line gave up NO sacks, and we sacked college footballs best/strongest scrambling QB four times. All coaches preach not to allow fumbles. I’m sure Wilcox etc did the same. Hard to explain why Cal started fumbling 3 or so games ago after causing more fumbles/interceptions than they gave up in the 1st 4-5 games. Cal players need a good therapist to help them understand why they are somehow afraid to win. They must get it into their brains that they are damn good and DESERVE to win. This seems to be a serious issue only for the football program, and has been for decades ( with occasional short breaks in the mid 70s and early 2000s. Wilcox etc have not caused this phenomenon. To my of of thinking this is the true challenge for Cal football. To borrow a theme of Ted Lasso……you’ve got to “Believe”. Go Bears!!!
I disagree with this because it has taken him 7 years to finally adapt and change the offense. If he had done so after year 3 or 4 I would give him more credit but he doubled down on bad offense with the hire of Musgrave. Let’s see what he does with the defense because the status quo with Sirmon and the rest of his defensive staff clearly isn’t working.
That's not fair. He stuck with Beau for the 3 years, and despite the improvements year-over-year he still moved on to Musgrave in hopes to revitalize the offense. Just because it was a huge failure, it doesn't mean the experimentation/adaption didn't happen. Once that was clearly not working, he was willing to fire his staff mid-season and figure out how to run an offense without an OC for half the season.
Wilcox's weakness isn't his willingness to adapt.
His stubbornness on offense wasn’t so much moving on from staff, it was his offensive philosophy of a two tight end, pro style offense when CFB had clearly moved on to more spread offenses.
The Wisconsin or Stanford offense that Wilcox wanted at Cal and weren't even working anymore for Wisconsin or Stanford.
I'm not sure that's true? Rumors are his first choice at OC was always Spav. Sometimes it's based on who's available and willing.
You have a 6'5" qb and you still want to hand the ball to the rb on short downs. Wilcox is not a very good head coach.
It could still happen this year if UCLA comes out flat, but not if they come out focused.
I assume you believe we will beat WSU and Stanford, which would mean the ucla game would be for a potential bowl game.
It could happen. WSU is falling apart but Stanford is looking more competent. UCLA is going to be tough, they have a very good defense.
Spot on dude! Go Bears!
I can't help but think that the pivotal play in this game was the fumble on the punt return. That really altered the trajectory of the final score, unfortunately.
Anyone who has watched Cal for more than a few games knows the backbreaker is inevitable, and once the fumble happened, the game was clearly over. Memorial needs an exorcism after this season to cleanse the program of bad vibes as it enters a new era.
Hard disagree on the last 2 point conversion. Once you burn the timeout you lose the chance to get one last possession in case you don't convert.
Hey, the decision is what it is…Wilcox had his reasons. Sure, they were banged up. If he had proven up to now to be a better head coach, maybe they were even the correct ones, but he hasn’t really earned the benefit of the doubt. My issue was the time…you can’t actually win the game by going for 2 there, especially after you have to waste the TO…you can only lose it, as they did. Would have liked to see him kick the PAT after the clear confusion that was evident as the O prepared for the 2-point try. His teams are seemingly never prepared, the sign of a poorly run program. And there was absolutely nothing there on the attempt - everyone was wrapped up. Good luck getting the call for the hold.
In the end, if he didn’t have enough confidence in the team to even play for OT, then they were probably not stopping the Heisman Trophy winner from getting in FG range with :58 and 2 TO’s left, so whether it’s 50-50 or 51-50 Cal, the point is pretty much moot.
you had me at Wilcox sucks! [even if that was implied]
He's a good dude. He's just not the right guy to fix what ills the football program, especially now given how vital improvement is to the Athletic Department's continued existence.
Here's the thing tho: I don't care if he's a good dude. I'm an even better dude, but we both have the same problem: him! He was never the right guy when he was hired, he was not the right guy when the equally misguided Knowlton extended him. By next year, Wilcox will have coached Cal for 2 entire recruiting classes -- Fox & Wyking combined to ruin MBB in 6, so no one will ever convince me that Wilcox deserves/deserved 8 years, practically a generation's worth! He can go be a good dude as DC somewhere else. Worse is feeling helpless that we can't do a damn thing about any of it! Back to the daily distraction of war, inequality & corporate greed. Speaking of, sorry last thing, can we finally acknowledge that as evil as SC is on many fronts, their particular selfish brand of evil makes a mockery of the NCAA's more generalized hypocrisy re: the student-athlete. [mockery of hypocrisy = hymockrisy]
College football has long been the minor leagues of the NFL, now the conference realignment lays it bare. Fck those guys & all the Travelers they rode in on!
Sht, forgot climate change already! Given that yesterday I sat in the blazing sun at what I can only describe as not even a practice field level of decay w/ my transferred-to-SC daughter to watch Cal women's soccer lose, I should've included climate change on the list. Even she wondered why a D1, P5 soccer program has to play at a place w/ no facilities to speak of: just rusting metal benches, porta-potties, pop-up snack & water tent... no wonder SC wants millions more in revenue, altho it's not like the football team will share. Is it me, or does Caleb look even older than his usual 35-yr-old Dak Prescott self? Is he playing this season stoned cuz what is up with how bad he looks?
I agree with your point regarding the two-point try, but Nick makes a great point regarding the variance in playing OT, particularly if we are relying on a FG kicking duel to determine the outcome. We can criticize Wilcox for the state of our kicking game, but given the choice between producing on offense (PAT and OT) or producing on defense (a 2-point try and defense holding the line) it is a total coinflip IMHO.
Everything about Wilcox is variance, and we usually don't make enough plays to win. And of course, that 7-year trend continued.
Hey, usually I'm all for going for the win, but not with a minute left. If we'd scored with :08 left, F-CK yes, go for the win. But with :58? It's a low percentage move. He's saying we can't win this game in OT, despite what the analytics say...because the analytics say kick the PAT, play D and take your chances in OT at home against a defense you've hung 527 total yards and 50 points on.
At the end of the day, he's not the right coach, and when he's forced to make important decisions, they're almost always the wrong ones. That's what bad head coaches do. But if you're gonna go for the win with a minute left, why not go for 2 with 3 minutes left, or 5 minutes....once Hunter fumbled the punt, this almost certainly became an L.
I agree with this. I knew Wilcox would go for 2 because fuck it, he doesn’t have anything to worry about in terms of being fired.
However, I would have kicked the PAT because USC might have came out and just settled for OT.
Going up 1 with 58 seconds left and two timeouts would give USC an actual urgency to needing to score.
If we had a nice two point play up our sleeves then I would agree with it, but we clearly did not so yeah seems like kicking would have been better. But I do see the thought of not wanting to meekly set yourself yup for a game winning FG by SC
Even if we converted USC could've still won by a FG. It's a matter of what you see as more likely to happen, converting a 2 point conversion, or winning in OT (either way, we would've had to hold the USC offense for one last regulation possession).
Exactly - there was WAY too much time left on the clock. Dunno why everyone thinks we wouldn't have fared well in OT. We'd been moving the ball on that porous D just fine all day...if not for the 2 fluke fumbles, we're up by 2 scores.
I'd have been all for going for 2 if converting meant you pretty much had the W. That wasn't the case. If you go for 2 and MISS, the game is for sure over, it's done. If you go for 2 and make it, you've left a ton of time for the Heisman Trophy winner to put together a drive for a FG. It wasn't a great shot either way. But once you burn the time out, you should've probably kicked the PAT.
At home, you need to extend the game, but I guess if your roster is THAT banged up, you're not deep enough and are probably losing the game anyway, whether it's a FG at the gun or in OT.
"But once you burn the time out, you should've probably kicked the PAT."
not probably, definitely!
We were whooping that ass all day. Our 4th and 5th string running backs were breaking off huge plays. Their kicker was struggling. I don't think it was a foregone conclusion that we would've lost in OT.
On the topic of their kicker, that's another reason why I would've settled for the PAT. MAKE them kick it.
Fluke fumbles = SOP…thus not necessarily “fluke” IMO.
I dunno - the 1st one was non-contact, as Mendoza flubbed the exchange on an RPO…that’s not standard in college football, especially how often RPO’s take place on a given game day.
The Hunter fumble on the punt was just your typical back breaker that always seems to happen to Justin Wilcox-coached (i.e. bad) teams.
Good point!
Because our D wouldn't have stopped a Pop Warner football team on the last drive.
Which they likely would have done even if we had been up 51-50.
Wilcox mentioned that the total lack of depth was a deciding factor though. Our chances on the 2 point conversion were probably as good or better than our chances in OT, or the off chance we'd get the ball back in regulation.
I would be happier if they hadn't burned the timeout but still went for 2.
I don't know...the energy in the stadium was insane, so the kids might have benefited from settling down. It was just too bad it didn't work out.
Cal did USC a favor by calling the time out and giving them a chance to catch their breath and set their D. Bummer the hold on Endries wasn't called on the attempt, but there was NOTHING Mendoza could do. Their athletes are just that much better than ours.
The two point failure is of course easy to criticize, but legitimately so. After the timeout SC was loaded for bear and regained its bearings; I’m sure the DC knew that holding onto receivers had just as good a chance of not being called as being called, and advised the cover guys accordingly. The worst it would cost them was half the distance. Further, a minute is plenty of time for the Trojans to score. Couple these factors with the fact Cal didn’t appear to have a whole lot of options up it’s sleeve for the two point try (by the way, anyone seen Sam Jackson V on the field at all over the past three games? This would at least by now have made opposing defenses guess among more possibilities, that this weapon could be on the field). Instead it felt like SC did not have to overthink its scheme. Sure, Cal was down two starting O-linemen and two RBs (actually this might have helped SC conclude a pass was most likely on the try); kicking the PAT there would have been prudent. Let the crowd get super into it for the final minute/overtime (if they’d held against SC). But, of course if somehow the Bears had converted the two-pt try and managed to hold Williams and company from getting into FG range, I admit I’d be singing a different song (Palms of Victory, loudly) and praising the Bears’ coaching staff for proving me wrong. Damn, this loss is hard to swallow. Still in the Anger stage of grief, I need someone to blame.
Sam was out of uniform Saturday. We saw him playing catch w/ Mendoza after halftime.
Wow. Bummer.
here i stand, beaten and battered mid-season after yet another loss to fucking SC and I can't help but smile as I whisper to God and Caleb Williams' paid social media hypesters: fuck USC
Nick, thanks for this. It is refreshing to see a well-reasoned take juxtaposed with all the armchair qb reactions from people who don't really understand football beyond TOUCHDOWN GOOD / GET TACKLED BAD. I think Wilcox has a lot for which to answer over the last 7 years, but Saturday's performance was solid (and soooo on brand).
I hope we didn’t witness Jaydn Ott putting together his ‘transfer portal’ highlight reel vs. SC. He’s wonderful, but I can’t help but think he’s looking at other programs (and other coaches, of course)😕
I can imagine that if Bloesch stays around, the "other coaches" part won't be so important… He and Spav have really improved things for the RBs and set up Ott to put together highlight reels for the NFL. Otherwise what I heard coming off last season is he really likes it in Berkeley and as long as NIL gives reasonable support, he's more likely to stay than jump ship.
Regardless of any coaching considerations, Ott could be lured away by crazy NIL $$$. I just hope Mendoza doesn’t transfer to his hometown Hurricanes. With any standouts on the roster, though, it could basically just come down to money.
Nick, you are a rational person, but also a feeling one. Thanks for laying it out there.
The ACC schedule reveal is on the ACC Network right now, with the full seven-year rotation on the league website:
https://theacc.com/news/2023/10/30/acc-announces-future-conference-football-schedule-model.aspx
The handoff to #22 on this was a very obvious call: "4th and 1 from the Cal 45 - If you don’t trust your team to gain a yard you deserve to lose. GOOD DECISION, BAD RESULT, JUST RUN THE QB SNEAK". SPAV has to have something BETTER than that for that time. This was like "Hey Ifanse is a tough runner, so of course he can get 1+ yard."
Wilcox idiocy in a microcosm! Needing inches, they lined up in shotgun 5 yds back. If they could tush-push later, they should've done so there as well. Horrible! Terrible! Absolutely dismissible!
Great point that I thought exactly as well: "Because Cal had a clear field position advantage all game long thanks to USC stupidly returning a bunch of kickoffs and getting punished. Was it just me or did Michael Luckhurst break out some kind of specialized high hang-time pop-up kickoff that encourages the opponent to attempt a return when they really shouldn’t?"
Luckhurst has a decent leg. You could see it when he made a roughly 53 yard field goal vs Auburn that was offset by a dumb penalty. He's got the yips on attempting field goals, but the kickoff game is much better with him out there.
UC69. Very sad to see the end of the PCC-Pac 8-Pack 10 Pack 12 and the $C rivalry. Proud of our team's effort vs. a team with far greater talent/depth. Futile effort by officials to hose us. 100% correct call on 2-point conversion. Do we know precisely what led to our using 5th string running back? GO BEARS!
Ott was hit helmet to helmet by a USC tackler on his last possession and was not permitted to return to the game. Efanse hurt his ankle and was taken off the field in a cart. That left us with the 3rd and 4th string RB's. Our best ILB was also playing hurt and we had a true freshman, number 27, playing one ILB.
And Stredick now has a fumble in just about every game in which he's played. I love the kid but if he can't hold onto the ball he needs to sit.
Well that's why he was passed by Javian Thomas for the third string spot, and it now looks like Justin Williams Thomas might haved passes him for the fourth string spot too.
It's called targeting. It is called when an opponent deliberately uses the crown of his helmet to strike your player in the head or neck area. The opponents team is then penalized 15 yards and the player who did this with his helmet is disqualified for the remainder of the game and if its in the 2nd half, he also is disqualified for the 1st half of the next game.
Not unless it’s targeting on that player’s part. Yeah, did not see a targeting call nor the other player excluded.
Agree 100%. This game just had a lot of everything crammed into regulation. This felt like a Sonny Dykes throwback.
No, Dykes never ran the ball efficiently. We do now.
And Dykes’ D was consistently shredded. This game is a W without the O coughing it up 4 times. Put the D behind the 8-ball.
Yeah, that's true as well. It was just a weird game where a lot of stuff happened. The O almost dropped 50 despite turning the ball over a bunch. And the D looked pretty decent despite getting 50 dropped on them.
21 of SC's 50 were a result of turnovers. Our D played pretty well except when they were depleted at LB and exhausted in the late 4th Q.
Geoff: Were they exhausted because they were out of shape or because they were on the field too much? Although I'm glad that Spav is our OC, but that game sure did remind me of the old Sonny/Spav offenses that scored quickly but then forced the defense right back on the field. Sonny's current record at TCU is 4-4 (which I would be THRILLED if that was us) but he seems to be having some of the same problems as when he coached at Cal; exhausted defenses that are on the field too long.
Look at $C’s TOP. Will tell all. D was gassed, just like the old Dykes Days.
“…[W]in anyway because this final game against those soulless, arrogant, conference destroying monsters will somehow exorcize all of our bad feelings from decades of sports pain and misery.”
🎯