128 Comments

GoBears49, can you just give us one big “I told you so” right now and then never again? Because you did, you DID tell us so and I suspect this hire is gonna bite us in the ass. Good for Taylor!

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It probably would have worked out if TT was hired by Cal, but the timing of the extension and "all-in" gesture on Wilcox prevented a serious discussion other than Taylor for OC which obviously was too much of a lateral move for him even with a 4x salary bump. He went for the big $$. But who can blame him. Maybe Stanford will have an ex-Cal braintrust just like ours is purely Oregon.

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This just in: Tosh Lupoi leaving Oregon to take over as DC at Stanfurd because, as he put it, "As a former player and alum, I know that Cal fans just can't experience enough pain. There is always another level that can be found. GO BEARS!!!!". Yes, this is a gut punch but we won't really know anything until next season. If he leads a Lincoln Riley style turnaround at the farm, then yes, LOTS of people will be even more pissed off than they are now and demanding Knowlton's head on a platter. But if Spavital turns out to be the missing ingredient that can get us back on the road to respectability, then this will turn out to be an awkward moment that people will forget about (we hope).

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This just in: NCAA rules that Marshawn Lynch has one more year of eligibility and Lupoi has negotiated the largest NIL deal in history for him at Stanford.

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Honestly, I doubt Taylor is the second coming of Saban, but he is highly competent and will get Furd back to respectability. What frustrates me about this hire is that Taylor fits Cal so well and he would be hiring in an instant if we had to move on from Wilcox in a year or two. It's so obvious on both sides that even Knowlton couldn't screw it up. Now we have the very plausible possibility of needing for Wilcox to move on in a year or two and not having an obvious fit fill the position, and relying on Knowlton to fill it. And if you think Knowlton couldn't do worse than what we have, just look at MBB.

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At least we know now that Troy Taylor is not a true Blue. Sad.

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Well if I was getting $6M per year and increased my salary by 24x I'd be pretty happy.

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Good point.

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Doom?

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"For Cal fans, some may be wrestling with themselves at the thought of Taylor wearing red during the Big Game."

4 years at Cal and Taylor never did win a Big Game, fwiw...

Yeah, the team took the Axe in 1986, but Taylor was hurt, and backup QB Kevin Brown rightfully deserves the credit for that win.

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Lets keep it that way. An 0 fer as a player is one thing but now that he’s wearing red....it fits all too well

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So TT will not win any Big Game for a foreseeable future

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I think this is a Win/Win for Cal fans. If Troy succeeds, it is a Cal Bear helping Furd be good. Go Bears. If Troy fails, it is on Furd for hiring someone with so little major conference experience. We can root for Troy all the same.

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Hmmmm....interesting. I don't see McKee getting drafted...or playing in the NFL...but you never know.

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ME THINKS TAYLYOR IS BARKING UP THE WRONG (STANFURD) TREE! GERBEAR

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I’m a huge Troy Taylor fan.

He was “my QB” when I was at Cal.

I’ve loved watching his career trajectory.

This is a hard road for him.

Shaw is a great coach who inherited a powerful program from Harbaugh... but in an era that no longer exists. Stanford Football has been in sharp decline the last 5 years due to the new college football landscape.

Shaw literally quit.

Academics, NIL, super-conferences, and the Portal will make it nearly impossible to replicate the Harbaugh/Shaw success today.

I’m actually relieved Furd didn’t just disband Football all together. That’s how tough it’s going to be. I wish Troy all the best, except for the 3rd Saturday in November.

California Football has some stability right now.

That is a blessing.

To all the haters out there, you must not understand what Coach Wilcox is dealing with.

And how tough this is to navigate.

Covid was nuisance for most of the Country... it was the Death Penalty for CAL Athletics. (Thank You City of Berkeley.)

Losing all that time and momentum was brutal. Recapturing it has been elusive. (We closed 2019 with a bright future)

But for the first time in my lifetime our Football Coach, AD, and Chancellor are all working together and have a healthy relationship. There is synergy.

That’s been unheard of at Cal since the 1950’s

Coach Wilcox is a leader.

He’s a great football coach with a great pedigree. He’s at a University that’s is uniquely challenging when it comes to academics.

He’s navigating this climate with passion and vision. He has the full support of the University. And he didn’t quit on us when other MUCH bigger programs came calling.

We have a good young team.

We’re getting some great guys back from injury.

And we’re embracing the #BearRaid again.

It’s all gonna be fine.

Best of Luck to Coach Taylor. Hope your winless streak in Big Games continues.

And Go Bears

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He was the QB for much of my undergrad existence also, since I graduated in '88. Curiously, he never won the Big Game as a QB. His jaw was broken in the $C game in 1986, so Kevin Brown replaced him for the biggest upset ever in the Big Game, a 1-9 Cal over a 7-2 Stanford. Cal did not win again until 1993.

Let's keep Taylor's Big Game losing streak going for at least a dozen more years!!!

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I love this

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Cal football has stability? We’re coming off 5-7 and 4-8 seasons. We just had to fire our OC and Oline coach because they were abject failures. I’m actually very bullish on things with spavital on board, but for heavens sake, stability? COVID’s not at fault for repeated offensive failures and an inability to develop a homegrown qb. And I’m glad you think there’s synergy amongst the leadership, but I’m afraid this “synergy” is the result of a group of buffoons who all think alike. They have multiple dumpster fires on their hands, the revenue sports are somewhere between an embarrassment and a national joke, and we get mostly silence from them. It’s gotten to a point where anytime I hear the name jim knowlton, I just immediately picture the GOV from blazing saddles. But I suppose worthless ol Jim probably has AD on the back of his suit.

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Institutionally, it’s the best it’s ever been.

Mike White took Illinois to a Rose Bowl and Bruce Snyder took Arizona St to a Rose Bowl because of the gross disfunction and hostility of past administrations.

2021 would have been 7-5 if it weren’t for The City’s Covid hysterics.

2022 was brutal. We were poised to have the best defense in the conference week one. By week 4 we’d lost 1/3 of our two deep. Never started the same 5 o-linemen in consecutive games. Thats tough, but that’s football.

Hoops is a mess. No argument there.

I’m just saying I love Troy Taylor but still believe 100% sticking with Coach Wilcox and a new offense (that led the PAC 12 the year before Wilcox got here) is better for us.

90% of the fancy Portal Transfers don’t qualify to play at Cal.

We need to build a locker room.

Go Bears

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Believe me, I appreciate your positivity, I just lost mine a long time ago. I hear you on the previous dysfunction, I’m just concerned that a few boneheads on the same page is its own special kind of dysfunction. The Jake Spavital hire may very well be what saves Wilcox’s ass - he desperately needs the offensive coaching and recruiting prowess. But if it doesn’t work, we’re in an even deeper hole than we would’ve been had we cut Wilcox loose previously. We shall see…

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Justin tried to keep Jake. That was his first choice for OC, but Jake went to West Virginia. Maybe it’ll all work out.

And I hear you... I spent decades without much positivity. Made seasons like ‘91 ‘04 ‘06-‘08 that much worse. So now I just hope for the best.

The Bear will not quit...

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“90% of the fancy Portal Transfers don’t qualify to play at Cal.”

This, right here, unfortunately.

It also further illustrates how competent coaching is a necessity for an athletics program like Cal, an institution with a much higher academic bar than that required even by the NCAA.

Personally, I don’t share your optimism regarding Wilcox and the synergy with Knowlton and Christ (Carol, not the one that can’t hit a curveball), but would love to be surprised and I hope you’re right!

Go Bears! Those Troy Taylor years were fun!

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December 11, 2022
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Coach don’t make any decisions at any big football schools anymore. The Boosters do. (That’s why a school like SC has cycled through so many expensive hires and just bought another Heisman with a team full of mercenaries)

Cal is a completely different situation… and a graveyard for a lot of coaching careers.

Dykes is playing for a National Title in a few weeks.

Tedford just won the MWC

Everywhere else is easy compared to CAL.

Love Troy, but he has zero D1 wins as a coach and no one has any idea if he can recruit to a place like Stanford now that the Andrew Lucks and Christian McCafferys will be paid $1-$10 Million to play elsewhere (and not have to worry about academics.)

OREGON wanted Wilcox because he represented Leadership and Stability. They were sick of coaches using them as a stepping stone for better jobs. And because everyone knows he’s good.

We should be so lucky to have a great coach who’s loyal to us.

Go Bears

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Jim, get off your burner account and go fire Fox

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😂 Although I feel for Coach Fox (players were not allowed to PASS the BALL or PLAY INDOORS his first year... thanks Berkeley) I don’t feel like he gets the same grace.

And hoops is a much easier rebuild with the right hire. He should be terminated.

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I'll have what you're having :')

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December 11, 2022Edited
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Gonna need names…

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I feel like Stanford hired Harbaugh 2.0 and Cal doubled down on Holmoe 2.0.

Wilcox better hope Spavital can save him from himself and get this offense going.

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Did you not watch the offense without Musgrave? Dont know what else you need to see it wasnt JW holding this offense back

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Nobody approached them. Wilcox came to them and said Oregon offered me the HC job and if you want to keep me here's what its going to take. AD has to go talk with the Grid Club Donors at that point and they were the ones who decided to keep him and put up the extra $$. Everyone rips on Knowlton all the time but without knowing what he has done for the program. Fox is going to be replaced and Wilcox is on a short leash.

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Perhaps that would’ve been a good time for a bold, forward-thinking AD to recommend the donors call Wilcox’s bluff and not grant an extension given the results to that point?

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And handicap him by making him a lame duck coach? It makes more sense (not financially) to make sure he has what he needs -- as marketing to future head coaches that we won't tie your hands behind your back -- and then just paying to fire him if he ever reaches that point.

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His extension has handicapped the entire program. The general consensus is that the extension was fully or close to fully guaranteed. If so, that’s insane given his results. Maybe the spavital hire sparks a turnaround, but if it doesn’t, his crazy extension puts us further into a hole.

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Or give him a much smaller, more reasonable extension with a better buyout option for Cal.

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And what, exactly had Knowlton “done for the program” except lose, lose, lose, and then lose some more?

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You have to understand how it all works. When a coaching position opens up Knowlton hires a search firm. The search firm puts forward candidates that are reviewed by a screening committee. The committee settles on candidates they feel are worth interviewing. The candidates are brought in and interview in front of a selection committee. The committee discusses the interviewees and either decides on on or whether they want follow up interviews. Ultimately a decision is made by the group and Knowlton has a say, but he certainly will go wit what the group wants. Understand that the Grid Club peeps are very very successful business people and know all about hiring (and firing). Most are former athletes and understand sports, and some are former football players that understand the game. All of the coaches salaries, above the states maximum allowed, come from donors. Donors have the biggest say by far and I'm sure at least a few of them are in regular status meetings with Knowlton and JW, just like a Board of Directors, giving guidance and advice. Knowlton's job is real simple: raise enough money to keep CAL athletics working, and he has done an exceptional job at that considering the condition the Department when he took over. If you want to blame people, the donors would be a great place to start, they chose JW over Chip Kelly. But I'm with the donors even if it has been frustrating, JW is a far better match for CAL. As to Troy Taylor and CAL, it was all about the timing not being right. Had JW not received and extension last year with a big payoff on termination, Taylor might be at CAL. However, I support JW and want to see him succeed. I reserve the right to change my mind at any time.

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Why pay an AD a mil+ annually if you’re not going to entrust them with the final say in hiring/firing?

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Because it's hard to find someone who is able to make all those egos and departments move together, and those type of people would be making that type of salary elsewhere.

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The bottom line is the two revenue sports have been failures under knowlton. We can play the ‘blame the donors, it’s really their fault’ game all we want (which I personally think is bullshit), but ultimately, somebody’s head needs to roll for these pathetic results.

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And yet, in spite of the complexities you note, we're still stuck with a five year loser HC while furd went out and got the best candidate available.

Exactly what do you think Wilcox is going to do to make winning happen when he has failed miserably for the last five years?

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Well, I'm just telling you how it works. Sorry if it bums you out.

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Cal losing is not a decree from Mt. Olympus.

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Oh I hear you.

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Hiring Taylor is the worse thing to happen to Wilcoxs future employment. I could see Cal alum and donors sour on Wilcox very quickly if Stanford has quick success and wins the Big Game next season.

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Once again Empty Suit Jim is caught sleeping at the switch - He was probably meeting with Fox about a five year extension to his basketball contract - Cal just can't get out of its own way when it comes athletics - i know we have a football coach in Wilcox, but it seems Cal is always playing from behind always - Knowlton couldn't make a aggressive, forward-thinking move if he received a devine sign

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