His failure of leadership has us with a losing coach on a long contract extension, an 0-10 basketball team, and an athletic department floundering in the changing landscape of college athletics. The athletic department is in a much worse spot than when he inherited it and it’s time to let the next guy or gal clean up his mess.
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.
Damn, I just posted in the other thread, should've waited a cpl more minutes.
/
different take, same outcome. If Knowlton were a mole/a plant meant to destroy the dept. from within, he could hang the 'mission accomplished' banner right now. [Heck, how would he act any differently?] The sport was changed forever by the transfer portal, the org that oversees it is almost as corrupt and malevolent as FIFA, and there's not 1 damn thing we can do about it. Another tragedy on the long road of suffering = what it means to be a Golden Bear. Had I won the ~$2B lotto last month, I would've paid any & all buyouts to rid our beloved community of Knowlton, Fox, and maybe even Wilcox (esp. if it meant Taylor would be his replacement).
I still feel for the players, though, who've been abandoned by the "greatest" public university (same goes for MBB). Could write forever about the ills of this forsaken program, but trying to find the positive -- a tall order -- I no longer have to spend my fall Saturdays wondering or worrying about Cal football. Thankfully, we can all look forward to the sun exploding in about 5 billion more years; not the merciful ending we deserve but the one we need.
My hatred of knowlton is going to boil over. What an absolute buffoon. Disappointed Taylor took this job, but life changing generational wealth is what is. What an embarrassment to our university this asshat AD is.
Troy Taylor is a good hire for Stanfurd. He will give them some new energy and confidence, but he has a team that has been beat down (like CAL) and needs to rally his players (like CAL). He will replace David Shaw's pro style ball control offensive system (like CAL) with a spread system (like CAL). His problem is that he is losing some good players in the portal (like CAL) and he has an over rated QB (like CAL). It's going to come down to recruiting and it will be interesting to see how successfully he and his new staff recruit. The good news for him is that Stanfurd has a national brand, albeit a bit tarnished as of late, but the reputation of the academic institution should give him a head start. I'm happy for Coach Taylor, happy for the PAC12 and actually happy for CAL. (Why you ask? Because we got Spav and now we just need to get back to where we were prior to Covid with our recruiting). It's good to have another good coach and hopefully good PAC12 team; it makes the PAC12 more relevant in the national picture.
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.
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).
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!
He’ll get Stanford turned around offensively, though the D will likely be a work in progress. Fear the days of Wilcox handling incompetent, boring Shaw teams are over…and if Wilcox stops beating Furd, he’s pretty much useless.
3 P12 teams got new HC’s this year….I fear Cal finishes behind all 3 in the standings.
Fire Jim Knowlton immediately.
His failure of leadership has us with a losing coach on a long contract extension, an 0-10 basketball team, and an athletic department floundering in the changing landscape of college athletics. The athletic department is in a much worse spot than when he inherited it and it’s time to let the next guy or gal clean up his mess.
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
Bob R. just became GoTree49
Damn, I just posted in the other thread, should've waited a cpl more minutes.
/
different take, same outcome. If Knowlton were a mole/a plant meant to destroy the dept. from within, he could hang the 'mission accomplished' banner right now. [Heck, how would he act any differently?] The sport was changed forever by the transfer portal, the org that oversees it is almost as corrupt and malevolent as FIFA, and there's not 1 damn thing we can do about it. Another tragedy on the long road of suffering = what it means to be a Golden Bear. Had I won the ~$2B lotto last month, I would've paid any & all buyouts to rid our beloved community of Knowlton, Fox, and maybe even Wilcox (esp. if it meant Taylor would be his replacement).
I still feel for the players, though, who've been abandoned by the "greatest" public university (same goes for MBB). Could write forever about the ills of this forsaken program, but trying to find the positive -- a tall order -- I no longer have to spend my fall Saturdays wondering or worrying about Cal football. Thankfully, we can all look forward to the sun exploding in about 5 billion more years; not the merciful ending we deserve but the one we need.
/
Again, let's see where we are in four years. I'm just not that enthralled as you all are with Taylor.
My hatred of knowlton is going to boil over. What an absolute buffoon. Disappointed Taylor took this job, but life changing generational wealth is what is. What an embarrassment to our university this asshat AD is.
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.
Troy Taylor is a good hire for Stanfurd. He will give them some new energy and confidence, but he has a team that has been beat down (like CAL) and needs to rally his players (like CAL). He will replace David Shaw's pro style ball control offensive system (like CAL) with a spread system (like CAL). His problem is that he is losing some good players in the portal (like CAL) and he has an over rated QB (like CAL). It's going to come down to recruiting and it will be interesting to see how successfully he and his new staff recruit. The good news for him is that Stanfurd has a national brand, albeit a bit tarnished as of late, but the reputation of the academic institution should give him a head start. I'm happy for Coach Taylor, happy for the PAC12 and actually happy for CAL. (Why you ask? Because we got Spav and now we just need to get back to where we were prior to Covid with our recruiting). It's good to have another good coach and hopefully good PAC12 team; it makes the PAC12 more relevant in the national picture.
You don't want to hear my thoughts. Trust me.
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.
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).
He will flop.
He took the job to ground the tree deeper than it’s roots.
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!
Now I only laugh when I would normally cry.
We screwed the pooch
Nice TD, well said…
He’ll get Stanford turned around offensively, though the D will likely be a work in progress. Fear the days of Wilcox handling incompetent, boring Shaw teams are over…and if Wilcox stops beating Furd, he’s pretty much useless.
3 P12 teams got new HC’s this year….I fear Cal finishes behind all 3 in the standings.