The Utes dropped out of the Top 10 rankings after losing a defensive slugfest with Oregon State, but they're still one of the best home teams in the country.
Oct 12, 2023Liked by Avinash Kunnath, Christopher Helling
Excellent analysis and effort again. Thank you so much. Hard to not to feel each week that the Bears are playing the 49ers each time, as the videos show how impressive many D1 athletes are. Yet, they are just young men, and fallible.
Utah's brand is 'physical football'. What they lack in talent (which they don't lack much of these days) they make up with their physical play. They come out and smack the opponent in the mouth and dare them to fight back. Remember the Rose Bowl in 2022? They played Ohio State who had loads more talent than Utah. Utah punched them in the mouth and owned them for the first half. OSU finally figured out that the Utah DB's were no match for their big, speedy receivers and killed Utah in the second half with long throws, but Utah showed they could go toe to toe with any team in the country because they are just tough all around.
CAL is not a tough team. I don't mean to say we are soft but we don't have the killer instinct that every guy on the field has for Utah. When they tackle they hit, they don't arm wrap. When they block they hit, they don't run interference. Imagine if our whole team played with the intensity of Isaiah Infanse? Do you think if Carlton or any of our D-linemen played with Infanse's intensity that they would get to the QB more often? How about our DB's? If they tackle and punish receivers then the opposing receivers might think twice about catching balls.
I like Coach Wilcox, but if appears to me that his teams don't have the leave it all on the field mentality. We need to play tough nasty football. It's like RIchard Pryor once said, "Right then is when I took out my knife, because if someone was getting cut I wasn't going to be the only one." I'd rather lose pummeling our opponent, than lose because we just didn't leave it all on the field. And, until kids have the fire in their bellies to win their individual battles on every play, they will never have the fire in their bellies as a team to win. Winners play tough physical football and they suffer, but, winners understand what it takes to win. Kids from winning programs want to be on the field, even when they are dinged up. As a program we aren't there yet.
My suggestion, make practices really, really tough, way tougher than the games. The kids who can't handle it with show themselves. Often the talented players aren't the toughest. I could give a shit about talent if they won't play tough. When your practices are tougher than games, then the games get easy. And yes, we will lose some players to injury in some of our practices. But coddling them doesn't help their toughness. (Remember, I came from a time where we had two-a-days every day of Fall Camp - sometimes three-a-days. We went full contact every practice. During the season we went full contact on Tuesday and Wednesday and if Coach wasn't happy we went full contact on Thursday. You learned to play with minor injuries and dings. Hell, my thumbs wouldn't bend for the entire season because they were always jammed). I understand trying to keep kids healthy, but there is always a trade off.
i want our guys who take the field to come out with fucking swagger. I want them to know that they are gonna be in a fight to the finish with the guy across from them and that they know they they will will win because they are the nastiest toughest SOB on the field. I want our opponents to know that when CAL takes the field that the opponent knows its going to be a fucking gutter brawl, a battle of wills where the Bear Never Dies! When we have 11 of those guys on both sides of the ball then we'll start asserting our will, and we will start winning and we will keep winning.
All it takes is one guy out of 11 not to do his job and the whole 11 gets beat. One guy taking one play off and not giving 110% loses us the play. Time for that shit to end.
A lot of times coaches will play guys with better talent instead of guys who are tough and hard workers. In the end it costs you. If you play a guy who is tough but has inferior talent, then the guy with better talent has two choices: 1. get tougher and better if he wants to play, or 2., ride the pine and maybe transfer. If they opt for #2 then fuck em, we don't want them.
I say play the guys that give it their all, and if some of the talented guys won't go 110% every down, then let them ride the pine.
When I played at CAL Don James coached at UW (I was recruited there as well). He won a Natty at UW. He ran the quintessential program where he brought players in, they ran scout team for a year or two, lifted weights and then by year 4 or 5 they were very good players. He recruited guys that were tall and rangy (he said he could aways add muscle to them), guys that had speed, and guys that had nasty. If you were missing any of the three he wasn't gonna recruit you. We need the nasty part.
Our defense badly needs nasty. Hard work, assignment discipline, and nasty. Get er done.
1. “My suggestion, make practices really, really tough, way tougher than the games.” I just thought that was a given with a tapering down until the day before game day. I have wondered if our games were being used as practice. Lots of mistakes from muscle memory fails.
2. Should recruit from the Central Valley and mountain towns. You get tough there, even if you don’t mean to be. Fun Fact: Logan Mankins is from my dad’s hometown area, Cathey’s Valley, in Mariposa County.
BTW- I live in the South Monterey Bay Area. Just saw a high school age kid, built like a receiver or DB wearing a brand new “Michigan” backpack. I yelled, “Go Big Blue,” but it didn’t register with him making me think he’s not a current student. So Harbaugh gleaning recruits right out from under us? How bad is our recruiting game?
Hi there B80. I don't think it matters where we recruit as long as we go after and GET the talent we want. With todays portal I want kids like Mendoza, just for other positions. I want guys with as much talent as we can find but I'd rather take a lesser talent sho is flipping tough and will play with an edge than a guy who is a 4 star beast that has the Tarzan/Jane complex: looks like Tarzan, Plays like Jane. We need guys who understand its a street fight inside on the field and that we aren't taking prisoners. I'm not sure Wilcox understands that.
"Utah is the team I wish a Wilcox-led Cal team could be." I would like to amend that statement to say that Utah is the team I wish a Cal team could be as long as Wilcox was fired and sitting out the rest of his ridiculous contract terms on his living room couch. Whittingham is the best coach in the country and also the best developer of 3-star talent anywhere, especially on defense. Wilcox is none of that, and now hard to call a great defensive mind. It is apparent that those good defenses in his early years were more the results of Dykes recruits and the long departed Tim DeRuyter. How else to explain the sophomore slumps of Jeremiah Earby this year and Lu-Magia Hearns last year. The now healthy guy we all hoped would transform the D line has two tackles this season and no sacks. Where is the player development?
I fear that young Fernando will be in for a tough time Saturday. Utah 21, Cal 6. And that will happen without Cam Rising.
I hope we can pull this one out but I'm sure Utah's D will harass Mendoza and attaining 200 yards on the ground will be difficult. If our defense would stop getting torched through the air I would feel better about our chances.
I could see us winning a rock fight if Rising doesn't play. Without him Utah is basically Auburn with a better defense, and our offense (at least based on Oregon State) has improved since then.
That said my prediction is Utah 20-13 without Rising or 31-13 with him. They're at home and they have film on Mendoza that the Beavs didn't have.
Eh, they could just as easily play Johnson this week, have a bad offensive showing and lose a close one, and then get Cam back on the 21st and run the table.
Excellent analysis and effort again. Thank you so much. Hard to not to feel each week that the Bears are playing the 49ers each time, as the videos show how impressive many D1 athletes are. Yet, they are just young men, and fallible.
Utah's brand is 'physical football'. What they lack in talent (which they don't lack much of these days) they make up with their physical play. They come out and smack the opponent in the mouth and dare them to fight back. Remember the Rose Bowl in 2022? They played Ohio State who had loads more talent than Utah. Utah punched them in the mouth and owned them for the first half. OSU finally figured out that the Utah DB's were no match for their big, speedy receivers and killed Utah in the second half with long throws, but Utah showed they could go toe to toe with any team in the country because they are just tough all around.
CAL is not a tough team. I don't mean to say we are soft but we don't have the killer instinct that every guy on the field has for Utah. When they tackle they hit, they don't arm wrap. When they block they hit, they don't run interference. Imagine if our whole team played with the intensity of Isaiah Infanse? Do you think if Carlton or any of our D-linemen played with Infanse's intensity that they would get to the QB more often? How about our DB's? If they tackle and punish receivers then the opposing receivers might think twice about catching balls.
I like Coach Wilcox, but if appears to me that his teams don't have the leave it all on the field mentality. We need to play tough nasty football. It's like RIchard Pryor once said, "Right then is when I took out my knife, because if someone was getting cut I wasn't going to be the only one." I'd rather lose pummeling our opponent, than lose because we just didn't leave it all on the field. And, until kids have the fire in their bellies to win their individual battles on every play, they will never have the fire in their bellies as a team to win. Winners play tough physical football and they suffer, but, winners understand what it takes to win. Kids from winning programs want to be on the field, even when they are dinged up. As a program we aren't there yet.
My suggestion, make practices really, really tough, way tougher than the games. The kids who can't handle it with show themselves. Often the talented players aren't the toughest. I could give a shit about talent if they won't play tough. When your practices are tougher than games, then the games get easy. And yes, we will lose some players to injury in some of our practices. But coddling them doesn't help their toughness. (Remember, I came from a time where we had two-a-days every day of Fall Camp - sometimes three-a-days. We went full contact every practice. During the season we went full contact on Tuesday and Wednesday and if Coach wasn't happy we went full contact on Thursday. You learned to play with minor injuries and dings. Hell, my thumbs wouldn't bend for the entire season because they were always jammed). I understand trying to keep kids healthy, but there is always a trade off.
i want our guys who take the field to come out with fucking swagger. I want them to know that they are gonna be in a fight to the finish with the guy across from them and that they know they they will will win because they are the nastiest toughest SOB on the field. I want our opponents to know that when CAL takes the field that the opponent knows its going to be a fucking gutter brawl, a battle of wills where the Bear Never Dies! When we have 11 of those guys on both sides of the ball then we'll start asserting our will, and we will start winning and we will keep winning.
All it takes is one guy out of 11 not to do his job and the whole 11 gets beat. One guy taking one play off and not giving 110% loses us the play. Time for that shit to end.
A lot of times coaches will play guys with better talent instead of guys who are tough and hard workers. In the end it costs you. If you play a guy who is tough but has inferior talent, then the guy with better talent has two choices: 1. get tougher and better if he wants to play, or 2., ride the pine and maybe transfer. If they opt for #2 then fuck em, we don't want them.
I say play the guys that give it their all, and if some of the talented guys won't go 110% every down, then let them ride the pine.
When I played at CAL Don James coached at UW (I was recruited there as well). He won a Natty at UW. He ran the quintessential program where he brought players in, they ran scout team for a year or two, lifted weights and then by year 4 or 5 they were very good players. He recruited guys that were tall and rangy (he said he could aways add muscle to them), guys that had speed, and guys that had nasty. If you were missing any of the three he wasn't gonna recruit you. We need the nasty part.
Our defense badly needs nasty. Hard work, assignment discipline, and nasty. Get er done.
1. “My suggestion, make practices really, really tough, way tougher than the games.” I just thought that was a given with a tapering down until the day before game day. I have wondered if our games were being used as practice. Lots of mistakes from muscle memory fails.
2. Should recruit from the Central Valley and mountain towns. You get tough there, even if you don’t mean to be. Fun Fact: Logan Mankins is from my dad’s hometown area, Cathey’s Valley, in Mariposa County.
BTW- I live in the South Monterey Bay Area. Just saw a high school age kid, built like a receiver or DB wearing a brand new “Michigan” backpack. I yelled, “Go Big Blue,” but it didn’t register with him making me think he’s not a current student. So Harbaugh gleaning recruits right out from under us? How bad is our recruiting game?
Hi there B80. I don't think it matters where we recruit as long as we go after and GET the talent we want. With todays portal I want kids like Mendoza, just for other positions. I want guys with as much talent as we can find but I'd rather take a lesser talent sho is flipping tough and will play with an edge than a guy who is a 4 star beast that has the Tarzan/Jane complex: looks like Tarzan, Plays like Jane. We need guys who understand its a street fight inside on the field and that we aren't taking prisoners. I'm not sure Wilcox understands that.
Agreed. I wanna' see smashmouth football and no quarter given.
GO! BEARS!
BTW- Tarzan/Jane is, now, an existential reality everywhere. 😳
Is it just me or does Cam Rising look like Captain Morgan?
Cam needs a few years of aging, but yes. And Captain Morgan slogan is "Rise to the Occasion"
https://i.imgur.com/qWqK2NQ.png
So does our own Brett Johnson.
pleas no more playing against elite quarterbacks 🥺
"Utah is the team I wish a Wilcox-led Cal team could be." I would like to amend that statement to say that Utah is the team I wish a Cal team could be as long as Wilcox was fired and sitting out the rest of his ridiculous contract terms on his living room couch. Whittingham is the best coach in the country and also the best developer of 3-star talent anywhere, especially on defense. Wilcox is none of that, and now hard to call a great defensive mind. It is apparent that those good defenses in his early years were more the results of Dykes recruits and the long departed Tim DeRuyter. How else to explain the sophomore slumps of Jeremiah Earby this year and Lu-Magia Hearns last year. The now healthy guy we all hoped would transform the D line has two tackles this season and no sacks. Where is the player development?
I fear that young Fernando will be in for a tough time Saturday. Utah 21, Cal 6. And that will happen without Cam Rising.
No one wins in that stadium. It's the best home field advantage in the Pac-12.
I think Oregon is a tougher place to play
I hope we can pull this one out but I'm sure Utah's D will harass Mendoza and attaining 200 yards on the ground will be difficult. If our defense would stop getting torched through the air I would feel better about our chances.
Thank you, again for another great write up, Chris.
Go!
Bears!
Don't see how we win this since our D = their O, but our O is much weaker than their D
I stopped watching at the half, writing it off as a murder scene.
I have a bad feeling about this.
Cal may be a good warmup game for him, a chance to work out the kinks without worrying about getting hit
LOL.
I could see us winning a rock fight if Rising doesn't play. Without him Utah is basically Auburn with a better defense, and our offense (at least based on Oregon State) has improved since then.
That said my prediction is Utah 20-13 without Rising or 31-13 with him. They're at home and they have film on Mendoza that the Beavs didn't have.
Eh, they could just as easily play Johnson this week, have a bad offensive showing and lose a close one, and then get Cam back on the 21st and run the table.