Well guys, if Wilcox is gonna commit to Cal like this, as fans, we gotta commit to our coach and get behind him. Wilcox quite possibly the highest character coach in all of CFB, that's something to be proud of and he never lost the team despite massive adversity. No more talk of Troy Taylor from me, Wilcox is our guy.
Troy Taylor would have been a great hire, but we have Musgrave, who was an excellent hire. And, we don't want to hire a 3rd OC in 5 years if we can help it.
Are we seeing the same empty backfield on 3rd (or even 4th) down & short yardage to go?
3 pts vs. fcking AZ costing Cal a chance to go bowling, I can never equate Musgrave with excellent. Sorry for grading so harshly, maybe if he'd fallen on the sword after that game, then he might've risen to the level of 'meh' (like his boss).
PS, you're still the best, Rug, & the only reason I open these posts. Peace.
Do you know what's in his playbook? Do you know why he gives those looks? Do you know how he schemes? The guy is solid, but no one is perfect. Btw, we didn't lose this year because of his schemes and or play calling, we lost because of piss poor execution when we faced speedy d-linemen. Most of our losses start and end with poor O-line play in those situations. AZ loss was even more magnified because of the poor play of the backup QB. Peace to you as well my Golden Bear Bro.
I don't know much, just that I don't see excellence when I look at Musgrave -- judging by results, he's a career has-been/never was. Maybe I'm equating excellence with perfection, which is admittedly unfair. If I'm equating it w/ excitement, than I absolutely stand by my comments.
I can't help but think of the line from Hoosiers (nod to Jimmy Chitwood if he's still reading this entire thread) when Chelcie Ross' character George tells Gene Hackman, "Cletus musta owed you somethin' fierce to drag your old bones out here'. Something like that; he's not innovative, his offenses don't dominate, and he bounces around for how many years now... current stop: Cal. Next stop: ???
Musgrave has been a turnaround specialist. He's taken a number of basement NFL teams and put them in the middle of the NFL within a few years. I think he's a bright coordinator and solid for smart kids like at CAL. There are plenty of OC's who have bounced around. Try and hire a pro OC on CAL's salary allowance. Or, try and get a good college OC to CAL on our salary allowance. Wilcox got Musgrave to come to CAL for the love of the game. Now that Wilcox has negotiated for higher salaries for assistants he should be able to attract better quality assistants. All positives.
So, I have sometimes wondered if Wilcox neuters his OC, as his generally risk-averse philosophy is the common denominator with both Baldwin and Musgrave...
Another common denominator, though, is the inconsistent play of the offensive line...tho I've never met him, I consider Rugbear to be my OL Consigliere, and he has referenced that OL coaching may leave more than just a little to be desired...
Hard to have any more respect for the man. And as for the "but why didn't he take the Oregon job, cause it's a (cough) better job"....maybe he just wants to forge his own path? Win at Oregon....well, lots of people win at Oregon, so what? Win at Cal....they'll build a damn statue.
Go Bears Coach. Go Bears Fans. Go Bears. Fiat Lux. As others have said it is less about how winning we have been but to know he turned down bigger money and return home to lead our Bears forward is a testament to many things going well at Cal. It's a credit to Knowlton, and our donors do need to reward Wilcox with money for assistants and extensions. All these new hires around the league will not be successful. We know that. There's hope in them, but they won't all be great. We know with Wilcox that he runs a clean program. We know his players love him. We know the community respects him. We know his coaches are loyal to him within reason. We've got a great human being leading our team. Go Bears Coach. Go Bears Fans. Go bears. Fiat Lux.
I have to tip my hat to Knowlton as well. There is no way Wilcox said no to Oregon with only two years left on his contract and nothing else. Think about the process. Before a coach is ever even interviewed the deal from the school is presented to the candidate's agent. Once the financial arrangements are agreed upon then the interview takes place. Wilcox knew before he interviewed what his deal was with Oregon. I'm sure his agent went back to CAL to renegotiate. Does it mean Wilcox got the same deal at CAL as he was offered by Oregon? Probably not. He's probably leaving a nice chunk of cash o the table, but I'm sure the other things that he needs were part of the discussion with CAL. My guess is he got what he wanted. If this is true, then I am very impressed with Wilcox's character that he would take less than he would be paid at Oregon to stay at CAL while negotiating for better program builders at CAL. When is the last time there was a coach in the FBS who did this?
With one caveat: Wilcox had to be offered the Oregon job before CAL would step up. This meant everything had to be figured out and agreed to ahead of time. Good job by Colonel Knowlton.
I think a 'term sheet' has to be proffered that has financial terms that are acceptable by any potential hire before they meet. Remember, they wanted Chip Kelly, rumors were they offered $8m, but they never met for an interview. Apparently it was not enough to lure Kelly away. If Wilcox lies to CAL about his offer and CAL finds out, it's over for Wilcox at CAL. Btw, this is all handled through Wilcox's agent. And the Agent may not tell them what Oregon offered, he might just say that Oregon offered Wilcox the job and to keep him CAL has to agree to a number of items on a term sheet, one of which would be a salary and another the extension. I doubt CAL would say anything ahead of time, because if Wilcox isn't offered by Oregon, then they've shown their hand. Again, the agent gives Oregon a list of demands that must be met before an interview. If Wilcox is considering staying at CAL, the agent may give a list of demands to CAL before Wilcox meets with Oregon, or after. The agent knows that if it's after, then Wilcox is probably going to Oregon if he is offered a job. The CAL folks know it too, because trying to get a term sheet agreed to in very short time frame, with CAL's bureaucracy, after a job is offered to Wilcox from another school, is next to impossible. The whole effort to keep Wilcox had to be choreographed and well managed by Knowlton and based on the fact that Wilcox stayed, I would say he managed a masterpiece.
It's really simple. Never show your cards because once you do then the group negotiating with you knows where the deal can be made. Say CAL wants to keep Wilcox but does not want to offer a big package to keep him. Wilcox's agent knows the market, has a good idea of how any program will structure a deal and so counsels Justin. Justin is approached by Oregon. His agent says no interview until they can come to terms on the major deal points. Oregon then proffers an offer. Wilcox then interviews with Oregon. Meanwhile, CAL decided they want to keep Wilcox. They don't want to offer a huge deal to Wilcox if he is not offered the Oregon job. Meanwhile they want to keep him if he is offered the Oregon job. They have discussions with Wilcox's agent to get some guidance on a deal for Wilcox. The agent most likely suggests two offers, one for a situation where Wilcox is not offered the Oregon job and one for if he is offered the Oregon job, although there are no guarantees and deal sweeteners are encouraged. Knowlton goes back to the powers that be and gets approvals for both situations. Then Wilcox interviews at Oregon, is offered the job and CAL proffers the better offer, of which Wilcox advance knowledge. Wilcox decides to sleep on the Oregon offer, maybe to give them a chance to sweeten the deal. Maybe CAL sweetens the deal as well. We will never know. In then end Wilcox decides to take the CAL offer and stay. Is that a bit clearer for you?
Wilcox has never been about the money or the glory for himself. He's always been about building something special. Way back when he was the DC at UW Wilcox spoke out that it was unethical when Tosh the Traitor tried to flip CAL recruits to UW (or he told them if they didn't go to UW at least not to go to CAL). He's got an amazing internal compass about doing the right thing, even when its the more difficult path. It's one of the reasons I admire him. It's also why former CAL players respect him so much (Aaron Rodgers and Chase Lyman to name a few).
Even if next season turns out rough… even if the season after that turns out rough…. Honestly, Wilcox turning down Oregon means we fans have to be behind him. I figure, in the worst case scenario, this buys my loyalty for at least another 3 years, and if he is able to create any of the stuff he aspires for then I’ll support him for years and years.
Well said. Wilcox is the right man for Cal and with the right coaches and players on offense, Cal can win in the Pac-12. Defense on the field, graduation off the field. If the story is true and he did turn down the Ducks to build a winner in Berkeley, not only do he and the staff deserve a raise but Cal and the rest of the Pac-12 have to get on the same page with respect to COVID. I find it hard to believe that of when you take all of the schools in the Pac-12 and then factor in all of their student-athletes and students in general that Cal was the ONLY school to have an outbreak. If there was a legitimate outbreak at Cal then fine; we did the right thing to leave those players at home (even if it did cost us the game in Arizona). But no other schools in the Pac-12 or Power Five had an outbreak? GIMME A BREAK!!!! I guess that we were the only ones to be honest about ours. This is one "institutional hurdle" that we can definitely fix. Finally, winning solves a lot of problems. Start winning and Memorial will start to fill up on Saturdays.
It’s clear that we were not the only school with a breakout. We were the only school that tested and identified the breakout. I’m guessing asymptomatic or mild symptom breakouts occurred at every school but we never found out because they weren’t required to test.
Bowles: What other schools had breakouts? I'm curious to know. Other schools not being required to test or report is what I'm talking about. Either everybody tests players and does the right thing or else nobody tests and does the right thing. It can't be one school (us) that lives by the rules and suffers the consequences but nobody else does. I think that this was a big reason why Wilcox and a lot of parents were so furious about what happened surrounding the Arizona game.
Jimmy: Good points. Winning solves a lot of problems but at a place like Cal, you also have to win with integrity. If Cal regularly has 9, 10 win seasons but only graduates half of the players or else they get in trouble, then the fan base will grumble (and rightfully so). But if we have a program that gets at least six wins a year and graduates most of the players (and beats Stanfurd), then you will have a happy fan base.
Agreed, tho I would GLADLY sacrifice a season where our grad rate suffers if it got us to Pasadena on January 1st, especially considering grad rates are not as cut and dried as they seem due to the complicated NCAA Bylaws...
6-6 & a bowl will generally get the fan base happy...but will it get the average fan happy enough to go to Berkeley on game day and buy a ticket for the Wazzu game? That's gonna be one of the things that would be nice.
No argument, tho this is often the case when a program starts losing talented players early to the NFL…that & transfers factor into the grad rates, & Cal had plenty of both.
You know that if Tedford is 6-6 instead of 3-9 in ‘12, they don’t hire Sonny Dykes a month after the season ended. Unfortunately for the Bears, the QB position led by Zach Maynard pulled a full on Devon Modster for the whole season…
He probably would have been given 1-2 more seasons if he had the graduation rate higher and was able to keep the off the field issues down. The combination of diminishing wins, plummeting graduation rate and off the field issues were just too much. Plus he needed to step aside, he had health issues and seemed burnt out.
If Wilcox ever gets to the point where a third of the players in his best teams’ rotation play at the next level, like Cuonzo, I’d bet dollars to donuts that Cal will have ended the Rose Bowl streak.
Welp, I guess all of Wilcox's naysayers may be eating crow today. Admittedly, I am stunned by Wilcox's decision but it only reinforces who I feel about the guy. Great character and loyal ~ perhaps to a fault.
Agreed. I'm fine with Wilcox getting more years, but any $dollars$ Knowlton would like to give him should instead go to the assistant coaches so Cal fans can STOP using this as an excuse for an underwhelming program. ;-);-)
Knowlton just creamed his pants, and that spineless F won't fire Wilcox after this show of commitment on Wilcox's part. I'm just relieved that this wasn't in Knowlton's hands ~ imagine if he had to hire a new HC days before signing day!!
Well it avoids a serious black eye for the program and a likely awful 2022.
That said, this may just be a very clever ploy by Wilcox's agents to leverage a higher contract out of Cal when he may not have been offered the job at all...anonymous sources....you never know.
Yah, you are reaching now. I get that you are upset but you need to accept the facts. No reason to not believe reporters who have no skin in the game. Wilcox, on the other hand, may never comment on it. That has been his character throughout.
Why are you so negative about Knowlton? I think he has been a significant improvement over Sandy Barber. For sure he was the point on all the negotiations to keep Wilcox. For sure he went to alums to get them aligned and ready for a very fast decision. For sure he went to the admin to get them on board and ready for a fast decision. He got rich alums and a slow moving goliath admin on the same page to act fast to give Wilcox the deal he needed to stay. That's a hell of a juggling act. My hat is off to Knowlton for getting this done.
If this is true .... then JW must know a lot more than we do about what we have coming back next year (Chase, returners, transfer portal, coaching staff etc.). He's always been good about keeping things close to his vest.
As someone that lives in Eugene, good. Also duck fans are shitty. Lose one game and it’s the end of the world. I hope this Georgia hire blows up in their face and they get some helfrich bad years 2.0
Well apparently Wilcox feels better about his job security here than just about anyone else (and probably says the same about Knowlton's too - gross). And maybe he does think he can win here. Or maybe he just doesn't really want the expectations that come with the OU job. Regardless, this should send a very positive message to recruits and HS coaches. This type of loyalty--regardless of the reasons behind it--is rare. I'm guessing we'll be hearing about an extension soon.
Pawloski: Good point. I'm waiting to see if we can pick up any flipped recruits from Oregon or any other schools were there have been coaching changes.
Agreed. I look forward to hearing more about what actually went on...and if this is the spring board to Wilcox building an elite program over the next 10 years, then I'll be as happy as anyone on this board.
I doubt we'll get any more details ever, to be honest. Unless Wilcox's kids write a tell-all book in 40 years about the rise of the winningest Cal Football coach in history lol
Well guys, if Wilcox is gonna commit to Cal like this, as fans, we gotta commit to our coach and get behind him. Wilcox quite possibly the highest character coach in all of CFB, that's something to be proud of and he never lost the team despite massive adversity. No more talk of Troy Taylor from me, Wilcox is our guy.
Can we talk about Troy Taylor for OC tho?
Troy Taylor would have been a great hire, but we have Musgrave, who was an excellent hire. And, we don't want to hire a 3rd OC in 5 years if we can help it.
Musgrave an 'excellent' hire?!
Are we seeing the same empty backfield on 3rd (or even 4th) down & short yardage to go?
3 pts vs. fcking AZ costing Cal a chance to go bowling, I can never equate Musgrave with excellent. Sorry for grading so harshly, maybe if he'd fallen on the sword after that game, then he might've risen to the level of 'meh' (like his boss).
PS, you're still the best, Rug, & the only reason I open these posts. Peace.
Do you know what's in his playbook? Do you know why he gives those looks? Do you know how he schemes? The guy is solid, but no one is perfect. Btw, we didn't lose this year because of his schemes and or play calling, we lost because of piss poor execution when we faced speedy d-linemen. Most of our losses start and end with poor O-line play in those situations. AZ loss was even more magnified because of the poor play of the backup QB. Peace to you as well my Golden Bear Bro.
Obviously not (objection: leading question).
I don't know much, just that I don't see excellence when I look at Musgrave -- judging by results, he's a career has-been/never was. Maybe I'm equating excellence with perfection, which is admittedly unfair. If I'm equating it w/ excitement, than I absolutely stand by my comments.
I can't help but think of the line from Hoosiers (nod to Jimmy Chitwood if he's still reading this entire thread) when Chelcie Ross' character George tells Gene Hackman, "Cletus musta owed you somethin' fierce to drag your old bones out here'. Something like that; he's not innovative, his offenses don't dominate, and he bounces around for how many years now... current stop: Cal. Next stop: ???
Musgrave has been a turnaround specialist. He's taken a number of basement NFL teams and put them in the middle of the NFL within a few years. I think he's a bright coordinator and solid for smart kids like at CAL. There are plenty of OC's who have bounced around. Try and hire a pro OC on CAL's salary allowance. Or, try and get a good college OC to CAL on our salary allowance. Wilcox got Musgrave to come to CAL for the love of the game. Now that Wilcox has negotiated for higher salaries for assistants he should be able to attract better quality assistants. All positives.
My problem with Musgrave is that his strategy has at times been counterintuitive and cost us games.
His schemes or our execution?
Por que no los dos?
sobre todo nuestra ejecución
So, I have sometimes wondered if Wilcox neuters his OC, as his generally risk-averse philosophy is the common denominator with both Baldwin and Musgrave...
Another common denominator, though, is the inconsistent play of the offensive line...tho I've never met him, I consider Rugbear to be my OL Consigliere, and he has referenced that OL coaching may leave more than just a little to be desired...
Maybe if Musgrave leaves and Taylor hasn't found a FBS head coaching gig yet.
You really like Troy Taylor! :-) I don't think Musgrave is going anywhere.
Sacramento does things to a man.
I like the taste of your Kool-aid! That would be amazing, so while I assume he's gonna be HC or bust, we can still dream right?
Hard to have any more respect for the man. And as for the "but why didn't he take the Oregon job, cause it's a (cough) better job"....maybe he just wants to forge his own path? Win at Oregon....well, lots of people win at Oregon, so what? Win at Cal....they'll build a damn statue.
On top of this, a lot assumptions around the supposed offer.
Did they low-ball him? Wouldn't make sense to make the jump for the same salary.
"buh my cost of living!" yeah well how about the differences between the two places. Maybe he *gasps* likes Berkeley.
Go Bears Coach. Go Bears Fans. Go Bears. Fiat Lux. As others have said it is less about how winning we have been but to know he turned down bigger money and return home to lead our Bears forward is a testament to many things going well at Cal. It's a credit to Knowlton, and our donors do need to reward Wilcox with money for assistants and extensions. All these new hires around the league will not be successful. We know that. There's hope in them, but they won't all be great. We know with Wilcox that he runs a clean program. We know his players love him. We know the community respects him. We know his coaches are loyal to him within reason. We've got a great human being leading our team. Go Bears Coach. Go Bears Fans. Go bears. Fiat Lux.
I have to tip my hat to Knowlton as well. There is no way Wilcox said no to Oregon with only two years left on his contract and nothing else. Think about the process. Before a coach is ever even interviewed the deal from the school is presented to the candidate's agent. Once the financial arrangements are agreed upon then the interview takes place. Wilcox knew before he interviewed what his deal was with Oregon. I'm sure his agent went back to CAL to renegotiate. Does it mean Wilcox got the same deal at CAL as he was offered by Oregon? Probably not. He's probably leaving a nice chunk of cash o the table, but I'm sure the other things that he needs were part of the discussion with CAL. My guess is he got what he wanted. If this is true, then I am very impressed with Wilcox's character that he would take less than he would be paid at Oregon to stay at CAL while negotiating for better program builders at CAL. When is the last time there was a coach in the FBS who did this?
Great point.
With one caveat: Wilcox had to be offered the Oregon job before CAL would step up. This meant everything had to be figured out and agreed to ahead of time. Good job by Colonel Knowlton.
I think a 'term sheet' has to be proffered that has financial terms that are acceptable by any potential hire before they meet. Remember, they wanted Chip Kelly, rumors were they offered $8m, but they never met for an interview. Apparently it was not enough to lure Kelly away. If Wilcox lies to CAL about his offer and CAL finds out, it's over for Wilcox at CAL. Btw, this is all handled through Wilcox's agent. And the Agent may not tell them what Oregon offered, he might just say that Oregon offered Wilcox the job and to keep him CAL has to agree to a number of items on a term sheet, one of which would be a salary and another the extension. I doubt CAL would say anything ahead of time, because if Wilcox isn't offered by Oregon, then they've shown their hand. Again, the agent gives Oregon a list of demands that must be met before an interview. If Wilcox is considering staying at CAL, the agent may give a list of demands to CAL before Wilcox meets with Oregon, or after. The agent knows that if it's after, then Wilcox is probably going to Oregon if he is offered a job. The CAL folks know it too, because trying to get a term sheet agreed to in very short time frame, with CAL's bureaucracy, after a job is offered to Wilcox from another school, is next to impossible. The whole effort to keep Wilcox had to be choreographed and well managed by Knowlton and based on the fact that Wilcox stayed, I would say he managed a masterpiece.
It's really simple. Never show your cards because once you do then the group negotiating with you knows where the deal can be made. Say CAL wants to keep Wilcox but does not want to offer a big package to keep him. Wilcox's agent knows the market, has a good idea of how any program will structure a deal and so counsels Justin. Justin is approached by Oregon. His agent says no interview until they can come to terms on the major deal points. Oregon then proffers an offer. Wilcox then interviews with Oregon. Meanwhile, CAL decided they want to keep Wilcox. They don't want to offer a huge deal to Wilcox if he is not offered the Oregon job. Meanwhile they want to keep him if he is offered the Oregon job. They have discussions with Wilcox's agent to get some guidance on a deal for Wilcox. The agent most likely suggests two offers, one for a situation where Wilcox is not offered the Oregon job and one for if he is offered the Oregon job, although there are no guarantees and deal sweeteners are encouraged. Knowlton goes back to the powers that be and gets approvals for both situations. Then Wilcox interviews at Oregon, is offered the job and CAL proffers the better offer, of which Wilcox advance knowledge. Wilcox decides to sleep on the Oregon offer, maybe to give them a chance to sweeten the deal. Maybe CAL sweetens the deal as well. We will never know. In then end Wilcox decides to take the CAL offer and stay. Is that a bit clearer for you?
Goddamn it, let's finally get rid of the administrative barriers.
The Cal bureaucracy? It's so entrenched and ossified that it beggars the mind.
Man Wilcox must have brass cojones. If he's really committed to Cal football of all things...well, I hope he has a lifetime prescription to Pepcid
If he's a consistent presence, perhaps that will be the catalyst for more significant investment into football? A guy can dream.
Wilcox has never been about the money or the glory for himself. He's always been about building something special. Way back when he was the DC at UW Wilcox spoke out that it was unethical when Tosh the Traitor tried to flip CAL recruits to UW (or he told them if they didn't go to UW at least not to go to CAL). He's got an amazing internal compass about doing the right thing, even when its the more difficult path. It's one of the reasons I admire him. It's also why former CAL players respect him so much (Aaron Rodgers and Chase Lyman to name a few).
Unless... Cal outbid Oregon for Wilcox's salary?
yes, Cal has "outbid Phil Knight, founder of Nike" money. totes
^ BRILLIANT!!
ah crap do I have to up my donation now???
We all have step up now.
Including Wilcox, TBH, at least on the football field ;-)....but this is a GREAT start!
Ha
I will just donate by buying tickets.
Even if next season turns out rough… even if the season after that turns out rough…. Honestly, Wilcox turning down Oregon means we fans have to be behind him. I figure, in the worst case scenario, this buys my loyalty for at least another 3 years, and if he is able to create any of the stuff he aspires for then I’ll support him for years and years.
Well said. Wilcox is the right man for Cal and with the right coaches and players on offense, Cal can win in the Pac-12. Defense on the field, graduation off the field. If the story is true and he did turn down the Ducks to build a winner in Berkeley, not only do he and the staff deserve a raise but Cal and the rest of the Pac-12 have to get on the same page with respect to COVID. I find it hard to believe that of when you take all of the schools in the Pac-12 and then factor in all of their student-athletes and students in general that Cal was the ONLY school to have an outbreak. If there was a legitimate outbreak at Cal then fine; we did the right thing to leave those players at home (even if it did cost us the game in Arizona). But no other schools in the Pac-12 or Power Five had an outbreak? GIMME A BREAK!!!! I guess that we were the only ones to be honest about ours. This is one "institutional hurdle" that we can definitely fix. Finally, winning solves a lot of problems. Start winning and Memorial will start to fill up on Saturdays.
It’s clear that we were not the only school with a breakout. We were the only school that tested and identified the breakout. I’m guessing asymptomatic or mild symptom breakouts occurred at every school but we never found out because they weren’t required to test.
Bowles: What other schools had breakouts? I'm curious to know. Other schools not being required to test or report is what I'm talking about. Either everybody tests players and does the right thing or else nobody tests and does the right thing. It can't be one school (us) that lives by the rules and suffers the consequences but nobody else does. I think that this was a big reason why Wilcox and a lot of parents were so furious about what happened surrounding the Arizona game.
Not Pac12, but there was a certain Florida school that announced several players had come down with "the flu" but would be fine by gameday.
^This.
Disagree. Rough seasons in '22 & '23 will make 4 consecutive disappointing years, and likely 4 straight years of an empty Memorial on Saturdays....
Wanting to be at Cal only goes so far...the guy STILL needs to win more football games.
Jimmy: Good points. Winning solves a lot of problems but at a place like Cal, you also have to win with integrity. If Cal regularly has 9, 10 win seasons but only graduates half of the players or else they get in trouble, then the fan base will grumble (and rightfully so). But if we have a program that gets at least six wins a year and graduates most of the players (and beats Stanfurd), then you will have a happy fan base.
Agreed, tho I would GLADLY sacrifice a season where our grad rate suffers if it got us to Pasadena on January 1st, especially considering grad rates are not as cut and dried as they seem due to the complicated NCAA Bylaws...
6-6 & a bowl will generally get the fan base happy...but will it get the average fan happy enough to go to Berkeley on game day and buy a ticket for the Wazzu game? That's gonna be one of the things that would be nice.
Tedford was our most successful coach of the last 25 years and he wanted to stay at Cal and even he was let go.
He'd clearly burned out on his own. Cal didn't want to get rid of him.
Tedford was let go because he had no solutions to graduate players and we had a record low graduation rate in the program
No argument, tho this is often the case when a program starts losing talented players early to the NFL…that & transfers factor into the grad rates, & Cal had plenty of both.
You know that if Tedford is 6-6 instead of 3-9 in ‘12, they don’t hire Sonny Dykes a month after the season ended. Unfortunately for the Bears, the QB position led by Zach Maynard pulled a full on Devon Modster for the whole season…
If only Jared was two years older
He should have taken a sabbatical but I guess it's not allowed in the coaching world.
yeah I agree, I think if he stayed it would have literally killed him
Exactly. Which was a mistake IMO.
He probably would have been given 1-2 more seasons if he had the graduation rate higher and was able to keep the off the field issues down. The combination of diminishing wins, plummeting graduation rate and off the field issues were just too much. Plus he needed to step aside, he had health issues and seemed burnt out.
As Cuonzo Martin said, “Why not Cal?” Much respect for Wilcox.
If Wilcox ever gets to the point where a third of the players in his best teams’ rotation play at the next level, like Cuonzo, I’d bet dollars to donuts that Cal will have ended the Rose Bowl streak.
Feels like we all need to make our donations a bit heavier this year…
Welp, I guess all of Wilcox's naysayers may be eating crow today. Admittedly, I am stunned by Wilcox's decision but it only reinforces who I feel about the guy. Great character and loyal ~ perhaps to a fault.
Well, it may look foolish when Knowlton fires him after a 4-8 2022 season behind Kai Millner....
This decision tells he believes he has job security beyond next year. And I think it's fair to assume he'll be getting an extension this offseason.
Agreed. I'm fine with Wilcox getting more years, but any $dollars$ Knowlton would like to give him should instead go to the assistant coaches so Cal fans can STOP using this as an excuse for an underwhelming program. ;-);-)
LMAO. You think that after the season that we had the worst amount of luck possible, we will go 4-8??!! No chance bruh
Let's see them put a quarterback on the field not named Chase Garbers that can actually complete a pass before we go popping champagne...;-)
Knowlton just creamed his pants, and that spineless F won't fire Wilcox after this show of commitment on Wilcox's part. I'm just relieved that this wasn't in Knowlton's hands ~ imagine if he had to hire a new HC days before signing day!!
Well it avoids a serious black eye for the program and a likely awful 2022.
That said, this may just be a very clever ploy by Wilcox's agents to leverage a higher contract out of Cal when he may not have been offered the job at all...anonymous sources....you never know.
Yah, you are reaching now. I get that you are upset but you need to accept the facts. No reason to not believe reporters who have no skin in the game. Wilcox, on the other hand, may never comment on it. That has been his character throughout.
I'm not upset at all. I didn't want Wilcox to leave, and said so many times.
Also, since he had a high-powered suitor, he raises his national profile and gets a lot more leverage then your typical 5-7 coach in year 5.
Why are you so negative about Knowlton? I think he has been a significant improvement over Sandy Barber. For sure he was the point on all the negotiations to keep Wilcox. For sure he went to alums to get them aligned and ready for a very fast decision. For sure he went to the admin to get them on board and ready for a fast decision. He got rich alums and a slow moving goliath admin on the same page to act fast to give Wilcox the deal he needed to stay. That's a hell of a juggling act. My hat is off to Knowlton for getting this done.
who = *how
If this is true .... then JW must know a lot more than we do about what we have coming back next year (Chase, returners, transfer portal, coaching staff etc.). He's always been good about keeping things close to his vest.
O shit! Hype trains pulling in early to the station this year!
It ain’t even bowl season yet! Choooochooooooo!!!
As someone that lives in Eugene, good. Also duck fans are shitty. Lose one game and it’s the end of the world. I hope this Georgia hire blows up in their face and they get some helfrich bad years 2.0
Jimmy Lake: Oregon Style
Well apparently Wilcox feels better about his job security here than just about anyone else (and probably says the same about Knowlton's too - gross). And maybe he does think he can win here. Or maybe he just doesn't really want the expectations that come with the OU job. Regardless, this should send a very positive message to recruits and HS coaches. This type of loyalty--regardless of the reasons behind it--is rare. I'm guessing we'll be hearing about an extension soon.
Pawloski: Good point. I'm waiting to see if we can pick up any flipped recruits from Oregon or any other schools were there have been coaching changes.
Agreed. I look forward to hearing more about what actually went on...and if this is the spring board to Wilcox building an elite program over the next 10 years, then I'll be as happy as anyone on this board.
I doubt we'll get any more details ever, to be honest. Unless Wilcox's kids write a tell-all book in 40 years about the rise of the winningest Cal Football coach in history lol
This sounds shocking but remember he also turned down the opportunity to interview for the job when Cristobal was hired.
If this is even partially true the admin better step up.
At the end of the day, he doesn't appear to want the Oregon job....that much is clear.
It's definitely not the Oregon he went to anymore....
I have so much respect for Wilcox. He’s the man!
I ended the season on the fence about Wilcox staying at Cal. Now I'm all in. Go get 'em, coach and Go Bears!