Introducing the Write For California Mailbag! Ask us about all things Cal

What's on your mind about the California Golden Bears?

Credit: Rob Hwang

With the Cal writing staff mostly headed toward our long offseason sojourn, we figured it was time to open ourselves up to the community. We’d love to hear from you and answer as many questions as we can (and maybe get some writing ideas in the process)!

Submit your questions for the Write for California mailbag by doing the following:

1. Click to access this Google Form.

2. Submit your name (or pseudonym/burner name)

3. Submit your questions, thoughts and/or concerns

Here are some questions I took some time to answer for our first round.

“What do you think of the new look Cal coaching staff?” -BearBackBetter93

All in all, I think Cal did very well for themselves. In terms of offensive coordinators, Bryan Harsin is a proven playcaller from his time with Boise State and has worked with Justin Wilcox in the past, so the rapport should be fairly solid. There are definite concerns from his time at Auburn as a coach, but it seemed that environment was toxic from the beginning. I’d say it’s worth putting all our cards out. If this won’t work, what will?

I’d say on the offensive side, Cal has made significant improvements. Every coach who Cal has hired has found a way to develop talent into NFL ready prospects (like Kyle Cefalo), or achieve outstanding results in very unique situations (like Famika Anae). Dedicated position coaches at every spot on the field should lead to better on the field results and in-game adjustments.

Aside from 2023, for most of the Justin Wilcox era, it has felt as if the Cal offensive staff definitely lacked the resume of their defensive counterparts. I do not feel like that is the case in 2024. This is a very balanced group of coaches who I feel are really set up to complement each other well.

“While the ACC was fun, I really miss playing our Pac-12 teams. Is there any hope Cal will schedule more Pac-12 opponents like Oregon State and Washington State?” -WestCoastBestCoast

I think the odds are very high that Cal will continue to dip into local waters and schedule locally to mitigate travel concerns. The four game set with UCLA was a first step in that direction, and San Jose State falls along a similar set of thinking. I could see the Washingtons or Arizonas getting calls at some point.

I think it is also very likely that Cal and UCLA will become one of our four non-conference games for the foreseeable future and take the place of more marquee out-of-conference matchups like Auburn. It gives both teams a rivalry game for September (perhaps even the Thanksgiving week) and will help salvage our home schedule a bit with two more games local fans care about. I do wish Cal would reschedule that home game to odd years to give us more schedule balance, but that’s a future line of discussion.

I think there are two unlikely opponents—Oregon, because that is at this point basically scheduling two losses on our schedule, and USC, because there is bad blood on our end and indifference on theirs. But Cal did still end up scheduling USC in men’s basketball, so who really knows. That Los Angeles recruiting ground is hard to ignore.

“This 2025 Cal football slate is not very appealing. Should I really buy season tickets or just pick and choose as the season moves along?” -GrumpyBear

If you are financially in a good spot to afford Cal football tickets, buy them. If you can’t go, turn on the TV. If you can’t watch it live, record it, leave it on, go enjoy the outdoors and come back and watch it when you can.

Football television ratings and ticket sales will be the primary metrics for determining Cal’s future. The lack of success and hidden Pac-12 Network metrics are some of the major reasons we are not in the Big Ten right now, when university presidents were happy to have us but Fox television executives balked at the notion.

I cannot emphasize this enough—Cal nearly was extinguished as a relevant college athletics program two years ago. It took Stanford, Notre Dame, and the rest of the ACC dragging our overwhelmed athletic department and generally confused university over the finish line. There were many spots at which all of this could’ve ended. We were fortunate.

It might feel like a hostage situation at the moment given the glacial pace at which our university and AD move, but I do believe the California Golden Bears deserve to keep playing major college sports, and the attention and advocacy of the fans is required to get us there. I have talked to numerous members of the university who are involved in decision-making, and the Calgorithm continues to get mentioned as a major reason Cal fans have stayed invested in the program. So on we move.

It’ll be up to us more than ever to get us to the next level. Our creativity and energy is needed more than ever.

Have any other questions for future mailbags? Submit via our Google Form!