The overall quality of the PAC12 is comparable to all the power 5's except the SEC. IIRC, the out of conference match up records back that up.

The P12 just hasn't had an elite team recently like the ACC has in Clemson.

Dykes is a troll, and sportswriters like Mandel who regularly troll the Pac-12 themselves call up Dykes when they want a troll quote.

GMP said:

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The Athletic published an article this week about the deterioration of Pac-12 football and what needs to happen to rejoin the elite conferences. Here's Sonny Dykes:

Quote:

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"While I was there, it seemed like the brand deteriorated every single year," said SMU coach Sonny Dykes, who was Cal's head coach from 2013-16. "I was at Arizona (as an assistant from 2007-09), left to go to Louisiana Tech. I came back three years later and the quality of football had deteriorated so much in those years.

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Sonny Dykes' Cal record in conference games? 10-26. What does that say about your coaching, Sonny, if you went 10-26 in a severely deteriorated league. What a dumba-s.

https://theathletic.com/2524400/2021/04/20/they-have-to-want-to-win-how-to-save-the-pac-12-for-the-sake-of-college-football/

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Beyond the silly Dykes quote, the cited article is worth a read. It is a rather detailed analysis of the situation by a local writer with a national platform (Stewart Mandel, a Northwestern grad and editor-in-chief of The Athletic's college football coverage, lives in Sunnyvale).

The conference was very, very strong early 2010s during the Andrew Luck years. It was after that that things went down hill.

Back in my day....

82gradDLSdad said:

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Sonny would never stoop to be a head coach in a league that would have him as a head coach.

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bearister said:

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Sonny Dykes was an elite practitioner of horrific defense at Cal. If the Bears didn't score at least 45 points, it was going to be a loss.

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With an average defense we maybe win the North one of those years, but instead it was one of the worst of all time (I am still baffled how in 2015 we gave up nearly a half mile of offense in Eugene yet lost by only 2 scores).

bearister said:

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82gradDLSdad said:

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Sonny would never stoop to be a head coach in a league that would have him as a head coach.

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I know, I stole that one.

82gradDLSdad said:

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bearister said:

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82gradDLSdad said:

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Sonny would never stoop to be a head coach in a league that would have him as a head coach.

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I know, I stole that one.

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If you're gonna steal a joke, there aren't more than a couple that are better sources from whom to steal.

The brand deteriorated because Dykes brought a WAC-style of play to the program and lost all the important matchups to rivals!

He contributed to it!

I know we live in an era of hateration. My I suggest a brief reprieve to enjoy:

and

No accusation of theft. What's the fun of making a reference if someone else doesn't doesn't acknowledge appreciation of it. Well done!*


*Your post about stealing brought to mind something I learned in the last year: Jay Leno is considered one of the biggest "stealers" of other stand ups' jokes. Dane Cook is probably # 2, and he even did a parody of himself on this issue on Louis C.K.'s show Louie.

bearister said:

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No accusation of theft. What's the fun of making a reference if someone else doesn't doesn't acknowledge appreciation of it. Well done!*


*Your post about stealing brought to mind something I learned in the last year: Jay Leno is considered one of the biggest "stealers" of other stand ups' jokes. Dane Cook is probably # 2, and he even did a parody of himself on this issue on Louis C.K.'s show Louie.

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Thanks. I've resorted to stealing since I was forced to layoff my comedy writers during the pandemic. 2022 will be my comeback year.

bearister said:

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No accusation of theft. What's the fun of making a reference if someone else doesn't doesn't acknowledge appreciation of it. Well done!*


*Your post about stealing brought to mind something I learned in the last year: Jay Leno is considered one of the biggest "stealers" of other stand ups' jokes. Dane Cook is probably # 2, and he even did a parody of himself on this issue on Louis C.K.'s show Louie.

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I thought Milton Berle was #1--at least Bob Hope, who paid good money to a team of writers, always said so.

burritos said:

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I know we live in an era of hateration. My I suggest a brief reprieve to enjoy:

and

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There were a lot of offensive weapons in those two games but defense was almost an afterthought. Thanks for posting the highlights from our games against Texas.

chazzed said:

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burritos said:

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I know we live in an era of hateration. My I suggest a brief reprieve to enjoy:

and

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There were a lot of offensive weapons in those two games but defense was almost an afterthought. Thanks for posting the highlights from our games against Texas.

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Seems impressive until you realize Texas went 5-7 each of those years.

MSaviolives said:

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bearister said:

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No accusation of theft. What's the fun of making a reference if someone else doesn't doesn't acknowledge appreciation of it. Well done!*


*Your post about stealing brought to mind something I learned in the last year: Jay Leno is considered one of the biggest "stealers" of other stand ups' jokes. Dane Cook is probably # 2, and he even did a parody of himself on this issue on Louis C.K.'s show Louie.

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I thought Milton Berle was #1--at least Bob Hope, who paid good money to a team of writers, always said so.

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Milton Berle was legendary for something else.

bearister said:

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MSaviolives said:

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bearister said:

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No accusation of theft. What's the fun of making a reference if someone else doesn't doesn't acknowledge appreciation of it. Well done!*


*Your post about stealing brought to mind something I learned in the last year: Jay Leno is considered one of the biggest "stealers" of other stand ups' jokes. Dane Cook is probably # 2, and he even did a parody of himself on this issue on Louis C.K.'s show Louie.

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I thought Milton Berle was #1--at least Bob Hope, who paid good money to a team of writers, always said so.

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Milton Berle was legendary for something else.

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Indeed. Gigantically legendary I understand.

GivemTheAxe said:

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bearister said:

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Sonny Dykes was an elite practitioner of horrific defense at Cal. If the Bears didn't score at least 45 points, it was going to be a loss.

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And far too many times 45 points would not have been enough, examples: UA 2015: 49-45
ASU 2016: 51-41.
I would prefer:Cal 2018 vs USC: 15-14 and Cal 2018 vs UW: 12-10

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Or the 2018 Chezit Bowl 10-7 OT loss to 6-6 TCU: 9 interceptions and lots of punting. Offense is overrated.

burritos said:

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GMP said:

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calumnus said:

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dimitrig said:

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chazzed said:

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burritos said:

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I know we live in an era of hateration. My I suggest a brief reprieve to enjoy:

and

---

There were a lot of offensive weapons in those two games but defense was almost an afterthought. Thanks for posting the highlights from our games against Texas.

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Seems impressive until you realize Texas went 5-7 each of those years.

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I take it you were not in Austin for that win. It was glorious.

Texas fans believe the early season losses to Cal demoralized the team and the fans.

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I was. It was not. It was glorious until the 4th quarter when we completely collapsed on defense, turtle shelled on offense, and won on a fluke missed extra point. That's glorious? It sucked.

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I enjoyed both games. I apologize for being an azzhole. I wish I were a better person to recognize the truth and that it sucked. I hope all the Cal players on both teams have the wisdom to recognize that nothing of meaning was achieved in those two victories.

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My son was on both teams and played the home game. He would tell you that Cal botching the kick against Stanfurd last year and losing the game and reaction it invoked should cause the exact opposite reaction about Cal winning in Texas.. Oh I forgot fans are not rational....

Goobear said:

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burritos said:

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GMP said:

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calumnus said:

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dimitrig said:

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chazzed said:

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burritos said:

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I know we live in an era of hateration. My I suggest a brief reprieve to enjoy:

and

---

There were a lot of offensive weapons in those two games but defense was almost an afterthought. Thanks for posting the highlights from our games against Texas.

---

Seems impressive until you realize Texas went 5-7 each of those years.

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I take it you were not in Austin for that win. It was glorious.

Texas fans believe the early season losses to Cal demoralized the team and the fans.

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I was. It was not. It was glorious until the 4th quarter when we completely collapsed on defense, turtle shelled on offense, and won on a fluke missed extra point. That's glorious? It sucked.

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I enjoyed both games. I apologize for being an azzhole. I wish I were a better person to recognize the truth and that it sucked. I hope all the Cal players on both teams have the wisdom to recognize that nothing of meaning was achieved in those two victories.

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My son was on both teams and played the home game. He would tell you that Cal botching the kick against Stanfurd last year and losing the game and reaction it invoked should cause the exact opposite reaction about Cal winning in Texas.. Oh I forgot fans are not rational....

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I think I'm quite rational. Obviously a win is better than a loss. But I was looking at the bigger picture. A few times Sonny made me think he'd finally turned the corner and figured out his defense. Then, within the same game, it would be clear he had not. This was one of those games. He also took his foot off the gas in that game. So, it was very frustrating to know that nah, it would never change.

Your son enjoyed it as he absolutely should have. He's a player and he worked hard and he deserved to celebrate and he deserves to look on it fondly. As a fan, I'm looking at it from a very different perspective. That doesn't make me irrational.

It sucked winning in Texas with a botched kick by them, it sucked losing to Stanfurd by a botched kick by us. That is not consistent in my book.

The defense under Dykes sucked, I had a few talks with Kaufman who tried to convince me in Sydney he had it figured out in 2016....Dykes doesn't know how to spell defense...

Let's hope our offense will finally become decent if not good again...