Sonny's team is at the Farm, down at halftime, 10-17.
bear2034 said:
Sonny's team is at the Farm, down at halftime, 10-17.
BearSD said:Tedford gifted Dykes with a QB good enough to become the #1 pick in the NFL draft, and even with three seasons of that QB, Dykes only produced one winning season in four years. That is not good enough.Big C said:
^ Agree. The 3 worst things about him, to me, were his defenses in 2013, 2014 and 2016. Other than that, he was fine.
Top high school recruits come to Cal for the NFL. Transfer portal and NIL has created the economics of coming to Cal to earn money or get profiled. How we truly think we can become a "football school" with all the roadblocks you have all mentioned seems a waste of time. Returning to the JT years and loud, full CMS is a dream. Enjoy the team and the game, yet maybe temper the delusions that a new AD or HC will change the chemistry for Bears football.Big C said:TedfordTheGreat said:bingo!SLTX Bear said:
I mean I LOVE college fb, but if 18-22 year olds throwing balls around and tackling each other is the highest call of your university, ok have at it Flounder.
I love our football, but no it shouldn't be the only thing that matters to a university (a la Alabama and ohio state). That weak mindset is what got us all chasing dollars and led to the destruction of a conference that lasted 100 years
Agree. Football is not the most important thing at Cal... and thank goodness for that. Doesn't mean we shouldn't invest in it and be the best we can. Au contraire: the Number One Public University in the World can win at football, too!
Go Bears!
Dykes was responsible for the downturn and Wilcox is responsible for not righting the ship. Simple as that. But it's actually telling that with the lack of success under Wilcox we've had as much engagement and investment as we have. NIL, food programs and offering, team medical staff, etc. have all seen significant upgrades. So it's not that "no one cares" or even that without success no one will support the team, it's that Sonny couldn't get any of it done.calumnus said:Bearly Clad said:
He could be talking about La. Tech for all we know!
Also I hate to be "that guy" but judging by tv numbers and fan attendance football meant something to California before Sonny got here. Did it mean enough to the administration, AD, and campus at large? Well that's another can of worms, but it was standing room only and season ticket wait lists before the Pillsbury Dykesboy got his claws in the program
Attendance and TV ratings have been far worse under Wilcox. It is about winning and playing exciting football with marketable stars. Attendance was not good under Holmoe either. It got good under Tedford when we were winning then Tedford stopped winning enough. Dykes didn't win enough and Wilcox has been worse. Dykes is not the current problem, Wilcox is. This is his 8th year. At some point you have to hold him responsible for the state of his program and stop blaming his predecessor.
SLTX Bear said:
I mean I LOVE college fb, but if 18-22 year olds throwing balls around and tackling each other is the highest call of your university, ok have at it Flounder.
Too true! And faculty and administration range from hostile to indifferent.kal kommie said:
Don't really see it as taking shots. He's stating a simple and obvious fact. Our students and alumni largely don't care about football.
For years, Tedford demanded that hundreds of millions be spent on CMS and new training facilities, and he was ultimately successful in getting that money spent.ninetyfourbear said:
Why is Tedford considered responsible for the academics issues? Stories at the time were about how few academic resources (oversight, tutors) were available.
Well, Tedford could have forked out the dough himself. Didn't he (or his agent) engineer a couple of substantial raises? Didn't Ben Braun donate $250K of his salary back to Cal and I'm sure he made less than Tedford? I know that's not the way things normally work, but Cal isn't/wasn't a normal place and JT made a lot of $$ at Cal. To be fair, maybe there were NCAA restrictions against this.BearSD said:For years, Tedford demanded that hundreds of millions be spent on CMS and new training facilities, and he was ultimately successful in getting that money spent.ninetyfourbear said:
Why is Tedford considered responsible for the academics issues? Stories at the time were about how few academic resources (oversight, tutors) were available.
More tutors or AD oversight would have cost only a few thousand dollars a year.
In his role as CEO of the football program, Tedford absolutely could have and should have recognized the problem and insisted on getting the relatively small amount of money needed for this.
Sonny was inhibited by someone who was an AD and didn't have any experience in college sports administration on any level, and that meant a lot of things including the football revenues being raided to cover AD department deficits, and no real ability to hire experienced coaches. A typiCal Cal hire from a Chancellor who didn't know what they were doing. The same fuzzy "outside the box" idiocy that gets you two unqualified Commissioners that take down your conference. But Sonny, who admittedly has matured some, didn't exactly handle the AD relationship very well either (and he has admitted that in public), and he didn't establish good relationships with many of his players, which was his ultimate undoing.going4roses said:
Tried to hire Dave Aranda and Akina
chazzed said:
Dykes led Cal to an 8-5 record in his peak season coaching one of the best QBs to call Memorial Stadium home, was looking for another job toward the end of his time in Berkeley, and was smug all the while. I am not pleased with what Wilcox has done leading the Golden Bears, but I do not miss Dykes.