I know many are justifiably upset at the targeting non-call. Cal absolutely should file whatever complaints they can file and be clear they are filing them. I don't need or want them to go off on this. It is not the long term problem.
What Cal needs to man up about is taking responsibility for the program. Its past, its current state, and its future. And it needs to come from Lyons. Though he isn't responsible for the current state, he needs to make clear that it isn't acceptable and he is taking full responsibility going forward.
The thing they need to man up about is that the students and fans have brought their A games all year culminating in yesterday and have shown they want and deserve a top program. The message needs to be yesterday will never be allowed to happen ever again. For one day, Cal was on top and had the chance to take this moment. From now on we will seize these moments as a program.
Because the thing is, being program that fails in the spotlight is the program Cal is and has been for a long time. Yes, everyone should be upset at the call. Yes, maybe with it Cal preserves victory and has one of its biggest days in recent history.
Yes, it could have been huge - maybe gotten us some recruits. Certainly won a bunch of new fans. Gotten us tons of attention. And importantly given Cal fans something they haven't had in a long time.
But the reality of the situation is the fundamentals of the program aren't there to back any of this up. Without a change to the fundamentals of the program, its attitude, its aims, its execution, disappointment was always going to follow, whether it was crashing and burning immediately like last night, failing to follow it up the rest of the season as has characterized Wilcox's regime, or a repeat of the Tedford era where you reach new heights and slowly watch the program degrade over years.
Because Tedford didn't suddenly become an idiot and no,it wasn't his health. He was the right coach for the moment. But the fundamentals of the Cal program created a situation where Tedford, like every modern era coach before or since, was paddling upstream against a current. There is only so long you can overcome that before the current overtakes you.
We get mad and want to fire the coach. We get really mad and want to fire the athletic director. It never works because that is a small part of the solution. Successful programs have that current in reverse. Sometimes they even hire mediocre coaches who just hang on to the boat and let the current take them to success. Good coaches for them make the difference between 10 and 12 wins. Great coaches for us make the difference between 3 wins and 10. 10 wins is their floor. 10 wins is our ceiling. That is the program. That is the fundamentals.
We are busy chasing wins without chasing fundamental change. "Winning cures everything" is a bullshyte statement because you don't control winning. You control how you prepare and execute. We have been acting like winning programs are healthy. NO. Healthy programs win. We are not healthy and show no signs of trying or caring. That is why big donors have left. They know a fundamental failure when they see it. The best you can achieve with all your money is maybe a dead cat bounce.
The fate of the Cal program did not ride on whether Miami scored that last touchdown. That was only going to change things temporarily on the margins. If anything the fate of the Cal program was more influenced by College Gameday. Frankly, I did not think Cal student or fans had it in them to show up for Cal football like that. Didn't think you could make them care. They did everything to make Cal succeed. They sent Cal a message. Will Cal respond? Further, ESPN sent Cal a message. Lyons should watch McAfee's speech on a loop. He made an eloquent case, backed up by the students, for why you do this. Lyons should make everyone who wants to be an obstacle sit in a room and listen to those 3 minutes over and over again until they get it. Whether you care about this or not, whether you think it is important or not, whether you think sports should have a big place in the culture, it does. Showing that the liberals, and nerds, and geniuses are a part of this culture and have commonality with the rest of the culture blunts the attacks of our detractors and increases the influence of our university and our students and alumni.
Cal has fallen ass backwards into having people like Sebasta fighting for the program and students showing up like yesterday. As much as moving conferences sucks, we no longer have conference foes who have decades of Cal being losers woven into the fabric of their psyche. We have the opportunity for change. Lyons needs to clean house now. Cal can no longer run $50M deficits. Cal can't afford to sit there with people who don't know how to fix the problem and just complain that it is too big and blame their predecessors, or the coaches, or the refs, or the cheating programs, or the state of college sports. There are people who know how to fix this problem. (and no, neither I nor any of you are one of those people). Yes, its difficult and will take a long time. And yes, in the interim, the students and fans will fade quietly into the woodwork at times. But they showed yesterday what they can be. Cal's administration has never shown that. The journey of a thousand miles starts with one step. Take the damned step. Or don't and let us get off this ride.
And I will get controversial here. Rich, your administration is a pile of shyte. You have inherited an absolute dung heap that has been festering for decades. Athletics is the canary in the coal mine. The bottom line is students and faculty have been paddling against that same current my whole life. It is only our vast talent that has resulted in success that Cal has despite an administrative function that is incompetent and entitled and who basks in the glory that others achieve and they only hinder. This has always been the case. Cal lost its #1 public university status and sorry to everyone here, but Cal deserved to lose it. As much as we can argue we are the best and most prestigious academically, that isn't enough anymore. There are excellent universities that are nearly our match. And they don't fail at everything outside the classroom. The administration does not support the students and faculty. They have always had an attitude that because we are public school kids we don't deserve services. Well, maybe that was the case when it was free or almost. Now you demand thousands of dollars for the privilege and you can't solve a decades long housing crisis. Your financial aid support that most of the students have to navigate is shyte. An easy thing to fix like having decent food can't be managed. Making sure classroom facilities are okay can't be done. Yes, Cal is a high performance academic vehicle, but the seats are broken, the aircon doesn't work, you can't plug in your phone. The windows don't go down. You can't play music. So yes, you've got the hard part. Mechanically great car. But a lot of students are now saying they'll give up on some mechanics to not sit in a car for four years with a spring poking their ass and sweating with no climate control. Frankly, it has always burned me that the administrative function at Cal has taken pride in achievement that they hinder. The administration has always taken the position that students and faculty are lucky to be at Cal. NO. Cal is lucky to have such talented students and faculty. #2 is not Cal's floor. You want to see the floor? Look at the football team. The academics only excel as long as students and faculty keep coming. You keep shortchanging lecturers by not offering tenured positions, fail to build enough housing, fail to support recent alums in finding jobs or graduate schools, fail to do everything that other college administrations do, including yes, maybe providing some entertaining athletics, you will lose them and when it reaches critical mass, it will happen fast. I don't decry the #2 ranking. It's valid. It's a wake up call. Do something about it.
So Chancellor Lyons, don't go off on an targeting no call or a #2 ranking. Go off on an administration that puts us in a position for these things to matter. You are in a position to be a chancellor that goes down as one of the greats because you are taking over for a list that have done little to change things and the problems are now mounting. I'm pulling for you.
What Cal needs to man up about is taking responsibility for the program. Its past, its current state, and its future. And it needs to come from Lyons. Though he isn't responsible for the current state, he needs to make clear that it isn't acceptable and he is taking full responsibility going forward.
The thing they need to man up about is that the students and fans have brought their A games all year culminating in yesterday and have shown they want and deserve a top program. The message needs to be yesterday will never be allowed to happen ever again. For one day, Cal was on top and had the chance to take this moment. From now on we will seize these moments as a program.
Because the thing is, being program that fails in the spotlight is the program Cal is and has been for a long time. Yes, everyone should be upset at the call. Yes, maybe with it Cal preserves victory and has one of its biggest days in recent history.
Yes, it could have been huge - maybe gotten us some recruits. Certainly won a bunch of new fans. Gotten us tons of attention. And importantly given Cal fans something they haven't had in a long time.
But the reality of the situation is the fundamentals of the program aren't there to back any of this up. Without a change to the fundamentals of the program, its attitude, its aims, its execution, disappointment was always going to follow, whether it was crashing and burning immediately like last night, failing to follow it up the rest of the season as has characterized Wilcox's regime, or a repeat of the Tedford era where you reach new heights and slowly watch the program degrade over years.
Because Tedford didn't suddenly become an idiot and no,it wasn't his health. He was the right coach for the moment. But the fundamentals of the Cal program created a situation where Tedford, like every modern era coach before or since, was paddling upstream against a current. There is only so long you can overcome that before the current overtakes you.
We get mad and want to fire the coach. We get really mad and want to fire the athletic director. It never works because that is a small part of the solution. Successful programs have that current in reverse. Sometimes they even hire mediocre coaches who just hang on to the boat and let the current take them to success. Good coaches for them make the difference between 10 and 12 wins. Great coaches for us make the difference between 3 wins and 10. 10 wins is their floor. 10 wins is our ceiling. That is the program. That is the fundamentals.
We are busy chasing wins without chasing fundamental change. "Winning cures everything" is a bullshyte statement because you don't control winning. You control how you prepare and execute. We have been acting like winning programs are healthy. NO. Healthy programs win. We are not healthy and show no signs of trying or caring. That is why big donors have left. They know a fundamental failure when they see it. The best you can achieve with all your money is maybe a dead cat bounce.
The fate of the Cal program did not ride on whether Miami scored that last touchdown. That was only going to change things temporarily on the margins. If anything the fate of the Cal program was more influenced by College Gameday. Frankly, I did not think Cal student or fans had it in them to show up for Cal football like that. Didn't think you could make them care. They did everything to make Cal succeed. They sent Cal a message. Will Cal respond? Further, ESPN sent Cal a message. Lyons should watch McAfee's speech on a loop. He made an eloquent case, backed up by the students, for why you do this. Lyons should make everyone who wants to be an obstacle sit in a room and listen to those 3 minutes over and over again until they get it. Whether you care about this or not, whether you think it is important or not, whether you think sports should have a big place in the culture, it does. Showing that the liberals, and nerds, and geniuses are a part of this culture and have commonality with the rest of the culture blunts the attacks of our detractors and increases the influence of our university and our students and alumni.
Cal has fallen ass backwards into having people like Sebasta fighting for the program and students showing up like yesterday. As much as moving conferences sucks, we no longer have conference foes who have decades of Cal being losers woven into the fabric of their psyche. We have the opportunity for change. Lyons needs to clean house now. Cal can no longer run $50M deficits. Cal can't afford to sit there with people who don't know how to fix the problem and just complain that it is too big and blame their predecessors, or the coaches, or the refs, or the cheating programs, or the state of college sports. There are people who know how to fix this problem. (and no, neither I nor any of you are one of those people). Yes, its difficult and will take a long time. And yes, in the interim, the students and fans will fade quietly into the woodwork at times. But they showed yesterday what they can be. Cal's administration has never shown that. The journey of a thousand miles starts with one step. Take the damned step. Or don't and let us get off this ride.
And I will get controversial here. Rich, your administration is a pile of shyte. You have inherited an absolute dung heap that has been festering for decades. Athletics is the canary in the coal mine. The bottom line is students and faculty have been paddling against that same current my whole life. It is only our vast talent that has resulted in success that Cal has despite an administrative function that is incompetent and entitled and who basks in the glory that others achieve and they only hinder. This has always been the case. Cal lost its #1 public university status and sorry to everyone here, but Cal deserved to lose it. As much as we can argue we are the best and most prestigious academically, that isn't enough anymore. There are excellent universities that are nearly our match. And they don't fail at everything outside the classroom. The administration does not support the students and faculty. They have always had an attitude that because we are public school kids we don't deserve services. Well, maybe that was the case when it was free or almost. Now you demand thousands of dollars for the privilege and you can't solve a decades long housing crisis. Your financial aid support that most of the students have to navigate is shyte. An easy thing to fix like having decent food can't be managed. Making sure classroom facilities are okay can't be done. Yes, Cal is a high performance academic vehicle, but the seats are broken, the aircon doesn't work, you can't plug in your phone. The windows don't go down. You can't play music. So yes, you've got the hard part. Mechanically great car. But a lot of students are now saying they'll give up on some mechanics to not sit in a car for four years with a spring poking their ass and sweating with no climate control. Frankly, it has always burned me that the administrative function at Cal has taken pride in achievement that they hinder. The administration has always taken the position that students and faculty are lucky to be at Cal. NO. Cal is lucky to have such talented students and faculty. #2 is not Cal's floor. You want to see the floor? Look at the football team. The academics only excel as long as students and faculty keep coming. You keep shortchanging lecturers by not offering tenured positions, fail to build enough housing, fail to support recent alums in finding jobs or graduate schools, fail to do everything that other college administrations do, including yes, maybe providing some entertaining athletics, you will lose them and when it reaches critical mass, it will happen fast. I don't decry the #2 ranking. It's valid. It's a wake up call. Do something about it.
So Chancellor Lyons, don't go off on an targeting no call or a #2 ranking. Go off on an administration that puts us in a position for these things to matter. You are in a position to be a chancellor that goes down as one of the greats because you are taking over for a list that have done little to change things and the problems are now mounting. I'm pulling for you.
