calumnus said:Fire Starkey said:If Cal finishes 6-6 or worse, Wilcox should be fired regardless of the buyout (hopefully something lower can be negotiated). If we win 7, he likely sticks and he definitely sticks at 8 or 9 wins. Our remaining schedule has all 6 games as very winnable and we are likely favored in 5 of them at minimum. SMU looks tricky but it still falls in the winnable category. That doesn't mean we'll win 5 or all 6 of the remaining games, obvs. We are 2-0 when favored in Vegas, 1-3 when an underdog this season.calumnus said:
Based on this year, our toughest games next year are SMU in Memorial and Louisville and Virginia Tech on the road.
https://fbschedules.com/2025-california-football-schedule/
Our schedule next year is the weakest in at least 25 years and likely 50 years+. All 12 games are winnable without a single "ehhhhh" on the schedule. 2025 is a MASSIVE opportunity to keep Cal relevant. There will be challenges...i.e. most of the starting defense will have graduated, we'll have to re-work the Oline again, Ott will be gone but the rest of the offensive skill players should/hopefully remain.
The big question is whether Wilcox will be here to see if that opportunity can be taken up. All depends on the remainder of this year's schedule. If we win 5+, hopefully some donor momentum reappears cause we'll need a lot more than the $2.5M raised by Cal Legends recently. That new D and some OL wont be cheap. But the chance remains. If we crater, Wilcox MUST BE fired, as our window to stay with the big boys probably evaporates after '25. If we miss out on the next round of re-alignment, the AD as a whole has to hope that donors step up to endow the non-rev sports like they have in a few spots (Golf, Water polo, etc.) otherwise a bunch will disappear and football is playing in the Mountain West, at best.
Just my random thoughts
It is a huge opportunity to bring in a new coach, Ron Rivera at least, and have him make a huge splash coming out of the gate.
It's not economically feasible to fire Wilcox before 2026 at the earliest. What is our total NIL budget this year? His buyout dwarfs that. It would be more cost effective to invest whatever extra funds we can get on NIL.