BearSD said:
Bobodeluxe said:
49!?!?
We're talking Chitos Bowl territory!
Some folks hate the playcalling and other strategic decisions of Cal's coaching staff so much that they have convinced themselves that it's The Only Problem. "No other team's coaches have ever made a bad playcall or played the wrong defensive scheme, and our recruiting is just as good as the recruiting of the very best teams, so *obviously* the playcalling is the only reason our Bears are not a perennial playoff team."
No some of us recognize Wilcox's 8 years of bad recruiting, poor staff hiring favoring his friends from the PNW, and lack of strategic vision in addition to 8 years of mostly bad playcalling and in game coaching.
It is just that when you are on your 4th OC in 4 years there is an implicit admission that playcalling has been an issue.
However, the above was mitigated somewhat by the California Legends Collective helping to deliver back/to-back top 20 Portal classes in 2023 and 2024 entering the ACC with what turned out to be our easiest schedule in 100 years. Our playcalling was even good enough with a dramatic improvement in Mendoza as a QB to give us 4th quarter leads in 10 games. That we failed to capitalize on that last season is most attributable to repeated poor 4th quarter game management and playcalling, most likely due to Wilcox's wanting to be "conservative" but misunderstanding the actual odds and optimal strategy that had the greatest likelihood of success (ie continue doing what you have been successful doing and got you your lead in the first place).
