I've read quite a few of the various summaries of Cal changes et cetera and I've come to a couple of conclusions

The 1st is pretty obvious The offensive line is the key to the success I would expect the defense to be pretty good JW is a defensive coach we did lose a lot the secondary but they were good at coaching those guys so I think they'll be more than adequate and the front part of the defense seems to be stronger than last year so the defense is pretty good news

The offensive line last year was really pretty dismal And frankly it's hard to imagine that it would not be better if not substantially better we have more people they're larger and more experienced The new coach I hope is an upgrade He seems to be Someone who gets more out of what he has to work with than his predecessor

Well there's been a lot of change at the running backs and Wide receivers What we picked up seemed to be pretty damn good they have speed decent size with the exception of a couple of the wide receivers but I'll add a little of them later So I'm not really too concerned that we can't get production If the offensive line is as good as I am hoping it will be

Quarterback obviously having a freshman start there is not ideal but the fact that he was able to beat out someone who I think is a quality quarterback Bodes well for his his chances and we do have the fallback of going to the back up if he doesn't succeed he's not the only freshman starting a quarterback I've noticed a couple of places where freshman are starting and frankly it's something that happens

I would like to see a couple of things on offense the 1st is Keep the offense going try and score as much as you can avoid the JW let's sit on a lead and hope the defense manages all it I don't think it's a good philosophy I hope he can overcome that maybe harson will have more control cause he's older bloesh was just not somebody that could stand up to JW

I am a bit of a fan of spice it up the play selection 1 area I'd like to see we have some really quick wide receivers And end around plays might be kind of funny even with a double reverse thrown in there I have a sort of a bit of a bias as I'd like to see Jacob to Jesus have a chance to get out the open field on some of these wider versions But I don't care who does it as long as it's done well

The other thing I think might be a possibility but I don't know enough about it for sure but we have a man that was a tight end and who is converted to a tackle There is the old tackle eligible play and I don't know how it works if you put in a tackle as tight end whether they have to alert the officials or not but it seems to me if you're down about the 4 yd line Putting another 330 guy next to your tackle and having him eligible to take a couple of steps in the end zone especially as he's a guy that's got a ball in the past but that's just speculation on my point but I would like to see a little more creativity on offense and frankly know so little about harsin that I don't know what he would be up to

So I've dusted off the old Rosie scenario put my rose rose bowl glasses on I at 84 I ain't got many more years for us to at least have a season bake us eligible for the rose bowl so I'm going that we have 10 wins this year plus a bowl game Hope I'm not proven wrong

A great write up. Period.

This is some big time Kool Aid…. you go, Oaktown!

Regarding the OL: I just can't get over the disparity in the JT average of 6.3 yards per carry versus the Ott 3.3 yards per carry behind the same OL. Something was very wrong with the Ott run plays and it wasn't the OL's fault. If Ott was the issue then that is 100 plays that we played with 10.5 players on the field. Assign those runs to JT or Calloway (4.8 YPC) and Cal has a few more first downs and maybe Mendoza has a few less sacks.

Oakbear said:

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I've read quite a few of the various summaries of Cal changes et cetera and I've come to a couple of conclusions

The 1st is pretty obvious The offensive line is the key to the success I would expect the defense to be pretty good JW is a defensive coach we did lose a lot the secondary but they were good at coaching those guys so I think they'll be more than adequate and the front part of the defense seems to be stronger than last year so the defense is pretty good news

The offensive line last year was really pretty dismal And frankly it's hard to imagine that it would not be better if not substantially better we have more people they're larger and more experienced The new coach I hope is an upgrade He seems to be Someone who gets more out of what he has to work with than his predecessor

Well there's been a lot of change at the running backs and Wide receivers What we picked up seemed to be pretty damn good they have speed decent size with the exception of a couple of the wide receivers but I'll add a little of them later So I'm not really too concerned that we can't get production If the offensive line is as good as I am hoping it will be

Quarterback obviously having a freshman start there is not ideal but the fact that he was able to beat out someone who I think is a quality quarterback Bodes well for his his chances and we do have the fallback of going to the back up if he doesn't succeed he's not the only freshman starting a quarterback I've noticed a couple of places where freshman are starting and frankly it's something that happens

I would like to see a couple of things on offense the 1st is Keep the offense going try and score as much as you can avoid the JW let's sit on a lead and hope the defense manages all it I don't think it's a good philosophy I hope he can overcome that maybe harson will have more control cause he's older bloesh was just not somebody that could stand up to JW

I am a bit of a fan of spice it up the play selection 1 area I'd like to see we have some really quick wide receivers And end around plays might be kind of funny even with a double reverse thrown in there I have a sort of a bit of a bias as I'd like to see Jacob to Jesus have a chance to get out the open field on some of these wider versions But I don't care who does it as long as it's done well

The other thing I think might be a possibility but I don't know enough about it for sure but we have a man that was a tight end and who is converted to a tackle There is the old tackle eligible play and I don't know how it works if you put in a tackle as tight end whether they have to alert the officials or not but it seems to me if you're down about the 4 yd line Putting another 330 guy next to your tackle and having him eligible to take a couple of steps in the end zone especially as he's a guy that's got a ball in the past but that's just speculation on my point but I would like to see a little more creativity on offense and frankly know so little about harsin that I don't know what he would be up to

So I've dusted off the old Rosie scenario put my rose rose bowl glasses on I at 84 I ain't got many more years for us to at least have a season bake us eligible for the rose bowl so I'm going that we have 10 wins this year plus a bowl game Hope I'm not proven wrong

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Anae is going to turn out to be our best recruit.

MilleniaBear said:

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Regarding the OL: I just can't get over the disparity in the JT average of 6.3 yards per carry versus the Ott 3.3 yards per carry behind the same OL. Something was very wrong with the Ott run plays and it wasn't the OL's fault. If Ott was the issue then that is 100 plays that we played with 10.5 players on the field. Assign those runs to JT or Calloway (4.8 YPC) and Cal has a few more first downs and maybe Mendoza has a few less sacks.

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With Ott in we played a lot of option plays. Option plays means the OL doesn't know if its a run or a pass and has to both run block AND pass block. It also prevents your OL from trying to block downfield / be authoritative as they don't want to get ineligible man downfield.

To my recollection when JT was in we ran more designed run OR pass plays, allowing the OL to focus on one or the other.

I'm all for misdirection plays. I want to outsmart our opponents and one of the joys of Tedford's offenses was watching one play set up the next, or even one later in the game. But misdirection doesn't help if it leads to indecision, indecisiveness, or confusing our own players instead of the opposition. Offensive lines should be predators and aggressors, especially in run blocking. I'm hoping our scheme this year allows them to do so.

To the OPs point about sitting on leads

There has been some very noticeable differences this fall camp from previous Wilcox fall camps. Obviously the most notable is not only naming a true freshman stater, but also making this news public well ahead of the game. This is a drastic departure from the wilcoxian norm.

I'm very much hoping that this means that things are going to be done much differently this year. Including not sitting on leads anymore. I believe Harsin (and especially Rolo) are uber aggressive.

If we're gonna win this fall:

Offense: We need both a credible running game and also a credible passing game because neither one, on its own, looks good enough to carry us. I am confident that the OL will be notably better than the disasters we had in 2022 and 2024. Maybe "conference average". Hopefully we will be better at converting in the red zone.

Defense: Should be fine, unless we get a bad case of the injury bug (stay healthy, cornerbacks!). Hoping for a pass rush that's above average.

ST: We cannot afford to keep losing games because of special teams. It'd be nice to actually win 1-2 there, for a change, but we need to be at least net zero.