calumnus said:
01Bear said:
Strykur said:
calumnus said:
01Bear said:
calumnus said:
01Bear said:
Haloski said:
At game time, Syracuse was favored by 3.5 points and ESPN had them at 79.5% chance to win.
We outperformed.
Let's hope our coaches and our players evolve and improve with each week.
It's all we got at this point.
Down with the Negabears. There is no other path forward at this time. Root for the people we have in place with all your Bear hearts.
Go Bears!
Syracuse was predicted to finish below Cal in the preseason ACC ranking (https://theacc.com/news/2026/7/28/miami-picked-as-preseason-favorite-to-win-2026-acc-football-championship.aspx). This is a game Cal should've won. While I'm glad Cal did manage to pull out the win, my excitement is tempered with the reminder that Syracuse isn't a good team and this is a game that Cal was supposed to win.
Cal has lost a lot of games on the road to bad/the worst teams in our conference even in our best years under Tedford (2006) but it was almost an annual occurrence under Wilcox. Good to win one we often lose and good to see the players keep fighting until the end and make the pkays to pull it out.
If Tosh follows Wilcox's path, then based on the "lose to the worst team" rule, Cal will lose the Big Game. Needless to say, I hope that doesn't happen.
Big Game is Big Game, it is different. it is our biggest rivalry and has always had its own rules. We never lose to Stanford because we overlook them. Even "road" games on the Farm typically have alot more Cal fans than Stanford fans.
As an alum Tosh will never **** around when it comes to the Axe
Who would've expected him, a Cal alumnus, to tell recruits to go elsewhere while on a recruiting trip on Cal's dime?
Even if you assume Tosh is completely self-interest motivated, which is always a safe assumption, he will want to win Big Game, because as an alum from the Bay Area he knows how important it is to the people that give him money and can make him successful.
I get that you are pissed about Tosh from the past, I was too. I get that you wanted someone else, I did too. However, what I really want is Cal to be successful. We are not replacing him or his staff two games in. Even if you have strong doubts they can be successful, you have to at least admit there is a CHANCE they can be successful. There are some good signs if you look for them. I am 100% behind them at this point. I see no other choice.
Would you rather they fail and you be right or they succeed and you be wrong? And how many times do you want to double down on that bet?
I want Cal to win, period. I have accepted that Tosh is the Cal HC. I want him to succeed in that role. What I am struggling with is understanding his thinking. I cannot comprehend how he could've figured it was the best strategy to bring in two first-time coordinators to be his lieutenants in restoring Cal to college football relevance.
At least on defense, Tosh can take over play calling and overall strategy (assuming that his supporters and fanboys were right and Tosh was actually responsible for the defenses at Bama and Oregon when he was DC). So Hutchings gets a pass. It doesn't hurt that his defense looked a little better in the Syracuse game than it did against UCLA. That said, the defense in Game 2 was not significantly better. It's helped that Syracuse didn't have a dominant running game. If Cal plays another run-based offense, I suspect the defense will struggle as much as it did in the UCLA game. Hopefully, Tosh can use his experience as a DC at Bama and UO to make the necessary adjustments to improve the defense.
But on offense, Tosh needed someone with experience in the position and who could get the offense to click and become an effective unit immediately. Instead, Somerville has proven to be no better than any of the OCs under Wilcox (and arguably much worse than Spavital). Once Somerville showed his ineptitude* in Game 1, he should've been immediately replaced by Rolovich. While I'm not saying that Rolo is the long-term answer, or even should've been hired as OC off the bat, he is the one person with the most experience at OC on the current Cal coaching staff. For that reason, Cal really needs to change the duties and make him the OC while making Somerville his assistant, if just to salvage the rest of this season. Otherwise, under Somerville, Cal's offense will lose many winnable games due to his inexperience and ineptitude.
I cannot support Somerville remaining as OC at Cal, except in name only. Rolo needs to be given the duties of the OC while Rolo is relegated to his assistant. Or if needs be, make Rolo and Somerville Co-OCs. Either way, Somerville cannot continue as the offensive playcaller. Similarly, Somerville cannot be responsible for overall offensive strategy. Rolo will at least give Cal a chance to win some of the games that Somerville will absolutely cause Cal to lose.
*Seriously, not understanding that 6 > 5 is grounds for immediate replacement. Then to allow UCLA to rush 6 defenders at the QB (and not even disguised!) against only 5 blockers many times throughout the game was just unforgivable!
