this season isn't going the way everyone on here hoped, but one has the take in consideration the number of first string players that have gone down to injury, along with a number of 4-star portal recruits with very little playing experience. against SMU, we had defensive players in the running and receiver positions for part of the game.

i think the first half of the SMU game showed that we can be competitive, but lack of depth and experience led to the second half collapse.

if we can put together a string of victories, keep JKS and the rest of our core players along with our recruiting class, I think we will be fine going into 2027. this is a big IF, but those on here already saying JKS is gone along with the future class, really doesn't help the situation. the reality is, no one knows how this will play out

Oh, we know.

We know.

For starters, we arent putting a string of victories together.

Our Chancellor, General Manager and Head Coach are all Cal alumni. What could possibly go wrong? We've already succeeded. Let's just declare this season a success and move on.

BigDaddy said:

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NC State is a one game season. Goal is to go 1-0.

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We are gearing up to beat a team that beat Furd and fired their coach. Meaningless game. When we start blocking and tackling every single game I'll get excited. Not gonna happen this year. That mindset starts in the off season with balls out training every day.

upsetof86 said:

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Rushinbear said:

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Strykur said:

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We are still in October, if we don't win at least one of the next 2 then **** will be flying

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NCS is the test. If we win, we can win out. If we don't, none of the rest are in play. Maybe we win one of them.

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The line today is NCS -7.5 and ESPN has them a winner by 78%. Road game will be tough. Over under 57.5 so like 32 to 25? Sure

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Other than Syracuse who has not been good we have sucked on the road this year plus it's another 9AM kickoff, NC State is down and out and might be different with the interim coach but we are more desperate than they are, can we show up for longer than a half though

Yes.

If we finish 3-9, the end of the program may be near. Or relegation out of the P4, which is essentially the same thing. With half a billion dollar stadium debt to service, we don't have the luxury of relegation. This was the year we HAD to turn things around, as realignment is looming. Wow, totally blown opportunity.

Please stop making excuses. Injuries. New coordinators. Timing. Bye week. New coach. First-string players. Road game. Too little playing time. Early start.

What excuses did I miss?

fUCLA is showing us how it SHOULD be done. OMG, what turn-around. Seems we just can't seem to step up and face adversity with moxy.

TandemBear said:

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Please stop making excuses. Injuries. New coordinators. Timing. Bye week. New coach. First-string players. Road game. Too little playing time. Early start.

What excuses did I miss?

fUCLA is showing us how it SHOULD be done.

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Amen, brother! Cal fans have used every excuse in the books for decades, and it's all BS. The fact is that we have a horrible coaching staff from the head coach on down, and have for years. The drive and motivation to have a top tier team is just not there. We, as a university community, are just too comfortable with a bottom dwelling football program, and we always find a rationale to justify it. Frankly, we deserve relegation. We will never be able to be competitive with legitimate P4 programs. I'm not happy to admit this, but after 66 years of being a fan of Cal football and season ticket holder, I've come to accept the obvious.

upsetof86 said:

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Rushinbear said:

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Strykur said:

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We are still in October, if we don't win at least one of the next 2 then **** will be flying

---

NCS is the test. If we win, we can win out. If we don't, none of the rest are in play. Maybe we win one of them.

---

The line today is NCS -7.5 and ESPN has them a winner by 78%. Road game will be tough. Over under 57.5 so like 32 to 25? Sure

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Saturday is NC State's homecoming, so they'll have a decent crowd in the stadium, which holds 57,000. That, combined with a new head coach, should mean their team will be motivated. Our team, on the other hand, will likely be just wishing that the season were over.

Golden One said:

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upsetof86 said:

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Rushinbear said:

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Strykur said:

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We are still in October, if we don't win at least one of the next 2 then **** will be flying

---

NCS is the test. If we win, we can win out. If we don't, none of the rest are in play. Maybe we win one of them.

---

The line today is NCS -7.5 and ESPN has them a winner by 78%. Road game will be tough. Over under 57.5 so like 32 to 25? Sure

---

Saturday is NC State's homecoming, so they'll have a decent crowd in the stadium, which holds 57,000. That, combined with a new head coach, should mean their team will be motivated. Our team, on the other hand, will likely be just wishing that the season were over.

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But our individual players will be auditioning for a paycheck next year.

Before the season started, we were told the stars had aligned for Cal like never before and that success was within reach. We had big donors on board, providing funding comparable to that of schools competing at the highest levels. We had a Chancellor who is a Cal alum, was in a fraternity, and was a member of the Bohemian Club, who loves and prioritizes Cal's success in football; a former NFL player and coach as GM who knows football, though I might add that he had not been around college football for 43 years, a period when a few things had changed; and a coach who, despite questionable head-coaching potential, has great energy and is the Pied Piper of football recruiting, though the relevance of the latter attribute in the NIL era is open to debate. The collective wisdom of these leaders and their commitment to Cal football would surely chart a path to quickly building a top program's roster depth and achieving unprecedented success.

Bobodeluxe said:

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Golden One said:

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upsetof86 said:

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Rushinbear said:

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Strykur said:

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We are still in October, if we don't win at least one of the next 2 then **** will be flying

---

NCS is the test. If we win, we can win out. If we don't, none of the rest are in play. Maybe we win one of them.

---

The line today is NCS -7.5 and ESPN has them a winner by 78%. Road game will be tough. Over under 57.5 so like 32 to 25? Sure

---

Saturday is NC State's homecoming, so they'll have a decent crowd in the stadium, which holds 57,000. That, combined with a new head coach, should mean their team will be motivated. Our team, on the other hand, will likely be just wishing that the season were over.

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But our individual players will be auditioning for a paycheck next year.

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Maybe, but that hasn't done much for us so far, as we've been blown out. Frankly, I expect another blow out this Saturday.

Grrrrah76 said:

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this season isn't going the way everyone on here hoped, but one has the take in consideration the number of first string players that have gone down to injury, along with a number of 4-star portal recruits with very little playing experience. against SMU, we had defensive players in the running and receiver positions for part of the game.

i think the first half of the SMU game showed that we can be competitive, but lack of depth and experience led to the second half collapse.

if we can put together a string of victories, keep JKS and the rest of our core players along with our recruiting class, I think we will be fine going into 2027. this is a big IF, but those on here already saying JKS is gone along with the future class, really doesn't help the situation. the reality is, no one knows how this will play out

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Yes, sadly, the sky has fallen. Been down for literally decades. Only exception was early Tedford years and a little time with Snyder. We all want Cal to be competitive, but it just isn't happening. I'm at the point where I'll take an interesting game once in a while, with some passion and creativity, but even those are few and far between.

Golden One said:

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TandemBear said:

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Please stop making excuses. Injuries. New coordinators. Timing. Bye week. New coach. First-string players. Road game. Too little playing time. Early start.

What excuses did I miss?

fUCLA is showing us how it SHOULD be done.

---

Amen, brother! Cal fans have used every excuse in the books for decades, and it's all BS. The fact is that we have a horrible coaching staff from the head coach on down, and have for years. The drive and motivation to have a top tier team is just not there. We, as a university community, are just too comfortable with a bottom dwelling football program, and we always find a rationale to justify it. Frankly, we deserve relegation. We will never be able to be competitive with legitimate P4 programs. I'm not happy to admit this, but after 66 years of being a fan of Cal football and season ticket holder, I've come to accept the obvious.

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I'm at 58 years and agree with your take, sadly. Never seems to get any better

Golden One said:

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TandemBear said:

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Please stop making excuses. Injuries. New coordinators. Timing. Bye week. New coach. First-string players. Road game. Too little playing time. Early start.

What excuses did I miss?

fUCLA is showing us how it SHOULD be done.

---

Amen, brother! Cal fans have used every excuse in the books for decades, and it's all BS. The fact is that we have a horrible coaching staff from the head coach on down, and have for years. The drive and motivation to have a top tier team is just not there. We, as a university community, are just too comfortable with a bottom dwelling football program, and we always find a rationale to justify it. Frankly, we deserve relegation. We will never be able to be competitive with legitimate P4 programs. I'm not happy to admit this, but after 66 years of being a fan of Cal football and season ticket holder, I've come to accept the obvious.

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I agree with your remarks about the BS excuses an the horrible coaching staff. I disagree about the drive and motivation to be a top tier team. We were told the whale donors lined up to make the Tosh hire happen. So that does show that there's hope the whale donors want to see Cal actually be a good program. The problem is they let their own hubris get in the way of the goal. Rather than donating and letting real college football people handle the hiring, they brought in RL an RR and on top of that, they kept insisting on Tosh.

The whales may be titans of the financial world, but they've proven they know jack all about college football. But their egos have now forced Cal to be stuck with someone whose greatest skill is irrelevant in the NIL era and whose weaknesses have and always will be significant liabilities for a head football coach.

Cal fans don't deserve to see Cal football relegated. Cal fans deserve to see a real winning football coach take over the program. The problem is that the powers that be have their heads too far up their own bungholes. Rather than bringing in real college football minds, they brought in a NFL retread HC with no college football experience (aside from his playing days) and the Chancellor. Great job! /sarcasm

01Bear said:

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Golden One said:

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TandemBear said:

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Cal fans don't deserve to see Cal football relegated. Cal fans deserve to see a real winning football coach take over the program. The problem is that the powers that be have their heads too far up their own bungholes. Rather than bringing in real college football minds, they brought in a NFL retread HC with no college football experience (aside from his playing days) and the Chancellor. Great job! /sarcasm

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Maybe thinking of promotion and relegation as in English football is useful here. It's not a perfect analogy, but it's this:

English football has multiple divisions (nine) and teams can be promoted and relegated up and down. In American college sports, Cal is in what's now the second division (the ACC and Big 12). The Big Ten and SEC are the first division. We as fans want to see Cal promoted to the first division, and above all don't want Cal to be relegated to the third division (Mountain West etc).

An English football club in the second division with real ambition to be promoted to the first division would not put a rookie head coach (manager) in charge of the club and let him appoint rookies to his key assistant coaching positions. A second division team that hopes to be promoted and very much wants to not be relegated would not appoint a coaching staff that needs years to learn on the job. If a well run club ever did make that mistake, they would correct it quickly and not let it linger.