grandmastapoop;842103780 said:
Finally someone gets it. We literally have people on this board arguing, "Well, the LaTech QB Colby Cameron wasn't as talented as our QBs, so if he can put up 50 points a game at LaTech, imagine what we'll do!"
People who think our only problem the last few years was our QB do not understand football. Yes, our QBs have underwhelmed. But they weren't always terrible. Our QBs didn't give up 60+ points to Oregon and Oregon State. Or whatever the hell we gave up against Utah.
It was a complete and systemwide failure last season. And that doesn't mean Tedford's system was bad. And you're a fool if you think Dykes' system is plug and play. But Tedford clearly lost that team. And it will take a lot more than a new system to turn this around. The players have to buy-in. And what this Wazzu player illustrates is that buying in does not mean thinking, "Gee, this system is better than our last and that means we'll win!"
It means working your a-s off all year round to get better. It means believing in yourselves and trusting each other so that when you get down a score or two, you don't give up.
Make no mistake - Tedford's system was not the problem. The fact that he could apparently no longer motivate players to work hard enough to implement the system was the problem.
Dykes' system sounds easier, sure. But people quoting Zack Kline about how much easier the system is don't get it. The system being easier doesn't make you tough. And it doesn't make you resistant when your team falls behind 14-0.
Good coaching does help that. Believing in yourselves does help that. Working hard does help that. Let's hope that the players buy-in to the system on a more than superficial level. The players should look to Wazzu last season as a cautionary tale - just because the system is better does not mean you don't need to work.
Lot's of great points in this thread, especially GMP's above.
A couple of points of additional points:
1. I'm not sure we had a scheme before. JT had multiple scheme disorder. Now we are back to a single scheme identity like JT had early on.
2. No interview during spring practice has ever suggested anybody is over-confident. They do indicate a belief that Cal will score more because of the tempo, not the scheme.
3. The difference between WSU and Cal has everything to do with the talent level. There are 10 teams in the conference with the talent to get to a bowl any given year. WSU and Colorado are the other teams. WSU and Colorado consistently lag behind the other teams in recruiting and performance. Leach will eventually improve WSU, but not until they start playing defense.
4. Cal has defensive talent on par with the better teams in the conference. With the defensive talent at Cal, an offensive identity can go a long way to improving Cal overall.
5. WSU and Cal do share one problem. No matter how much they improve, they are not improving faster than the rest of the conference. This is where the overconfidence has always been a problem at Cal. We don't respect the other teams. Cal will improve a great deal this year and could still only win 4 or 5 games. There are only 4 teams on Cal's schedule next year that Cal will likely beat (Portland St., WSU, @Colorado, Arizona). The same thing is true at WSU.
Here is a list of teams that have improved at a faster rate than Cal over the last 5 years.
Oregon
Stanford
Arizona
Oregon St.
Washington
Utah
Last year the following teams improved dramatically as well
UCLA
ASU
I think Dykes will stop the bleeding but I don't know if he can heal the wounds. IOWs, we won't continue to get worse, but how much better we get relative to our conference rivals will depend on us continuing to get talent on defense as well as offense. Still waiting for those 4 star DBs to show up at Cal. Koa Farmer's a good start for 2014.
