Didn't Harbaugh start slowly at Stan his first two seasons?
Go Bears!

But his teams played better and tougher than the prior years all put together. You could tell Stanfurd was better with him. Stanfurd was horrible before him and then competitive with him. That's what you want.

Its fun to point at turnaround stories, but we don't have a Harbaugh on our hands here. He took a 1-11 team that lost to San Jose St. and went 4-8 with one of the largest CFB upset ever against the Trojans.

We appear to be heading towards 1-11 so if we go 4-8 next year... I would guess that would be good progress. Depends on how the 8 go...

Sonny ain't no Harbaugh.

Yeah, but they were still better than this.

I think we can accept that Harbaugh is an elite coach, and ours is probably not . . ..

OskiMD;842209203 said:

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Sonny ain't no Harbaugh.

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Senator," he said, "I served with Jack Kennedy. I knew Jack Kennedy. Jack Kennedy was a friend of mine. Senator, you are no Jack Kennedy."

I read hundreds of posts on this site how stupid he was to recruit so many tight ends. I trust our experts.

Blue Bear;842209179 said:

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Didn't Harbaugh start slowly at Stan his first two seasons?
Go Bears!

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Harbaugh got lots of players back from injury which really helped out his first year with developing those guys. In contrast, Dykes inherited an injured lineup and that lineup has continued to get injured.

Another big thing with Harbaugh: he made some very smart personnel changes. He switched some TEs and DEs. Shuffled some linebackers and Dline around. Also I believe he moved Richard Sherman from WR to CB.

So far Dykes' personnel changes have not nearly had the same amount of success.

Blue Bear;842209179 said:

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Didn't Harbaugh start slowly at Stan his first two seasons?
Go Bears!

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Not 1-11 slowly. Not even close. We're looking at unprecedented mediocrity at Cal this season.

If another person compares Dykes with Harbaugh, s/he needs to turn in his/her diploma. Or at least go back to school and take another course or two to keep it.

Golden One;842209745 said:

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Not 1-11 slowly. Not even close. We're looking at unprecedented mediocrity at Cal this season.

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What makes you think that we're going to reach mediocrity? It would take a miracle to reach that level.

Blue Bear;842209179 said:

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Didn't Harbaugh start slowly at Stan his first two seasons?
Go Bears!

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In his 1st season, Harbaugh beat No. 2 USC at the Coliseum, ending a 35-game home-winning streak for the Trojans.

He also beat Cal.


That would be like Dykes beating Oregon and Stanford this season.

If Dykes did that and only won 4 games, we'd be ecstatic and dancing in the streets.

okaydo;842209791 said:

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In his 1st season, Harbaugh beat No. 2 USC at the Coliseum, ending a 35-game home-winning streak for the Trojans.
...
That would be like Dykes beating Oregon and Stanford this season.

If Dykes did that and only won 4 games, we'd be ecstatic and dancing in the streets.

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I was at some restaurant in SF with a bar -- Chevy's maybe? -- when they beat USC that year, and there was a group of Furd undergrads watching the game. As soon as the final whistle sounded they literally sprinted out of the place to get back to campus to start partying. Would love it if we saw that kind of excitement anytime soon.

okaydo;842209791 said:

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In his 1st season, Harbaugh beat No. 2 USC at the Coliseum, ending a 35-game home-winning streak for the Trojans.

He also beat Cal.

That would be like Dykes beating Oregon and Stanford this season.

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in the Pac. Nowhere near as strong as it is now, with quite a few coaches on the way out and/or on a seat about to get hot or getting hotter with each year. Even $ was about to begin its decline and was not as invincible as Oregon is this season. Nor were your Bears as good as Stanford may be this season (that remains in question, I'll admit) -- by the time we faced your talented squad in that year's BG, there was clearly something off with Cal's team chemistry or coaching or something that I'm unaware of. In other words, Stanford's '07 squad never would have beaten Oregon's or Stanford's '13 squads.

All this is to say, Dykes has it tougher, in my estimation. He has to clean up the pieces from the last regime in ways Harbaugh never had to (I speak of academic and graduation stuff). The TV deal and conference expansion has added more money to the conference, whose teams have gone out and found pretty good coaches. What Harbaugh did is pretty amazing, don't get me wrong, but I'd think that Dykes still has time to prove himself, especially given the injuries to your defense.

AlbanyCardinal;842210518 said:

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in the Pac. Nowhere near as strong as it is now, with quite a few coaches on the way out and/or on a seat about to get hot or getting hotter with each year. Even $ was about to begin its decline and was not as invincible as Oregon is this season. Nor were your Bears as good as Stanford may be this season (that remains in question, I'll admit) -- by the time we faced your talented squad in that year's BG, there was clearly something off with Cal's team chemistry or coaching or something that I'm unaware of. In other words, Stanford's '07 squad never would have beaten Oregon's or Stanford's '13 squads.

All this is to say, Dykes has it tougher, in my estimation. He has to clean up the pieces from the last regime in ways Harbaugh never had to (I speak of academic and graduation stuff). The TV deal and conference expansion has added more money to the conference, many of whom have gone out and found pretty good coaches. What Harbaugh did is pretty amazing, don't get me wrong, but I'd think that Dykes still has time to prove himself, especially given the injuries to your defense.

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Harbaugh arrived at a good moment in the Pac (the decline of chief rivals Cal, USC and UCLA with everyone focused on beating the speed of Oregon) and at Stanford (a new stadium, a change in admissions directors and a change in the recruiting process)--and he was fortunate to have had enough big guys on the roster to field the tough, oversized lineup and unbalanced line featuring the power running of Toby Gerhardt (also already on the roster) that he wanted. Then he found Luck, then Luck stayed for 4 years. And Shaw was a perfect candidate to continue what Harbaugh started.

Deadly combination of good strategy, good timing, good leadership, quality assistants, cooperative administration and luck....

Sonny inherited some good young receivers and even younger quarterbacks, but the OL and defense he inherited were bad, and that was before they were decimated by injuries.... add to that perhaps the toughest schedule in the country, the academic problems and players leaving the program, a really strong Pac-12 North, and a significant number of fans still loyal to the previous coach....

socaliganbear;842209223 said:

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I think we can accept that Harbaugh is an elite coach, and ours is probably not . . ..

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This is putting it very generously.

calumnus;842210530 said:

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. . .add to that perhaps the toughest schedule in the country. . . .

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This is no longer a true statement (but I agree with your other points).

At the beginning of the season, it sure looked like Northwestern would be a really good team. But it turns out they stink. They are 0-4 in conference. Their only wins come against really terrible D-1 teams (Cal, W. Michigan, Syracuse), who have a combined record of 5-19. They also beat Maine.

We only played one legitimately good out of conference team. I don't think this makes our OOC schedule particularly gruesome. We played a typical A-B-C OOC schedule.

The Duke!;842210540 said:

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This is no longer a true statement (but I agree with your other points).

At the beginning of the season, it sure looked like Northwestern would be a really good team. But it turns out they stink. They are 0-4 in conference. Their only wins come against really terrible D-1 teams (Cal, W. Michigan, Syracuse), who have a combined record of 5-19. They also beat Maine.

We only played one legitimately good out of conference team. I don't think this makes our OOC schedule particularly gruesome. We played a typical A-B-C OOC schedule.

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And we looked really, really good against Northwestern.

That tells you had bad they were.

calumnus;842210530 said:

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Harbaugh arrived at a good moment in the Pac (the decline of chief rivals Cal, USC and UCLA with everyone focused on beating the speed of Oregon) and at Stanford (a new stadium, a change in admissions directors and a change in the recruiting process)--and he was fortunate to have had enough big guys on the roster to field the tough, oversized lineup and unbalanced line featuring the power running of Toby Gerhardt (also already on the roster) that he wanted. Then he found Luck, then Luck stayed for 4 years. And Shaw was a perfect candidate to continue what Harbaugh started..

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Very true. I was about to write another paragraph on the team Harbaugh inherited and how they weren't as bad as their record the previous year -- Harris got the absolute least out of his players in '06 -- but I thought my post was getting too long as was.

You're absolutely right that it was a perfect storm, of sorts, and that there were enough good players for him to build his brand of football around. He orchestrated it, so this isn't meant to take anything away from him, but more to reiterate that Dykes could still prove to be a decent coach. I say, however, that not having seen a Cal game since your opening day agst. Northwestern, which I came away from thinking that your program was in good hands.

AlbanyCardinal;842210596 said:

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Very true. I was about to write another paragraph on the team Harbaugh inherited and how they weren't as bad as their record the previous year -- Harris got the absolute least out of his players in '06 -- but I thought my post was getting too long as was.

You're absolutely right that it was a perfect storm, of sorts, and that there were enough good players for him to build his brand of football around. He orchestrated it, so this isn't meant to take anything away from him, but more to reiterate that Dykes could still prove to be a decent coach. I say, however, that not having seen a Cal game since your opening day agst. Northwestern, which I came away from thinking that your program was in good hands.

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Yep. That _might_ make you believe the program was in good hands. But those of us that have watched the Bears every week have seen worse and worse games....from giving up a LOT of points but at least scoring points to being unable to score at all.

There is no comparison between "slow" starters Harbaugh, Carroll, or Snyder and this bozo. Those were elite coaches that started turning their teams around IMMEDIATELY, even if the results didn't show up immediately.

I can't believe Dykes had the nerve to compare his situation to Carroll's first year....

BTW - I get a kick out of the fact you like Dykes and want to give him a chance. Kind of like how we'd want Stanfurd to keep Teevens as a coach...give him a few more years....:rollinglaugh:

82gradDLSdad;842209185 said:

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But his teams played better and tougher than the prior years all put together. You could tell Stanfurd was better with him. Stanfurd was horrible before him and then competitive with him. That's what you want.

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While it was not clear if he would become a perennial 7 win or 12 win coach, it was very clear he was a step up from the bottom and not be a Wulff. It took him about two years to put together his team and his third season before it was clear he was a great hire, not just a good hire.


Tedford looked better his first and second year.


Dykes looks like garbage his first season, He might be a 8 win coach though. One season is never enough to judge a coach on.

The Duke!;842210540 said:

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We played a typical A-B-C OOC schedule.

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A C team is a mid-low Midmajor, not a D1AA

Comparing Sonny to Harbaugh?

......

:rollinglaugh:

There aren't a lot of Harbaughs out there first of all, and Stanford lucked out (no pun intended)

But at the current rate, Sonny is trending Wulff. He's not even at Tedford's level for that matter. He and his staff are just horrible. The team is a like high school JV team playing with the big boys.

ultramantaro;842211189 said:

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The team is a like high school JV team playing with the big boys.

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How about... The team is like a lot of third string true freshman playing one of the toughest schedules in CFB?

The jury is out on Dykes and his staff but I agree, it doesn't look good.

I can envision a scenario where Harbaugh ends up coaching at Cal. There is a chance the 9er's will regress over the next couple years. If Sonny fails to improve things over that time frame, and a coaching change is in order, Harbaugh could very well be the next coaching hire. After all, we hired Monty, a former coach after a lackluster professional Bay Area coaching gig.

Sure, the odds are long, but not infinitely long.

25To20;842211251 said:

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I can envision a scenario where Harbaugh ends up coaching at Cal. There is a chance the 9er's will regress over the next couple years. If Sonny fails to improve things over that time frame, and a coaching change is in order, Harbaugh could very well be the next coaching hire. After all, we hired Monty, a former coach after a lackluster professional Bay Area coaching gig.

Sure, the odds are long, but not infinitely long.

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That is one weirdly wildly optimistic idea.

25To20;842211251 said:

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I can envision a scenario where Harbaugh ends up coaching at Cal. There is a chance the 9er's will regress over the next couple years. If Sonny fails to improve things over that time frame, and a coaching change is in order, Harbaugh could very well be the next coaching hire. After all, we hired Monty, a former coach after a lackluster professional Bay Area coaching gig.

Sure, the odds are long, but not infinitely long.

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I can envision a scenario where I'm crowned the King of England and my dog wins the Nobel prize for physics. I won't get into it, but the odds are not infinitely long either.

HaasBear04;842211314 said:

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I can envision a scenario where I'm crowned the King of England and my dog wins the Nobel prize for physics. I won't get into it, but the odds are not infinitely long either.

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I believe this scenario involves me winning the PowerBall... Twice.

25To20;842211251 said:

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I can envision a scenario where Harbaugh ends up coaching at Cal. There is a chance the 9er's will regress over the next couple years. If Sonny fails to improve things over that time frame, and a coaching change is in order, Harbaugh could very well be the next coaching hire. After all, we hired Monty, a former coach after a lackluster professional Bay Area coaching gig.

Sure, the odds are long, but not infinitely long.

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We'd hire Willingham instead

Anybody notice that Willingham is some kind of golf consultant to the Women's Golf Team on the Farm. Wtf? Chief ball washer?

GB54;842211347 said:

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We'd hire Willingham instead

Anybody notice that Willingham is some kind of golf consultant to the Women's Golf Team on the Farm. Wtf? Chief ball washer?

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Golfingham was notorious for the amount of time he spent on the links during football and recruiting season. At least tedford worked his ass off.