We have players who were high on the depth chart transferring to other schools. We have players who did little at Cal to indicate they were even close to being NFL caliber players leaving the program early to try their luck in the NFL. We have recruits who were recruited by the current staff de-committing from the program. We are losing recruits who previously had us high on their list of schools.
With all the players and recruits abandoning the sinking ship of the Cal program, one has to wonder if last season's poor performance was not the result of the large number of injuries the team sustained. I was one who thought with those injuries, we had no chance to win games, and I thought it for a long time. But there have been too many players leaving. It appears that these players either never really bought into the way the program was run, or they did buy into the program, but after looking at it and playing in it, they have decided it is not being run in a way that will lead to success, either success for the team, or success for them personally. The high tech offense that became so predictable. The defense that could not tackle. The mostly inept special teams who often made a bad game worse. There is something wrong within the core of the football program, and the defections indicate that may be true.
The coach was beaten down by the end of the season. No longer was there the positive rhetoric. No longer was there the exuberance we all loved. He was a coach who had no answers. It overshadowed some individual improvement by some players. Now with all the defections, his task to right the ship becomes immense.
What we were as a football program at the end of 2012 was a program that had been successful for many years, but in its final few years had slipped into mediocrity. What we are now is a football program in the tank. This will take more than a lot of positive talk by the coach to both recruits and players to even get back to the level of mediocrity we were experiencing in 2012, let alone become the successful program it was just a few years ago. The Rose Bowl isn't even in the picture anymore.
With all the players and recruits abandoning the sinking ship of the Cal program, one has to wonder if last season's poor performance was not the result of the large number of injuries the team sustained. I was one who thought with those injuries, we had no chance to win games, and I thought it for a long time. But there have been too many players leaving. It appears that these players either never really bought into the way the program was run, or they did buy into the program, but after looking at it and playing in it, they have decided it is not being run in a way that will lead to success, either success for the team, or success for them personally. The high tech offense that became so predictable. The defense that could not tackle. The mostly inept special teams who often made a bad game worse. There is something wrong within the core of the football program, and the defections indicate that may be true.
The coach was beaten down by the end of the season. No longer was there the positive rhetoric. No longer was there the exuberance we all loved. He was a coach who had no answers. It overshadowed some individual improvement by some players. Now with all the defections, his task to right the ship becomes immense.
What we were as a football program at the end of 2012 was a program that had been successful for many years, but in its final few years had slipped into mediocrity. What we are now is a football program in the tank. This will take more than a lot of positive talk by the coach to both recruits and players to even get back to the level of mediocrity we were experiencing in 2012, let alone become the successful program it was just a few years ago. The Rose Bowl isn't even in the picture anymore.
