tequila4kapp;842257549 said:

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My initial reaction was something like "Finally!" But after thinking about this for a while, there are some curious elements to it.

Even those of us who have been critical of the staff have to admit the most serious rash of injuries occurred on the D side of the ball. It is interesting to me the D side - where Sonny signed off on the stupid decisions to hire unique position coaches - takes the hit. But the O side of the ball, where we were not nearly effective as promised and didn't have nearly the injuries, gets a pass. I also wonder how much of this was forced on Sonny.

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Very good thoughts. Perhaps Sonny is a TFS investor?

But seriously, there were so many problems with this past year. Everything stunk. Why the offense seems to be getting a pass is interesting.

Tedhead94;842257787 said:

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Very good thoughts. Perhaps Sonny is a TFS investor?

But seriously, there were so many problems with this past year. Everything stunk. Why the offense seems to be getting a pass is interesting.

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If the offense improves from last year, it might be pretty decent. If the defense improves next year, considerably, it could still be terrible. That's the difference.

Nor-Cal Scott;842257295 said:

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Why such the long waiting period? This should have been done mid December, and Dykes should have been making calls to coaches.

Hopefully we can land a solid DC, and DLine, DBacks guys.

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It only makes sense if Sonny was waiting to get a coach from a BCS bowl team. Michigan dumped their OC today and replaced him with Nussmaier from Alabama.

That's reassuring. I was expecting the player to call out his coach for being incompetent on camera.

68great;842257507 said:

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Well so much for those posters who said:
Sonny is too stubborn to change.
Sonny is too loyal to his staff and supports them ahead of the players.
Sonny doesn't really care what the fans think.
Sonny is too dumb to see that the Cal D was terrible in 2013.

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Cheers to Sonny for admitting that he had a problem, that's the first step. For a while it looked like he was refusing to realize that he had a problem. Now comes the hard work, he's got to work the steps if he's going to recover. :p

Tedhead94;842257787 said:

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Very good thoughts. Perhaps Sonny is a TFS investor?

But seriously, there were so many problems with this past year. Everything stunk. Why the offense seems to be getting a pass is interesting.

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We probably can't make too many coordinator changes for financial reasons. All the position coaches are on 1 year contracts. The position coach (on the offensive side of the ball) most up for debate would be Yenser.

Strykur;842257244 said:

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Would have been nice to have gotten this done back in December when the coaching market was getting warmed up.

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Lot of changes going on right now, guys on the market and a big coaching convention just starting with guys looking to connect. My money (or someone's since he will cost a lot) is on Greg Robinson.

wifeisafurd;842257849 said:

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Lot of changes going on right now, guys on the market and a big coaching convention just starting with guys looking to connect. My money (or someone's since he will cost a lot) is on Greg Robinson.

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Didn't he just get hired by Texas as their DC?

ColoradoBear1;842257259 said:

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So..... can we get any of our old players back now?

Also, are we going with on DL coach now? Any thoughts on whether we are keeping the right one?

Was Buh a respected LB coach at least at Wisconsin?

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Buh is considered a good LB position coach at a lot of places. Even at SDSU he put some guys in the NFL. (His DC resume was light to say the least).

Interested in the timing of the defensive reorganization and the effect it will have on recruiting on defensive side of the ball where we will need a lot of help. Additionally, I am watching the O-line position coach. Given the lack of a consistent running game that made opposing DCs respect and game plan for , what will Dykes do about improvement at that position? Cal will only go as far as their running game will take them. Consistent blocking and a run game will help red zone production.

Franklin needs to be next.

BearNIt;842257964 said:

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Interested in the timing of the defensive reorganization and the effect it will have on recruiting on defensive side of the ball where we will need a lot of help. Additionally, I am watching the O-line position coach. Given the lack of a consistent running game that made opposing DCs respect and game plan for , what will Dykes do about improvement at that position? Cal will only go as far as their running game will take them. Consistent blocking and a run game will help red zone production.

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IMO the OLine is the biggest concern. That is what is preventing Cal's Offensive scoring blitz. Cal cannot score in the redzone (bluezone) because of poor run blocking.

Vandalus;842257851 said:

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Didn't he just get hired by Texas as their DC?

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Robinson served very effectively in relief for Diaz, but he's a free agent now; Strong's DC at Louisville is following him to Texas.

B.A. Bearacus;842258004 said:

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Robinson served very effectively in relief for Diaz, but he's a free agent now; Strong's DC at Louisville is following him to Texas.

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Hire someone who is a grizzled veteran. That someone has to be a turnkey hire because it is evidence that Sonny doesn't know defense (perhaps less than Buh). With our D continually out of position and not keeping assignments (from game 1 to game 12), it's not like Sonny helped Buh fix the problems either. Like CP (not saying he should be hired) for JT, Sonny needs someone that he doesn't have to really oversee or worry about on that side of the ball (and since that's not his expertise, we need an expert).

I think we have some pieces that are coming back which could lead to a much better defense (Avery, Scarlett, Moose, and possibly Forbes). Guys that know D like the back of their hand will be OK with proper personnel. I think Buh was just in over his head. Nice guy though, and sounds like a decent enough LB coach.

OneKeg;842257624 said:

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As for the offense being ranked #34 nationally or whatever:When you have a high tempo offense, it is completely deceptive to measure the offense in terms of passing yards or first downs, especially when running so many plays in quick succession puts our beleaguered defense back on the field more often as well. Need to measure efficiency instead. Here are the conference stats: http://pac-12.com/content/football-statistics ... click on 2013 and then stats leaders.
- 12th out of 12 teams in scoring offense (despite all those extra plays)
- 12th out of 12 teams in passing efficiency
- 11th out of 12 teams in yards per pass attempt (6.4, only Wazzu slightly lower). Racking up passing yards and first downs between the 20s by throwing a bazillion passes in rapid succession does not make it a good offense.
- 9th out of 12 teams in yards per rush attempt (3.5, ahead of CU, Wazzu and barely Oregon State).

So more or less the worst offense in the conference, certainly in the bottom quartile. OL youth and injuries ? Sure.

So in my opinion, it's legitimate to wonder why a guy like, say, Yenser is safe. Or perhaps he isn't? Let's see what happens.

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I agree with your thoughts on Cal's offense in that the stats tell the story from 2013. The lack of scoring and specifically scoring in the red zone were troubling to say the least. The reality of the situation is that Tony Franklin and his system are not going anywhere in the near future. This leaves Dykes to make improvements in other areas to help the offense score and that improvement most glaringly should come in the running game and specifically along the O-line. It seems to me that at a position where technique is extremely important, Cal just didn't get it done along the O-line. Was this a function of the players or coach and the techniques they were being taught? The deficit was in the coaching, specifically the O-line coaching. If Cal wants to win, the running game has to be better. It's the running game that keeps opposing teams honest which in turn sets up the passing game for success, assist with scoring in the red zone, keeps opposing offenses off the field, and helps to control time of possession. I'll give credit to Dykes for realizing he had a problem on defense and that he had to make a change on that side of the ball to have a chance to be successful, but to take full advantage of these changes on defense, he has to make a change at the O-line coaching position to help the running game.

BearNIt;842258071 said:

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I agree with your thoughts on Cal's offense in that the stats tell the story from 2013. The lack of scoring and specifically scoring in the red zone were troubling to say the least. The reality of the situation is that Tony Franklin and his system are not going anywhere in the near future. This leaves Dykes to make improvements in other areas to help the offense score and that improvement most glaringly should come in the running game and specifically along the O-line. It seems to me that at a position where technique is extremely important, Cal just didn't get it done along the O-line. Was this a function of the players or coach and the techniques they were being taught? The deficit was in the coaching, specifically the O-line coaching. If Cal wants to win, the running game has to be better. It's the running game that keeps opposing teams honest which in turn sets up the passing game for success, assist with scoring in the red zone, keeps opposing offenses off the field, and helps to control time of possession. I'll give credit to Dykes for realizing he had a problem on defense and that he had to make a change on that side of the ball to have a chance to be successful, but to take full advantage of these changes on defense, he has to make a change at the O-line coaching position to help the running game.

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I also agree. The offense was as responsible as the defense to this years egregious performance.

Early in the season it was all on the D.

But by mid-season (such as Oregon) the offense played so poorly and gave the opposing team so many opportunities that the defense eventually had to succumb. As the season progressed, the defense had clearly improved and was actually making stops (just to be put on the field 30 seconds later).

It is one thing to have a bad offense and a great D. But our offense must have had the most "3 and outs" on record. And never seemed to really move the ball until we were in a deep hole. Mid-year, our D gave us a chance to win with their play but was pummeled by the position the offense kept putting them in.

After USC, everything fell apart.

A key will be whether Goff can learn to throw the deep ball. He loved the down the line screen for 1 yard. You would think by the frequency we used this play, we would be experts. But it was only the opposing offense that showed an adequate approach to the down the line screen.