bluehenbear;842257403 said:

---

I would have presumed Dykes would have know EXACTLY who he wanted as a DC when he was preparing for the Cal HC position, but then we ended up with the underwhelming Buh hire. I'm not expecting drastic improvement for 2014 with the hire (based on the players remaining and the difficulty we'll have with recruiting), but this has to be a hire that will instill confidence and fire up the team.

---

Sonny may know exactly whom he wants, but Sonny may not be able to get that person to agree to acceptable terms. So why go out on a limb and start throwing around names. There is no upside in doing that.

68great;842257507 said:

---

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.

---

Neither Sacks nor Stewart was with Dykes at LA Tech. I wonder if he is more loyal to the LA Tech gang. Chachere showed us nothing as DE coach and he didn't even have the credentials that Stewart and Sacks had. Is he a great recruiter? And Tommerdahl as ST coach? Didn't Cal tie a NCAA record by giving up 3 punt return TDs in a game? And they led the nation by giving up 5 for the year

68great;842257507 said:

---

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.

---

How's the family, Sonny?

SonomanA1;842257238 said:

---

I just saw this on the Cal website:

BERKELEY Cal head football coach Sonny Dykes announced a restructuring of the Golden Bears' defensive coaching staff on Wednesday. Defensive coordinator Andy Buh has been reassigned as a position coach, while defensive tackles coach Barry Sacks and defensive backs coach Randy Stewart will not return in 2014.

"Defense is a critical part of the equation in winning championships," Dykes said. "I owe it to our student-athletes to provide them with the best conditions for success, both on and off the field, and I am committed to hiring coaches who will develop our players to their fullest potential while being excellent teachers in all aspects of the game. I will look to hire a defensive coordinator with significant experience in that role who can lead our defensive unit to success in one of the most prolific offensive conferences in the country."

Go Bear!
Richard

---

There is a Santa Claus. I Freakin knew there was!:woohoo

Well into last season Dykes said that a major problem with the OL is that they don't finish their blocks. A bigger problem is the OL coach. Finishing blocks is basic, and the lack therein is a coaching flaw. Yenser seems to be in way over his head.

Good start on the D side, however.

:gobears:

Irishbear;842257528 said:

---

Well into last season Dykes said that a major problem with the OL is that they don't finish their blocks. A bigger problem is the OL coach. Finishing blocks is basic, and the lack therein is a coaching flaw. Yenser seems to be in way over his head.

Good start on the D side, however.

:gobears:

---

I seem to recall an interview with Rigsbee where he took responsibility as a player for not finishing blocks and that the coaching was adequate.

turkey02;842257540 said:

---

I seem to recall an interview with Rigsbee where he took responsibility as a player for not finishing blocks and that the coaching was adequate.

---

"Adequate" coaching. A ringing endorsement!

Good move by Sonny though we'll still have an overpaid (LB?) coach on staff. Best we could do given the situation I suppose. I look forward to see who he hires at these positions.

I'd also like to see a return to the 3-4 though we seem to be light on LBers due to the minor exodus.

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.

59bear;842257492 said:

---

Will we have 4 linebackers left after defections, medical attrition, transfers and NFL departures?

---

Forbes, Nickerson, Barton, Jefferson, Boussard, and I would be shocked if Jason Gibson isn't moved back there. That is with other players not moving also. Then expect about 4LB recruits signed this year that would be 10

StillNoStanfurdium;842257542 said:

---

"Adequate" coaching. A ringing endorsement!

---

Settle down, not my words. Here's the actual quote:

"The blame is on us," Rigsbee said. "He (Yenser) has done what he needs to do, he's taught us what we need to learn. We just need to go out and execute and come together as that unit."

Nor-Cal Scott;842257295 said:

---

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.

---

I'd bet it was due to external alum pressure, since Sonny was vocal in his backing of Buh..aka "3-4, what's that??" aka "Sorry boss, I got nothing"

tequila4kapp;842257549 said:

---

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.

---

LOL only on BI...

This is Sonny's fault... Injuries are no excuse... Sonny hasn't fired the coaches he sucks

We fire the Def coachs...

Hmmm well there were a lot of injuries and our Offense was only ranked #34 soooo even though we were down 21 to 0 6 minutes into every game Sonny shouldn't have fire the coaches... Sonny sucks

No matter what we had to pay Buh - so it is cheaper to keep him on and not hire a LB coach. Now, if he moves, it is on him. Saves us 200K if he stays, and $500K if he moves.

Vandalus;842257371 said:

---

Exactly this. There are just inherently way more 240lb athletic guys than 290lb athletic guys.

---

There seem to be more 240 lb guys who are also decent students.

72CalBear;842257407 said:

---

You still drinkin the Sonny Delight? This late decision to get a second tier DC (who is coming for the one or two years left for SD?) does nothing for the de-commits, commits, or potential recruits that will have more changes to deal with next year. Let's start all over again!! Yay!! Let the optimism spill! :cheer

---

Oh, so you dont think Ragins, Fortt and Whitener are coming back??? Crud.

Cal definitely has the roster to run a 3-4 next year IMO

King-Moala-Jalil would form the the 3-men front with Hunter, Kelly and Davis (these two being JUCO recruits) as part of the rotation.

OLB's would be Scarlett, Barr, Kragen, Johnson (JUCO), and there are other potential prospects on the roster. ILB's would be Fortt (if he doesn't go pro), Forbes, Jefferson, Nickerson, and King. Barton and Whitener are options too plus I'm sure I'm forgetting some names.

biely medved;842257587 said:

---

Oh, so you dont think Ragins, Fortt and Whitener are coming back??? Crud.

---

Ragin transferred to Oregon.

I just realized that Whitner, who I listed on my previous post, is rumored to be requesting a transfer also.

vrabbit;842257596 said:

---

Cal definitely has the roster to run a 3-4 next year IMO

King-Moala-Jalil would form the the 3-men front with Hunter, Kelly and Davis (these two being JUCO recruits) as part of the rotation.

OLB's would be Scarlett, Barr, Kragen, Johnson (JUCO), and there are other potential prospects on the roster. ILB's would be Fortt (if he doesn't go pro), Forbes, Jefferson, Nickerson, and King. Barton and Whitener are options too plus I'm sure I'm forgetting some names.

---

LOL... Gabe King and Lucas King are gone from the program. Whitener transferred out. Fortt is going Pro.

jamonit;842257600 said:

---

LOL... Gabe King and Lucas King are gone from the program. Whitener transferred out. Fortt is going Pro.

---

damnit. I knew something wasn't right about Gabe, but what happened to Lucas though? Did I miss that. I acknowledged Whitener on my very next post, and how did I miss Fortt declaring? Geez.

My belief that we have the roster for a 3-4 remains though.

vrabbit;842257607 said:

---

damnit. I knew something wasn't right about Gabe, but what happened to Lucas though? Did I miss that. I acknowledged Whitener on my very next post, and how did I miss Fortt declaring? Geez.

My belief that we have the roster for a 3-4 remains though.

---

Lucas graduated and declined to come back for a 5th year.

turkey02;842257612 said:

---

Lucas graduated and declined to come back for a 5th year.

---

Ok so Forbes (I know there are questions regarding his health), Jefferson, Nickerson, and Barton.

vrabbit;842257617 said:

---

Ok so Forbes (I know there are questions regarding his health), Jefferson, Nickerson, and Barton.

---

It doesn't seem positive for Forbes for some reason. It doesn't seem like just some nagging injury to his back -- something more permanent.

jamonit;842257564 said:

---

LOL only on BI...

This is Sonny's fault... Injuries are no excuse... Sonny hasn't fired the coaches he sucks

We fire the Def coachs...

Hmmm well there were a lot of injuries and our Offense was only ranked #34 soooo even though we were down 21 to 0 6 minutes into every game Sonny shouldn't have fire the coaches... Sonny sucks

---

In my opinion, Sonny sucks (or not) purely based on his performance. Last season speaks for itself (worst in 100+ year history of Cal FB mostly filled with bad seasons). Injuries and youth would have excused a bad season such as the one we had in 2012, but less so a 'worst ever' type season. So the "sucks" part of it was, at least for me, independent of the coaching change part.

Now on top of that, some were wondering why he hadn't made defensive coaching changes - and now he has. But to me, the coaching changes may not matter at this stage, though perhaps they save/cost us different amounts of money. I think the Sonny regime is a longshot to turn it around (as long as we don't count losing seasons as turnarounds) regardless of assistant coaching changes, in which case these are just window dressing. And if Sonny and Sandy themselves are the problem, having them pick the coaching replacements seems even less likely to help.

But of course even an extreme data point such as the 2013 season could be wrong due to small sample size, there's always a chance he's a far better head coach than he's shown, so let's see.

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. But no excuse for that performance if high-scoring/most physical passing game you've ever seen/impervious to weather/can be mastered in 3 weeks/etc. etc. is your calling card.

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.

turkey02;842257612 said:

---

Lucas graduated and declined to come back for a 5th year.

---

KoreAmBear;842257622 said:

---

It doesn't seem positive for Forbes for some reason. It doesn't seem like just some nagging injury to his back -- something more permanent.

---

I know I'm just being hopeful

vrabbit;842257617 said:

---

Ok so Forbes (I know there are questions regarding his health), Jefferson, Nickerson, and Barton.

---

Which would leave as backups:

1. Edward Tandy (RS FR)
2. Jason Gibson (But we converted him to safety)
3. Devante Downs (True FR, If we play him at LB)
4. We have no one else as of now.

Our depth has squarely shifted back to the D-Line and we have 4 more as of now coming in next year.

StillNoStanfurdium;842257629 said:

---

Which would leave as backups:

1. Edward Tandy (RS FR)
2. Jason Gibson (But we converted him to safety)
3. Devante Downs (True FR, If we play him at LB)
4. We have no one else as of now.

Our depth has squarely shifted back to the D-Line and we have 4 more as of now coming in next year.

---

Forbes, Jefferson, Nickerson, and Barton would be the two-deep at the ILB spots.

Two-deep OLB would be Scarlett, Barr, Kragen, Johnson (JUCO)

of the 4 "DL" coming in, two of them (Johnson and Emesibe) could be shifted to OLB.

vrabbit;842257632 said:

---

Forbes, Jefferson, Nickerson, and Barton would be the two-deep at the ILB spots.

Two-deep OLB would be Scarlett, Barr, Kragen, Johnson (JUCO)

---

To your credit, I was going off the 4-3 position designations and forgot about the hybrid players we'd have on hand. Touche.

StillNoStanfurdium;842257629 said:

---

Which would leave as backups:

1. Edward Tandy (RS FR)
2. Jason Gibson (But we converted him to safety)
3. Devante Downs (True FR, If we play him at LB)
4. We have no one else as of now.

Our depth has squarely shifted back to the D-Line and we have 4 more as of now coming in next year.

---

Broussard, though granted he's returning from a knee injury.

vrabbit;842257617 said:

---

Ok so Forbes (I know there are questions regarding his health), Jefferson, Nickerson, and Barton.

---

Forbes would be great but his health seems very uncertain at this stage.

For a 3-4, in addition to Jefferson, Barton, Nickerson - who else? Broussard if healthy? Tandy? Gibson if he moves back to LB? Maybe Downs or another LB coming in. Scarlett could be a hybrid/elephant type player if healthy.

Edit: heh, everyone beat me to it. And yeah, there could be other DL/LB hybrids besides Scarlett.

OneKeg;842257624 said:

---

In my opinion, Sonny sucks (or not) purely based on his performance. Last season speaks for itself (worst in 100+ year history of Cal FB mostly filled with bad seasons). Injuries and youth would have excused a bad season such as the one we had in 2012, but less so a 'worst ever' type season. So the "sucks" part of it was, at least for me, independent of the coaching change part.

Now on top of that, some were wondering why he hadn't made defensive coaching changes - and now he has. But to me, the coaching changes may not matter at this stage, though perhaps they save/cost us different amounts of money. I think the Sonny regime is a longshot to turn it around (as long as we don't count losing seasons as turnarounds) regardless of assistant coaching changes, in which case these are just window dressing. And if Sonny and Sandy themselves are the problem, having them pick the coaching replacements seems even less likely to help.

But of course even an extreme data point such as the 2013 season could be wrong due to small sample size, there's always a chance he's a far better head coach than he's shown, so let's see.

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. But no excuse for that performance if high-scoring/most physical passing game you've ever seen/impervious to weather/can be mastered in 3 weeks/etc. etc. is your calling card.

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.

---

Great post.

turkey02;842257540 said:

---

I seem to recall an interview with Rigsbee where he took responsibility as a player for not finishing blocks and that the coaching was adequate.

---

Prompted by my seat mate, I put the binoculars on Rigsbee for 4 consecutive plays (before he was moved to center), and he was blocking air. Literally. We are talking a traffic cone. First you block, then you finish. Period.

KoreAmBear;842257654 said:

---

Great post.

---

I agree... Very good information about our offense.

Irishbear;842257689 said:

---

Prompted by my seat mate, I put the binoculars on Rigsbee for 4 consecutive plays (before he was moved to center), and he was blocking air. Literally. We are talking a traffic cone. First you block, then you finish. Period.

---

Also, "good information" about our offense.

jamonit;842257564 said:

---

LOL only on BI...

This is Sonny's fault... Injuries are no excuse... Sonny hasn't fired the coaches he sucks

We fire the Def coachs...

Hmmm well there were a lot of injuries and our Offense was only ranked #34 soooo even though we were down 21 to 0 6 minutes into every game Sonny shouldn't have fire the coaches... Sonny sucks

---

Only on BI is exactly right.