edg64 - I vividly remember my first Cal fb game. It was the fall of 1963 against Iowa State. Craig Morton won it late in the fourth quarter with a long td pass to Loren Hawley (50+ yards/). I was hooked - to my eternal regret.
I lived overseas in the 1950s - so I never saw the Waldorf teams or Kapp's Rose Bowl team. It has been grim with only a few highlights - the 1968 Bear Minimum defense, the Mike White years of 1974-5, 1991 Citrus Bowl year, and the early Tedford years. So, out of 53 years - fewer than 10 really good ones.

Agree! Our last venture into the Rose Bowl was a mismatch of the first order as a mediocre Cal team was blown away by a very good Iowa team. Pappy's teams, at least, were competitive.

Go!Bears;842736321 said:

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And it cascades from there. What big time ambitious assistant wants to hitch their wagon to a "long shot" at a school with no history of success? This is why I think the "fire Sonny" crowd is unrealistic. That is not how we will get to the promised land. For us it will be a long, slow climb - if it happens at all.

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Weren't we told that upgrading the training rooms, the stadium, the facilities were going to facilitate our being more competitive? Weren't all these upgrades sold on the premise that it would attract recruits and people that wanted to come and be part of the "rebirth"? Things have gotten worse haven't they?

So - we play small ball with Sonny. Hoping we can simply outscore people. But how far can this go? Its like the Loyola Marymount run and shoot under Paul Westphal. Its entertaining stuff. But it won't get us to where we want to be.

I recommend grad school for suffering Cal fans. The loyalty will never run as deep but it's a nice Plan B for the times when things get a little rough. And above all, pick a school that excels in the sport you most enjoy.

TheSouseFamily;842736393 said:

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I recommend grad school for suffering Cal fans. The loyalty will never run as deep but it's a nice Plan B for the times when things get a little rough. And above all, pick a school that excels in the sport you most enjoy.

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Eh going to Furd, Westwood or South Central for grad school and then using one of them as fall back is a hard pill to swallow. I'd have to go out-of-state or out of conference for that (a popular and safe route is always Michigan).

We start out young, like you, and don't know any better. I started in '79, thinking that sometime in the next 2 decades, we'd eventually get there.

Strykur;842736409 said:

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Eh going to Furd, Westwood or South Central for grad school and then using one of them as fall back is a hard pill to swallow. I'd have to go out-of-state or out of conference for that (a popular and safe route is always Michigan).

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Thats a good point and I should have inserted the caveat that it can't be within the conference or anyone we play in the next few years (even if mike Williams consents). I went to Duke so I didn't have that problem. The only rough spot was the 2010 NCAA tourney when cal and Duke played in Jacksonville. I sat there with a cal shirt and a Duke hat but I was all Cal when the ball went up.

Go!Bears;842736321 said:

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And it cascades from there. What big time ambitious assistant wants to hitch their wagon to a "long shot" at a school with no history of success? This is why I think the "fire Sonny" crowd is unrealistic. That is not how we will get to the promised land. For us it will be a long, slow climb - if it happens at all.

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No. Don't get sucked into the typical cal loser-speak. Cal can hire good coaches. Tedford was a very hot commodity when he arrived at cal. Cal hired Mariucci when he was also in demand. Cal had a deal with Marvin Lewis at one point. Hue Jackson wanted the job. And most of these were when we had the worst facilities in the conference and a much worse record over the previous twenty years than now. Of course we're not going to hire Nick Saban but neither is ucla or uw. We could have hired Mora or Petersen. We could have hired Harbaugh before Stanford did. We're fishing from the same pond as these other schools. We just haven't managed to get the right guy. Dykes is far from the best we can do. We've done better and can do better.

chelseabear;842736417 said:

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No. Don't get sucked into the typical cal loser-speak. Cal can hire good coaches. Tedford was a very hot commodity when he arrived at cal. Cal hired Mariucci when he was also in demand. Cal had a deal with Marvin Lewis at one point. Hue Jackson wanted the job. And most of these were when we had the worst facilities in the conference and a much worse record over the previous twenty years than now. Of course we're not going to hire Nick Saban but neither is ucla or uw. We could have hired Mora or Petersen. We could have hired Harbaugh before Stanford did.

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Tedford was a good OC at Oregon but hardly a hot commodity, would a hot up-and-coming assistant coach go to a 1-10 program with no facilities and a crumbling stadium over other places? Mariucci was here for a year and then was gone, that hardly counts for anything. Marvin Lewis did pull out of consideration when we were offering him and has made Cincinnati a consistent AFC North winner but has never won a playoff game in the NFL. We have expressed interest in Hue Jackson before but it's never been serious from either party. And we did try to get Petersen in 2012 but he spurned us and went to Washington a year later. Mora would have demanded an NFL-range salary upfront which for us would have been dead-on-arrival. And situations like Harbaugh almost never happen in college football, find another circumstance where a no-name coach takes an unheralded program from the cellar into national championship contention (Frank Beamer at Virginia Tech?). He keeps getting mentioned around here but getting a coach like Ron Rivera may only happen if we actually get Ron Rivera under some special circumstances.

I think our best chance is paying for an Alvaraz type AD (ie. a football guy) and letting him pick the football coach. He may be able to identify a young, up and coming coach from a lower level or he may be able to lure a more experienced guy, either way works. Right now, there is no one in the hiring-chain that I'd trust to hire a good head football coach.
And if we aren't ready to turn the reins of the entire athletic department over to a football guy then at least hire the same type of guy and let him run the entire football program. It probably requires a standalone guy anyway given its size and the potential revenue gains.

Strykur;842736421 said:

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Tedford was a good OC at Oregon but hardly a hot commodity, would a hot up-and-coming assistant coach go to a 1-10 program with no facilities and a crumbling stadium over other places? Mariucci was here for a year and then was gone, that hardly counts for anything. Marvin Lewis did pull out of consideration when we were offering him and has made Cincinnati a consistent AFC North winner but has never won a playoff game in the NFL. We have expressed interest in Hue Jackson before but it's never been serious from either party. And we did try to get Petersen in 2012 but he spurned us and went to Washington a year later. Mora would have demanded an NFL-range salary upfront which for us would have been dead-on-arrival. And situations like Harbaugh almost never happen in college football, find another circumstance where a no-name coach takes an unheralded program from the cellar into national championship contention (Frank Beamer at Virginia Tech?). He keeps getting mentioned around here but getting a coach like Ron Rivera may only happen if we actually get Ron Rivera under some special circumstances.

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I'm sick of all this losing. I'm going to raise my child to support a winning football program.

Reminds me of the pumpkin halloween costume my mother made me wear as a kid. Scarred for life. I don't care how many Rose Bowls the trees win. I wouldn't subject my kids to this torment.

okaydo;842736683 said:

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I'm sick of all this losing. I'm going to raise my child to support a winning football program.

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You asked how we do it?

It's for moments like today's victory over Utah that keep us going to games! The thrill of victory - what's better than that with 50,000 of your friends?

The Beach Boys "Be True to Your School" is ingrained in me.

GO BEARS!!!

Calfans;842738791 said:

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You asked how we do it?

It's for moments like today's victory over Utah that keep us going to games! The thrill of victory - what's better than that with 50,000 of your friends?

The Beach Boys "Be True to Your School" is ingrained in me.

GO BEARS!!!

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Word.