The whole time Sonny Dykes was coach I felt the national media put too much esteem on him and too little esteem on Cal (ok, they always do that to Cal). Every year, Sonny Dykes was NOT listed as on the hot seat but was talked about as a coach likely to move on. I just picked up on a general perception from the national media that Cal should feel lucky to have Dykes and that we were nothing without him. Fortunately, Cal did the right thing and dumped Dykes.

I feel like awful rankings like this are part of the national media Cal/Dykes fallout. The look at Cal - check that - they don't look at Cal, they just see Dykes leaving. In their opinion Cal's offense will now suck without Dykes and Cal's defense will continue to be what it was.

By all accounts, Cal's defense is taking major strides forward. Boy, is Dykes going to look stupid when Wilxoc takes Dykes' personnel and has them playing decent defense. Wonder if the national media will notice.

c'mon this can't be surprising. the national perception is that there is no talent on the defensive side, so regardless of deruyter and wilcox coaching them up it's limited gains. look at the PAC 12 coaches talking about Cal. they think that too. then there is the not unreasonable expectation that there will be a step back on O with a transition to a new O and replacing Webb.

I agree that the OL will probably take a step back. the OL is super thin and not that experienced (new RT, RG and LG, albeit the RG and LG have played before). and we are replacing another NFL QB. not an unreasonable expectation. that being said Baldwin is known for working with the roster strengths (not shoehorning guys into roles bad for them) so while I'm sure we will overall be worse than last year, I'm not expecting us to fall down anymore than middlin of the PAC

the question is how much talent is there on the D? did Kaufman et al REALLY hold our guys back? will some guys blossom under better coaching and scheming? I KNOW our scheme sucked and was very generic/boring. the early reports are promising (unlike at Oregon where it sounds like the D is still really struggling--however their O is much more established). if the D really has improved to say....mediocre....we are really gonna surprise the CFB landscape.

Have to agree, Kaufman held us back. I'll never forget the 2015 game at the Rose Bowl when he had our corners play 10+yards off the line. Rosen had all day to complete throws and help move the chains. I asked him about it and he replied, "That quarterback was on fire." Well, it was Art who provided the match.

I couldn't give a squirt of p--- what the national pundits say about Cal. What I care about is seeing whether Cal's defense has improved, whether concepts like tackling, driving thru a ball carrier, using the sideline as your defensive friend, and maintaining body control are understood by the players. Defensive fundamentals + Cal = happiness. There are enough skill position players in the state of California that the offense will always come, maybe not right away, but it'll come. But a coach who emphasizes defense would be a welcomed change around here, and I suspect we'll know early on whether the Bears have made positive strides defensively.