Curious how many senior starters or early entrants they had?

NVBear78 said:

---

Curious how many senior starters or early entrants they had?

---

Phillips

We seemed to deal with Philips pretty well yesterday.

NVBear78 said:

---

We seemed to deal with Philips pretty well yesterday.

---

By the way, who said Love is leaving early? I think that he might stay for his senior year. His desire to become an MD is well known. Another year on the Farm would help him reach that goal.

Personally I've stopped anticipating a down year for Furd based on losses to graduation.
They are reload, not rebuild, program.

I am wondering if Love will play against ND. They don't need the win there as much as the following week and it seems that his ankle is not getting better, but worse.

heartofthebear said:

---

Personally I've stopped anticipating a down year for Furd based on losses to graduation.
They are reload, not rebuild, program.

---

Except their Offensive is very dependent on Love, see OSU game...

71Bear said:

---

NVBear78 said:

---

We seemed to deal with Philips pretty well yesterday.

---

By the way, who said Love is leaving early? I think that he might stay for his senior year. His desire to become an MD is well known. Another year on the Farm would help him reach that goal.

---

Between Love's career goals and Laird's love of books, it really does make me happy that the student in student-athlete isn't entirely dead.

NVBear78 said:

---

heartofthebear said:

---

Personally I've stopped anticipating a down year for Furd based on losses to graduation.
They are reload, not rebuild, program.

---

Except their Offensive is very dependent on Love, see OSU game...

---

Yeah, I've fallen for that type of logic too.
And you are forgetting that they will have a whole year to revamp their offense so it isn't entirely based on anybody that it is based on now.

heartofthebear said:

---

NVBear78 said:

---

heartofthebear said:

---

Personally I've stopped anticipating a down year for Furd based on losses to graduation.
They are reload, not rebuild, program.

---

Except their Offensive is very dependent on Love, see OSU game...

---

Yeah, I've fallen for that type of logic too.
And you are forgetting that they will have a whole year to revamp their offense so it isn't entirely based on anybody that it is based on now.

---

Everything you say is correct regarding Stanfurd continually reloading and not having a major drop off....

but the good news is we have Wilcox now and have made a quantum leap forward and return our entire offense and most of our defense next year.

and I have to say that if they lose both Love (is he a "real" pre-med major or is his a phony major like Luck the so called architecture student) and Phillips that would be the two players with the greatest physical and difference making abilities from this years team.

heartofthebear said:

---

Personally I've stopped anticipating a down year for Furd based on losses to graduation.
They are reload, not rebuild, program.

---

I will grudgingly give Shaw credit for keeping it going as long as he has, but I see the program slowly settling back to earth.

NVBear78 said:

---

heartofthebear said:

---

Personally I've stopped anticipating a down year for Furd based on losses to graduation.
They are reload, not rebuild, program.

---

Except their Offensive is very dependent on Love, see OSU game...

---

Wasn't their offense very dependent on McCaffrey last year? Or on Luck a couple years before that? All very good players. But it is on the lines that Stanford wins (and occasionally loses when they meet their match). They have consistently won in the trenches against many teams, including Cal, though It was pretty even this time around. The lines are where we need to beat them (and many other teams) and hopefully Wilcox's focus during recruiting is the right approach.

As for who else Stanford loses, I think their DT Phillips is a senior and pretty good. I credit the coaches for scheming to contain him on Saturday and give Laird lanes to run in. I think they have a fairly good LB (Kalambayi?) who is also a senior. They are not as dominant as they have been, but I'm not counting on them getting much worse. The OSU game was an outlier in my opinion - Stanford probably didn't take them seriously and the Beavs were newly-energized by the interim coach, whose manic approach eventually wears off.

I think Cal can win Big Game next year, but we'll have to do it by getting better ourselves.

Big C said:

---

heartofthebear said:

---

Personally I've stopped anticipating a down year for Furd based on losses to graduation.
They are reload, not rebuild, program.

---

I will grudgingly give Shaw credit for keeping it going as long as he has, but I see the program slowly settling back to earth.

---

Hate to tell you this, but go die in a fire if that is your line of thinking. Washington had a 12-game losing streak to Oregon because of that bogus idea, programs rise and fall but Furd has not dropped off at all under Shaw, and waiting for your rival to "fall back to earth" is a loser mentality. Yeah, let's wait until the mid-2020s when Shaw decides to jump to the NFL and maybe we can end a 15+ year losing streak in Big Game when that happens.

Unless we set our expectations on seriously competing for the PAC-12 and New Years bowls every single year, we are never getting the Axe back.

"Go die in a fire"? Really?

I would be baffled if Love returns. He's a Heisman candidate RB. He can always resume his studies but his nfl window is very short. A QB returning is one thing but a RB? No way.

slobear said:

---

I am wondering if Love will play against ND. They don't need the win there as much as the following week and it seems that his ankle is not getting better, but worse.

---

Furd post game announcers suggested that if he is "feeling less than 80%, he won't ". Also, what is happening in Washington may matter. They also said he may come back to do grad work or have a second major (he is pre-med, and chase a Heisman) My vague recollection is they thought it was 50/50.

MoragaBear said:

---

NVBear78 said:

---

Curious how many senior starters or early entrants they had?

---

Phillips, Okereke, Kalumbayi and Alfieri -some of their top D players are graduating along with Cotton, Palma and Alexander on D and OL starters Bright, Burkett, Fanaika and Tucker.

Lots of seniors in the 2 deeps with eligibility left, too. You have to figure at least a couple of them will graduate.

Most think Love will declare early. That's what I'm thinking, too, unless something more definitive about him coming back comes out.

---

It was a senior and junior dominated team, which means making the QB change so late may have cost a New Years day bowl.

Strykur has it right. Let's worry about us, not them. If we improve only a little bit in 2018 we go 7-5 or 8-4. If we improve a good deal you're looking at 9 wins or perhaps 10. I like that our average on defense has dipped to giving up 28.3 points per game or 81st in the NCAA. If you remove the 14 points scored by AZ in the double OT, we average, to date, 27 points per game and we stand at 67th in the country. That's a far cry from last season where we wound up 127th in the country.

We are in the 60's in rush defense, but fall to 105th in pass defense. The latter I would maintain is a function of a poor front four performance in sacks and hurries. We are maintaining our gaps to prevent the rush, but not getting on the QB quickly enough to prevent him from assessing the field and finding the open receiver. I think we have some real talent in the defensive backfield, but they can't guard against a pass forever. I noticed that we gave Costello plenty of time to go through his progressions the other night. I don't recall seeing a sack. Stanford did a very good job of protecting Costello. That's definitely an area we must improve if we want to be a relevant contender.

Buts and Ifs: but for a gamble of going for a two point conversion against AZ and if a field goal try that hit the cross-bar had succeeded on Saturday, who knows what our record could be?

Bottom line, until Cal football embodies the same expectations as Furd (Rose Bowl), Cal will always be at a significant disadvantage in the Big Game.

Good News, Mr. Cheap-Chicken-Low-Expectations-seven-wins-is-good-enough AD is out the door (GOOD RIDDANCE). If he is replaced by an AD who places a high value on championships and not mediocrity, then things will change.

Those who think Wilcox can build and sustain a championship program on his own with a penny-pinching AD and an administration undermining the program left and right are delusional. This is the same administration that gave Dykes an extension and only fired him because he stupidly went looking for another job during a 5-win season. Unless things change at the top - A LOT - all of Wilcox's efforts won't matter much, because every halfway decent assistant will get poached and the admin will be too cheap to hire and retain the level of coaches the program needs to succeed.

So if you want to see Cal get the Axe in this generation, much less get to the Rose Bowl, push for Cal to hire a real AD. That's the most important off-season move that's going to happen for the Cal program.

Strykur said:

---

Big C said:

---

heartofthebear said:

---

Personally I've stopped anticipating a down year for Furd based on losses to graduation.
They are reload, not rebuild, program.

---

I will grudgingly give Shaw credit for keeping it going as long as he has, but I see the program slowly settling back to earth.

---

Hate to tell you this, but go die in a fire if that is your line of thinking. Washington had a 12-game losing streak to Oregon because of that bogus idea, programs rise and fall but Furd has not dropped off at all under Shaw, and waiting for your rival to "fall back to earth" is a loser mentality. Yeah, let's wait until the mid-2020s when Shaw decides to jump to the NFL and maybe we can end a 15+ year losing streak in Big Game when that happens.

Unless we set our expectations on seriously competing for the PAC-12 and New Years bowls every single year, we are never getting the Axe back.

---

You shouldn't have to hate to tell me that: As soon as I posted that I thought Shaw's program had begun a mild decline, I was like, "What a thing to write! I should probably go die in a fire!" Unfortunately for just consequences, I then remembered I have little kids, so I really can't do that.

To your main point, however, it seems like Shaw's teams have gone from being 10-win teams, to 8-to-9-win teams and, post-Love, I see, if anything, a further leveling off, depending on the year. (Heck, that's a LOT better than we've been. Good on Shaw for that, I guess.)

More importantly, where did I write, or even imply that our strategy should be to wait for them to descend to our level?!? Obviously, no matter WHAT our opponents are doing, we should strive to be the best we can be.

Go Bears!