I waited to do my first revision to my earlier predictions until after the second LOI Day extravaganza. My thinking was that you never know who Cal might just bring in! Boy, the silence of the Cal athletic department's fax machine was deafening!
Remember, my initial football predictions that were posted on 1/9/19 were premised upon essentially a status quo Bear football team for next season; to date, this still looks to be the plan.
I mean, Cal has signed a new five-year deal with Head coach Wilcox to stay under contract through the 2023 season paying him millions of dollars more. Then, Wilcox forthwith announces that he is restructuring his coaching staff-assistants. The only reason that he is doing that, from what I can tell, is merely to better line up these coaches with their pre-Cal coaching bailiwicks.
Cal looks the same to me, but what about the Bears' opponents?
PROJECTED 2019 CAL FOOTBALL SCHEDULE OUTCOMES, Revision 1
UC Davis - Oh hum, this is Cal's traditional early sacrifice to the football gods; this is a Cal WIN. Sure UC Davis was a Big Sky co-champion last season, but I don't think their offense faced anything like Cal's sturdy defense. I just hope that the same won't be observed when Cal's offense goes up against the Aggies's d.
@ Washington - Petersen should be able to develop another good defensive unit given the Huskies' recognized stellar recruiting, which was recently capped by landing two of the top defensive players on the West Coast. The Huskies signed **** safety Asa Turner out of Carlsbad and **** linebacker Daniel Heimuli from East Paly. This plus the Huskies 6'-6" ***** QB Eason, a transfer from Georgia (who won the Gatorade National Player of the Year in 2015) should make the loss of Browning hardly noticeable. Don't hold your breath for a repeat upset, this will be a Cal LOSS, especially considering UDub will also have an extreme partisan home field advantage.
North Texas -The Mean Green had a pretty good 9-4 record last season. Their junior QB, Mason Fine, threw for 3,793 yards with 27 TDs, becoming the program's all-time leading passer and earning his second-straight Conference USA Offensive POY honor. NT apparently had a good QB coach; too bad for them that this coach, Harrell, is now at u$C. Anyway, Cal will have home field advantage, a good pass defense, and more overall depth foretelling a second Bear WIN.
@Ole Miss- With no more bowl ban and with hiring ex-P12 head coaches Arizona Rich Rodriguez as OC and Colorado Mike MacIntyre as DC, Ole Miss has got be a different team than last season's undisciplined 5-7 one. A possible immediate contribution (he might go into MLB) to this foreshadowed difference is the recent commitment of *****RB phenom Jerrion Ealy (19th ranked overall prospect), who chose Ole Miss over Alabama and u$C. This game is another tossup but looks like another Cal road LOSS because of home field disadvantage and because the Rebels should definitely be prepared for whatever Cal brings as their OC and DC have faced Wilcox's Bears before and won.
Arizona State - ASU desperately needs to find a starting QB. The odds are that Sun Devils will find one; they have 6 QB candidates on their current roster and have 3 more QB recruits coming in this fall. If ASU does find that QB, he will have a lot of help from All-American TB Eno Benjamin, who set a school-record 1,652 yards rushing (fourth most in the country), running behind five returning offensive linemen who started games last season. This tossup game is slightly tilting towards a Cal LOSS.
@Oregon- This will likely be Cal's third road LOSS given Oregon's several years of outstanding **** recruiting, their head coach staying, and knowing that Herbert is returning at QB. The talent-laden Ducks will most likely be nationally ranked in the AP Top 25 when Cal meets them in the infamous Autzen Stadium.
Oregon State- zzzZZZzzzZZZzzz...uh...nothing 'ahappenin' here. The perennial bottom-dweller Beavers just don't have the talent, so home field advantage and game go to the Bears for a much-needed (third or, if really lucky, fourth) WIN.
@Utah - Don't let the Utes' Holiday Bowl loss fool you; Utah will be a formidable offensive and defensive opponent for our Bears. Whittingham was playing a red-shirt freshman in their bowl game because not only was their starting QB Huntley injured but also their starting All-Pac-12 TB Moss and leading WR Covey too. All three will be returning, along with defensive All-Pac-12'ers DE Anae, DT Fotu, and CB Blackmon. With home field advantage to Utah, this game looks like a fourth road LOSS for the Bears against another probable nationally ranked team.
Washington State Well Leach has recently got word that his QB heir-apparent EW grad transfer Gubrud, who has thrown for incredible 9,984 yards with 87 TD passes for the Eagles and was a two-time finalist for the Walter Payton Award (given to the best offensive player in FCS), just won an appeal for an additional year of eligibility. He is expected to enroll for the spring semester so he can participate in spring practice. Like Cal, Wazzu also gave Pac-12 COY Leach an extension to 2023 so if he lasts that long it looks like Coach Wilcox will be going up against Leach's pass-crazy spread offenses for the next five seasons! Even though this game will be played in Berkeley, it sure is starting to feel like another Cal LOSS.
u$C- u$C has decided to keep Clay Helton as head coach, but Helton is still on the hot seat, thus he had to wiped his staff clean. He has chosen North Texas' Harrell to be the OC and QB coach, gambling that he will do what he did for the Mean Green's QB Fine for ***** QB JT Daniels also. So, it seems that u$C is going to the spread offensive style given that Harrell is a Leach disciple. Why not, given the slew of highly rated wide receivers the Trojans have and will have, like *****Vaughns, **** 6'-4" Grimes, *****St. Brown, **** 6'-3" Ford, **** 6'-5" London, etc., etc. As a result, Cal will probably be facing yet another nationally ranked team which will vengefully enjoy oinking Cal for a LOSS.
@dirty stanfurd- Costello isn't going pro. I guess its samo-samo for the furds too, as they didn't add any more recruits. I look at this Big Game as Cal's last chance, especially if a post-season bowl game is at stake. So, at best this is probably yet another toss-up contest, but I'm still going with an upset WIN for Cal to bring the Axe back to Berkeley!
@ucla- The Bruins appear to have just experienced a lackluster recruiting effort. Therefore this and Chip's retooling still in-progress could mean that QB transfer Modster could have the ultimate revenge game. So, for now, this game's outcome looks like it's wavering on whether Modster will be able to develop as the season progresses so as to magically transformed Cal into a winner. Otherwise, it's a more-of-the-same between soph QBs Garbers and "pick-six" Thompson-Robinson. Smoggy home field advantage goes to ucla, but Cal has the better defense, so this is still a Cal WIN with the understanding that Brandon plays at a position other than QB!
I realize that the above still glumly predicts Cal to have a 5-7 season and no post-season bowl appearance. If Modster or Garbers gel, Cal could bring in additional victories against Ole Miss and Arizona State for a flip-flop 7-5 season or, at worst, a 6-6 season if the mighty Bears can't upset the furds.
Remember, my initial football predictions that were posted on 1/9/19 were premised upon essentially a status quo Bear football team for next season; to date, this still looks to be the plan.
I mean, Cal has signed a new five-year deal with Head coach Wilcox to stay under contract through the 2023 season paying him millions of dollars more. Then, Wilcox forthwith announces that he is restructuring his coaching staff-assistants. The only reason that he is doing that, from what I can tell, is merely to better line up these coaches with their pre-Cal coaching bailiwicks.
Cal looks the same to me, but what about the Bears' opponents?
PROJECTED 2019 CAL FOOTBALL SCHEDULE OUTCOMES, Revision 1
UC Davis - Oh hum, this is Cal's traditional early sacrifice to the football gods; this is a Cal WIN. Sure UC Davis was a Big Sky co-champion last season, but I don't think their offense faced anything like Cal's sturdy defense. I just hope that the same won't be observed when Cal's offense goes up against the Aggies's d.
@ Washington - Petersen should be able to develop another good defensive unit given the Huskies' recognized stellar recruiting, which was recently capped by landing two of the top defensive players on the West Coast. The Huskies signed **** safety Asa Turner out of Carlsbad and **** linebacker Daniel Heimuli from East Paly. This plus the Huskies 6'-6" ***** QB Eason, a transfer from Georgia (who won the Gatorade National Player of the Year in 2015) should make the loss of Browning hardly noticeable. Don't hold your breath for a repeat upset, this will be a Cal LOSS, especially considering UDub will also have an extreme partisan home field advantage.
North Texas -The Mean Green had a pretty good 9-4 record last season. Their junior QB, Mason Fine, threw for 3,793 yards with 27 TDs, becoming the program's all-time leading passer and earning his second-straight Conference USA Offensive POY honor. NT apparently had a good QB coach; too bad for them that this coach, Harrell, is now at u$C. Anyway, Cal will have home field advantage, a good pass defense, and more overall depth foretelling a second Bear WIN.
@Ole Miss- With no more bowl ban and with hiring ex-P12 head coaches Arizona Rich Rodriguez as OC and Colorado Mike MacIntyre as DC, Ole Miss has got be a different team than last season's undisciplined 5-7 one. A possible immediate contribution (he might go into MLB) to this foreshadowed difference is the recent commitment of *****RB phenom Jerrion Ealy (19th ranked overall prospect), who chose Ole Miss over Alabama and u$C. This game is another tossup but looks like another Cal road LOSS because of home field disadvantage and because the Rebels should definitely be prepared for whatever Cal brings as their OC and DC have faced Wilcox's Bears before and won.
Arizona State - ASU desperately needs to find a starting QB. The odds are that Sun Devils will find one; they have 6 QB candidates on their current roster and have 3 more QB recruits coming in this fall. If ASU does find that QB, he will have a lot of help from All-American TB Eno Benjamin, who set a school-record 1,652 yards rushing (fourth most in the country), running behind five returning offensive linemen who started games last season. This tossup game is slightly tilting towards a Cal LOSS.
@Oregon- This will likely be Cal's third road LOSS given Oregon's several years of outstanding **** recruiting, their head coach staying, and knowing that Herbert is returning at QB. The talent-laden Ducks will most likely be nationally ranked in the AP Top 25 when Cal meets them in the infamous Autzen Stadium.
Oregon State- zzzZZZzzzZZZzzz...uh...nothing 'ahappenin' here. The perennial bottom-dweller Beavers just don't have the talent, so home field advantage and game go to the Bears for a much-needed (third or, if really lucky, fourth) WIN.
@Utah - Don't let the Utes' Holiday Bowl loss fool you; Utah will be a formidable offensive and defensive opponent for our Bears. Whittingham was playing a red-shirt freshman in their bowl game because not only was their starting QB Huntley injured but also their starting All-Pac-12 TB Moss and leading WR Covey too. All three will be returning, along with defensive All-Pac-12'ers DE Anae, DT Fotu, and CB Blackmon. With home field advantage to Utah, this game looks like a fourth road LOSS for the Bears against another probable nationally ranked team.
Washington State Well Leach has recently got word that his QB heir-apparent EW grad transfer Gubrud, who has thrown for incredible 9,984 yards with 87 TD passes for the Eagles and was a two-time finalist for the Walter Payton Award (given to the best offensive player in FCS), just won an appeal for an additional year of eligibility. He is expected to enroll for the spring semester so he can participate in spring practice. Like Cal, Wazzu also gave Pac-12 COY Leach an extension to 2023 so if he lasts that long it looks like Coach Wilcox will be going up against Leach's pass-crazy spread offenses for the next five seasons! Even though this game will be played in Berkeley, it sure is starting to feel like another Cal LOSS.
u$C- u$C has decided to keep Clay Helton as head coach, but Helton is still on the hot seat, thus he had to wiped his staff clean. He has chosen North Texas' Harrell to be the OC and QB coach, gambling that he will do what he did for the Mean Green's QB Fine for ***** QB JT Daniels also. So, it seems that u$C is going to the spread offensive style given that Harrell is a Leach disciple. Why not, given the slew of highly rated wide receivers the Trojans have and will have, like *****Vaughns, **** 6'-4" Grimes, *****St. Brown, **** 6'-3" Ford, **** 6'-5" London, etc., etc. As a result, Cal will probably be facing yet another nationally ranked team which will vengefully enjoy oinking Cal for a LOSS.
@dirty stanfurd- Costello isn't going pro. I guess its samo-samo for the furds too, as they didn't add any more recruits. I look at this Big Game as Cal's last chance, especially if a post-season bowl game is at stake. So, at best this is probably yet another toss-up contest, but I'm still going with an upset WIN for Cal to bring the Axe back to Berkeley!
@ucla- The Bruins appear to have just experienced a lackluster recruiting effort. Therefore this and Chip's retooling still in-progress could mean that QB transfer Modster could have the ultimate revenge game. So, for now, this game's outcome looks like it's wavering on whether Modster will be able to develop as the season progresses so as to magically transformed Cal into a winner. Otherwise, it's a more-of-the-same between soph QBs Garbers and "pick-six" Thompson-Robinson. Smoggy home field advantage goes to ucla, but Cal has the better defense, so this is still a Cal WIN with the understanding that Brandon plays at a position other than QB!
I realize that the above still glumly predicts Cal to have a 5-7 season and no post-season bowl appearance. If Modster or Garbers gel, Cal could bring in additional victories against Ole Miss and Arizona State for a flip-flop 7-5 season or, at worst, a 6-6 season if the mighty Bears can't upset the furds.