Thursday Webinar: Wilcox Says Bears Could Hold Training Camp Outside Berkeley

The Pac-12 conducted its fourth and last Webinar on Thursday, and this one included Cal coach Justin Wilcox. It also featured Oregon’s Mario Cristobal and Arizona’s Kevin Sumlin. 

As in the other three online sessions, the coaches were asked their thoughts, predictions or guesses about when or if the season might start and what it would look like.

A brief summary: Nobody knows anything except there is no perfect answer.

In the item most interesting to Cal fans, Wilcox held out the possibility that if the Bears do hold a training camp it might not be on campus. Indeed it might not be in the state. Cal has trained off-campus in the past. For example in the late 1970s, head coach Mike White’s Bears went to St Mary’s for a couple of weeks.

“Everything is on the table,” Wilcox said. “We talk about this as modeling whether it is at a conference level or institutional level. We are looking at every scenario based on where we are at that certain time, whether it’s June 1, June 15, July 1,,July 15. August 1. There are different points where we are looking at. Is that a possibility?. Yeah, it could be.

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Mario Cristobal

“Now, how to go in-depth on that. There are logistics involved.”

With revenue sources drying up, among the austerity measures schools are taking is asking the coaches to accept reduced salaries. Both Cristobal and Smulin have done that and said it was a relatively easy decision. Wilcox, who got a significant salary bump last year has not. But he seemed open to the idea. 

“There have been a lot of discussions in different ways including coaches and administrators about how we can be part of the solution in supporting our athletic department,” he said. “I am 100 percent behind that. There have been discussions about a lot of different ways we can do that.”

The possibility of extending the season into January, or maybe starting it then was raised in a couple of ways. 

Sumlin was the most eloquent about why going past the traditional bowl season is not a great idea.

“After January. 1 you get into other issues,” he said. “You get into eligibility issues You get into classes for the next semester. Some guys may have been able to graduate. You have some incoming people. And if the NFL doesn’t change what are they going to do. You have guys who might be affected for the Combine or the draft?

“And what does that say for next season. Are you trying to play 24 games in a 12-month calendar? It’s not that simple.”

Kirby Lee

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The coaches talked about how they are using technology to stay in touch with the players. While he obviously wished things were normal, Wilcox does see some benefits to coaching via Zoom. He gets to see his team from a different angle. He gets a better idea of how they interact with one another.

“The thing that has been really neat to see is just how the guys enjoy each other,” he said. “I think any time you have a chance to get on there with them, whether it’s position meetings or a group meeting.. They really enjoy seeing each other and the smiles on their faces and the banter that they probably missed. I notice that. We all do. 

“That first week at home you are just getting your bearings, But then you start missing your teammates and the people in the organization. It’s been really neat to watch them, how they care about each other, how they keep up with each other and motivate each. That has been a special thing to watch as we’ve been through all this.”

Wilcox delivered the best line of the day before the event officially began. 

He mentioned that he had gone to Oregon recently  and visited his father, Dave, the NFL Hall of Fame linebacker who has kept an extremely low profile since his retirement. When moderator Yogi Roth asked Justin how Dave was coping, he said in some ways this was nothing new. “He’s been social distancing for about 35 years.”

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1ahUmW2fAi1TDRL_Sbey3AHlloJwdA7WU/view

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