Wilcox Talks About New OC Harsin and LA Bowl Prep
The Bears announced the hiring yesterday of former Boise State and Auburn head coach Bryan Harsin.
Harsin comes to Berkeley with 23 years of coaching experience on the offensive side of the ball, including 10 seasons as an FBS head coach at Auburn (2021-22), Boise State (2014-20) and Arkansas State (2013).
In today’s press conference, Cal head coach Justin Wilcox was asked about some of the controversial publicity emanating from Auburn during and after Harsin’s one and a half year tenure with the Tigers.
"I'd just say that there's a lot out there, whether it's the world we're living in now with transfers and this coach and that coach and I would just encourage everybody to verify the source, get the real thing," Wilcox said. "Obviously people can write anything they want to write.
"I trust Brian Harsin, I know our administration did their due diligence with everybody they needed to speak with and got unbelievably glowing reports. Brian Harsin is a proven offensive coordinator. He's been an extremely successful head coach. He's got a massive football acumen and knows a lot of football, and he is extremely competitive and is eager and itching to coach again, and he's going to be really good for our team.
"He can be really good for our offense. He has developed exceptional quarterbacks. He's put points up and he's going to be great for our defensive coaches and our special teams coaches. So we are very, very fortunate to have Brian here. He just got here today, and he's hit the ground running and we're working."
Wilcox, who worked with Harsin on opposite sides of the ball when the Cal head coach was defensive coordinator and Harsin the OC for three years from 2006-2009 where Boise State went 49-4 overall and won two Fiesta Bowls, would bring to the field as an OC at Cal.
"Well, the first thing is every single player and position is going to know exactly what to do," Wilcox noted. "Brian is extremely detailed. He's demanding. He's a very good systematic coach and Brian has always done a great job. I mean, I used to coach against him in practice, and the thing that he was always so good at is the gameplan, the kind of specific little small things that are game plan specific, getting a certain player a ball and a certain coverage, getting his best matchup the ball, still having the ability to use tempo, for example, or the RPO game. All that's built into the system, but it's those game plan-specific things of utilizing your best players to do what they do best. And I always thought that was really, really impressive. The guys are going to know what to do. They're going to play with toughness.
"We're going to run the football, we're going to throw the football. There's going to be multiple formations and position groups, and it's going to be easy to learn. It'll be freshmen and transfer-friendly in terms of learning for the offense, but very challenging for the defense. But again, just his track record calling plays, developing quarterbacks, recruiting quarterbacks. The program knowledge that he's had from different stops, it's going to be really, really good for everybody."
Coordinators traditionally have not played a big role personally in recruiting at the collegiate level and at Cal and Wilcox was asked if that’s the expectation with Harsin as well.
"Everybody in our program is involved in recruiting, every single person and it's the lifeblood," Wilcox said. "I mean, we have to continue to recruit talent, and then we have to develop that talent, and we need to get those guys competing against each other to get the best product on the field. We all know that. So our whole mission in life right now, whether it's strength and conditioning or operations, or obviously our recruiting staff or the assistant defensive line coach, everybody is involved in recruiting. It's the most important thing that we all do."
With departures so far that include QB Fernando Mendoza and wide receiver Nyzaiah Hunter along with a significant number of starters on the defensive side of the ball to graduation, the Bears will need to excel in the portal during the window that opened this week to beef up their roster to remain competitive in 2025. Wilcox expressed confidence in retaining the majority of players with remaining eligibility going forward as well as their ability to draw portal transfers to shore up the roster.
"There's some things that we have control over and some things that we don't have control over, and we feel really good about the opportunities for guys to come join the team," Wilcox said. "That's the thing we do have control over, is who's coming in. And we feel really good about a couple quarterbacks that we have in the room. We also feel really good about the prospects that we're talking to. So, you know those, this is college football and this is how it is now. It's not like it used to be when a new coach would come in and the rooms kind of is what it is.
"Things are in flux right now, but there is zero panic, and there's a lot of excitement, because we have backing from the university, we have resources. We're going to have an unbelievable staff which has proven recruiters and coaches. So it's being very well received in terms of these recruiting conversations and the retention with our current players and what's going to happen moving forward."
Cal’s bowl opponent UNLV will come into next Wednesday’s LA Bowl with a stellar 10-3 record after losing to #10 Boise State in last weekend’s Mountain West conference title game, though the Rebels are expected to be without head coach Barry Odom or offensive coordinator Brennan Marion. They also likely will be without at least 10 players who have entered the transfer portal.
"I would expect them to do a lot of what they've done to get them in the position they're in," Wilcox said. "I wouldn't suspect them to to make wholesale changes, but I'm not there, I'm not in those meetings, so obviously we will have to be ready to adapt and adjust like any other game. But I would think that they would do the things that helped them get to this position."
The Rebels were solid on both sides of the ball this season, scoring 36.2 points per game while only giving up 21.9.
"Offensively, they do a really good job," Wilcox said. "Quarterback's a dynamic player (senior Hajj Malik Williams). The receiver, he is a really impressive guy, number 11 (senior Ricky White), in the pass game, he's got 1000 yards and he's blocked four punts. What an incredible stat that is. I mean, for a guy who's a really a great receiver, to be that active in and such a threat on the punt block unit is something we're obviously taking a lot of time to work on. Really good linebackers. They played really well on defense. Coach Odom is a very, very good defensive coach, so they're really good team. I mean, it's obvious with their record. And they got some really talented players. One of the DBs has five or six picks, I think so they're really good. It'll be a tough game."
Wilcox was asked about the team’s mindset heading into the bowl game after the way the season ended on a big down note.
"Very confident," Wilcox said. "If you were at practice today and yesterday, those are as spirited practices that we've had. There's a lot of good on good 1's vs 1's. Then we have our service work, where we're working on game plan-specific things, and then we get our devo time, which is our developmental time with some of the younger players and the pads are popping. There's a lot of speed. Our GPS numbers are way up there. So guys are running so it's very, very competitive.
"I think there's gonna be some guys that they get a few more opportunities in this game that are really going to surprise some people and it's going to be a springboard for them into next year, which is really exciting."