About a Cal-USC game in my 35+ years as a Cal fan. Not even planning on watching. What’s the point? They are going to get killed and they will be boring as H-E-double hockey sticks in doing so. This has been brought upon by Cal’s insistence on maintaining a nice guy coach who clearly cannot perform the job at a competitive and/or entertaining level. This is pathetically sad and it appears there is no end in sight. Doom and gloom.

Well.... here we go folks!

6 PM on PAC 12 network

Here is game coverage from Jesse and I after last night's game. USC security oh so kindly kicked the media out of the press box shortly after the press conference wrapped up, but he's the recap, interviews and reaction after the 41-35 game at the LA Coliseum.



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There is not stream or radio broadcast for the exhibition tonight (7 p.m.)

I'll post the box score, and then we're getting Fox and players over Zoom on Friday, so I'll be able to get some further perspective on the takeaways from the exhibition then.

I'll be most interested to see what Askew does tonight -- not that you can read a ton into an exhibition game, but nonetheless.

(I have a football story coming and Matt has a recruiting update heading your way this afternoon as well).

Sadly, this is one of the only things keeping me interested in the games/season. I know the original self-imposed date was not met, which was met with predictable push back, but did that cause this to never happen? Apologies if it’s buried in another thread and I missed it.

A coach with some balls and innovation can take a garbage program have them winning while making it exciting as well. What a great win for Sac St tonight in national tv

Now that our football season is officially a wash, lets turn our attention from talking about how bad our coaches are to the other football season... in England.

Big match next week between Chelsea and Tottenham. Will be the biggest test to see if my Blues are forreal or not. Should be a good match.

Meanwhile Everton is slowly crashing (sorry @MC415 ), Liverpool is completely injured, and MC is having their typical slow start.

Will be an interesting season.

Not only antisemitic but dumb enough to show it on social media. Sent Knowlton an email, this guy shouldn’t be around the team.


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Jesse's final thoughts on the matchup with the Trojans:

Oakland-McClymonds running back Jaivian Thomas was recently on campus for a visit to Cal, and he was offered by the staff. It is the first Power Five offer for the speedy 2023 back, and is the culmination of a process that goes back to last year. Thomas says the staff has been impressed by his development over that tie (he's rushed for 1,200 yards and 13 TDs this season) leading to the offer.

He is not in any kind of rush to make a decision as he wants to see his senior season through before committing, but the offer from Cal is an important one in the overall process.

"I see a great scheme, and I feel like I could fit in great with the system. Not only that, but how they do things. He's (Jaydn Ott) a true freshman, so that makes me feel more comfortable about coming in and showing what I have."

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A bit of an update, some insight... this guy knows his sports media stuff....SBJ=Sports Business Journal

SBJ Media: Pac-12 deal rumors​

By John Ourand
October 31, 2022

Halloween candy, ranked:

1. Twix
2. Smarties
3. Caramel Creams

Big 12 deal puts focus on where Pac-12 will land​

Now that the Big 12 has secured six-year deals with ESPN and Fox Sports worth $2.28 billion, all eyes are on the Pac-12, which got out of its exclusive negotiating window with ESPN and Fox three weeks ago. This is what we know.

• ESPN and Amazon Prime remain the front runners to pick up Pac-12 rights, with agreements potentially coming by the end of the year. It’s too early to describe what’s in those packages with any accuracy. But it’s important to note that ESPN’s Big 12 deal does not take it out of the running for Pac-12 rights. And Amazon still wants a package of college football games that can complement its Thursday night package of NFL games.
• Pac-12 officials’ initial reaction when they heard of the Big 12’s deal was relief. Big 12 schools each will receive around $31 million per school as part of the deal, and Pac-12 officials are optimistic that they will be able to eclipse that figure. This means that unless the Big Ten or SEC come calling, it’s unlikely a Pac-12 school will be persuaded to leave the conference.
• One reason for that optimism is the fact that the Pac-12 has its rights in the open market. The Big 12 could not have hit the open market until 2024. While Amazon and ESPN are the clear front-runners, the Pac-12 has had talks with Apple, Fox and Warner Bros. Discovery. The theory is that the presence of multiple serious bidders will help drive the price up.
• The big question will come down to price. Media companies believe the Big 12 deal set the market. The Pac-12 still is aiming higher. Keep in mind, the Pac-12 will have fewer schools -- 10 instead of 12 -- after USC and UCLA depart for the Big Ten. That’s two fewer mouths to feed. ESPN took pains to make sure that its Big 12 deal would not result in a bigger per-school payout than the ACC. Because of the ACC Network, it’s difficult to determine how much ACC schools make from its ESPN deal. But I was told that the Big 12 will not eclipse the ACC on that front at any point in its deal, which runs through 2030-31. ESPN is likely to approach Pac-12 negotiations in a similar way.
• I keep seeing one aspect of the Big 12 deal that is creating confusion among fans on social media. Historically, the Big 12 had what it called "Tier Three" rights, which are the rights schools retained and sold to local broadcasters. These are the rights, for example, that Texas used to create the Longhorn Network with ESPN. ESPN now controls all of those rights as part of its deal; there are no more institutional-controlled games and no more Tier Three rights.

No official visits this week, but a lot of unofficial visitors (including some notable 2024s) ...

2023 commit
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2023
(This is a very interesting one. We'll do everything we can to follow up with him and see if there's any life here.)

2024
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On Jack Plummer's perseverance through 25 sacks in 8 games, Kai Millner's first meaningful snaps and what it means moving forward, the emphasis this week going up against USC's offense, where the Trojans are vulnerable and other notes.

What’s his buyout? Yes he got the long extension but it’s probably cheaper to dump him than wilcox at this point. Knowlton has dragged cal FB and mbb into the gutter. If we can least get someone accountable in place there, maybe there is hope for the future

Wilcox can't even cover properly. 2-3 last week for 32-28 for the year. 0-1 for my lock of the week for 3-6 for the year:


[home team in italics]

UW by 4.5 over Oregon State - Bad matchup for UW. Oregon State covers.

Oregon by 31.5 over Colorado - Beats me. Colorado covers.

WSU by 4.5 over Furd - Good matchup for the Furd. Furd covers.

Utah by 17.5 over Arizona - Beats me. Utah covers?

fUCLA by 10.5 over ASU - This line went up from 6.5, but I still like fUCLA.

USC by 21.5 over Cal - USC doesn't cover these big spreads at home very well. Cal covers.



Non conference lock of the week: TCU by 9.5 over Texas Tech - Time to bet against Sonny. Texas Tech covers.

Y'all know the deal -

*1130 am - Wilcox
*1200 pm - P. Sirmon
*1215 pm - Musgrave
*1 pm - Plummer
*115 pm - M. Young
*130 pm - Scott

Cal Bear/ Nets' GM Sean Marks must be feeling the heat these days. Ryan Forhan-Kelly is an assistant coach and Richard Midgley is a scout for such team. And, I thought that the Warriors' franchise had issues after Draymond cold cocked Jordan Poole.

Anyone know, was Kai Millner playing against the Ducks 2nd team defense, or did he just look very good? Quick release and on target! Impressive!

Put together a couple stories to put a cap on Saturday's game against Oregon. In the first story, I focused on the continuing offensive line issues for the Bears that have hindered the progress the team has been able to make on that side of the ball. Wilcox isn't trying to place the blame on any one group but does say the team needs to be able to score more points. If you missed it, he said Saturday that Plummer is still the team's starter.

The second story focuses on how the middle of the game ultimately doomed the Bears on Saturday. Not being able to score after Orin Patu's interception followed by a giveaway from Plummer changed the course of the game and gave the Ducks a 21-0 advantage in the ever-important middle eight minutes late in the first half and early in the second half.

An interesting perspective from Jesse here coming off the loss to Cal:

Let's talk potential new OC candidates for next year. I'm hopeful that Wilcox actually breaks out of his need to run his preferred offensive style and it creates more opportunities to pick up an interesting coach. Wilcox isn't getting fired with the reported buyout, so a new offensive system and coaches are definitely in the future. The one advantage we do have is that even though Wilcox would be on the ropes at nearly every other school, if his buyout is actually $28M this year, he probably has a minimum of 3 years of job security left and that means someone may be more willing to take the OC role.

My guess is that Burl Toler and Aristotle Thompson are retained and Musgrave, Geep and Angus are all shown the door. I didn't include Paul Chryst on this list because I don't think there is any chance he takes the job (nor would i want him to). The other candidate I would be thrilled with as a football coach but didn't include is Nick Rolovich, cause he's an idiot.

If anyone has any more names or suggestions, toss them out.

1. Troy Taylor - He is apparently going hard after the Colorado job, but if he doesn't get it, would he entertain getting paid $1M a year to come be the OC for Wilcox? Taylor is 54 years old, and if he wants to be a P5 HC, the clock is ticking. Aside from getting the CU job, his best bet may be to come to Cal and turn around a horrible offense and get noticed for it. But maybe he really wants to just be a HC and the money isn't that important for him and he sticks around at Sac State. If he was hired at Cal, I think we'd need to pony up to hire some additional assistants. His whole staff at Sac State is made up of guys you've never heard of (his OL coach was the Folsom HS OL coach for 18 years) and I'm not sure how many connections Taylor has in the business. Another question would be his ability to recruit outside of the Sac area. But his offense works and is exciting and we know he can coach QBs.

2. Brennan Marrion - Currently the WR coach at Texas, he is very on record about wanting to be an OC and then a HC in short order. He sent some tweets out after Baldwin left Cal lobbying for the job. He has a history in the Bay Area as both a player and coach at local JCs. His "go go" offense is pretty cool but a very drastic change from the pro style stuff Wilcox seems to prefer. He coached the Biletnikoff winner at Pitt and before that was WR coach at Hawaii and the OC at William & Mary along with Howard. He can definitely recruit, but you'd probably like someone else on the staff to have a history calling plays if Marrion needs some support. Maybe Marrion gets better offers, but Sark and Wilcox are buddies and he has Bay Area history perhaps that's intriguing to him. Again, Cal's lone advantage is that if you can turn around this offense, you are DEFINITELY going to get noticed for it and get some HC offers.

3. Aaron Roderick - Roderick is the OC at BYU currently. The offense this year has taken a step back, but he's coached some pretty exciting football and spent a good chunk of his career at BYU and Utah coaching QBs who played really well. He's a BYU grad and I don't think has ever coached outside of the state, but could potentially be tempted if the pay is right.

4. Eric Kiesau - Kiesau is currently OC at Auburn, but not for much longer as that whole staff is a dead man walking. He's a very familiar name, having worked for Tedford, but he also coached alongside Wilcox at UW with Sarkisian. Kieasau was always a very good recruiter and he has a ton of experience. Feels a bit like a retread, but still only 49 years old. He'll be available, has ample experience working and recruiting the west coast, and has had a lot of offensive success.

5. Kirby Moore - Moore is OC at Fresno State. Fresno State is having a dismal year, but it's mostly because Haener got hurt. Moore has been at Fresno since Tedford hired him in his first stint, and then Kalen Deboer retained him. Moore has done a very good job of recruiting the central valley, including landing a handful of kids that had much better offers, and his wide receivers are legitimately good. He's still very young and this is only his first year calling plays so it would probably be a stretch for him to make the jump to Cal. Tedford has a fairly good history of plucking out offensive coaches who go on to successful careers (Kiesau, Arroyo, DeBoer, Ludwig), so I tend to be partial to folks that have worked for him. Tedford is a grinder and workaholic so if you work for him, you aren't lazy and you normally can call offense.

6. Taylor Housewright - Currently the OC at Montana State in his 2nd year in that role. Last year he led them to the FCS national championship game in his first year as play caller and had to do it with a hurt QB. He coached under Joe Moorhead at both Miss State and Oregon in analyst roles. He's only 32 years old, but seems to have the right stuff at a pretty competitive level in FCS, and if he's running what Moorhead ran, that's fun. Montana State is currently 7th in FCS in total offense and are scoring over 40ppg with their only loss this season to Oregon State. The current Montana State HC, Brent Vigen, coached at Wyoming where Housewright had been a grad assistant and Vigen immediately made him the OC when he took the Montana State job, so he saw something impressive there.