Cal Woes

The University of California Golden Bears football team has gotten off to a rough start in 2013. 1-5 overall. 0-3 in Pac-12 Conference games. Last in the Pac-12 North. Every division foe has won at least four games. They are far behind the rest. The Pac-12 is again one of the top conferences. Oregon, Stanford, and UCLA are among the top dozen teams in the country. Washington is creeping on the edge of the rankings. Oregon St., Cal's opponent today, should be. If there's anything to bring a bit of optimism to Cal people, it's that the Bears have played a simply brutal schedule. They haven't been wiped out by lesser teams. They opened with a ranked Northwestern team. Lost that one. They played top-10 teams Ohio St., Oregon, and UCLA. Thrashed in those three. Four of the five losses were to ranked teams. Washington St. was the fifth loss. That one was ugly too. Their one win was against Portland St. That supposed easy win was a 37-30 nail-biter. The fewest points against Cal's defense was the 30 that the Portland St. Vikings scored. Cal's defense has been a complete disaster. Allowing 44, 30, 52, 55, 44, 37 in the six games. In defense of the defense, they have been destroyed by injuries. Most teams suffer this many injuries over years not games. I've never seen anything like it. Against UCLA last week, only two of the eleven projected starters before the season were able to play. New coach Sonny Dykes probably didn't expect roses from his first season in Berkeley, but his expectations had to have been better. Even with a true freshman starting at quarterback. That freshman, Jared Goff, has actually been mostly great. It hasn't been enough. Neither has a terrific crew of receivers. Cal just hasn't been able to play 60 minutes of football against several of the best teams in the nation. Their depth on defense is just too depleted to keep up with these teams. If Dykes can keep his team together, if he can keep the Cal players fighting every week, his first season will not be a failure.

I was a Cal student from 1984-87. The football team won eight games in those three seasons. They won five conference games. I've seen Cal football have difficult seasons far, far more often than I've seen success. It amuses me to talk to young Cal students and fans. They've seen far more successful seasons. Head coach Jeff Tedford had phenomenal success in the 2000s, especially in comparison to the Cal football of most of my life. This is what those youngsters know. Three years before Tedford was hired, Cal won zero games. Zero! The year before Tedford was hired, Cal won one game. That one game was the makeup game from the dreadful week of 9/11. It's amazing that Tom Holmoe got the head coaching in the first place. It's even more amazing that he held the job for five years. His final three seasons, Holmoe led Cal to 0-11, 3-8, 1-10 records. Incredible. Jeff Tedford not only brought Cal from the dead, He made Cal relevant again. Too many fans know only those days. Too many are in shock over these days. Tedford's time ran out. Some say that coaches have a "shelf life" at one place. I don't buy into that as a rule but I think that it was true with Tedford. I don't think that Cal has returned to the sad football Saturdays of the '80s. I don't think that they are even close to the disaster that we saw with Holmoe. There is much more acceptance of big time sports at Cal now than there ever was in the '80s. Throughout my three years in Berkeley, there was a quirky "we don't give a shit if our football team sucks" attitude on campus. I don't think that there's any going back to that way of thinking. I think that Sonny Dykes will get his unique brand of offensive football kicked into a punishing gear. My only real concern is whether his defense can keep up his offense. I've yet to see an up-tempo, spread offense really become a friend to their own defense. Oregon has come close but it's taken years. One thing that has really impressed me about Dykes has nothing to do with his offensive ideas. He's recruiting terrific students. Kids that are leaders at their schools. He's making Cal a better place by bringing in students that happen to be football players. Dykes also kicked off the team the one star defensive player that he had. Chris McCain. He didn't make different rules for certain players. McCain broke the rules and he's no longer on the team. That has to send a message. Cal's defense has been a disaster but Dykes has rules.

Cal's 2013 season has been rough but it's far from over. They could end up 7-5. Grab a bowl game. It starts today with Oregon St. Cal just needs something good to spark something great. One win could do that. Surprise Oregon St. today. Really surprise Washington next week. The three week stretch of Arizona, USC, Colorado might be their best chance for wins this season. Then, Stanford. Anything can happen in that beautiful game.

Shitty football in Berkeley is nothing new. I just don't think that it has to be that way.