I woke up on Saturday of Big Game regretting what I had written the day before. 

In short, I had stated it best that Cal part ways with Head Coach Justin Wilcox… Pointing to an overall record of 48-54 over 9 seasons. His best season 8 wins. His worst season 4. 

After a 5 – 7 record in 2021… Cal had made the insane decision to EXTEND Justin… When in reality he probably should have been fired. 

Why? Ridiculous rumors that Oregon was going to try to hire him. 

Also, he is a super chill guy. 

By extending him because he is a chill guy, we did Justin did a huge disservice. After 2021 he needed a job change. Either a new HC position or a stint as a coordinator under an elite coach where he could get back to scheme, and take some time to reflect before returning to a head coaching role. 

Instead he stayed in Berkeley and rattled off 3 perfectly average seasons, consisting of some fun upset wins and some devastating let down losses. 

Playing up and down to competition has defined his program from the very beginning. 

Nevertheless, I woke up on Saturday morning of Big Game considering keeping him on. 

Why?

1. Buyout – It’s not perfectly clear what the buyout is or how it works but we believe it is in the range of $10m. Part of me thinks… Would we not be better off retaining Wilcox and spending $5m / year for the next two years on talent? Surely that would lead to more wins.

2. Rolling the Dice – If you look at similar Power 5 programs who have tried their hand with new coaches… It’s not working out great for most of them. It’s a huge gamble.

3. Administrative Alignment – Wilcox years have been unstable from the standpoint of University buy in. Berkeley did a terrible job through conference realignment and organization of NIL in the beginning. It has been a difficult coaching environment for Justin…. Until now. We finally have a stable set up with Rich Lyons and Ron Rivera. Does it really make sense to fire Wilcox now? Are we unnecessarily thrusting ourselves back into instability? 

We fired Tedford at a similar inflection point… He had his glory years, then the program declined during the stadium and facility renovation. We played on a baseball field for two years. It was an incredibly hard coaching and recruiting environment. The program understandably went south… Then right when the new stadium and facilities were finished…. we fired him?? 

That doesn’t seem fair in retrospect and could have been a big mistake. Maybe he would have brought us back to glory with the new facilities. 

So, when the Cal v Stanford started, I was thinking about all this and came to the conclusion that if we have a resounding big game victory tonight and somehow pull off an upset against SMU next week, we should think about keeping him. 

Let’s jack up the NIL money. Let’s see what we can do with better talent. 

Nope. We fumbled another game against a shit team. 

Felt just like San Diego State. 

A huge issue with these Justin Wilcox teams is their inability to deal with early adversity in games. When things do not go well out of the gate, the team crumbles in on itself and has zero ability to bounce back. 

In a game of momentum… We need to have a coach that can rally the troops. 

We need a coach who can STOP THE FALSE STARTS. 

Anyways, what is done is done. 

In a way the Big Game loss was merciful as it made the decision to fire a no brainer.

I can’t wait for an exciting off season. We get a new HC.

Yes, there are a lot of top programs with head coaching jobs open. But there are also a lot of talented, exciting coaches out there. So what am I looking for?

I want young. I want hungry. I want a PUT YOUR HAT ON type of motivator. 

First name out of everyone’s mouth is Tosh Lupoi.