UCLA Football vs. Cal 2018: GJB talks to California Golden Blogs

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BERKELEY, CA – SEPTEMBER 15: Head coach Justin Wilcox of the California Golden Bears walks the sidelines during their game against the Idaho State Bengals at California Memorial Stadium on September 15, 2018 in Berkeley, California. (Photo by Ezra Shaw/Getty Images) /

GJB: What are some of the things he still needs to improve on?

Attila LS Gero: Offensive consistency is one thing Wilcox and the staff on offense need to improve on. The PPG has been very consistent, but the performances on the field from playmakers are up-and-down.

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Berkelium97: The defense’s unexpected rise from abysmal to top-tier has been mirrored by an offense that has plummeted from one of the best in the nation to 117th, per the latest S&P+ ratings. One of the biggest issues during his tenure has been QB play.

While we did not expect another Jared Goff to line up under center, the play by our current QBs has generally been underwhelming. Particularly troubling is that last year’s starter Ross Bowers has never matched the stellar performance from his first game as the starter in 2017; it doesn’t look like the QBs are improving, which suggests poor QB coaching.

Last week’s starter Brandon McIlwain combines moments of brilliance with some devastating turnovers. We knew this when he transferred from South Carolina, but this is his second year with the team and he is still making these mistakes. Again, QB coaching looks problematic. Beyond that, the O-line is underwhelming, we have no depth at RB (Patrick Laird has regressed badly) and our WRs can’t get separation. So in general, the offense is a mess.

Joshua Morgan: Offense. We expected huge offensive regression when Dykes left and we did see that last year. However, from last year to this year, our offense has gone from below-average to simply unwatchable. It has been a bit of a mystery as we return the same coaches and pretty much all of the offensive players that played last year—and our expectations of improvement because of this have been completely wrong. Against Oregon, we played a relatively close game other than turnovers and against Arizona, our offense gave up two defensive scores and even more turnovers that single-handedly lost us the game. If you look at our yardage totals from the past few games, it has even been that bad; it is all in the turnovers. We can’t afford to be giving up the ball and that is the main area that this team needs to work on in order to take us to the next level. Blame it on Wilcox, offensive coordinator Beau Baldwin, or the players themselves, but this is our biggest area of needed improvement.

boomtho: The offense has taken a step back, which is disappointing given it wasn’t that high-powered last year. Specifically, on offense, the most acute improvement areas are:

OL play: The OL has been a major disappointment, given how much continuity there is from last year. The line has struggled to open holes for RB Patrick Laird. Running QB Brandon McIlwain has been called into action more than expected to give a spark to the running game
Turnovers: Cal came into the season expecting to start QB Ross Bowers, who started all of last year. Instead, the staff has turned to a two-headed attack of throwing-QB Chase Garbers (who can still run a bit) and running-QB Brandon McIlwain (who can still throw a bit). However, neither of those QBs didn’t have meaningful game reps at Cal in this system—and so, they’ve been highly turnover-prone. Brandon McIlwain, in particular, has given up three (unless I’m forgetting one more!) defensive TDs on his turnovers in the last two games. Cal’s offense is not nearly explosive enough to survive these turnovers
WR separation: With inexperienced QBs, it would be really helpful if we were scheming WRs wide open—or if we had WR’s who could naturally create more separation. Unfortunately, we don’t—Garbers and McIlwain are having to make throws into really tight windows.

GJB: The Golden Bear defense has been pretty solid through their first few games, what do you attribute this to?

Attila LS Gero: I would attribute the defense being so solid to Wilcox’s beautiful football brain. He has proven from his past stints at USC and Wisconsin that he excels at putting players in positions where they will succeed.

Joshua Morgan: Like I said earlier, a lot of this can be attributed to coaching. Wilcox and the rest of his great staff were able to turn around a defense even in his first year where he had basically the same players who contributed to an awful unit under Sonny Dykes. Sure, we have seen breakout players such as Evan Weaver, Cam Bynum, and others, but the defensive success can be mostly attributed to the coaching.

Nick Kranz: The most succinct answer is a sound scheme and sound coaching, two things decidedly lacking under the Dykes regime. The Cal defense is rarely caught out of position and rarely misses a tackle, so they rarely allow big plays. The magnitude and speed of the turnaround has surprised probably even the most ardent Wilcox supporter. With the possible exception of cornerback Cam Bynum, I don’t think that anybody on Cal’s defense has any meaningful NFL draft buzz and Cal lost their most disruptive edge defender when Cam Goode went down with a season-ending injury in the first game of the season. And yet Cal is playing top-25 defense (maybe even top-15 defense) by pretty much any objective measure. With players almost entirely recruited by the Dykes regime . . . well, I honestly didn’t think that this kind of turnaround—this quickly—was possible.

boomtho: The miracle of competent coaching. Wilcox, DC Tim DeRutyer, and DB coach Gerald Alexander have done an absolutely marvelous job coaching up Dykes’ talent into a highly effective defense. The defense is highly reliant on the play of our two-star ILBs, Evan Weaver and Jordan Kunaszyk. There’s really not much depth behind them, so their ability to be effective late in games, without much rest, is a key swing factor.