Golden Nuggets: Wilcox Press Conference, Gameday Articles on Devante Downs

Not a whole lot today... you all already know what happened yesterday (or this morning for the east coasters). Also, Cal Athletics haven’t put up their postgame videos, if there are any, and the ones on BearTerritory are under a paywall except for Justin Wilcox’s.... so I will post his, and you should give BT your money (They deserve it) to watch the rest.

Football

• Thanks to Ryan Gorcey for the video and the transcripts.

How did the absence of Kanawai Noa effect the offense: "Any time you lose a player that contributes, it's not ideal. I mean, there's a reason they play, and when you lose a guy like Kanawai, who's been productive for us, the next guy's got to step up. It's unfortunate -- I feel for Kanawai; I love the guy -- but nobody who we play cares if guys on our team get hurt. S0, the next guy's got to step up, and we've got to produce, and that's what practice is for. That's why they come play football here."

This offensive line is the same starting five that did well the first three games, but have allowed 17 sacks over the last three. Is it a matter of competition being higher at this point: "There's things on the offensive line that have got to be better. They've done some good things. Not every sack is on the offensive line. We've got to do a better job at the quarterback position, in terms of working the side of the field and going through our reads and delivering the ball where it should go on time. Some of those things could be potentially on the O-line, but not all of them."

How do you evaluate Ross Bowers: "Ross needs to play better. There were some things that showed up tonight that he could have done much better. We'll see on the tape. That'll paint the clearest picture. But, Ross has got to continue to play better."

• Trace Travers’s recap and takeaways from the game.
• Here are some pregame articles that still have valuable info... did you know Cal and Washington have a ton of connections (For example, Ross Bowers is from the state, and Cal coaches Wilcox and Tui have obvious ties to UW)? Probably, but here’s a recap anyway.

Here’s a bunch of articles on Devante Downs.

• From Cal’s website... “All Around Winner”. San Francisco Chronicle has a similar feature, almost identical (even having the same quotes from his teammates).

Devante Downs leads the Pac-12 in tackles and is among the conference’s top eight in sacks, interceptions and forced fumbles.

And, get this: the Cal senior inside linebacker thinks his play has been “average.”

“I don’t play football just to play. I’m trying to be the best,” he said. “I expect what I do. It’s not like it’s been some Superman occurrences.”

• Downs has also received attention from the Maxwell Football Club, who added him to the Chuck Bednarik Award watch list, honoring the nation’s top defensive player.

Misc.

• Marcus Lee is ready to lead the men’s basketball team. Ben Parker interviewed him.

Lee is in a unique position. He's yet to play a single minute in a Golden Bears uniform, but he's also being looked to as the senior leader on this team. He’s made the switch from new guy to veteran leader all within the span of one season.

“Oh man, I feel like I have gray hairs coming in at some point,” Lee joked. “But I think it’s great just because when I was getting into college, I had seniors to show me the way and kinda show me right from wrong and how to go through practice and how to go through school and stuff like that. Now I feel like us, we have quite a few seniors here on our team and we’re able to do the exact same thing for our freshmen and kinda catch them up to speed.”

• If there hasn’t been already, there will be a separate article for Cal Men’s Soccer’s “Big” match against Stanford. Check out Jose Carrera-Garcia’s journal detailing his thoughts on the match.
• Men’s soccer player Halil Beqaj did some really awesome scientific research over the summer. Check it out!

Go Beers.