Golden Nuggets: “This is not us. We are not losers.”

Football

Post-Game Press Conferences

Why the Cal Athletics quotes page only has Wilcox and a bunch of UCLA players and none of the Cal players, I’ll never know.

on what he says to the team after a game like this

"That I'm really proud of them. We as a staff and a school are proud of those guys and what they stand for, who they are. It's an awful feeling in there right now. It really hurts among the team, especially the guys who walked off the field in their last football game. There's not a lot you can say that makes them feel a lot better. I talked to them about how much we appreciate them for everything that they've done. I've got to do a better job of helping us moving forward. All of our coaches and support staff do. Our guys came to compete every week. We just didn't play good enough football today in a lot of ways to win the game."

on the causes for the red zone issues

"First thing that jumps out are penalties. Moving backwards. We have good athletes and are a good, talented football team. We can't keep kicking field goals. We were moving the ball well at times; we just didn't capitalize in the red zone. I wish it was one thing. Penalties definitely showed up, third-down conversions. We were settling for field goals. It's hard in this conference to win games making field goals all day."

on how they fared against Josh Rosen

"We got to him a little bit, but we didn't win enough outside today obviously. The explosive passes killed us on defense. The third downs, not getting off the field when we had the opportunity. There was one where we did get the stop, but then we roughed the punter, and they converted the fourth and inches and got three points off that. The penalty thing was a bit uncharacteristic. I felt we played pretty clean most of the year, not perfect, but we came in and really shot ourselves in the foot too many times. It's not because the guys aren't trying but it's just the littlest of details; when you play a good team like that they're going to make you pay."

on reports of Bo [sic] Baldwin taking the Oregon State job

"You know I think anything concerning Bo is speculation. I talk to Bo multiple times a day. There's nothing more to talk about there."

on not taking time outs during the final UCLA drive

"Yeah, thinking about it. They had the second-down incompletion, and got them to third and 3. So at that point we were thinking about using them. Then they hit the quick out screen, and pushed the ball across midfield. Now we were trying to make them kick the longest field goal. There was an opportunity late with about 40 seconds to use some, but I thought if they were running the ball with success like they were, they were going to get closer and we were helping them get down with basically no time and a better kick. So I felt we had a better chance to make them kick it from where they were with time running, and if we could either block it or they'd miss it. In retrospect we would have taken them."

on where the program is headed

"After moments like this you really want to go in tomorrow, and get back to work. That's really the only thing that takes the sting off of it, is getting back working. We have a really good group of guys. They're learning to do things how we're asking them to do them. The margins of winning games like this and a couple we've had throughout the season – one last week, couple early in the season where it's close and we've got to find a way to win them. That's the toughest margin to gain on. To win those games is a lifestyle. Obviously it's a play here and a play there and all that, but that's just how you're living, and our guys understand that more and more. Every little detail of what we do on and off the field, it all matters. It shows up in the most critical moments. They're kids and they want to do it right. We've got to still learn and grow, and I think they will because like I said they want to do it, they're willing learners, but we've got to as a team be better."

Articles

• Although I don’t have transcripts of the players, this article from Rusty Simmons has a few quotes from the above videos. One of them, the headline quote, came from Bowers.

One by one, players trickled into the postgame interview room after Friday’s 30-27, season-ending loss to UCLA. They had hats pulled down to their eyes and wore navy sweats that appeared like funeral-ready black suits.

They all parroted a message that Wilcox has spent the season preaching.

“This just put a whole bunch of motivated guys into a pissed-off mood. Excuse my language,” sophomore quarterback Ross Bowers said. “This is not us. We are not losers. It’s not the teams of old with the mentality of: ‘If we get to a bowl game, that would be great.’

“We’re not settling for a bowl game. We want to win every single game we play.”

• As a result of the North Bay fires, Cal player Alex Netherda and his family lost their home in Santa Rosa. The Netherda family set up this GoFundMe and the Cal FB team shared it on their social media pages.

If you are able, please contribute!

Women’s Basketball

• ESPN has a feature article on Kristine Anigwe, published after the UConn loss & Brown win but before the recent win against Manhattan & loss to Missouri at Haas.

Anigwe said she is happy that this Cal team has some depth and experience, not to mention "hunger and fight."

"Nobody wants us to fail," Anigwe said. "We've got talent and we need to go out and do what we can do."

Last week's loss at top-ranked Connecticut was a glimpse at some very high standards.

"If you lose, then you learn," Anigwe said. "I just want to learn and improve."

Perhaps the truest test for this Bears team will come once the conference season starts and the frustrations of the immediate past will be either discarded or perpetuated.

"We don't want to wait until it is to be do-or-die in the Pac-12 before we are up and running," Gottlieb said. "We don't want to wait to rep in practice only when it's a big game. We need every rep in practice to be the way we've handled our business the whole year."

• Alum Tierra Rogers released a book detailing her life and overcoming adversity. As you may know she never got to play a game for the Bears due to a heart condition, and that came after losing her dad to a shooting while she was playing a high school game. Ann Killion wrote a story about Tierra and her book. (The San Francisco Chronicle website gives users a few articles for free, but if you’ve alloted that limit you must have a subscription to read the article. Or buy the paper)

The book, “Life in Overtime,” was released in August. Rogers has sold several hundred copies through word of mouth. She is hoping to use her basketball connections to reach a wider audience.

“I feel like I have a bigger purpose in my life,” said Rogers, 26.

Rogers grew up in Bayview-Hunters Point and writes vividly about life in her childhood neighborhood.

We had all been conditioned to run inside as soon as we heard gunshots. None of us thought much of it at the time. It was just the backdrop of our daily lives, and we’d become accustomed to it. It wasn’t unusual to hear gunshots echoing through the neighborhood like an ice cream truck. I just hated to stop playing when the shots rang out.

“Eh, T is that an AK-47 or a 9-caliber?” my friends would joke. As disheartening as it sounds, this was the norm.

“Can I go back outside now?” I’d always plead to my parents.

“Give it a few more minutes,” Dad always said. “Let’s just make sure they’re done shooting.”

Rogers barely recognizes her old neighborhood these days. She sees people walking their dogs at night, fewer minorities.

“It’s gentrification,” said Rogers, who did a film project on the subject at Cal.

Off to the Coliseum to watch Marshawn Lynch and CJ Anderson. Go Bears (and Raiders)