Golden Nuggets: How Do the Bears Get Back on Track?

Football

• Justin Wilcox says the team always has to have a sense of urgency no matter what their record is, plus Tim DeRuyter sees a lot of improvement from UCLA’s offense.

“Our guys know a lot of those players,” Wilcox said, “They played against them in high school, they know how talented they are , they know what kind of coaching staff they have.”

”I see tremendous growth,” defensive coordinator Tim DeRuyter added in talking about the UCLA offense, “you go from game one to last week against a really good Washington team, I see tremendous improvement, particularly from the quarterback, which is understandable. He’s a freshman, and every week, he’s getting more confident, and I think they’re understanding who their playmakers are as they go along.”

• Wilcox still hasn’t committed to a quarterback.

After consecutive losses that featured nine turnovers, Cal head coach Justin Wilcox played it coy about how the Bears are handling the quarterback position in preparation for Saturday’s homecoming game against UCLA.

“We’ll do what’s best for our team,” Wilcox said in Monday night’s three-minute interview that he seemed to wish was closer to three seconds. “Everything is on the table. We’re looking for consistency.”

Cal played three quarterbacks in its season-opening victory against North Carolina, and reduced the rotation to a tag team of starting redshirt freshman Chase Garbers and change-of-pace sophomore Brandon McIlwain for the next three games.

• Wilcox also says “everything is on the table” as far as what players, young and veteran, could see playing time Saturday.
• Cal QB Trio has yet to pay off...
• Daily Cal beat writer Christie Aguilar is in favor of keeping McIlwain as the one and only quarterback for the rest of the year. Despite his struggles, he has a lot of promise.
• Nam’s novel (yes, a few days old, but I worked all day Tuesday) now worries that a loss to winless UCLA isn’t out of the question.
• Nam also lists the Five Things needed to beat UCLA on Homecoming.
• Picks! Cal is a 7.5 point favorite against winless UCLA, and that has some of our local writers unsure as who to pick. Both Cal Bears Maven writers pick UCLA to cover (one has Cal winning outright, the other is ambiguous) and Jon Wilner has Cal winning but UCLA covering. SB Nation’s S&P projection has a comfortable Cal win (this is unusual, they’ve predicted Cal losing almost every game this year, so yay?) and Athlon Sports has a 1-point Cal win. More than 75% of Yahoo Pick-Em players picked Cal to win and cover.
• There are a lot of Cal players in the NFL. Cal Bears Maven ranks the Top 10.

Basketball

• The season outlook isn’t looking good for Cal (or Stanford) MBB. Bears were picked 11th in the Pac-12 media poll. More to come in a separate article as Media Day for the men has just begun today.
• Women’s Basketball have a chip on their shoulder after not making it out of the first round of the NCAA tournament last season.
• Kristine Anigwe still has thoughts of making a slam dunk in a game next season (her last season at Cal).
• Asha Thomas, in 8th grade, was teammates with Ivan Rabb. Guess who, among the two, was named the MVP that year?

Volleyball

• Savannah Rennie has returned to the Cal Volleyball court this season, and it is just one of many wins for her these past few years..
• On the beach volleyball side, Mima Mirkovic and Alexia Inman took a fun summer internship with the Association of Volleyball Professionals (AVP) Tour which saw them travel the country where they got to both play some of the nation’s best AND learn how to operate the event itself!

Water Polo

• Johnny Hooper is pursuing his dreams of being an Olympian (one that will likely be realized) but first he’s going to have a big role as a senior for the Men’s Water Polo team that is pursuing their dreams of another championship.
• It is the offseason for the women, but ten of the players raised money for pediatric cancer by swimming the cold San Francisco Bay as part of a Swim Across America charity event.

Beat the Bruins!