I got a lot of catching up to do. Blame time zone changes (I’m in Europe again) and lack of sleep for my tardiness.
Football
- Trace Travers is almost finished up with his review of the Cal roster, in this edition he looks at players with numbers 30-23.
- Nam Le asks and answers the question “Where (do) the Bears go without Robertson”
This does, of course, leave the roster with a void to the exact dimensions of…basically anyone who can run a 4.4 40, and the Bears will still be tasked with filling it with something more than good will. Generational-type athletes don’t just grow on trees in Strawberry Canyon – this isn’t exactly Alabama, after all – so there isn’t an obvious “one solution” to the issue. Instead, they’ll do their best to compensate without him by using contributions from several different areas.
In a sense, Cal has already had to prepare for the post Demetris Robertson era already – as much as his injury was a disaster for the last season’s offense, it’s already forced Beau Baldwin and Justin Wilcox play without his vertical threat, similar to how losing Devante Downs gave the team a head start grooming Jordan Kunaszyk and Gerran Brown.
In offseason interviews and throughout the spring, Wilcox has been fairly open about the team’s lack of a deep passing game, which could conceivably still be schemed along in year two under Baldwin. When teams lack transcendent athletes at the wide receiver position, they often tinker with things like bunch formations, stacks, motion, or splits in order to create separation –and that’s not including less noticeable schematic tweaks that would be lost on the eyes of more casual fans like myself. These are also things the Cal offense did not exactly employ to the fullest extent last season that might be more necessary now.
- An all-star slate of Cal athletes: football’s Jordan Kunaszyk, James Looney and Daniel Juarez;, Kobie Pettis of softball fame, Emily Howe from women’s gymnastics and volleyball players Jessica Gaffney, Mackenzie Albrecht, and Caihla Petiprin (who was the one who organized the event) helped out an underprivileged community in Mexico. Learn more about their work here!
2018 Fall Schedules
- In my previous Golden Nuggets, which feels like forever ago, I mentioned that Cal Volleyball announced their schedule. Shortly after, Men’s Basketball released their non-conference schedule, which got its own fancy post. Now a bunch of fall sports have announced their schedules, with more to come during the week I presume.
- Before you can get really hyped for football, the soccer seasons have already started. Women’s Soccer (I believe) kicks off the Cal Athletics 2018-2019 campaign on August 17 with a home game against Utah Valley. The Bears hosted the Oklahoma schools last season and in turn get to travel over there this year. The season closes with Stanford on November 2nd at home. Men’s Soccer opens at home on August 24 against Detroit-Mercy. Notable conference home games include UCLA on September 27 and October 7 against the (ugh) back-to-back defending champion Cardinal.
- Field Hockey also tends to start early, and they begin play on August 24 at home against Providence. The Stanford home game is October 12 and will be on Pac-12 Networks.
- Men’s Water Polo opens their season on September 1 in San Diego. They only have five home games this year, one of which is the home opener against Long Beach State. UCLA and Stanford also come to town during MPSF play.
- Cross Country will begin their set of meets in San Francisco on September 1.
- Women’s Basketball hasn’t announced their schedule yet, but the UConn women have and they list their game at Cal for December 22. Unfortunately its during winter break but hopefully fans still show up!
Mark your Calendar Dec 22!!! See u at Haas. #CalBears #CalWBB https://t.co/8eTc4HR1jL
— Kelly Smith (@superflykicks) June 21, 2018
Misc.
- In the latest edition of Knowlton’s Notes, our new AD recaps his listening tours around California and what he’s heard from Cal fans across the state (among other things).
- Jerome Randle and Pete Newell Jr. visited the Cal Men’s Basketball team. Might that help inspire the program?
To know where you’re going, you’ve got to know where you’ve been.
— Cal Basketball (@CalMBBall) June 23, 2018
Thankful to @jerome_randle & Pete Newell Jr. for sharing their history with us this week! pic.twitter.com/SgCVe12LUt
- Men’s golf star Collin Morikawa continues to stack up awards, as he was named to the All-Nicklaus team yesterday. It appears to be a very high honor!
- With a team GPA of 3.0, the Men’s Swimming and Diving team earned themselves Scholar All-American honors as a team!
- A huge honor for former women’s water polo player Heather Petri, four-time Olympic medalist, as she was inducted to the USA Water Polo Hall of Fame earlier last week!