Golden Nuggets: Post-Game Reaction from Cal/OSU and More

Football

Press Conferences

On the play of the offensive line:

”It was tough to get going running the ball. You have to run the ball better. And we took nine sacks. Some of that is protection. Some of that is getting rid of the football at the quarterback position. We have a lot of work to do there.”

On the play of the defense:

”Defensively, we had some good stops throughout the game. We had three awful drives across the board – d-line, linebackers and DBs. It starts with coaching. It starts with me. You have to give Oregon State credit. They have a good offense. We need to acknowledge that, but we played really poor on three drives. That cost us, big time.”

On QB Spencer Brasch:

”It’s a tough position to be in. First time he’s taken a snap. We’ll keep working with him.”

On the three OSU scoring drives:

”Yeah, three touchdowns doesn’t really play very well. I mean whenever they score it’s not a good thing, so we have to look back in the film room and figure it out and get everything fixed but we beat ourselves. They are a good team, but man, on defense we didn’t play our best.”

On the defensive struggles:

”Nothing right now. I have to look at the tape. We are going to look at the tape and figure it out.”

On the mood of the team and the mindset heading into Utah:”We have to come ready to work on Monday. It’s kind of repetitive now, but that’s it, come ready to work. Come ready to get better.”

On the successful defensive drives:

”We just started getting up to our details. The first half we were letting small things slip and going for more yards than we should have and letting them march down the field. Second half, we did a lot better but we still gave up points. “

On the three OSU scoring drives:

”It was just the little things. We have to work on the fine details. Coach said it was razor thin margins and we have to fix those. So we are going to come in on Monday and get it fixed.”

Post-Game Articles

• The official recap from the SF Chronicle with the quotes (I already included) from Weaver.
• The postgame notes from Cal Athletics includes some defensive sack milestones.
• In his Novel, Nam notes that this kind of loss is one that could spell the end of certain coaches.

Games like these, losses like these usually involve the inevitable conclusion that some changes need to be made, whether now or at the end of the season, and I mean this without a shred of the sarcasm it is often said with on the internet: I really do hate to see it. We are talking about real people – real families -- at the end of the day, and in extension of that view, I’ve never really been comfortable with advocating for someone’s firing openly with my platform. I certainly don’t think it’s something we should suggest off-handedly.

With that being said, Wilcox – if he’s as smart of a coach as he’s proven to be on the defensive side of the ball – must know for sure now too, the same way I and Marc did, sending sad resigned text messages to each other after that game in Corvallis.

Something has to give on the offense.

Pre-Game Articles

• Evan Weaver is enjoying a special season, one that is being noted by former Bear greats David Ortega and Weaver’s former teammate Jordan Kunaszyk. (Both quoted in this piece).
• From before the season, Henry Bazakas and Mike Saffell are vying to get the football team’s highest GPA.

Basketball

• Ben Parker anaylzes the tape of new MBB commit Monty Bowser from Oakland.