Cal Coach Justin Wilcox: `We Have To Play Much Better Football'

By the time Cal football exited the field at Memorial Stadium late Friday night with a 21-18 victory over North Carolina, the Bears had pocketed their fifth win of the season and were tied for fifth place in the ACC standings, just one game out of the lead.

Why weren’t the Bears celebrating?

Why did the occasion seem to prompt more relief than euphoria?

“They’re hard to come by, so we will celebrate a victory,” coach Justin Wilcox said afterward.

Then came the headline: “We have to play much better football moving forward in every phase of the game — that’s obvious.”

Yes, the Bears are 5-2 for the first time 2015, when Jared Goff was slinging the ball all over the place. They are 2-1 in the ACC, a solid start toward potentially generating a winning conference record for the first time since 2009.

The Bears are now one victory away from being bowl eligible for the third year in a row. The fact that they can achieve that next Friday night at Virginia Tech, a week before Halloween, is great progress.

Last year the Bears didn’t get their sixth win until beating Stanford in the Big Game on Nov. 23.

The year before win No. 6 came two days after Thanksgiving with a win over UCLA.

But context is everything, and Wilcox knows it.

Boston College is 1-6 after a 38-23 non-conference loss at home to UConn on Saturday and alone in last place in the ACC standings.

Carolina, under the watchful eye of grumpy NFL coaching legend Bill Belichick, is 2-4 and winless in two ACC games. In their three previous losses, the Tar Heels gave up 120 points and were never competitive.

They are, by any definition, a bad team at this point.

And yet they easily could have wrestled victory away from the Bears.

Context is also necessary while looking forward. Virginia Tech, which has a bye this weekend after back-to-back losses, is 2-5 and 1-2 in the ACC. It’s a game the Bears should win — need to win.

Because what follows is significantly more difficult:

-- Nov. 1: vs. No. 18 Virginia (6-1, 3-0)

-- Nov. 8: at (soon to be ranked) Louisville (5-1, 2-1)

-- Nov. 22: at Stanford (2-4, 1-2)

--Nov. 29: vs. SMU. (5-2, 3-0)

Cal figures to be favored in the Big Game, but the other three -- with a combined record of 16-4 -- will be steep climbs.

What’s necessary if the Bears hope to reach their stated goal of eight, maybe even nine victories?

“Penalties were terrible,” Wilcox said after the Bears committed nine of them for 79 yards, giving the Tar Heels four first downs via penalty. “We dropped the ball too many times. We’ve got to play the run better.

“Punt game? We’ve got to do a better job there,” Wilcox said. The Bears punted a season-high eight times and averaged just 36.8 yards on those kicks.

The run game continues to be less than the Bears need. They netted 80 rushing yards on 2.6 per attempt against the Heels and are producing just 94.3 yards per game on the ground to rank 15th in the ACC.

The ongoing lack of offensive balance has put more pressure on freshman quarterback Jaron-Keawe Sagapolutele, whose efficiency has slipped in recent weeks.

Meanwhile, the Bears have gone back to their 2023 roster to find a solution on kickoffs. Ever since an injury last month to Abram Murray — who handled long field goals and kickoffs — the Bears have relied on Chase Meyer for kickoffs. He had done a good job on PATs and shorter field goals, but distance is not strength.

Enter Michael Luckhurst, the son of Cal legend Mick Luckhurst, who made just 4 of 10 field goals in 2022 and ’23 before detouring to the Bears’ soccer team. Wilcox said he wants higher and longer kickoffs, and Luckhurst averaged 62.8 yards on four kicks Friday night — nearly 10 yards farther than Meyer had been delivering.

Wilcox talked this week about being eager to see the best version of his team. Presumably, that still hasn’t happened

Slot receiver Jacob De Jesus, who had 13 receptions for 105 yards and a touchdown, couldn’t be too jubilant about his big contribution.

“That wasn’t a complete game from us by any means,” he said. “Far from it.”

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