Cal's Poor Tackling Has Justin Wilcox Questioning `Want-To'

Tony Elliott, coach of the 15th-ranked Virginia team that will visit Cal on Saturday afternoon, was asked at his weekly news conference about the Bears allowing 357 rushing yards at Virginia Tech last week.

“We’re not going to focus on what happened last week from a statistical standpoint,” Elliott said. “It’s a good football team we’re getting ready to go up against.”

If that statistic isn’t a bullseye for the Cavaliers’ ground game, it certainly is a painful sticking point for the Golden Bears (5-3, 2-2 ACC).

It was the most rushing yards Cal has allowed in exactly 100 games over nine seasons under coach Justin Wilcox, who seemed to question his team’s pride while criticizing their poor tackling against the Hokies.

“There certainly is technique involved in tackling — athleticism is a part of tackling. You have to be a good athlete,” Wilcox said. “A lot of tackling has to do with how badly you want to get the guy on the ground.

“There’s technique, there’s athletic ability, which is a big part. Then the want-to or pride in getting the guy on the ground is critically important.”

In other words, while the Bears’ tackling technique may have been lacking, perhaps so was their want-to or pride.

Wilcox said fixing the issue would be a week-long focal point in practice.

“We’re going to continue to drill that,” he said. “We worked it today, we’re going to work it again tomorrow, we’re going to work it the day after that and the day after that until we get to the game and we have more opportunities to tackle again so when the ball carrier has the ball, we find a way to get him on the ground.”

Cal has skidded to 14th in the ACC in rushing defense, allowing 151.5 yards per game. The Bears began the season effectively defending the run, surrendering just 95.5 yards per outing through four games. The past four outiings that number swelled to 208.3.

A year ago Cal’s run defense remained stout all season, giving up an average of fewer than 110 rushing yards, never more than 148 in any single game.

Senior defensive back Cam Sidney doesn’t believe there is anything wrong physically with the Cal defense.

“Like coach Wilcox said, there’s technique and some athleticism but really it’s more a mentality thing,” he said. “Getting the guy on the ground should be of the utmost importance. That’s one of the themes we’ve been pushing this week.”

Virginia (7-1, 4-0 ACC) has been one of the league’s top running teams, third in the ACC at 185.8 yards, with four games over 200.

The Cavaliers slumped to a season-low 59 rushing yards in their 17-16 overtime win at North Carolina, prompting Elliott to issue something of a challenge.

“They understand that the offense that was once being praised (and) that’s now being questioned a little bit, it’s the same guys,” he said.

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