Tosh Lupoi & Cal Coordinators on Debut Performances: Not Good Enough

Besides nearly three dozen players new to the Cal football program, the Bears took the field last week against UCLA with a first-time head coach and first-time coordinators.

Three days after Cal’s 45-24 defeat to the Bruins, each of the three was asked to evaluate his own performance in his debut:

“We lost the game. I’ll assess it that way as far as myself.” — Head coach Tosh Lupoi

“Not good enough.” — Offensive coordinator Jordan Somerville

“I don’t know if there’s a specific grade, but just not up to the standard and was not good enough.” — Defensive coordinator Michael Hutchings

Really, would we have expected any other reaction from three competitive coaches after coming up short on game day?

The Bears — coaches and players — have had a week to identify what went astray and how to tighten the bolts before Saturday’s ACC opener at Syracuse.

Lupoi said he thought his coordinators did a good job with game management. “I was in communication with them well after that game, deep into the hours of that next morning of debriefing them and acknowledging I thought they did a good job,” he said.

Offensively, Lupoi said the Bears were lacking in areas of perimeter blocking on runs and pass protection. On defense, tackling, maintaining leverage and being precise with alignments were on the improvement to-do list this week.

Lupoi also said there were positives.

“It was so awesome to see those 15-play drives, 10-play drives,” he said of the offense, which assembled three scoring drives of at least 75 yards. “And from a defensive standpoint, Khamani Hudson caused a fumble, Cam Sidney caused a fumble. Obviously, Kingston Lopa got an interception, Derek Wilkins had two batted balls, Nate (Burrell) another one.

“So highlighting the things we did at a high level and addressing the things we’ve got to improve immediately.”

Somerville said inconsistency was at the root of the problems on offense.

“Overall, the strain, the fight is what I thought showed up out of our guys,” he said. “The big thing that we took away after the game was too many highs, too many lows. Consistency — that’s the challenge going forward. That’s all 11 — no one group singled out.”

Those three drives of 75-plus yards were “a big positive,” Somerville said.

Including a 61-yard march for field goal, the Bears covered 308 yards (including penalties) on 42 plays on their four scoring drives. On 10 other possessions, they advanced the ball just 142 yards on 51 snaps.

“Putting it in consistently through four quarters, that’s our challenge going forward,” Somerville said.

Defensively, the Bears began the second half by forcing UCLA to punt on three consecutive possessions. Then the Bruins, taking advantage of two turnovers, needed just 10 plays to go 130 yards for three straight touchdowns to blow the game open.

“Thought the guys played hard,” Hutchings said. “Really, just lack of execution on our part. It wasn’t up to our standard.”

Hutchings said everyone on the coaching staff asked himself, “Where could we have been better? It’s our job to make sure these guys are ready. And when we get to Saturday, are we at our best?”

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