Cal Football: New-Look Bears Not Sharing Much As They Prep for 125th Big Game
Cal returned to practice this week in preparation for Saturday’s 125th Big Game without a couple of dispatched coaches but with a sense of getting a fresh start.
“Yesterday was a bit of a change and excitement . . . no one kind of knew what was going on,” quarterback Jack Plummer said, referring to Monday’s first day without offensive coordinator Bill Musgrave and offensive line coach Angus McClure, both fired Sunday afternoon.
"So when we got out on the field, practice structure was a little bit different. That in itself kind of generated some excitement within the team . . . `Hey, we’re doing different stuff here. We’re going to learn new things, like this is going to be kind of fun for us.’ ”
There were hints from Plummer and coach Justin Wilcox that the Bears may have a few new wrinkles for Stanford.
“Tweaking things here or there . . . seeing if we can add a play or two to help us generate some more offense,” Plummer said.
But no one was sharing state secrets.
Asked if he could tell us who would be call plays on Saturday, Plummer said, “No . . . no, I can’t say anything.”
Both Wilcox and Plummer said their week-long game planning and play-calling on Saturday would be “collaborative efforts,” a sign that the Bears had collaborated on preparation for their Tuesday news conference.
“It will be collaborative in game planning and all the way through game day,” Wilcox said.
He mentioned the three remaining full-time offensive staff members — tight ends coach Geep Chryst, running backs coach Aristotle Thompson, and receivers coach Burl Toler III — along with former O-line coach Steve Greatwood, who rejoined the program several weeks ago as an offensive analyst. All of them will be involved, but no new personnel has been added to the staff.
Pressed on whether Chryst — a former NFL offensive coordinator — might be the one to call plays against the Cardinal, Wilcox stopped short of identifying the unofficial, interim coordinator.
“The game plan will be set up in a way that is friendly,” he said, “and we’ll all know the sequence of kind of what’s coming next based on this week’s preparation and our practice reps and what we feel like gives us the best opportunity in the game in a given situation.”
Wilcox, who never before in his six seasons has fired a coach during the season, said this was a difficult decision. But the Bears are 3-7, have lost six games in a row and have under-performed offensively despite some good, young skill players on that side of the ball.
“A lot of times people in this situation say it’s not personal, but it feels that way,” Wilcox said. “My role as the head coach is to make decisions in the best interests of the team.”
He said much consideration was given to the timing of the announcement, but declined to detail what those factors were.
“I have a great amount of respect, as do all of our players and coaches, for Angus and Bill. They’re good people and good coaches,” he said. “It is very, very difficult. At the end of the day, my job is to make those decisions, void of any emotion or relationship. That’s what I did.”
Wilcox said he will not discuss, at least until the season is over, his process for finding replacements for Musgrave and McClure.
“We certainly know what we’re looking for,” he said. “When the time is right we’ll delve into that a bit more, but today wouldn’t be that time.”
When that does happen, Plummer will be keeping a close eye on who is given the keys to the Cal offense. He has one more year of eligibility and wants to know who would be coaching him.
“Yeah, I think that’ll be a factor in deciding if I want to come back or not,” he said. “Kind of not worried about that right now. Just focusing on Saturday, playing our rival Stanford. (The other) is something I’ll have to worry about down the road.”
Plummer, who came to Cal this year from Purdue, has passed for 2,521 yards with 16 touchdowns.
Cover photo of Cal coach Justin Wilcox
Follow Jeff Faraudo of Cal Sports Report on Twitter: @jefffaraudo
