Cal Football: Justin Wilcox Improves 17 Spots in Coach Rankings
CBSSports.com ranked all 65 head coaches from the Power Five conferences plus Notre Dame, and Cal coach Justin Wilcox made a significant rise from last year's ranking.
Two years ago, CBSSports.com ranked Wilcox near the bottom at No. 53, and he rose only three spots to No. 50 in 2019.
However, this year, Wilcox moved up 17 slot to No. 33, which puts him smack dab in the middle of the 65 coaches. Thirty-two coaches are ranked ahead of him, and 32 are ranked behind him.
Here is what CBSSports.com said about Wilcox
Justin Wilcox: If you'd have told me two years ago that Wilcox would be ranked ahead of [Nebraska's Scott] Frost, I would have made a sarcastic comment while retweeting your stupidity. Two years ago, he was No. 53. Now, after an 8-5 season and a second consecutive bowl appearance, he climbs 17 spots to No. 33. 2019 rank: 50 (+17)
He is ranked behind only four Pac-12 coaches: Arizona State's Herm Edwards, who is just a few rungs ahead of Wilcox at No. 30, and three others who are ranked somewhere between No. 1 and No. 25 -- Utah's Kyle Whittingham, Oregon's Mario Cristobal and Stanford's David Shaw. The coaches ranked No. 1 through No. 25 will be revealed at a later date.
I have no problem with these ranking. Wilcox is ahead of both Los Angeles Pac-12 coaches, Clay Helton of USC and Chip Kelly of UCLA, and Wilcox is certainly a better bargain than Kelly, who reportedly is earning an average of $4.66 million per year. That's nearly double the $2.5 million Wilcox made in 2019 in a contract in which his salary escalates each year at Cal, maxing out at $3.6 million in 2023, according to a contract he signed following the 2018 season.
Wilcox is also ahead of coaching newcomers Karl Dorrell of Colorado, Jimmy Lake of Washington and Nick Rolovich of Washington State as well as Oregon State's Jonathan Smith and Arizona's Kevin Sumlin.
The 2020 season will be pivotal for Wilcox. If everything falls into place, the Golden Bears could have a big season. CBSSports.com even predicted Cal would go 11-1, and anything close to that would represent the third straight year that Cal improved on the previous season (5-7 in his first season, 7-6 in his second, and 8-5 in his third in 2019). That's the definition of building a program.
If Cal falters badly in 2020 . . . well, we'll see.
