Cal Sports Report

Justin Wilcox Reacts to Protests; Pay Attention to What Kevin Sumlin Says

Arizona football coach has taken some time to produce a cogent statement
Jake Curtis|
Justin Wilcox Reacts to Protests; Pay Attention to What Kevin Sumlin Says
Justin Wilcox Reacts to Protests; Pay Attention to What Kevin Sumlin Says

Cal head coach Justin Wilcox was one of a number of college head coaches who responded via Twitter to the death of George Floyd at the hands of police in Minneapolis and the resulting protest across the country. In my mind the most salient Tweet is provided by Arizona football coach Kevin Sumlin, whose comments are posted below the Twitter messages of Wilcox and Cal basketball coach Mark Fox.

Here is what Wilcox tweeted:

“It is heartbreaking every time we see and hear about racially-charged violence, no matter where it occurs. It should not be our present: it should not be our future. We must all work together to combat racism at every level. Together we can and must progress forward.”

Cal head basketball coach Mark Fox issued this Tweet on May 29:

Arizona coach Kevin Sumlin, who is African American, issued a long twitter statement on the subject. He wonders how many incidents similar to the George Floyd tragedy have occurred without being caught on video. And he notes players, coaches and friends are texting him, seeking answers to huge problems.

Read the entire Sumlin Tweet, which was posted at about noon on Sunday:

Here is video with SI.com contributer Corey Parson on the issue: (See more Tweets below the video):

Tweets by four other Pac-12 coaches was cited by CollegeFootballTalk.com.

The Twitter message from first-year Washington head coach Jimmy Lake, who is African American, started with this sentence:

“The anguish I felt watching the life being taken out of George Floyd, has left many of us heartbroken and angry. . . “

Here is Lake’s entire Tweet:

Within the Twitter message of UCLA coach Clay Helton was this sentence:

“In our past there have been tipping points that have altered the course of history and forced change to create a brighter future. Now is a time for change . . . “

Here is Helton’s entire message:

Oregon State coach Jonathan Smith began his message with this:

“As a white man I will never completely understand the fear and daily experience that people of color face regularly. The tragedies of the last few weeks have left me hurt, angry, confused; tough to completely describe . . . .”

Here is his entire Twitter post:

Oregon coach Mario Cristobal noted: “I learned a lot from listening to our Leadership Council today.”

Colorado’s head coach is Karl Dorrell, an African American, and Colorado’s football twitter account retweeted this message from the Colorado Buffaloes Twitter account:

Former Cal athlete Jaylen Brown leads a protest in Atlanta.

Follow Jake Curtis of Cal Sports Report on Twitter: @jakecurtis53

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Jake Curtis
JAKE CURTIS

Jake Curtis worked in the San Francisco Chronicle sports department for 27 years, covering virtually every sport, including numerous Final Fours, several college football national championship games, an NBA Finals, world championship boxing matches and a World Cup. He was a Cal beat writer for many of those years, and won awards for his feature stories.

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