Justin Wilcox on USC, UCLA Leaving: 'Can't Say I Was Overly Surprised'
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Cal head coach Justin Wilcox on Friday made his first public comments since USC and UCLA announced they were leaving to join the Big Ten in 2024, and during his session at Pac-12 Football Media Day he had several intriguing things to say about that and his team.
(A video of Wilcox's comments at the podium on Friday is available at the end of this report.)
Here are some of Wilcox's more significant comments:
---On where he was when the news of the USC and UCLA departure broke and whether that caused him any apprehension:
"I believe I was traveling and I got off a flight, I had a couple messages, then you get 1,500 links to articles and this article and that reports, but I can't say that I was overly surprised. I don't know that anytime it's not going to give you a little bit of a, you know, you weren't expecting it on that day but I don't know that I was overly surprised.
"Apprehension? No. I still have conviction about where we're going as an institution and the schools in our conference. We've got some really good programs, excellent schools and great coaches and I'm confident and bullish on the future."
---On how UCLA's departure affects Cal:
He said Cal will continue to recruit California hard. "That won't change one bit," he said.
"I understand that, especially for the traditionalist in all of us that when things like that [departure] happen it feels a bit uneasy, and there's just change in college athletics right now."
---On whether he would still like to play USC and UCLA as nonconference opponents:
"Those are conversations that are going to happen on an administrative level and maybe even above that. I'm all for playing whoever's on the schedule to be honest. I don't know whether they're going to ask me. If they do, I'l give my opinion.
"So, sure, put 'em on there; let's play."
---On the fact that Cal has so few starters returning on offense:
"We are inexperienced on offense at a number of positions, but we feel like there's a . . . the talent is greater than probably what we've had. The skill positions, we feel like we're going to have more guys that create explosive plays."
---Regarding quarterback Jack Plummer, a transfer from Purdue, who looks like he will be Cal's starting quarterback, which Wilcox virtually confirmed:
"He's probably even better than we thought, very heady guy.
"Jack has some experience and he did a really good job picking things up, maybe quicker than myself or Bill would have expected -- Bill Musgrave. If we were playing tomorrow Jack would be the guy."
Here is the video of Wilcox's podium interview. His comments begin about three minutes into the video:
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