Cal's Justin Wilcox Ranks in Top Half of Pac-12 Football Coaches

When Cal head coach Justin Wilcox was offered the head coaching job at Oregon last December, it made some people reassess Wilcox's coaching abilities. Afterall, a school that wants to challenge for a national title every year isn't going to hire just anyone.

When Wilcox then decided to turn down the offer from Oregon, his alma mater, and stay at Cal, it made some folks reconsider what the Golden Bears had in Wilcox.

Maybe he is a better head coach than his record suggests. The Golden Bears are 26-28 in Wilcox's five seasons in Berkeley., and they had a losing Pac-12 record in all five seasons.

Of course, now with USC and UCLA joining the Big Ten in 2024 the question is whether Cal will be a Pac-12 member for much longer, which has to concern Wilcox.

Nonetheless, Wilcox will be Cal's coach in 2022 when the Pac-12 that includes USC and UCLA. So where does Wilcox stack up among coaches in the Pac-12 and among all Power Five conference coaches.

CBS Sports took on that task, and it put Wilcox in the top half of the Pac-12 coaches -- barely -- and the top half of FBS coaches.

Here are the CBS Sports rankings of Pac-12 coaches, and it includes its comment regarding Wilcox.

1. Lincoln Riley, USC

2. Kyle Whittingham, Utah

3. Chip Kelly, UCLA

4. David Shaw, Stanford

5. Jonathan Smith, Oregon State

6. Justin Wilcox, Cal

CBS Sports comment:

Justin Wilcox (44 overall): There is no questioning the defensive bona fides of Wilcox, whose defensive coordinator success with several big brands has translated fine on that side of the ball in his first head coaching gig. But the 45-year-old is losing his luster as a head coach because of the complete ineptitude of Cal's offenses under coordinator Bill Musgrave during a 6-10 stretch over the last two seasons. Last year: 5 in Pac-12

7. Kalen DeBoer, Washington

8. Dan Lanning, Oregon

9. Herm Edwards, Arizona State

10. Karl Dorrell, Colorado

11. Jedd Fisch, Arizona

12. Jake Dickert, Washington State.

Wilcox benefited from the fact that two of the Pac-12 head coaches (Dickert and Lanning) have never been head coaches on a fulltime basis.

Last year, CBS Sports ranked Wilcox fifth in the the Pac-12, ahead of Kelly and Smith, but behind Edwards.

Wilcox also dropped a few notches in the Power Five conference coaches rankings. Last year, Wilcox was ranked 38th among Power Five head coaches; this year he is 44th, with this comment:

Justin Wilcox: I admit this doesn't make sense, but I also firmly attest it makes perfect sense. Wilcox is a perfectly rated coach but always seems slightly underrated. While the 2020 season was tough on coaches across the Pac-12, there's a strong argument that no coach had it worse than Wilcox, and it showed with a 1-3 record. He followed it up with a 5-7 mark last season, meaning the Bears have missed out on bowl games each of the last two seasons after going 15-11 over the 2018 and 2019 seasons. 2021 rank: 38 (-6)

One of the coaches ranked higher than Wilcox is his predecessor at Cal, Sonny Dykes, who is now at TCU and is ranked 35th.

Here's what CBS Sports said about Dykes:

Sonny Dykes: I was interested in seeing where Dykes would debut, and I'm slightly surprised he starts this high. Dykes did well at SMU, going 30-18, but his time at Cal wasn't nearly as successful. During his four seasons there, the Bears went 19-30 and 10-26 in Pac-12 play. Of course, TCU is a much better fit for Dykes, as he's in an area he's very familiar with and is set up for more success in a rapidly changing Big 12. 2021 rank: n/a

Two Pac-12 coaches rank among CBS Sports' top 10 head coaches in Power Five conference this year, with USC's Lincoln Riley at No. 4 and Utah's Kyle Whittingham at No. 8.

Cover photo by Kelvin Kuo, USA TODAY Sports