I think you can win a game that way (no-huddle, running Riley out of the pocket), but it is a 13 game season. You need something more consistent than that. You are looking for consistency, not flashes of brilliance (after all, that is what we had this season, and we finished 8-5).

1) USC – SC still has the best talent, and that frosh qb will grow up next year.
2) Oregon – would reverse the order, except I don’t seen Oregon winning at SC next year
3) Washington – Look out for Locker
4) Arizona – Not much dropoff for Foles and Co.
5) Stanford – Luck will be great again, but he won’t have Toby
6) Oregon State – The best qb in the Pac 10 returns with the Rodgers brothers. Defense is the question.
7) Cal – Returns most of the offense, but how good is that with Riley coming back?
8) UCLA – would reverse this order, except I don’t see UCLA beating the Bears in a home game.
9) Arizona State – good defense, but this will be Erickson’s last year.
10 WSU – Simply improving is not good enough yet.

There are some wildcards that could move Cal up in my projected order. They are: a) Riley makes the same improvement in his senior year that Boller made, b) Cal finds someone who can put a kickoff into the endzone at least half of the time, c) Michael Calvin makes a comeback to become a threat at WR along with Marvin Jones; d) Matt Summers-Gavin remains healthy all season and a guy off the radar screen beats out Cheadle, e) Darian Hagan re-commits himself during the off-season and finally lives up to his projections at the corner, f) Chris Martin lives up to the hype and becomes a true freshman force at the hybrid D-end/linebacker position in the same manner as Burfect at Arizona State.

Projected Record – 7-5, 4-5 in the Pac 10.

i think coaching is about 90% of the problem with the bears this year. the negativity on the sidelines was allowed to snowball, time and again. there’s no excuse for that. not when you’re making 2mm + per year. i totally agree that alomar was a good firing, but their lackluster play on special teams seems to be of the village wine variety. i’ll bring less than 100% on a play, and nobody will notice. the rest of the team will pick up my slack. that attitude spread like wildfire, and pretty soon, everybody’s giving 70% on special teams. tedford takes the blame for that, too.

I think you need to read the posts again.

My point was that it was not so simple that coaching alone can explain what happened (and yes, Abe, I think it is you who does not understand the complexity of the game, and what it means to coach 18-22 year olds).

While coaches teach tackling, running, etc., they cannot do it for the players. As I said there is enough blame to go around for what is clearly a disappointing season. Some of the loses we were out-coached (I would put UO clearly in that camp), and others I think the players failed to step up (Washington), or execute (USC).

So, we disagree to the extent coaching contributed, me willing to put more on the players. I just don’t think we had as much talent as you.

Starting at quarterback, Riley has not taken command, and you can clearly tell when he has lost “it” during a game. Is that coaching — some — but you work with what you have, and try to make them better. Is it recruiting — some — but I think CAL is still limited in this area. Kids these days want to know how you are going to get them to the NFL, they no longer play for the glory of the school (one of the few things Lou Holtz said that I agree with), and CAL is presently second tier (up from doormat). While I would like to see them first tier (although not at the expense of the University), they are not. This takes a lot of the recruits out of the mix. Yes, there is the occasional Jackson or Best, but to be top tier, you need a whole team of these. This simply is not the NFL where money or draft position gives you unconditional rights.

Finally, firing Alamar was a good first step, and I look forward to the glorious expectations of Spring practice.

I played too, including playing for 3 coaches who won Super Bowls. Respectfully, I am in strong agreement with Abe on this, and I disagree with you. But let’s say you’re right- ok then, who recruits these players? Whose training program do they do through? Whose philosophies do they attempt to execute? Whose play calling and schemes do they execute? Who gets paid and who doesn’t?

Cal was so badly outcoached in so many games this season there isn’t even a question as to who should shoulder almost ALL of the blame. It’s the guys who makes $2.2 mil plus. You can not tell me Utah has anywhere near the talent Cal does this season- they don’t, epsecially with a freshman QB. They dominated Cal- because they coiached circles around Cal’s coaches. The same could be said for the coaching staffs at UW, OSU, UO and SC.