66stang408
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Greetings from the west coast.
I've had this one on my calendar for a while, and am extremely excited to visit Notre Dame for the first time. Figured this would be a decent way to figure out my Saturday AM in South Bend a provide a little context on Cal - we haven't attracted much attention for a while so (understandably)
To get the gameday stuff out of the way - I'm travelling with a group of 5, staying in South Bend Friday - Monday. Our 'plan' (if you can call it that) would be to walk our way to the stadium and try to make friends at tailgates, probably leveraging our shared loathing of Southern Cal to break the ice. But I'd definitely be open to other suggetions and even potentially meeting up if things worked out. Could also use advice for what to do after the game and Sunday... figured we'd walk the campus, but beyond that its a pretty blank slate.
Regarding Cal:
So Wilcox is in his 6th year. Cal under his leadership has been a defense-first team (which was strange for someone who has been a fan since the early 2000s, since offense had never been a problem). We've had quite a few 13-10 games against good teams (USC, UW) over the past few years, and we tend to win most of those ugly ones.
Offense: Jake Plummer (Purdue transfer) takes over for Chase Garbers at QB. He's much more of a traditional QB than Garbers... its only been 2 games but it seems his arm srength / accuracy is a bit better, but nowhere near as mobile. Still, most Cal fans are optimistic that the better arm will translate into moving the ball more consistently. Thus far this year, the difference has not been as pronounced as we had thought it would.
In terms of skill guys, this year we are really young, but for the first time under Wilcox have some legit skill position threats. We have 3 4 star WRs (up from 0-1 for at least the last 3 or so years) in Hunter, Sturdivant and Anderson. Possibly the bigger deal is Jayden Ott.. who as a true freshman is really, really standing out. I've seen some serious talent in my just-under 20 years of being a Cal fan.. Marshawn Lynch, Desean Jackson, Shane Vereen, Jahvid Best, Keenan Allen, Marvin Jones, and others. Ott looks like he may be on that list. (I also pray, loudly and often, that he doesn't get hurt or transfer...)
The issue is our OL. It has been bad for years and appears to still be bad. Lots of bad breaks with injuries, transfers (our best OL transferred to OU, for example), and recruiting has been bad. Given DL is one of Notre Dame's strengths, this is immediately an area where it could all come apart for us.
Defensively: Wilcox pretty much immediately turned our defense - which had been among the worst in the country under Sonny Dykes, and in some cases historically, record-settingly bad - into a strength when he came. We've had a bunch of DBs drafted under him, and typically have strength at lineback too. That all appears to remain true this year. Oladejo and Sirmon are really good at LB.
They'll have to make up for a weak DL, where our situation is pretty similar to the OL (just not quite as bad). Our best two DL were hurt before the season started and out for the year, and recruiting has been weak there too. To get pressure we've had to blitz, even against the weaker teams we've faced.
If I were to guess ND will win a low scoring contest, but regardless of how it goes... very much looking forward to it. Hopefully this post was sufficiently football-related, but feel free to move if there's a better home for it.
Go Bears
I've had this one on my calendar for a while, and am extremely excited to visit Notre Dame for the first time. Figured this would be a decent way to figure out my Saturday AM in South Bend a provide a little context on Cal - we haven't attracted much attention for a while so (understandably)
To get the gameday stuff out of the way - I'm travelling with a group of 5, staying in South Bend Friday - Monday. Our 'plan' (if you can call it that) would be to walk our way to the stadium and try to make friends at tailgates, probably leveraging our shared loathing of Southern Cal to break the ice. But I'd definitely be open to other suggetions and even potentially meeting up if things worked out. Could also use advice for what to do after the game and Sunday... figured we'd walk the campus, but beyond that its a pretty blank slate.
Regarding Cal:
So Wilcox is in his 6th year. Cal under his leadership has been a defense-first team (which was strange for someone who has been a fan since the early 2000s, since offense had never been a problem). We've had quite a few 13-10 games against good teams (USC, UW) over the past few years, and we tend to win most of those ugly ones.
Offense: Jake Plummer (Purdue transfer) takes over for Chase Garbers at QB. He's much more of a traditional QB than Garbers... its only been 2 games but it seems his arm srength / accuracy is a bit better, but nowhere near as mobile. Still, most Cal fans are optimistic that the better arm will translate into moving the ball more consistently. Thus far this year, the difference has not been as pronounced as we had thought it would.
In terms of skill guys, this year we are really young, but for the first time under Wilcox have some legit skill position threats. We have 3 4 star WRs (up from 0-1 for at least the last 3 or so years) in Hunter, Sturdivant and Anderson. Possibly the bigger deal is Jayden Ott.. who as a true freshman is really, really standing out. I've seen some serious talent in my just-under 20 years of being a Cal fan.. Marshawn Lynch, Desean Jackson, Shane Vereen, Jahvid Best, Keenan Allen, Marvin Jones, and others. Ott looks like he may be on that list. (I also pray, loudly and often, that he doesn't get hurt or transfer...)
The issue is our OL. It has been bad for years and appears to still be bad. Lots of bad breaks with injuries, transfers (our best OL transferred to OU, for example), and recruiting has been bad. Given DL is one of Notre Dame's strengths, this is immediately an area where it could all come apart for us.
Defensively: Wilcox pretty much immediately turned our defense - which had been among the worst in the country under Sonny Dykes, and in some cases historically, record-settingly bad - into a strength when he came. We've had a bunch of DBs drafted under him, and typically have strength at lineback too. That all appears to remain true this year. Oladejo and Sirmon are really good at LB.
They'll have to make up for a weak DL, where our situation is pretty similar to the OL (just not quite as bad). Our best two DL were hurt before the season started and out for the year, and recruiting has been weak there too. To get pressure we've had to blitz, even against the weaker teams we've faced.
If I were to guess ND will win a low scoring contest, but regardless of how it goes... very much looking forward to it. Hopefully this post was sufficiently football-related, but feel free to move if there's a better home for it.
Go Bears
