Well Cal fans, we have a new HC.
There's no more Bear Raid, and for the first time in a decade and a
half Cal is led by a defense-minded coach. Justin Wilcox is a guy
who's always been on Cal fans' radar, especially when everyone seemed
to hate Bob Gregory in the third quarter of Tedford's tenure. Wilcox
was the DC during Boise State's upset of Oklahoma just before Cal's defense started to show cracks, and he stayed on for many
years as a part of Chris Petersen's stellar run there. This earned
him an upgrade to some decent seasons on Derek Dooley's staff at
Tennessee. From there, he helped out Sark after Nick Holts'
disastrous defenses at UW, and then that whole staff fell upward
to USC, where Wilcox was unceremoniously fired by Clay Helton at the end
of 2015. Finally, after one very good season at Wisconsin, here we are.
Wilcox' success seems to closely follow the HC's that he's working
for. When his HC is good, he's good. When his HC is bad and/or drunk, he's not. Now he himself is the HC, so who knows
what's going to happen? A lot of it will depend on his vision for
Cal's defense.
