Cal Football: Cal vs. UC Davis (8.31.2024) Postgame Presser -Travers Family Head Coach Justin Wilcox

Doug Parrish football organically. Great win today, Coach, what's your overall assessment? Well, there's a lot of lessons to learn from that game. The difference between bad football and good football is this much. And in the first half, you know, I think our we had good effort but boy were execution was lacking. And we really were not in any type of rhythm as a team. I'm really proud of the way the guys persevered through that. It didn't feel great. I mean, we all noticed that and even in the locker room. But, you know, once you get out there and you, you know, trust your training and you whether it's playing leverage or tackling or, you know, you're here offensively, our eyes are in the right places, delivering the ball, blocking people, then all sudden things are going your way. And we did a much better job. I mean, it's really a tale of two halves. You know, I think in the first half they had 52 or 55 plays that they ran and we had 22. I mean, it's hard I mean, to be ahead a point at half. We were fortunate just how poorly we had played. And thanks a lot to Nohl's kickoff return, but a lot of lessons to learn there. And we just have to be much better next week. But I'm proud of the way the guys played through that, Jim McGill Bear Insider, coach. Three interceptions gave you guys some short fields. You got Nohl Williams kick return so that that generated some points for you but less than 300 yards total offense. I know you guys wanted to push the ball down the field and didn't look like there were a lot of shots down the field. Was that more a matter of protection, enough time to throw the ball or what was going on? Well, there's a multitude of things. We definitely want to get the ball down the field more. Some we talked about late in the first half and you know, we want to get the ball down the field. But the issue for us offensively was I mean, the first half, I think it was five or six drives, we had the ball three plays or less. So we never had any rhythm. We didn't anchor. The only time we created a first down on a drive, we end up score that drive. And so, you know, one of the keys for us is getting that first first down and the first half, we didn't do it only one time. Second half it was much more often. But we do want to push the ball down the field more. We feel like we have some guys that can do that. And today we didn't do that well enough. So that'll be an area for us to improve. Yeah, Jake. Cal Sports Report And that going for it on fourth down on that fourth and four in the third. Third quarter there. Hmm. What was your thinking on that? The one that we completed to Mikey? Yes. Yeah. At some point we felt like we, you know, we were in the third quarter. The defense was playing pretty darn good. And we were I mean, it was it felt like three and out, three and out. We were getting stops. We got turnovers and we we kind of needed something to break the damn. That's how I felt. And, you know, we have all this stuff like everybody, the analytics and all that, and it's kind of right on it. It was, but I felt like we felt like we had a good play, good match up, and we were able to complete it and get some momentum because that that seemed to change. Was it one metric? Yeah, I mean, I don't we use that the analytics stuff as a supplement. I don't live and die by it. There's times we'll, you know, agrees and sometimes it disagrees and we just needed a play and that was a key play. Steve Kroner from the San Francisco Chronicle. One quick one just and then one longer. One quick one is how is Jaydn Ott we don't have any information on Jaydn yet. I know he came off the field and wasn't able to return. So we'll get some more info from the doctors and trainers here shortly. The longer question is Fernando got the start. Chandler did play a decent amount. Do you expect to have a similar rotation going forward or do you think at some point one guy will get the job? Yeah, I think we'll see. You know, Fernando got more opportunities to throw it. I really wish we could have got some more momentum going when Chandler was in there just to again get a first first down so we can get the drive started because he can do some good things. But yeah, I think both those guys, I mean everybody, we just got to get better as a football team and we'll see where that all shakes out. Yeah, yeah. Jeff Faraudo Cal Sports Report a little bit more on the quarterbacks. Justin, Did you actually see enough of of Chandler to even have an opinion? And this is kind of still the jury's still out on that position. I think we'll evaluate everything on the tape and there's times when the quarterbacks can do better and then there's times when, you know, I think we had one, Chandler had one, I believe, as a second down that we threw a glance and dropped the ball. And so the ultimate job of the quarterback to move the team down the field and put points on the board. We also try to take into consideration the play of the other players and that's the needle we always will try and thread. So is that fair? I don't know. It is what it is. I don't know. There's no other way than going out there playing. I wish we could have got some more momentum with Chandler in the game. Fernando created some and he still had some plays that he can he can do better. I like both of them and glad they're on our team and the defense gave up 230 yards in the first half, only 70 in the second half. What changed at halftime for that resurgence? They they ran 50. I don't know what to tell you. They ran about 52 plays in the first half. We ran 22, so we were not staying on the field on offense and on defense. We had some missed tackles that led to conversions. We had lost leverage and man to man that led to conversion. And then they had we had a guy on a third down that led to conversions. And so those things add up and adapt and especially when they get midfield, they're going to go for on fourth down. But you know, it wasn't like we come in and throw in eight new defenses. It's like you do your job better. And the guys were eager. They're excited to play. We didn't play very well in the first half, really in any phase. Ultimately, they, you know, we gave up a touchdown, you know, the fumble, you know, the fumble return for a touchdown wasn't great. The defense could have played better in the first half, no doubt, in tackling in man coverage, but they did a much better job in the second half. And it looked more like what we would expect. Cody Henderson, the league winners coach, is it safe to assume that Nohl Williams got the game ball today He got one of them you got it. Nohl was awesome. I mean, the kick return was huge, just as a momentum changer. And then on defense, I thought he played real sticky. He wasn't perfect. He's got a couple of things that showed up, but I really liked his competitiveness and all. Both he and Marcus, I thought had some real good moments. But I think I think if you ask them, they they would expect to play better as well. So I'm really happy for Nohl and I'm looking forward to watching him improve this week. Okay, Coach Maurice Philips from a sports radio service dot com. A lot of guys play their first game for Cal today who do we highlight. You guys did a great job on the recruiting trail is this what you want to do? Well Teddye Buchanan had nine tackles that it was noticeable Marcus Harris showed up. Who else played a bunch? How about the kicker? Kicker? No ball going in the end zone through the uprights. I thought he did a heck of a job. Punter punted it. Well, Mikey, he gave us a couple returns, so I thought the special teams was more of a weapon today because of some of those guys. And then I think we batted the ball down on defense. T.J. Bollers, I believe, had to cut 1 to 1 or two and Big Aidan had one. Those guys are new. So yeah, I thought it was good to see them out there. And like I said, we just we got to grow leaps and bounds this week. But proud of them. Thomas Dunn Write For California coach Did you sense that in addition to the execution in the first half that your team was pressing, had some nerves or even came out flat? They weren't flat. I wouldn't I wouldn't say that they I know they're excited to play. They want to play. Well, I guess the unfortunate part of, you know, when the challenges of football, I should say, is wanting to do it well and doing it well or do different things like one two's part of it. And then there's the focus execution skill to do it well. And we did. Yeah, we didn't do that in the first half as, as well as we could have. So I think they're excited for sure. And now it's like, like I said, a lot of guys playing early, first time here, whatever, just kind of settling in and the second half felt a lot different to me. I don't know if it looked different to you. It sure felt that way. So now we got to build on that. Yeah, but again, I'm proud of them for not panicking and, you know, screaming at each other in the locker room because, yeah, it didn't feel great. I mean, didn't feel great on offense, didn't feel great on defense in that first half so that you got to stay the course, do your job, rely on your training. And they did that. Michelle Maskell with the Daily Californian coach Today, UC Davis was led by your former tight ends coach, Tim Plough. Two years ago, the score was almost identical, 34 to 14 against the Aggies today. What did you see from them? Any changes, any continuity? Yeah, I'm glad. Really glad we won that game and I'm proud of our team for the way they competed, especially the second half. I'm also glad because now I get to talk to Tim again. He's an excellent coach. He's an even better human being. He's a he does a hell of a job. He really does. And they're in great hands with Tim Plough, I tell you that much. So yeah. Mia Daily Californian, looking ahead at Auburn, what will you guys be looking to improve, if anything? Last year you guys fell just short. I'm wondering what your thoughts are there. Yeah, I think it's it's all the stuff from today. You know, we're going to look at their tape Auburn's going to have extremely talented roster. I mean the size and speed, the quickness, all that's going to be a level up. And that's not at all a shot on UC Davis. UC Davis has some damn good players at running back quarterback for the safety. The D and those guys are good football players. Auburn is going to be physically they're just going to be bigger and they'll have some really fast guys, so we just got to be much tighter. The details of our assignments, the execution level's got to crank up and so we'll prepare for them based on what they've done on tape. And then we got to go and get execute and do our jobs at a at a really good clip. Just Callaway fumbles. Looked like he got hurt. Couldn't tell for sure. And then I didn't see him get back in the game. Did he not get back in the game because he was hurt or did not get back in the game because of. Yeah, I haven't talked to the docs yet regarding regarding him. We also had some other backs that got opportunities in there, you know, the Jet and in Cardwell. So we'll see where his injury is after this. But today it wasn't helping him because he fumbled and, you know, had a combination of combination. Yeah. Uh, Coach, back to Auburn a little bit going into Jordan Hare Stadium, obviously one of the biggest home advantages in the country in SEC Country. How are you going to be preparing for that crowd noise going into this next Saturday? Crank up the crowd noise. You hit it. Crank up that crowd noise during practice time. We run silent count often. And it's part of college football, too. Great part of college football, these environments and the pageantry of these storied programs. So it'll be really exciting to play down there. Our guys will be looking forward to it. But yeah, we'll have to work a bunch of crowd noise. There's no doubt, Coach. But back to the Auburn questions. So you talk about the speed, you talk about the the weight, the size is the heat. Yeah. Is going to be a factor. Will you plan on going down a few days earlier? We'll leave on Thursday. Yeah. Our guys go to school. They got classes so. Oh yeah. We've got about. Yeah, we'll be leaving Thursday. Okay. Yeah. And you know, we got a couple of days in the heat during fall camp. Is it going to be like it is down there? Probably not. I think we'll acknowledge how hot it's going to be. We'll hydrate will prepare, uh, during the week knowing that and ultimately we need to go play the football game and, well, you know, we'll play multiple people multiple positions. Yeah, but unless you have a better idea, if you can turn it down or something. Yeah, I wish I could. Yeah. It, but they're going back to, to the game today. I noticed that in the beginning of the game there was a high tempo offense going and I thought it was amazing. But you know, there was, you know, just some, you know, the timing wasn't right. And how do you actually it's the feels like it's a it's a balancing act of speeding it up or slowed it down so that your guys can get ready to execute effectively. Yeah. So we utilize tempo. It's not every down, but we have it and we'll use it. It goes back to this concept of you got to get the first first down. You know, it's hard to play with any effective tempo on a, on a negative play or a incomplete pass. That's not when tempo is useful. You need to be moving the ball. That's where you kind of again, you felt it on that one drive because that was really the only drive in the first half. We got the first first down and then here we go. You know, it's kind of a snowball effect. So and you can check this, but I think during the game, once we got our first first down, we scored on those drives and when we didn't, obviously you're three and out and we had like five or six of those in the first half. It just feels so different and the other team had the ball and so that's the key. Get that first first down and then you can utilize the tempo. If if it's if it's appropriate. I love a final question from the back. Joaquin Ruiz with college radio and the Daily Cal. You know, you mentioned Buchanan earlier, but what was it like to see him and Cade? The next to each other with kind of a really impressive inside linebacker corps today? Yeah, I like I like it when they line up out there together. You know, those are two talented guys. And, you know, there's going to be you know, it's Teddye's first game here. Cade's still a youngster. He's started the second half of his true freshman season last year, so he's still learning a lot. But you can see the playmaking in both of them. I mean, they sure flash from time to time. Now there's there's things they got to fix. But I love having those guys out there. I mean, so. Yeah. All right. Thanks, coach. All right. Thank you. Go, Bears.