In March 2025, the California Golden Bears hired Ron Rivera a campus legend as the general manager of the football program. So now he gets to wield the power that was appointed to him, and he now must fire head coach Justin Wilcox.
There are no more excuses for Wilcox. He has not had a winning season since 2019, he has had only one other winning season which was in 2018. Overall he has not recruited well, and it spoke volumes when it came to the number of players transferring from Cal.
About the only positive thing to happen during Wilcox’s tenure is that he has done great with his defensive backs.
Yet the reason Rivera should not have any patience with Wilcox is that California got shutout by San Diego State on the road 34-0. Yet it was even worse tonight at home against the Duke Blue Devils.
Freshman quarterback Jaron-Keawe Sagapolutele looked incredible to start the game. He was firing on all cylinders and running back Kendrick Raphael looked good too. Duke seemingly was having a difficult time stopping the offense of California.
The turning point of the game came when Sagapolutele rolled out and got hit as he was going out of bounds. He was noticeably limping and though he seemed better after the Bears called a timeout. His play though suffered, and he wound up throwing three interceptions.
Meanwhile, in the second quarter, Duke quarterback Darian Mensah had no trouble moving the football against the passive defense of California and a 21-7 deficit became a 31-21 halftime lead for the Blue Devils.
Both defenses came out strong in the third quarter with the only difference being that Sagapolutele had thrown his second interception of the game at that point and California was not able to come up with one though star linebacker Cade Uluave did have an excellent opportunity to come up with one yet did not.
With Sagapolutele still struggling, Wilcox stubbornly kept him in during the fourth quarter. A quick three and out gave the football right back to Duke.
Blue Devils head coach Manny Diaz wanted to keep the clock moving, so this particular drive was slow and methodical. Jaquez Moore came up with a big 32-yard run and two plays later Mensah found wide receiver Cooper Barkate for a 10-yard touchdown reception.
Once again Wilcox went with Sagapolutele, and he got sacked on first down yet found Raphael on back-to-back completions with each going for 13 yards. The next throw he made was intercepted, his third of the game.
For Duke, it only took two plays to go 51 yards for a touchdown.
With the game out of reach, Wilcox finally decided to pull Sagapolutele. Devin Brown came in, and he got intercepted as well. The Blue Devils picked up two first downs and then ran out the clock with the final score being 45-21.
While California has won four games this year, in their two losses Sagapolutele has played poorly. Completing 37 of 69 passes for 453 yards, a touchdown and five interceptions, he has been sacked 10 times, and even worse the Bears have been outscored 79-21.
Also, Wilcox is known more as a defensive minded head coach, so it makes it even worse that after the Bears took a 21-7 lead during the second quarter, and from that point on, Duke would outscore California 38-0.
There is no justifiable reason for Rivera to keep Wilcox as the head coach of California and he must get relieved of his duties with offensive coordinator Bryan Harsin taking over as the interim head coach.