Bears Ponder What Might Have Been; Utah's Culture Clash; Poetic Justice for Kelly; More Staff Bloat

When Cal fans look back on the 2024 football season, It will be remembered as "the year that might have been."

The Golden Bears are 5-4 after a 46-36 win at Wake Forest Friday night, but they could easily be 8-1 or 9-0.

Consider Cal's four losses, by a total of nine points:

• 14-9 to Florida State, due to missed field goals of 38 and 36 yards

• 17-15 to Pitt, which was unbeaten at the time, due to a missed 40-yard field goal with 1:50 remaining

• 39-38 to Miami, also unbeaten at the time, after holding a 35-10 lead late in the third quarter

• 24-23 to North Carolina State, due to a missed chip shot 28-yard field goal with a minute and a half remaining

  
  

In three of the four losses (all except Miami), Cal outgained its opponents and had a huge advantage in first downs and time of possession.

By all rights, Coach Justin Wilcox's team should be at least 7-2 or 8-1, if not undefeated. 

Quarterback Fernando Mendoza has developed into a solid threat as a passer and runner. He threw for 385 yards against Wake Forest, accounting for two scores passing and one running. 

In Mikey Matthews and transfers Tobias Merriweather (Notre Dame) and Kylon Graves (Ohio State)--both of whom played for the first time Friday night after recovering from injuries)--along with star tight end Jack Endries, Mendoza has four excellent targets.

The Bears have two explosive running backs in Jayden Ott and Javian Thomas, and their always-tough defense is led by cornerback Nohl Williams, who has emerged as an All-American candidate with a nation-leading seven interceptions.

The Bears should end up in a decent bowl game. They will be favored against Syracuse and Stanford, before finishing up against a very tough SMU team, currently ranked No. 14. 

But 7-5 will be something of a disappointment in a season that could have easily been 10-2.

Utes Culture Clash: It's been a disappointing year for Utah football coach Kyle Whittingham. His Utes were picked by most pundits to win the Big 12 Conference. 

Instead, after opening with four straight wins, Utah has lost five in a row, including a heart-breaking 22-21 defeat at the hands of unbeaten arch rival BYU on Saturday night.

The Utes have suffered from the loss of injury-prone quarterback Cam Rising. But Whittingham feels there is another issue at play.

Whittingham believes it's much more difficult to build a winning team culture in the NIL/transfer portal era. 

"Before the advent of the portal, you might replace 25 guys out of 125 on your team. Now you're replacing 45-plus," Whittinghams says. "And the culture...before you had 100 guys teaching 25 guys how we do our thing, and now it's almost a 50/50 split, the new guys as opposed to the guys that have been in the program.

"I don't want to say it's like you're hiring mercenaries every year, but it's a situation where you've got to collect as much talent as quickly as you can and then hope it gels and comes together and you get results. It is a different approach and different strategy than when you had guys just marinate in your program for four, five, six years."

Whoops, Sorry: Brian Kelly's LSU Tigers were essentially eliminated from playoff consideration Saturday when his team was demolished by Alabama, 42-13.

You'll recall Kelly left Notre Dame three years ago because he believed he'd have a better shot at winning a national championship at LSU, where he wouldn't have to deal with Notre Dame's more stringent academic requirements and its independent status, which makes playoff selection more iffy.

Instead, LSU is 6-3. Notre Dame is 8-1.

Kelly is known throughout the college football world for his messy departures from coaching jobs, not to mention his smug, arrogant attitude.

Three years ago, while his Notre Dame team waited to see if it made the College Football Playoff, Kelly took the LSU job. His players learned their coach had departed from news reports.

Long after the news broke, Kelly sent them a text saying, "whoops, sorry," and asking them to report for a team meeting the next day at 7 a.m. He spoke to his players for 11 minutes and then rushed out.

Back in 2009, when he left Cincinnati for Notre Dame, Kelly showed up for the team banquet escorted by two police officers. When the banquet ended, he quickly told the team he had accepted the Notre Dame job, at which point the policemen ushered him out of the room.

Kelly never explained why he felt he needed police protection. Perhaps he thought the team would jump him after he revealed he was leaving.

Before Cincinnati, Kelly had won Division II national championships at Grand Valley State, which he termed his "dream job." 

Back then, Kelly said "I have what I consider the finest job in college football. I have the opportunity to compete for national championships and not have the trappings of the Division I arena, the incredible pressure to win at all costs. I have absolutely found the job I want."

Well, now he's at a place that does want to win at all costs, a place that fired its coach a year after he won the national title.

Since this is his third straight three-loss season, Kelly may soon find himself on a very warm seat.

Administrative Bloat Update: First there were "Assistant" Athletic Directors. Then there were "Associate" Athletic Directors. Then came "Deputy" Athletic Directors. 

Then there were "Senior" Assistant and Associate and Deputy ADs. Next came "Executive" Assistant and Associate and Deputy ADs.  

But somehow, the geniuses who run college athletic departments have had to add another level of bureaucracy. So now we have, ta da, "Executive Senior" Assistant and Associate and Deputy ADs at several schools.

What's next? "Principal Executive Senior" or "Super Senior Executive?"

I think we've reached the point where it's gotten ridiculous.