The Pac 12 Media Day went as expected for the California Bears.
Coming off a 1-11 season, the Bears open Aug. 30 at Northwestern. Head coach Sonny Dykes admitted Cal Football was just frustrating last season, and claimed that they will improve.
“We were so bad last year, I think the improvement’s going to be pretty obvious,” Dykes said. “We weren’t very competitive last year in a lot of games. That’s going to be the biggest difference, competing in games, giving ourselves an opportunity to win.
“What happened so often last year is midway through the first quarter you’d look up and we were down by 21 points. I think it’s going to be obvious to everybody — our fans, our opponents — that we’re going to be a much-improved football team.”
The interview just confirms that Dykes isn’t one of those annoying, lying to the media coaches. He admits when he does something wrong and takes responsibility for it. What fan wouldn’t love that?
“In our profession, you are kind of what your record says you are. You go from being pretty smart to being pretty dumb overnight,” Dykes said. “It’s a tough thing to live with. It’s a hard thing for a coach to go through.
“We took a lot out of it, learned from it. But you’ve got to put it behind you and move on. I think our players have probably done that in some ways than our coaching staff has.”
This is pretty much the usual stuff, but at least we know that Dykes understands how bad the California Bears were last year. Note that he stressed the record of a team. That is the identity of himself, his players, and the rest of the organization.
Heading into the 2014 season, winning is the only thing that matters. Another season with a 1-11 record and it is pretty obvious that the California Bears must find another coach and rebuild.
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