There’s no question after the 2012 season that Jeff Tedford’s tenure with the California Golden Bears was coming to an end after a 3-9 season. Hired to take his place, Sonny Dykes who coached three seasons at Louisiana Tech (22-15 record).
Known for his high powered offenses while with the Bulldogs it hasn’t translated to any success and likely won’t at least not in the Pac-12. Defenses are too talented and can easily force incomplete passes resulting in drives going nowhere and that’s been the theme of the season especially with the Bears not being able to run the football with much success. Tonight illustrated that point beautifully as in the first four possessions of the game California punted four times and 12 of the 14 plays were passes.
Only one drive resulted in a first down. Against a team ranked no.11 in the country like the Bruins it means the defense has already given up multiple scores and in this case it was a 17-0 deficit. It’s been the theme for the entire season even against Portland State the Bears were trailing by more than one score.
Quarterback Jared Goff has put up some impressive numbers along with wide receivers Bryce Treggs and Chris Harper and it’s out of necessity instead of having a balanced offense. Opponents do not respect the running game at all. Brendan Bigelow has apparently lost his starting job after fumbling four times and he illustrated last season that he has the big play potential considering he carried the ball just 44 times rushed for 431 yards, scored three touchdowns and had a long of 81.
His best game came against Ohio State where he ran for 160 yards on just four carries and scored twice. In 2013 he just hasn’t gotten the opportunity to run through open lanes and mostly he is being hit before he can cut. This is due to Dykes not using tight ends or fullbacks to help create space and it’s not just an issue for Bigelow, Khalfani Muhammad, Daniel Lasco and Jeffrey Coprich. In short yardage situations against the UCLA Richard Rodgers got to carry the football he is now a wide receiver formerly a wide receiver and another former tight end Jacob Wark got a carry as well.
Meaning that Dykes is grasping at straws. Interestingly enough the Bears nearly had their best drive of the season tonight as it kept the Bruins defense on the field, recorded a number of first downs and it involved running the football with Coprich and Muhammad and Goff didn’t need to throw much during that series. What kept it from being the best is the play calling at the end with just three yards to get into the end zone and trailing by 20 with still plenty of time in the fourth quarter the play calling was horrendous.
Rodgers got the ball got to the one-yard line, ran it again for no gain, lost two yards on the third down play. Dykes called a time out to go for it on fourth down and instead of throwing the football went with a quarterback sneak that ended up as a fumble, which pretty much ended the game for the Bears who lost 37-10.
For the first time this season the Bears defense looked good against the run unfortunately quarterback Brett Hundley picked the secondary apart with a variety of passes and he completed 31 of 41 passes for 410 yards and three touchdowns.
Unless something changes drastically there’s no reason to have Dykes return for the 2014 as he’s done a poor job of putting his team in position for success and in most cases doomed to failure. His defense is inexperience especially after the number of injuries, yet his offensive philosophy means it’s on the field for much of the game as it normally takes Goff time to find his rhythm.
To keep the defense fresh the offense needs sustained drives and a more balanced approach. Unfortunately that doesn’t seem like something that Dykes believes in doing, which is why California needs to admit their mistake in hiring Dykes and let him go after the 2013 season especially with the likelihood of going 1-11.
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