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Bill Oram sports column: Cal football coach Justin Wilcox on ‘shameful’ end of Pac-12
Published: Nov. 03, 2023, 11:30 a.m.
By Bill Oram | The Oregonian/OregonLive
Justin Wilcox was a ballboy at Autzen Stadium in the 1980s, seeing Troy Aikman and Rodney Peete and the other stars of the Pac-10.
“I remember being on the sidelines watching the players from all these different schools that would come into town,” Wilcox said. “I grew up around the conference, have appreciation for it and the rivalries in it.”
When he wasn’t at games, he would tune in on the radio while on deer hunting trips in eastern Oregon. That’s where he was when the Ducks upset No. 4 BYU and Heisman Trophy winner Ty Detmer.
Wilcox’s Oregon origins have been well told. The son of an Oregon football legend who grew up at the literal intersection of the Oregon-Oregon State rivalry, a farm kid in Junction City. He and his brother, Josh, both played at Oregon. Josh as a tight end, Justin a defensive back.
But this week, Wilcox is once again the head coach on the opposite sideline, leading the California Golden Bears into Autzen Stadium for the end of yet another longstanding conference rivalry.
“It sucks,” Wilcox said this week. “It just shouldn’t have happened.”
He lays the blame square at the feet of conference leaders, meaning the past two Pac-12 commissioners, Larry Scott and George Kliavkoff, as well as university presidents.
“People making decisions lacked the humility, or were too arrogant, however you want to phrase it, when it came time to make decisions on behalf of the conference,” Wilcox said. “So that led us to where we are now.”
The man who grew up watching schools from Los Angeles and Seattle and Arizona roll through Eugene will now take the Golden Bears on road trips to Tallahassee, Pittsburgh and Winston-Salem. For conference games.
Does it make sense? Of course not.
“I’m excited for our future as a football program to go into ACC play,” Wilcox said. “Those teams are storied teams, but doesn’t make it less disappointing how things ended with the Pac-12 Conference and the past year.”
Wilcox is in his seventh season at Cal, where his teams have gone 33-41. He’s also coached at Washington and USC throughout his career. He is as Pac-12 as it gets, but also as Oregon as it gets. Before Dan Lanning was hired in 2022, Wilcox reportedly turned down the chance to coach his alma mater and signed an extension to stay in Berkeley.
On Saturday, the Ducks will honor Wilcox’s father, former Football Hall of Famer Dave Wilcox, who died in April. When we spoke this week, Wilcox said he wasn’t looking at Saturday’s return to Autzen through the lens of his father’s passing earlier this year or what his dad would have thought about the changes underway in college football.
“His and my relationship was exponentially bigger than a conference or a football team or a football game,” Wilcox said.
This week, he was focused on getting his 3-5 football team ready to face the Oregon juggernaut. The Ducks are playing like the conference’s best team and have a clear path to the College Football Playoff if they win out.
“The Ducks are really talented,” Wilcox said. “They’ve assembled a really talented team. We’ll have to obviously play really well.”
Asked if he had considered the possibility that this could be his last time coaching on the sidelines he manned as a ballboy more than three decades ago, he said, “I don’t think about it that way. My job is to help prepare our team, who will play our best football on Saturday. That’s all I’m concerned with. And when it comes to, it might be my last time here, I just never think, it was not about me, like this is about our team and their team.”
And his final thoughts on realignment?
“I know there’s going to be all these reasons from the leadership that, ‘Oh, this is why,’ and, ‘It’s complex,’” he said. “I’m just a dumb football coach.”
But ...
“It’s just shameful that it happened this way.”
https://www.oregonlive.com/collegefootball/2023/11/bill-oram-cal-coach-justin-wilcox-on-shameful-end-of-pac-12.html
Published: Nov. 03, 2023, 11:30 a.m.
By Bill Oram | The Oregonian/OregonLive
Justin Wilcox was a ballboy at Autzen Stadium in the 1980s, seeing Troy Aikman and Rodney Peete and the other stars of the Pac-10.
“I remember being on the sidelines watching the players from all these different schools that would come into town,” Wilcox said. “I grew up around the conference, have appreciation for it and the rivalries in it.”
When he wasn’t at games, he would tune in on the radio while on deer hunting trips in eastern Oregon. That’s where he was when the Ducks upset No. 4 BYU and Heisman Trophy winner Ty Detmer.
Wilcox’s Oregon origins have been well told. The son of an Oregon football legend who grew up at the literal intersection of the Oregon-Oregon State rivalry, a farm kid in Junction City. He and his brother, Josh, both played at Oregon. Josh as a tight end, Justin a defensive back.
But this week, Wilcox is once again the head coach on the opposite sideline, leading the California Golden Bears into Autzen Stadium for the end of yet another longstanding conference rivalry.
“It sucks,” Wilcox said this week. “It just shouldn’t have happened.”
He lays the blame square at the feet of conference leaders, meaning the past two Pac-12 commissioners, Larry Scott and George Kliavkoff, as well as university presidents.
“People making decisions lacked the humility, or were too arrogant, however you want to phrase it, when it came time to make decisions on behalf of the conference,” Wilcox said. “So that led us to where we are now.”
The man who grew up watching schools from Los Angeles and Seattle and Arizona roll through Eugene will now take the Golden Bears on road trips to Tallahassee, Pittsburgh and Winston-Salem. For conference games.
Does it make sense? Of course not.
“I’m excited for our future as a football program to go into ACC play,” Wilcox said. “Those teams are storied teams, but doesn’t make it less disappointing how things ended with the Pac-12 Conference and the past year.”
Wilcox is in his seventh season at Cal, where his teams have gone 33-41. He’s also coached at Washington and USC throughout his career. He is as Pac-12 as it gets, but also as Oregon as it gets. Before Dan Lanning was hired in 2022, Wilcox reportedly turned down the chance to coach his alma mater and signed an extension to stay in Berkeley.
On Saturday, the Ducks will honor Wilcox’s father, former Football Hall of Famer Dave Wilcox, who died in April. When we spoke this week, Wilcox said he wasn’t looking at Saturday’s return to Autzen through the lens of his father’s passing earlier this year or what his dad would have thought about the changes underway in college football.
“His and my relationship was exponentially bigger than a conference or a football team or a football game,” Wilcox said.
This week, he was focused on getting his 3-5 football team ready to face the Oregon juggernaut. The Ducks are playing like the conference’s best team and have a clear path to the College Football Playoff if they win out.
“The Ducks are really talented,” Wilcox said. “They’ve assembled a really talented team. We’ll have to obviously play really well.”
Asked if he had considered the possibility that this could be his last time coaching on the sidelines he manned as a ballboy more than three decades ago, he said, “I don’t think about it that way. My job is to help prepare our team, who will play our best football on Saturday. That’s all I’m concerned with. And when it comes to, it might be my last time here, I just never think, it was not about me, like this is about our team and their team.”
And his final thoughts on realignment?
“I know there’s going to be all these reasons from the leadership that, ‘Oh, this is why,’ and, ‘It’s complex,’” he said. “I’m just a dumb football coach.”
But ...
“It’s just shameful that it happened this way.”
https://www.oregonlive.com/collegefootball/2023/11/bill-oram-cal-coach-justin-wilcox-on-shameful-end-of-pac-12.html
