Episode Details

Justin Wilcox has compiled a long list of accomplishments and signature wins as the Travers Family Head Football Coach and is in his eighth campaign on the job at Cal and first in the Atlantic Coast Conference in 2024. Wilcox is the first Cal head coach to win the Big Game three straight times on the road since Pappy Waldorf captured six straight at Stanford from 1937-51. The 2023 victory at Stanford was Cal's fourth win in the Big Game in the last five meetings, including three in a row overall (2021-23) and three straight on The Farm (2019, '21, '23). The Golden Bears have also won a combined five times over in-state rivals UCLA and USC during Wilcox's tenure, as well as ended long losing streaks Wilcox inherited from his predecessors with multiple victories against Stanford, USC and Washington. In 2018 and 2019, Wilcox led Cal to back-to-back winning campaigns and bowl games for the first time since 2008 and 2009, then returned to a bowl in 2023. The Bears have knocked off five teams that either won Pac-12 titles that season or were reigning league champs during Wilcox's tenure and taken down four AP Top 25 teams in No. 8 Washington State (2017), No. 15 Washington (2018), No. 14 Washington (2019) and No. 23 Oregon (2020).
Most recently, he led the Bears to bowl-eligibility and a Radiance Technologies Independence Bowl selection in 2023 after wins in each of their final three regular-season games at home against Washington State and then on the road at state rivals Stanford and UCLA. Cal's other victories in 2023 came at North Texas in the season opener and at home against Idaho and Arizona State. Five of the team's seven losses were against teams ranked in the AP Top 25 first at No. 5 Washington in its' Pac-12 opener and then in a school-record four straight games against No. 15 Oregon State, at No. 16 Utah, vs. No. 24 USC and at No. 6 Oregon. The Bears also fell to perennial and national powerhouse Auburn in their home opener and Texas Tech in the Radiance Technologies Independence Bowl. All seven teams Cal was defeated by and UCLA played in bowl games with Washington reaching the championship game of the College Football Playoff, while Idaho reached the quarterfinals of the FCS Playoffs.