Accountability And Motivation

Despite all the negative aspects that came out of Saturday's contest against Portland State, I thought a very intriguing aftereffect of Cal's lackluster play was Sonny Dykes and Andy Buh accepting about as much personal responsibility for the Bears' performance as two coaches could possible take.

"I gotta do a better job of getting them ready to play. It all falls on me," was one of several versions of the same statement that both coaches relayed over and over again.

With #17 out indefinitely, I think everyone agrees that big #91 needs to play like he's capable of. (Cal Athletics)

It was quite refreshing to hear that from the Cal coaches and it speaks to how different this regime truly is from the previous one. What really piqued my interest though was Dykes calling out various units and expressing a desire for said units to play better going forward. This was even more true when it came to Deandre Coleman - who by many readings is considered to be the Bears' most sure-fire NFL prospect at this moment.

On the college level, I rarely hear coaches call out players so explicitly through the media and especially not this early in the season. Coleman is obviously a major talent and I think Dykes is pulling every card he can to make sure the defense improves from plain ol' terrible to just plain ol' below average. The fact that Dykes specifically called out Coleman (and not anyone else that I know of so far in his tenure) speaks to how much he values Coleman as a player and also how much Dykes himself feels about his team's defense right now.

We have to get some guys playing up front. Deandre Coleman has been a non-factor at this point. He has to play better, he will play better. We just haven't been able to get the push up front that we need to get. We'll get that. Deandre is a heck of a player and he'll play better and we'll coach him better. -- Coach Dykes. 

It takes a lot of guts and moxie to call your best defensive player a "non-factor" and it'll be very important to watch how Coleman responds come Saturday against Ohio State to get a sense of how much respect Dykes garners from his players. If Coleman comes out and plays like this, then it reflects very positively of Dykes motivational ability and personable skills in knowing what buttons to push. If Coleman comes out and stinks it up again like he did last Saturday, then either:

1. Coleman is just a lazy fart.
2. Dykes can't even motivate his best defensive player to play better when Cal so desperately needs its best defensive player to play better.

Either way, how Coleman responds on Saturday against Ohio State will provide ample evidence to who Dykes is as a head coach and whether he's really "the guy" or not.

GO BEARS!