UCLA Football Preview: UC Berkeley's Wilcox on the Hot Seat?
The Golden Bears look to become bowl-eligible for the first time since 2019.
Justin Wilcox is now in his seventh season at UC Berkeley. Overall, his record at Berkeley is an underwhelming 35-42. This season, he’s 5-6. So, his team is playing for bowl eligibility tomorrow. In addition to that, if the Bears beat UCLA tomorrow, it would be just the third time in Wilcox’s seven years at the school that UC Berkeley finished with at least a .500 record.
There’s been speculation that Wilcox could be on the hot seat. So, the Golden Bears may need a win tomorrow to save his job. Realistically, he may have done that last weekend by beating lowly Stanford, 27-15. In fact, his five conference losses this year are almost forgiveable, considering who they came against.
This year, the Bears have lost to Washington, Oregon State, Utah, Southern Cal and Oregon. And, of course, the Southern Cal loss was somewhat self-inflicted by going for two instead of taking the tie and going to overtime at home.
In Wilcox’s favor, at least he didn’t lose to Arizona State, unlike Chip Kelly.
So, will Wilcox keep his job as UC Berkeley heads off to the ACC? That’s to be determined.
In his favor, Wilcox did change most of his offensive staff after last season. He fired offensive coordinator Bill Musgrave, offensive line coach Angus McClure and tight ends coach Geep Chryst who served as interim offensive coordinator last season after Musgrave was fired.
In their places, Wilcox hired Jake Spavital as his new offensive coordinator, Mike Bloesch as his new offensive line coach, and Tim Plough as his new tight ends coach. Wilcox has already improved the Golden Bears’ win total over last season.
Spavital returns to Berkeley after spending 2016 as Sonny Dykes’ offensive coordinator. Since that season, he was the OC at West Virginia in 2017 and 2018 before being named the head coach at Texas State, where he led the Bobcats for four seasons. He was fired by Texas State last year after going 13-35 at the school.
Bloesch joins Wilcox’s staff after serving as the offensive line coach and offensive coordinator for North Texas since 2020. During his time there, the Mean Green appeared in three bowl games in three years.
Tim Plough joins the Bears’ staff after serving the past two seasons as the offensive coordinator at Boise State.
In contrast, the defensive side of the coaching staff remained fully intact from last year. Peter Sirmon is now in his sixth season with the Bears and his fourth as Wilcox’s defensive coordinator and inside linebackers coach. If there’s an area needing improvement, it’s on the defensive side of the ball. Sirmon’s defense is ranked 112th of 130 FBS schools. If there’s a bright side, the Golden Bears’ defense is ranked 45th in the nation against the run, averaging 139.7 yards per game. On the flip side, UC Berkeley’s pass defense is one of the worst in the nation, ranking 125th and giving up an average of 280.1 yards per game.
Let’s look at the Golden Bears’ special teams.
Special Teams
Michael Luckhurst, the son of former Golden Bears’ and Atlanta Falcons’ kicker Mick Luckhurst, began the season as UC Berkeley’s starting kicker, but after making just three of nine field goal attempts in non-conference play, freshman Mateen Bhaghani took over field goal duties. Bhaghani has made four of his five attempts and his longest came from 43, which was his only attempt from more than 40 yards. Five of Luckhurst’s six misses all came from beyond 40 yards. So, don’t expect the Bears to be trying any very long field goals tomorrow.
Meanwhile, expect to see Luckhurst kicking off most of the time. He’s kicked off 51 times and only had ten kickoffs go for touchbacks. He’s averaging 60.5 yards per kickoff. Bhaghani has kicked off 12 times this season, but none since he took over field goal duties with good reason. Just one of his 12 kickoffs went for touchbacks and he is averaging just 54.8 yards per kickoff.
So, no matter which guy kicks off, and it will likely be Luckhurst, expect the kicks to be returnable by the Bruins.
Redshirt junior punter Lachlan Wilson transferred to Berkeley this season from Tulsa where he was from 2019 until 2022. The 25-year old Wilson came to Tulsa after playing Australian Rules Football in his native Australia. He’s averaging 45.09 yards per punt and has punted 44 times this season. His longest punt went for 60 yards and he’s had just two touchbacks. Eleven of his punts have been fair caught and twelve of them have landed inside the 20. Wilson is on the final watch list for the Ray Guy Award, which is presented to the best punter in the country.
Junior receiver Jeremiah Hunter has returned all but one of Berkeley’s punt returns this year. His longest this season went for just 13 yards and he has just 24 total punt returns yards. So, Hunter isn’t exactly a dangerous return man.
Six different guys have returned kickoffs this season for the Bears. Redshirt sophomore Mavin Anderson has the best average on the team with an average of 17.43 yards per return and a long of 19 yards. He’s returned seven kickoffs this season. Junior defensive back Lu-Magia Hearns III has returned eight kickoffs this year. He’s averaging just 14.75 yards per return with a long of 17 yards. The last time one of those two guys didn’t return a kickoff was four weeks ago against Southern Cal when Nohl Williams returned a kickoff for 26 yards.
Again, none of the UC Berkeley kick returners seem like “the dreaded dangerous return man.”
Go Bruins!!!
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Sorry to see the PAC 12 go, but praying that with the Midwestern and Eastern Big 10 teams the 7:00-7:30 games are a thing of the past.
Joe thank you for your write up. Another late starting game. Hoping most the nation will be in bed before it starts. Its got to be college football's crummy game of the week.