Beating Long Beach State, the Gold Coast champ, was as good as hanging with USC. At some point the Ags should probably leave the WWPA and join our Big West brethren in the Gold Coast, but let's enjoy this for the present.

UPDATE: Sunday's championship final: Cal 13, USC 12.

"There are no moral victories," but this was a moral victory.

With only SDSU at Sac left to play the home team has won every second round game.

USC defeated the Ags, 11-8, in an NCAA Men’s Water Polo Championship semifinal this afternoon.

UPDATE: Cal 15, UCLA 13 (OT)

Cal will play USC in final on Sunday afternoon.

This is only the 10th or 11th season the Bobcats have competed in intercollegiate athletics. The school was founded in 2005 and had only club and IM sports until 2011 when they joined the NAIA and the California Pacific Conference.

This is the fight for the top UC in the Central Valley!!! I don't even want to think what would happen if the Ags pull another Academy of Arts performance.

Ags defeated Long Beach State, 9-8, in OT in an NCAA quarterfinal match at UCLA this afternoon. This is a great upset win. They now advance to the semifinals for the first time ever where the will play top seeded USC. Host UCLA defeated Princeton, 12-6, in the other quarterfinal match and will meet Cal in the semifinals. Semifinals will be played on Saturday and the finals on Sunday.

EDIT: Typing as I walk the dog and duplicated BlueGoldAg. My apologies, but this is a win for the program that is worth repeating!!

I'm usually up a couple of times between 1:00 and 2:30 anyway.

My TV says PAC-12 Network will rebroadcast game at 1:00 AM.

At the risk of going back down a road we traveled a couple of days ago, Les should invite Coach Gross to speak at one if his team building morale sessions.

A couple of articles from Hero Sports looking ahead to this weekend’s FCS playoff games. Both articles favor SDSU to defeat Sac.

Favorites To Win The 2021 FCS National Title, Ranked 16-1
https://herosports.com/fcs-football-favorites-2021-national-title-16-bzbz/

FCS Playoffs: Ranking The Most Likely Second-Round ‘Upsets’
https://herosports.com/fcs-playoffs-2021-likely-second-round-upsets-bzbz/

Years ago I went to a USC game at Notre Dame. At some point the Notre Dame band lined up in front of the USC rooting section and played the USC fight song. Very impressive. It almost makes me want to say something nice about Notre Dame.

Seeing a game at the Notre Dame stadium, especially a rivalry game, in October when the Midwest is in full autumn display is a bucket list experience.

…above the table.

I’ve had a secret wish list that Cal might drop Wilcox and hire Taylor. There was a rumor that UW would go after Wilcox. This may work.

Cal’s postponed game with USC throws a wrench in all of this. Schools changing coaches are on a new hurry up schedule with the December early signing date.

And on the subject of coaching hires there is a story that Kelly will get a ten year contract wort over $100 million!!!

A lot of that is probably private/donor money but you wonder how much of that is government money and how far that would go if applied to general education in Louisiana.

And Riley’s contract at USC is around $110 million including a $6 million home (which in LA county could be a modest fixer-upper,) and 24/7 access to a private jet. SC is probably still paying millions for civil litigation in a harassment case involving a campus health physician…and I believe at one time was paying three head football coaches - Kiffin, Sarkisian, and Helton.

But I digress…

Next rumor: Brian Kelly leaving Notre Dame for LSU.

I guess beating Davis wasn't enough to keep the job.

Justin Clymo is the Director of Athletics and Head Boys Basketball Coach at Robert Louis Stevenson School in Pebble Beach, CA. He has taught high school for over 20 years. He spent nine years at El Camino High School in Sacramento, CA where he served as the head basketball coach in addition to coaching the boys golf and cross country teams. In 2008 he led the Eagles to the CIF Sac-Joaquin section championship where they defeated eventual state finalist Sacramento HS by scoring a section record 59 second half points. He spent two years at Palma School, an all boys’ Catholic school, where he taught English and religious studies and served as the Physical Education department chair while coaching basketball and baseball. Justin returned to [the Stevenson School,] his alma mater in 2010 as the Director of Activities, a position he held until his appointment as Director of Athletics in 2017. He has coached cross country and he coached the girls basketball team to a CIF Central Coast section semi-finals appearance in 2015 and has led the boys team to the semi-finals three times since taking over in 2016. Before his time at El Camino, he coached for Bob Williams and Brian Fogel at UC Davis where they won the 1998 NCAA division II national championship.

Hot Seat Week 13: With the regular season over, will more jobs start opening up?
Florida State, Miami and Stanford are next in line to potentially make a change.
...
Here are the list of jobs that could open up with the regular season done, and are worth monitoring for college football fans going forward.
...
David Shaw, Stanford
It was another down season at Stanford for Shaw, who is starting to feel the pressure build after a successful run until recent seasons. The Cardinal have had resources and cache but recruiting has been an issue due to the school’s lofty academic standards. Unlike some of the other coaches on this list. Shaw has had some success early in his tenure. That might be enough to allow him to stick around through one more coaching cycle.

Justin Wilcox, California
Cal is not in the business of competing for national championships in football every year but the program does have a baseline for success. Wilcox seemed to be on an upward trajectory after his first three seasons before plummeting to four wins over the last two seasons. The Bears can still get a win when they play USC next week, although that won’t get them to a bowl game. The only way Wilcox gets a reprieve is if the administration decides the COVID pandemic played a big hand in the team’s recent failures. Wilcox’s name has also been floated around for the Washington opening, so Cal’s decision could be made for them by a Pac-12 North rival.

https://dknation.draftkings.com/2021/11/28/22805648/college-football-week-13-coaching-hot-seat-manny-diaz-david-shaw-mike-norvell-justin-wilcox

Heard that. Also saw a rumor the other day that Lane Kiffin might head back to USC. This is the craziest year I can recall for coaching rumors. Heck this has been a crazy couple of years for rumors of any kind. Thank goodness we don't talk politics here.

EDIT: The Lincoln Riley rumor seems to be that rare type of rumor - a true one.
https://www.espn.com/college-football/story/_/id/32737893/lincoln-riley-leaving-oklahoma-become-usc-head-football-coach-sources-say

A couple of bad years in the midst of all that has gone on over the last couple of seasons? Stanford isn't the SEC and it can't be easy to recruit there. They should keep him.

(This probably isn't a good year to start shopping for coaches. Can you compete with USC, Florida, LSU, etc. on the job market?)

Maybe we need someone like that guy at Sacramento State.