Cal Absorbs Final Defeat Under Gilby

They embraced at midfield of Stanford Stadium as the clock sputtered out its final seconds Saturday. One coach was trim and vibrant and could be on the way to a bowl game in his first season. He was soaked. His players had doused him with the water cooler.

The other coach was dumpy and beleaguered. He was soaked too. The sweat had saturated his shirt. This was his final game as coach. He gets fired now.

Stanford’s Tyrone Willingham threw his arms around Cal’s Keith Gilbertson when the Big Game was done, when his Cardinal had defeated the Bears 29-24, and he offered the advice given every coach on his way to the guillotine: “Keep your head up.”

Gilbertson’s legacy appears to be sealed as Cal coach. He won 20 games. Lost 26.

Two years ago, the Bears were 9-4 and winners of the Alamo Bowl. He was rewarded with a five-year contract. That was a victory, a season, born out of the success of his predecessors’ players. Gilbertson’s recruits infiltrated the program, and two seasons of losing ensued, culminating with a 3-8 closure this fall.

He has three years left on his contract, and it appears Cal officials are going to buy out the rest of his deal and end his four-year tenure.

Gilbertson’s career turned so suddenly. He was enormously successful at Division I-AA Idaho and as offensive coordinator for 1992 national champion Washington. He had the credentials to sustain the success Bruce Snyder had started in Berkeley before he left for Arizona State. Nevertheless, it appears they will remember him at Cal for losing 13 of his final 17 games as coach.

So it had come to this: As sure as Gilbertson has eaten all the cheesecake, he will be fired. He will be handed a generous departing check - maybe a couple of hundred grand - and asked to clean out his desk and hand back his clipboard. He goes to the back of the line. Maybe he gets a coordinator’s job for a top 25 team next season. Yet this was his one chance to succeed as a big-time coach, and one chance is usually all a man gets.

Twenty-five minutes had passed since the game ended, and Gilbertson emerged from the locker room to talk. His eyes were red and swelling. He had been crying.

A Stanford fan was watching everything on a ledge overlooking the locker room, screaming the unkindest of words: “Find a new coach,” the fool barked. “Find a new coach.”

Gilbertson glared. Oh, the indignity of it all. Essentially asked to offer the eulogy at his own coaching funeral, and there is a squirrelly and cowardice fan - a man Gilbertson could crush with his hands - heckling him as he tried to hold his final news conference. Such indignity.

Everyone close to the Cal program had been impressed with the way Gilbertson handled himself this season. Every week the stories and rumors of his imminent demise gathered momentum. Not once, his players say, had ever implored them to win for him. To save his job.

Right down until the end.

“We’ve been emotionally close to this coaching staff,” Cal senior Dante DePaola said. “We knew about his status all season, and it’s tough to get out of your head. I know these decisions are made by wins and losses - that’s the nature of the game - but the way we feel about him should be taken into account.”

Darkness has hovered over this entire Cal season, ever since it started with losses to San Diego State and Fresno State.

“You don’t like getting up and reading about you’ve got four days left … three days left … two days left to coach your team,” Gilbertson said. “Who wouldn’t be affected by that?”

Stanford 29, Cal 24

California 0 10 7 7 - 24

Stanford 0 10 7 12 - 29

Sta-FG Abrams 41

Cal-FG Longwell 46

Sta-Comella 3 run (Abrams kick)

Cal-Gonzalez 23 pass from Barnes (Longwell kick)

Sta-Mitchell 7 run (Abrams kick)

Cal-Rutherford 1 run (Longwell kick)

Sta-Mitchell 5 run (kick failed)

Sta-Harris 7 pass from Butterfield (pass failed)

Cal-Benjamin 11 pass from Barnes (Longwell kick)

A-72,893.

Cal Stan First downs 24 26 Rushes-yards 31-130 50-246 Passing 334 207 Return Yards 21 10 Comp-Att-Int 29-43-0 17-26-0 Punts 5-39 5-41 Fumbles-Lost 1-1 3-1 Penalties-Yards 7-76 7-55 Time of Possession 28:31 31:29

RUSHINGCalifornia, Rutherford 28-114, Tavake 3-16. Stanford, Mitchell 26-138, Bookman 12-95, Comella 5-27, Salina 2-4, Butterfield 5-(minus-18).

PASSINGCalifornia, Barnes 29-43-0-334. Stanford, Butterfield 17-26-0-207.

RECEIVINGCalifornia, Gonzalez 10-150, Benjamin 7-81, Rutherford 6-51, Douglas 3-31, Shaw 1-11, Tavake 1-8, Bullard 1-2. Stanford, Bookman 5-54, Harris 4-72, Manning 4-45, Clark 2-19, Mitchell 2-17.