Media Whacks Gilbertson, Just Like Wac
These are not the best of times for Keith Gilbertson.
The former Idaho head football coach, now in his fourth season in that capacity at California, has his Golden Bears 0-2 against Western Athletic Conference teams for the second time in two years.
Cal, after being picked in the preseason Top 25 by several college football publications, opened the year with a humbling 33-9 road loss to San Diego State and then christened the new natural-grass playing surface at Memorial Stadium with a 25-24 loss to Fresno State.
The poor start has prompted at least once columnist to call Gilbertson’s job.
“Keith Gilbertson must go,” Glenn Dickey wrote in the San Francisco Chronicle Monday. “Cal’s second straight 0-2 opening against Western Athletic Conference teams only emphasizes the obvious: Gilbertson doesn’t have what it takes to be a head coach in the Pac-10. Maybe not in the WAC, either.”
Dickey went on to point out that buying out Gilbertson’s contract, which was extended following the Bears’ 37-3 win over Iowa two years ago, will be an expensive proposition.
But he said it would be worth it, considering only 36,500 fans - 40,000 short of capacity - showed up for the San Diego State game.
Dickey suggested that chancellor Chang-Lin Tien promote assistant Artie Gigantino to head coach at the end of the regular season and get rid of Gilbertson and the rest of his staff.
“Except for defensive coordinator Artie Gigantino, Gilbertson has surrounded himself with weak assistants,” Dickey wrote. “Individual players, such as (quarterback Pat) Barnes, don’t improve as they should, and the team is often ill-prepared for games.”
Two of Gilbertson’s assistants, running backs coach Tim Lappano and tight ends and special teams coach Scott Auker, formerly coached at Washington State. Both are Idaho graduates, as are two other members of Gilbertson’s staff - offensive line coach Tom Cable and wide receivers coach Curtis Johnson.
Aside from purging the current staff, Dickey says Cal administrators are left with only one other option, that of finding a conference in which the Bears can win using Gilbertson’s style of play. “Obviously, that’s neither the Pac-10 nor the WAC,” Dickey concluded.
Bruins getting better
The injury situation at UCLA might not be as crippling as suspected following the Bruins’ 23-9 win over Brigham Young Saturday.
In that game, tailback Karim Abdul-Jabbar bruised his lower back, quarterback Ryan Fien suffered his second concussion in two weeks and receiver Kevin Jordan twisted his neck.
It had been thought that all three might miss this Saturday’s Pac-10 opener against Oregon.
Fien, a 6-foot-4, 215-pound junior, will. But Jordan has been declared fit to play, and the status of Abdul-Jabbar has been upgraded from doubtful to “very questionable” by Bruins coach Terry Donahue.
Fien was expected to miss at least three games, but now school officials are saying he might miss just one.
That would put him back in time UCLA’s Sept. 23 Pac-10 matchup against WSU in Pullman.
Huskies lose center
Washington is without starting center Lynn Johnson for at least four weeks because of a broken right hand suffered in the Sept. 2 opener against Arizona State.
No break was apparent in X-rays taken right after the game, but it showed up in those taken last week after Johnson continued to feel discomfort in the hand.
Fifth-year senior Trever Highfield will move from his starting weakside guard spot to take over for Johnson in Saturday’s game against 10th-ranked Ohio State.
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