Pac-12 football: New coach Justin Wilcox tries to lift Cal from the bottom of the North

Not even a goal-line stand against Utah enabled Sonny Dykes to keep his job as California’s football coach.

The Bears’ unlikely stop that preserved an October victory was among the program’s rare defensive highlights in Dykes’ four-year tenure — which lasted a month beyond the end of the 2016 season, in unusual timing for a coaching change. His replacement, Justin Wilcox, comes from a defensive background with coordinator positions at various schools, including Washington, USC and Wisconsin.

The irony is that the firing of Dykes, who brought the Air Raid offense to Berkeley, was intended to energize Cal’s fan base and increase support. The athletic department is faced with a major budget deficit.

Wilcox’s job is win games and drive interest in the Bears. He’s turning over the offense to former Eastern Washington coach Beau Baldwin, while implementing his 3-4 defensive scheme with help from coordinator Tim DeRuyter, formerly Fresno State’s coach.

“We have a lot of experience coming back, especially on the front seven,” Wilcox said during the Pac-12 Football Media Days last month. “We also feel really good about guys that are going to step up and take on some bigger roles. We feel like the transition throughout spring was really good; [the players] picked up the system very fast. It’s a smart bunch of guys, and they’re eager to get back on the field and continue to learn.”

The Bears have a lot of work to do. Athlon Sports ranks each of Cal’s position groups 11^th or 12^th in the conference — other than the receivers, who are fourth. That’s factoring in the loss of receiver Chad Hansen, so Demetris Robertson and Melquise Stovall are highly regarded. Three quarterbacks — sophomore Ross Bowers, transfer Brandon McIlwain and freshman Chase Garbers — remain in the race, according to the San Francisco Chronicle. The new starter will replace Davis Webb, who played one season as a graduate transfer.

Cal will skip Utah in the Pac-12′s scheduling rotation in 2017 and ’18, but the Bears will host Weber State in September and visit BYU next year.

Like any new coach, Wilcox wants to establish his program and he likes the Bears’ “willingness to accept change,” he said, “because everything was brand new to them, from their strength and conditioning, to the offense and defense and special teams, just how we operated. It’s not saying how they did it before was wrong, but we’re just going to do it differently.”