There's a miasma of unpalatable thoughts about Cal on social media, as jokes about the 2018 Cheez-It Bowl being one of the worst bowl games of all time. While that may not be too far from the truth, the 2018 Cheez-It Bowl will stand out for one reason, which would be Jordan Kunaszyk in the post-game interview room.
The redshirt senior linebacker had a solid game among solid defensive performances. He tied for the team lead in tackles with 14 (Evan Weaver tied him). He had his 1st interception of the year. He finished with the most tackles for loss on the team with 11. He's headed for the NFL. All the accolades, being all Pac-12, all everything, and while Justin Wilcox was answering a question about why they rolled with Chase Forrest for the entirety of the second half, I looked up to see Kunaszyk's face. There was a young man, who gave probably close to everything that he had, with eyes watering and genuine pain on his face, and likely the thought that he could've given more. While the press conference ended abruptly, Kunaszyk took to the mic to say something.
"I just want to say something real quick, to all the media, to my coaches, to my teammates, to the donors, to the alumni, really to everybody, to our AD Mr. Knowlton, I'm just really grateful for all that you guys have done for. It has been my greatest pleasure being a Cal Bear and representing this university. I love this program, it's definitely headed in the right direction with the leadership that we have. I'm a proud alumni, I'm proud to be a Cal Bear, so thank you guys from the bottom of my heart, I'm grateful for everything you guys have done for me."
It's not my job to really opine about everything, but I think you'd be hard-pressed to find a more resilient, impressive young man than Jordan Kunaszyk. This is a young man, coming out of Roseville High School under-sized, but a tackling machine, who bet on himself at American River College. He got hurt his first year, but grew enough to make schools notice, and after a great redshirt freshman year and a late Cal offer, he came to Cal.
One of the first guys I interviewed on the team while doing this job was Jordan Kunaszyk, and he made an effort to know my name after that, even though I didn't interview him again for a few months. He's fanatical in his training and nutrition. He's smart as they come when it comes to football. He cared so damn much about a game some could call meaningless, and that seems meaningful.
"I just--I could sit here for hours and talk about him and what he's meant for our program," Wilcox said, "and a number of other guys too, but jordan has worked for everything he's got, never been handed anything along the way. And his demeanor and his work ethic and his attention to detail and how he prepares to help our team in not only practice and meetings, but the locker room and how he acts outside of our building, he's just such a great example for all of our other players and for all of us and what it means to be a Cal football player."
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Sentimentality aside, there's a lot to say about this game, which saw the Bears have their highest interception count since 2008. It's a game that you can't entirely take away too much from, just because there is no game on the other side. We're going to put out some thoughts out, with stats and whatnot
- Jaylinn Hawkins won the defensive MVP with three interceptions, two coming on illegal forward passes that got declined. Hawkins finishes the year with 6 INTs, as Cal finished with 21 total interceptions, tops among Power 5 schools (at the moment)
- Chase Forrest got his first action of the year, as he was one of two 5th year QBs to stay with their teams and not start a game, before this year, Grayson Muehlstein was the other.
- Cam Bynum told media that he'll be back for the 2019 season. Three players will graduate, in Chris Palmer, Kunaszyk, and Alex Funches, with the entire DB room returning. There's potential for even more growth from the group in 2019.
- Pat Laird fell short of his 1000 yard mark, as he didn't play most of the second half. Chris Brown took nearly every snap as Laird was out with an unspecified injury. Brown finished with 14 carries for 57 yards
- The nine total interceptions are tied for a bowl game record.
- TCU had a remarkable stat coming into this game, being 22-1 when winning time of possession. Make that 23-1, as the TCU RBs chipped away little by little to wear down the defense.
- McCallan Castles had his first career reception, a 15 yard reception on a bootleg which hopefully will be a sign to come for him
- Regarding the offense, a whole lot of people are saying a whole lot of things about the group, sentiments that have been echoed throughout the season. What Justin Wilcox said in the aftermath of the game on that note was this:
"We do an in-depth analysis on ourselves at every level, every position, everything we're doing, the way we're coaching, teaching, the schematics that we're using, the communication lines, all those things. What do we need to do to improve at every single level of our program?
"And that's my job to help facilitate that. And so I know we have some great people on our program. We have to improve. There's areas that we obviously have to get better. And so that will be--I mean, starting tonight. And there will be a deep dive, and we'll discuss it as a group in January for many, many hours."
Whether that comes for staff changes is unclear. Beau Baldwin has been hyped to work with some new players, as Devon Modster and Kekoa Crawford could add different dimensions to the Cal offense, along with a readymade RB starter in Deshawn Collins.
- At the end of the day it comes down to finishing opportunities. Cal went 1-2 in the redzone, with 7 points off 4 turnovers. At the end of the day, that's not enough.
