Cal heads to Auburn this week as its competition ramps up in Week 2. The Bears nearly pulled out a victory over the Tigers last season in Berkeley but will now head to SEC Country to face Auburn at Jordan-Hare Stadium.

Both teams are coming off wins in Week 1 with the Bears taking down UC Davis, 31-13, and the Tigers defeating Alabama A&M, 73-3.

Tuesday, Cal head coach Justin Wilcox met with reporters to discuss his team's first victory, assess what he noticed on film and look ahead to this week's matchup.

Below is a full transcript from the nearly 16-minute media session.

Yeah. Grayes, we’re hopeful. Ott, probable. Sioape, we’ll see as the week goes on. Same with McDonald. Tobias, we’ll know more this afternoon. I don’t have a confirmation one way or the other on all those guys right yet.

I think a lot of it was pretty clear even right after the game. You always learn a little bit more as you go through the video and hit the coaching points with the staff and the players post game. I think the obvious were the statistics, first half versus second half, and all the all the things on both sides of the ball that went with that. I think from 10,000 feet, we were really excited to play, and the guys on the team were really, really eager to get out there and compete. And I think maybe some of that got in our way a little bit. Sometimes you gotta learn to manage that energy that you have on game day. And, being in the red, as we call it, doesn't always equate to playing great football. And I think that happened to us a little bit, just the excitement of the first game, the energy of that first game, and wanting to do so well. So learning how to manage that and get ourselves in the zone for peak performance is going to be a key going forward. I was really proud of how they played through some not so great football on both sides of the ball and competed all the way to the end of the game and played much better in the second half. But, the obvious things that we talked about after the game were what they were.

Well, it’s emphasis on doing all the little things right all the time. We kind of have that saying, how you do anything's how you do everything. And so being detailed in our walkthroughs and and practices and our communication and doing that throughout the entire camp. That's where the stuff shows up, because you never know when that one play is coming that's going to change the outcome of the game. So ultimately, we have to go out there and do it and perform. I know our guys are really excited to play. We got a heck of an opponent coming up, and we need to make big strides from where we were a week ago. And, I know our guys are primed and excited to do that.

No, we didn't think that was appropriate. I understand. We talk about those situations. We work two-minute offense. We've worked all the new dynamics with the two-minute warning and how that impacts drives at the end of half and end of game. I did want Chandler to get more reps, absolutely, and the rhythm of the game didn't really help him in terms of how many reps he got. I wish it would have been a bit different. But at the end of the game there, the game was under control, and we didn't feel like that was appropriate to practice and work a two-minute situation when we didn't need to.

Rhythm in the offense comes from getting first downs, and unfortunately, there in the first half, for a number of reasons, I think five of the six drives were three plays or less. So nobody can get into a rhythm. The quarterback can't, the O-line can't, the team can't if you're going three and out or less on five of the six drives. So I think the quarterback, obviously those guys play a critical role, as does the the tackle and the running back and the tight end and everybody else. So as an offense, we need to do a better job creating rhythm. And the way you do that is by getting the first first down of the drive, so you can create some some rhythm. So I think Fernando did some good things. He threw some good balls. There's a few things that we have to be better on with Fernando. And then I think Chandler did some good things as well. And again, I kind of go back, I wish we would have converted a couple of those first downs so we could have got him some more opportunities.

We’ll see. I think again, we like both those guys. We like that quarterback room, and we'll see how this week goes and how the game goes on Saturday.

Yes. Sam being here for a year, he’s a dynamic athlete. We did have discussions at the at the end of last year, after he had suffered an injury, about him wanting to play wideout. We were very open to that and understood that that might be a great option. He chose to go a different direction, and we wish Sam well. I want nothing, but good things for Sam. I hope everything plays out in his favor, other than this game. He is a dynamic athlete. I mean, a dynamic athlete. We know that, we saw it firsthand, and I think it kind of speaks to their roster when you look at right now, just some of the guys on there. I’m sure he'll get opportunities in the game. I don't know how many, kind of depends probably how that game goes, but they got some very, very talented wideouts.

More made tackles, less missed tackles. Defensively in the first half, it was tackling, and we lost leverage in man coverage. Those were our issues, primarily in the first half, on defense. So we got to do a better job there. And I thought the second half we played better, and guys did a good job with their leverage, understanding where their help was. I think it's just the natural progression from game one to game two of everybody being a little bit more comfortable. Some of the new guys who played for the first played for the first time last week being a bit more comfortable. Building confidence, playing playing loose and understanding their job, so they can play really fast. So just looking for that next step from those guys. I thought, again, the second half, they did really a heck of a job. Took the ball away, which was great to see, and proud of them for sticking to it and doing their job when the first half didn't go nearly as well as we would have hoped.

You could kind of go down the list. (Ryan) McCulloch showed up for sure. X (Xavier Carlton) got to the quarterback. We got our hands on the quarterback and hit him multiple times. We also forced that ball out and had some interceptions. And then the other thing that I thought was really big were the batted balls. I think we had three total at the line of scrimmage with the defensive linemen batting the ball down. Those are key plays. We all want sacks. I mean, I get that. We had a couple opportunities, but we also, I would say, did a better job affecting the quarterback, and that showed up in other ways. So hopefully we can get the quarterback on the ground, and we know they got a heck of an offensive line at Auburn. Quarterback's a veteran player and is really, really a good player. So we'll need to be our best and better than we were a week ago this coming Saturday.

Well, I don't know if it's nothing to do. Obviously, teams change year to year. They've changed. We've changed, schematically. Especially defense, you see some differences. Offense. Coach (Hugh) Freeze has always done a great job on offense, but they're going to do what's best for them and their players. So there’ll be new wrinkles from year to year, but you mentioned the new players. They got the receiver, the recruit (Cam Coleman). I mean, he's a phenomenal athlete, number eight. Number five (KeAndre Lambert-Smith), the guy from Penn State's a very, very productive player. A new tackle, the running back is a good player. The QB has played a lot. Defensively, the linebacker from Duke, the defensive end, the edge player, is a very, very gifted guy. The corner, who we actually recruited hard, he played nickel for them last year. He's playing corner for them this year, Keionte Scott is a very good player as well. So they got good players. And Coach (D.J.) Durkin is a really good coach, known him a long time, or competed against him a few times way back when. So he's a really good coach. They'll be prepared and have good schemes, and they got really good players.

Well, I mean, they're all important. I mean, that's the truth. They're all important. And this one is important as any.

I think Ryan could be one of the most improved guys on the team. He is one of the most improved guys on the team from January until now. He is a talented athlete. He's explosive, he can run, he's really coachable. He plays hard. I think he's got a bright future. He's not perfect, but he's getting better every week, every rep, and really glad he's on the team.

I thought our kickoffs were noticeable. I thought the kicker was noticeable. I thought the kickoff return was a huge play in the game with Nohl Williams. They weren't going to kick it deep to Jaydn, I think we saw that right away, and then adjusting the return and Nohl catching it clean. T.J. Bollers made a huge block, Jordan King, Ryan McCulloch got that return going, and Nohl took it to the house. That was a huge play. I think our punt return did some good things. We can be better there. And Mikey (Matthews) had a couple nice returns. We just got to get those punt returns started. Punt team, couple good things. I think we can be better in punt. And at the end of it, I think we were plus-12 in average starting field position, plus 12 yards, which is a big deal, and that's something we're going to continue to emphasize with our team.

That’s a great question, and I think if we had known whenever these games are scheduled, I doubt they would have done that just because of the new travel schedule. But nobody saw any of this change coming when these games were scheduled, and usually that's six, seven, even 10 years out. I know we're excited to go to Auburn and play. It's an unbelievable environment. It's a great football team, storied tradition. It's a it's going to be an awesome deal, but if you could rewind it, I imagine they would just because the the travel is different than it would have been in the in the old Pac-12. So, yeah, we're just excited.

I think the hard part is these games that are set up are usually set up. I mean, I don't know when this one was, but it was well before I was here. These things are scheduled. It's not like they two years ago set up the Auburn game, or any of those nonconference games. So in this environment in college football, a lot could happen, and we'll see where all this stuff shakes out in future scheduling. Basically, the way I look at it is they just give us a schedule and we prepare, and we go play the games on our schedule. And, I'll let the administration and everybody else worry about what's coming down the pipe. If they ask my opinion, I certainly give it to them.