Justin Wilcox met with the media Tuesday morning for his normal press conference, as the Bears are ramping up their preparation for the Washington State game Saturday night. The Cal head coach had plenty to say about the Cougars, their new schemes under Nick Rolovich, the weather in Pullman on Saturday, virtual in-home visits, and more.

Cal will head to Washington State Saturday facing a Cougar team that was battered in Los Angeles, coming off a three week layoff due to COVID-19 cases. While the Cougars lost 38-13 to USC, Wilcox noted that it wasn't necessarily an indicator of the ability of Washington State.

"I know they had a tough one this past weekend," Wilcox said, "but I don't think it's indicative of the team that they have. Nick Rolovich is doing a really good job with them. The offense, you see some of the same formations that Wazzu has run in the past, but it's not the same offense. There's more run game, the quarterback is moving off his spot, whether designed or not. There's some route concepts that are different from the past few years at Wazzu."

Wilcox noted that Wazzu has a freshman quarterback in Jayden de Laura who can make plays on the run, a couple running backs (main one being Deion McIntosh) that can make plays and a handful of shifty receivers who can put up yards in Rolovich's run and shoot system.

The run and shoot is something Wilcox has competed against before, but there are some changes, with Rolovich adapting the system to modern college football, and adding in some of the pistol he learned under Chris Ault at Nevada.

"When I was at Boise State, we competed against Hawaii with June Jones for a number of years," Wilcox noted, "I've coached against the run and shoot a few different times and you do see some of those concepts. It's more similar to that tree than what Wazzu has done in the past. Nick has done a great job or evolving it in the run game with some of the pistol runs and alignment with the backs, some of the route concepts for the receivers, moving the launch point for the quarterback."

Cal's just over a week away from national signing day, and since there aren't the normal abilities for the staff to go into recruits' homes, sit down with families, and compliment cooking, they've had to move those to Zoom as well (home cooking not included).

"We're doing Zoom in-home visits," Wilcox said. "We're currently heavily involved in that, structuring it so that it works for the different recruits and their families, also around our practice schedule. All of our coaches and myself are involved in that, just via Zoom."

They're much like the Zoom calls Wilcox does with the media twice a week, but admittedly a bit more cordial, as Wilcox isn't trying to persuade members of the media to come play for him. In creating these virtual in-homes, they've set up a few things to showcase what the Cal experience will look like, especially for the handful of players they have committed who haven't had the chance to visit the campus.

"We have different ways to present things virtually" Wilcox said. "Our recruiting department and graphics team have done an awesome job of creating some different ways to show families about our academic support systems, our LAB program, our strength and conditioning, our schemes on offense and defense, it could be campus, and there's some really neat tools put together by people much more competent than I at doing those things. It's all virtual and not just a slide to share the screen, but some interactive things that are pretty neat."

The weather in Pullman is forecasted around the mid-30s, with it potentially dropping to even colder temperatures at night. Cal will be ready for these conditions per Wilcox, though it has been in the 60s and sunny in the East Bay this week.

"Mid 30s would be beautiful," Wilcox noted "we'll bring some long sleeves, maybe an extra pair of socks, and there's equipment that most teams carry (for warmth) that we'll have available."

Wilcox has coached in the snow before, but as the head coach, this game will be a bit different.

"A few years ago coaching at Wisconsin," Wilcox said about the last time he played a snow game, "but I was up in the press box having hot chocolate, so it was a little different for me. The rules are the same and both teams are playing in it, we're not talking -10, it'll be great."

There were a couple injury notes from Wilcox as well:

OL Valentino Daltoso - Day to day

DL Stanley McKenzie - "We're hoping that we can get some reps for Stanley, that will be a day to day scenario"

Wilcox mentioned after the Oregon game that they have some analytics they use when making late game decisions, such as the decision to go for it on 4th and 5 from the Oregon 25 with less than two minutes left as opposed to a field goal, and he expanded on that though today.

"We have a chart that we go by," Wilcox said, "there's a lot of smart people that put things together, and we put together one based on time of the game, the situation, our offense, our defense, who we're playing, and it spits out recommendations. We use it as a supplement, we don't live and die by it, but it's just a piece of supplemental information."

In Daltoso's absence, Cal got redshirt freshman Ben Coleman 20 reps, 14 at right guard and 6 at left guard versus Oregon, as Coleman has made a rapid ascension up the depth chart.

"He's really come a long way in the last year and even in the past two months," Wilcox said, "Ben came in and played D-line initially, he moved over to offensive line and is doing a nice job there. He's learning a lot, he's still got a long way to go, but it's great to see him get some reps because he's got some physical tools and he's a smart guy. Angus has done a really good job helping him along and we're expecting some big things from Ben."

Wilcox also noted that they moved the launch point for Dario Longhetto's kick back a little bit on extra points, though he did note that the Bears protected the PAT a lot better than they did against Stanford.