Ron Rivera is aware of precisely when his love affair started with the Massive Recreation.
He was a senior at Seaside Excessive College in Monterey County being recruited by each Cal and Stanford within the fall of 1979 when he attended the annual rivalry recreation for the primary time.
After the Bears secured a 21-14 victory on Ron Coccimiglio’s move deflection ultimately zone on the sport’s ultimate play, Rivera was swallowed up by the extraordinary response on each side.
“Really seeing the depths of despair when you lose and the excitement and thrill when you win was amazing. I did get caught up in that euphoria,” he recalled this week upfront of the 128th Massive Recreation at Stanford on Saturday.
“It’s funny because when I walked out of the Cal locker room, the winner’s locker room, I had this look on my face and my mother just looked at me and said, ‘I know where you’re going to go to school.’”
Now 63 and Cal soccer’s first-year basic supervisor, the previous NFL participant and head coach is of two minds relating to this 12 months’s Massive Recreation. He surveys the altering soccer faculty panorama, the place decades-old traditions are being discarded, and all of the extra embraces an occasion first held in 1892.
Referring to the breakup of the Pac-12 Convention and the tip of rivalry video games throughout the nation, Rivera lamented, “That to me, that’s a crime as far as I’m concerned, for college athletics to let something like that happen.”
However Rivera’s major goal is to supervise and assist increase his alma mater’s program, which hasn’t had a profitable season since 2019. He needs to make the Bears related past the borders of the Bay Space.
Coach Justin Wilcox’s squad is 6-4 and bowl eligible after its 29-26 additional time win at then-No. 15 Louisville in its most up-to-date recreation two weeks in the past. At 3-3 within the ACC, the Bears are positioned to realize their first profitable convention file since 2009.
However the bar is excessive. Rivera has stated he needs to see an eight- or nine-win season. Cal chancellor Wealthy Lyons has devoted elevated sources to the soccer program and has given Rivera the authority to make a training change, if mandatory.
Requested this week if he has decided about Wilcox, who’s in his ninth season and has a 48-54 win-loss file, Rivera rapidly ended the alternate. “I’m here to talk about the Big Game,” he stated, “so I’m not even going to address that.”
However Rivera pulled no punches in regards to the significance of Saturday’s matchup.
“What we’re trying to do is create a culture and atmosphere of sustaining winning,” he stated. “So this recreation’s very pivotal for us. It speaks loads to the place we will go going ahead.
“If we can win this football game and get ready next week and pull one off (at home against SMU on Nov. 29), it elevates our opportunity to go to a super high-quality bowl.”
With so many first-year gamers and coaches on his roster, Wilcox stated it was vital to coach the neophytes on Massive Recreation historical past. However that did come on the expense of getting ready for Stanford (3-7, 2-5), even after what Wilcox referred to as his crew’s greatest efficiency of the season at Louisville.
“There’s still meat on the bone. But I was pleased with the progress we made in a number of areas.” he stated. “Now we’ve got to continue to get better. We know it’ll be a challenge because Stanford’s a tough team.”
