BERKELEY, Calif. (AP) — Justin Wilcox had California in position for a third straight bowl game and had mostly made the Golden Bears competitive in his nine-year tenure as head coach.

But Wilcox had never been able to put together a breakthrough season at Cal and then saw any hopes of ending this year on a positive note squandered with a blowout loss in a rivalry game to Stanford .

Those factors led to the decision by first-year general manager Ron Rivera to fire Wilcox with one game left in the season and start a search for a coach that can make Cal a contender in the Atlantic Coast Conference.

“We got to a certain level. Losing the Big Game really got me thinking more so than I really had anticipated,” Rivera said Tuesday. “I was very optimistic about our opportunity to win that g

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