Tom Masella has spent more than four decades around college football, and he knows exactly what comes with the job at Wagner: the hard games, the long road trips and the reality of lining up against bigger programs for the paycheck that helps keep the department afloat.
But even by Wagner’s standards, this week has been brutal.
The Seahawks are coming off an 87-3 loss to James Madison last Saturday, the worst defeat in the century-long history of the Staten Island, New York-based program. Now they turn around and head across the country to face Cal on Saturday afternoon, another FBS opponent in a stretch Masella called tougher than most.
Masella, 67, has been coaching since 1982, when he started as an assistant at Wagner, his alma mater. Since then, he has worked at 10 schools and served as a head coach at four of them, including Wagner. This season’s two-game run against FBS opponents has already put his team in a deep hole, and he said the focus now is on getting the Seahawks ready for Northeast Conference play, which begins in three weeks.
“We knew we were going to have back-to-back games against two teams that on paper are a lot more talented than us. I understand these games.
Saturday’s game got away from us a little bit. Early on this week, I thought our kids were a little bit down, but I think they’ve started to come alive and look forward to the challenge.
“I say this all the time - these games against the (FBS) schools don’t make or break our season. It’s getting to (Northeast) conference play.
In the first half, I actually thought our starters on offense did improve. Special teams was an absolutely disaster (allowing three punt returns for touchdowns).
They were just flat-out better than us.”
Wagner’s issues last weekend weren’t limited to the scoreboard. Masella pulled many of his starters at halftime with the Seahawks trailing 42-3, a move he said was designed to protect his team and keep the focus on what comes next.
“These games are trickier than in the past. We’re always developing players now.
With the way college football is, we’re going to lose 8 to 10 players every year that are going to move up. That forces us to play younger and younger players.
“Certainly Saturday we played a lot of those young players. They’re just not ready for it. That’s a decision I made at halftime that I was going to sit some guys down and try to keep guys healthy for our season that starts in another three weeks.”
The portal has changed the way Wagner operates, too. Masella said the program simply doesn’t have the same kind of roster depth it once did for these kinds of matchups.
“It makes it a little different than it was in the past. We had more players that could compete in this type of game. I’m not sure we have as many of those players as we had in the past.
“Our kids that go up (as transfers) are better than the kids that are coming down. That’s the best way I can put it.
It forces us to still develop players but keep playing younger players. I think we’re starting four or five true freshman, and that’s not a good recipe for these games.”
Cal is the ninth Power Four conference team Wagner has faced, and the Seahawks are 0-8 in those games, losing by an average margin of 56-5. Masella said the Bears have plenty to like after a strong start to the season.
“I think they’re a very talented team. They had a really good game against UCLA that kind of fell apart at the end.
But you could see the talent all over the place. I thought they had a great win against Syracuse on Saturday.
Defensively, they did a lot of good things and offensively certainly they’re explosive. The quarterback (Jaron-Keawe Sagapolutele) is fantastic.
I think they’re a team that’s going to get better as the year goes on when they figure out who they want to be.”
Still, Masella said his team will show up and try to handle the challenge in front of it.
“Our kids enjoy (these games) and they’ll be prepared. Hopefully, we can compete.
We have to play two of them a year. They help fund our program, no question about it.
We’ve gotten used to this. We didn’t get used to what happened Saturday.
That’s the way it is. We’ve got to pick ourselves up, dust ourselves off and move forward.”
In Other News...
Cal's Next Opponent Arrives With One Big Problem To Solve
Wagner heads into its meeting with Cal trying to steady itself after a rough night against James Madison, one that left players and coaches with plenty to sort through before the Seahawks travel west. Marc Ernay, Wagner Colleges football play-by-play announcer, said the response inside the program has almost certainly been shaped by frustration and embarrassment, which is about as bad a starting point as any team can have when it is already staring at a major nonconference challenge.
Even so, Wagner is focused on finding something to build on in Berkeley, with quarterback Benjamin Newman among the players expected to be central to that effort and several defensive standouts also in the mix. Head coach Tom Masella, who has ties to the program and has worked to rebuild it, remains part of the longer-term picture, but the immediate test is more basic: how quickly can Wagner settle its offense and show enough resistance to make this one competitive? [Read more 🡒]
Cal Defense Just Gave Bears Fans A New Reason For Hope
After opening the season with a more cautious plan, Cals defense looked much more like the unit the staff had been hoping to show against Syracuse. Defensive coordinator Michael Hutchings admitted the Bears were conservative in the opener, but the change in approach in Week 2 was hard to miss, with more heat on the quarterback and a style that helped fuel a 21-18 win.
The Bears pressure created the kind of disruption that can change a game, and it also raised a broader question about what this defense might look like going forward. Hutchings did not say whether the blitz-heavy approach will become a regular feature the rest of the season, leaving Cal fans with a little hope and a little suspense after a breakthrough performance. [Read more 🡒]
Kingston Lopa Just Gave Cal A New Defensive Question
Kingston Lopas emergence has quickly become one of the best early-season developments for Cal, and the redshirt sophomore safety backed it up again against Syracuse. He was all over the field in a game that swung in the Bears favor, and his latest outing came with the kind of ball production defensive coordinators dream about. With four interceptions this season, Lopa has already put himself at the top of the national leaderboard and turned a promising start into something opponents have to game-plan around.
For Cal, the bigger question now is how offenses will respond to a safety who is suddenly taking away so much space in the back end. Lopas first career pick-six added another layer to what he can do, and his run of recognition only underscores how fast his profile is rising. The challenge from here is less about whether he can make plays and more about how the Bears use that momentum while teams start treating him like a player worth avoiding. [Read more 🡒]