by Ralph Gora

SANTA CLARA–The one thing that was discussed at Wednesday’s college coaches luncheon at Levi’s Stadium that the Cal Bears player athletes scores were much better. That was something confirmed by the head coach Sonny Dykes. Dykes also admitted the Bears had a tough year last season going 1-12 but look to turn things around in 2014.

“We have tremendous optimism as we start on Sunday and look forward to moving on our program, we talk about this last year about the small battles that we won and what they meant to us” Dykes said. Dykes said that there are things that need to be worked on during camp that will impact the future of the program at Cal.

Dykes said that the Bears need to believe in themselves and said that last season brought some pretty adverse situations especially considering that the team won only one game in 2013 with not a lot wins on the field. The optimism on the club has continued and Dykes said it’s carried from early spring to this summer.

Dykes is happy with the team’s hard work in camp thus far and he’s been please with the players attitude and what they’ve brought to camp. Dykes is excited about what he’s seen with the team since last fall and feels that the Bears have a chance to build for this season and looks forward to be involved in a program that the school could be proud of.

The student athletes have improved in the classroom in what was an issue, Dykes said that the team has addressed this with the team and told the players that improvement on their grades need to have the utmost action taken and that it’s paying off for the Bears in the classroom. Dykes said that the players have raised their APR from a 922 to 969 from last year and that was a tremendous jump.

The grade scores have placed Cal in the middle of the Pac 12 Conference and Dykes said there is still work to be done as he is pushing for the school to be at the top. Dykes feels with that number the school can only get better and better with improvement and Dykes said he’s excited that that grade average number is only going to increase for his players.

Ralph Gora covered the Cal Bears at the college coaches luncheon at Levis Stadium on Wednesday for http://www.sportsradioservice.com