Cal Football: Jeff Tedford Needs To Win, Win, Win
by Avinash Kunnath on Oct 19, 2011 6:01 AM PDT
in Pac-12 Football
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PrintThere are two paths awaiting Jeff Tedford as Cal football head coach in the next year (not this year) or two.
1) The end.
2) The end of the beginning.
It's clear that watching the Golden Bears is become more of a chore than a joy for Cal fans everywhere. Their defense has at times looked sparkling and at other times inconsistent. Their special teams (outside of some great placekicking) is wildly inconsistent. And their offense, the Tedford specialty, has not made any real improvements from last season to this season. Cal is in the midst of growing pains, and they are painful to see.
It would be easier for Cal to deal with if there was hope at the quarterback position. But transfer Zach Maynard is currently proving to be as maddening as Nate Longshore was during the second half of his Cal career and Kevin Riley throughout the entirety of his own (I can state with certainty that Maynard is better than Brock Mansion, which is a small step in the right direction). Maynard has combined Riley's inaccuracy with Longshore's penchant for killer interceptions. Sometimes he does one, sometimes he does the other, sometimes he does both! It's the Venn diagram of "Things you would least like to see from your QB on gameday."
The recent on-field results have proven to be just as painful to recount. Consider:
- Tedford has lost eight straight games to USC. Great Golden Bears squads have fallen to greater Trojans teams; so have good Golden Bears teams fallen to good USC teams, and now mediocre Cal squads have gotten plastered by average USC teams. No matter what team Cal puts out on the field, USC seems to always take advantage of them.
- Tedford has lost four straight games (and six of eight) to Mike Riley and the Oregon St. Beavers (although the last two saw their starting quarterback and tailback go down in horrific fashion). Tedford is also 0-3 against current Oregon Ducks head coach Chip Kelly (including two routs), 0-3 against current Washington Huskies head coach Steve Sarkisian (including two last-second defeats), and has been handled pretty easily by the problem child known as Lane Kiffin in two consecutive matchups.
- Tedford's Bears have now lost nine straight games dating back to last season against winning opponents, a streak that looks almost as bad as Mike Stoops's losing streak of eleven against FBS opponents (Stoops had to play six top ten opponents during that stretch, while Tedford only had to deal with three). Cal will probably snap it if they can beat Utah or UCLA in the upcoming weeks, but that streak is looking more and more alarming with each accumulated loss.
- Tedford has yet to take Cal to a BCS bowl, getting screwed out of one opportunity and screwing up another. Meanwhile the Stanford Cardinal have risen to become a national championship contender, and are on the verge of their second straight berth. Nothing can be more galling to the Golden Bear faithful than seeing their Bay Area rivals take the glory they've long coveted for themselves.
There are certainly positive signs. Cal recruiting still trudges on in a positive direction. Lots of talented individuals lined out last year's freshman class, and another appears to be on its way. There are more talented quarterbacks in the coffers, and you'd have to figure one of Allan Bridgford, Austin Hinder, Kyle Boehm and current verbal Zach Kline will be ready to duke it out in the upcoming years. None of them panning out means a new head coach, for better or for worse.
Not much shelf life is left for Tedford. He will be back next season, and even a losing season in 2012 doesn't guarantee his ouster--Tedford's buyout is too huge to consider taking him out this soon. But it's clear that he's wearing out what remains of his goodwill, and the decline of Cal football back to the doormat will come swiftly if he can't reverse the course now.
The saga for Tedford and Cal isn't terribly interesting this season in terms of the overall Pac-12 picture, but the record he sets could pave the path toward one of the particular directions above. He needs to start winning to restore the roar in Bear Territory, or that walk toward oblivion will be coming soon enough.
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Like a breath of fresh air
Thank you Avi, for stating what is fairly obvious, but nevertheless important to state. There seems to be a collective psychosis with Cal alums about Tedford. We are all so damn grateful for those early years post Holmoecaust and yet none of us are satisfied with the last 3-4 seasons. It has been abysmal. And yet when I have resorted to negative reviews of Maynard or Tedford, with hesitation, I have been discouraged from doing so by the Cal blogosphere because…
So thank you. I agree with your assessments and fear it may be the worst case scenario of Tedford remaining very mediocre and Sandy having to find the courage to make a change. I want nothing more than for Cal to succeed under Tedford because I like most everything about the guy. He’s a good human, who has the respect of his players and our community, but wins are wins and losses are losses.
No one got into Cal because of charity, and no one gets a degree from Cal because of charity. He and his players need to earn their way and if they do, they will be honored in the way Cal fans would love to do.
I think this is a fair take (and response) to Avi’s piece. Even those of us who are the biggest Ted-believers and backers (like myself) know that we’re in a bad spot right now, and have looked bad ever since – I dunno, I think Best’s last play against OSU marked the downturn point for me.
I have faith that Tedford is an excellent football coach – and given his commitment to academics and past-proven ability to succeed in a tough environment (city against football, university partially against football, fickle fan base) – I very much hope that he will turn it around and we keep Tedford as long as he wants to stay.
But he needs to win first to keep his job.
I received a 'Troll Warning' for posting something like this on CGB last year:
Cal and Tedford seem to recruit very well. Seemingly each year’s class is in the top 20% of teams in the Pacific Conference. Always better than Oregon State. More often than not better than Oregon. So what’s the problem?
So either Tedford and Co. have a real propensity for finding overrated high schools seniors and selling them on their program and Berkeley OR they have a problem teaching these recruits the system that’s in place at Cal OR the system that is in place at Cal has some major failings in it that have caused the California Bears not to live up to expectations in recent years.
And, for what it’s worth, while not a fan, I do want to see success for Cal football because when Cal is good the Pacific Conference is stronger.
