SF Chronicle: Tedford and Bellotti compete on, off field

Bruce Adams, Chronicle Staff Writer

Cal's Jeff Tedford and Oregon's Mike Bellotti will square-off on opposite sidelines Saturday at Autzen Stadium in Eugene.  Their figurative face-offs in living rooms throughout the Bay Area are much more frequent, and almost as meaningful.

Bellotti, in his 11th year as head coach at Oregon, recruits some of the Bay Area's best high school players year after year. He is a native of Concord, played at UC Davis and made coaching stops at Davis and Cal State Hayward before taking over the Chico State program. He has kept his local ties strong.  "We're dependent on that as the closest major population area," Bellotti said. "We need to maintain that."  For the last four years, Bellotti has been encountering an obstacle -- Tedford, who arrived as Cal's head coach well aware of the importance of Bay Area recruits after serving as Bellotti's offensive coordinator for four years.  Tedford immediately pledged to make every effort to keep the Bay Area's best at home. His biggest success to date has been sophomore tailback Marshawn Lynch, who came close to signing with the Ducks out of Oakland Tech.  In fact, many other Bay Area stalwarts on this year's Cal team -- including wide receiver Robert Jordan and defensive end Phillip Mbakogu, both from Hayward High, and linebacker Desmond Bishop, from Fairfield High and City College of San Francisco -- were heavily recruited by the Ducks.  Tedford acknowledges losing some recruits to Bellotti his first year at Cal, when, in his words, "we were trying to gain some footing."  This year's Oregon team, as usual, has a strong Bay Area presence.  Both starting receivers, Demetrius Williams and Cameron Colvin, went to De La Salle. Dennis Dixon, getting his first start at quarterback, is from San Leandro High. Strong safety Anthony Trucks, the team's leading tackler, played at Antioch High.

"You can't keep them all at home," Tedford said.  That works both ways. One of the prizes in next year's recruiting class, quarterback Kevin Riley, of Beaverton High in Oregon, already has committed to Cal.  Bellotti said that Oregon's recruiting needs are changing, with his team going from a conventional offense to the spread-option -- the so-called Utah offense.  He said, for example, he could identify 15 to 20 high school quarterbacks in the nation who could "be very efficient in this offense." By comparison, he said there were only three to five who would be "ideal" for the old Oregon offense.  Though there is much at stake in Saturday's matchup between No. 23 Cal (6-2, 3-2 Pac-10) and No. 15 Oregon (7-1, 4-1), Tedford said recruits would be unlikely to make their decisions based on the outcome of a single game.  "Success on the football field helps you in recruiting," he said. "Oregon is a very stable program ... and I would hope our program is gaining stability. But it's not that big a thing."  A much bigger issue in recruiting is team facilities, with Oregon's among the best in the Pac-10 and Cal's among the worst.  "Seventeen-year-old kids are very impressionable," Tedford said, noting Oregon's state-of-the-art locker room, weight room and training facilities are big draws during campus visits. "It's something that sticks with them."  Tedford, meanwhile, has been recruiting on the promise of improved facilities. An announcement on the specific design and official launching of the financing campaign on the long-awaited renovation of Memorial Stadium is expected this month.