Friday, December 16, 2005

Calbears.com: Head Coach Jeff Tedford Previews the Pioneer PureVison Las Vegas Bowl

The Golden Bears will face the BYU Cougars in the Dec. 22 match-up.

Dec. 15, 2005

BERKELEY - California head football coach Jeff Tedford addressed the local media on Thursday, Dec. 15 about the Pioneer PureVision Las Vegas Bowl. Cal will face BYU on Dec. 22 at 5 p.m. (MST) in the 14th annual game.  

On BYU:

"They are very physical up front. They have three guys that are very physical and do a really nice job. It's a very unorthodox defense, the 3-3-5 really causes a lot of confusion and it's not something that you see every day. Having extra time to prepare for it has been a benefit. They do a nice job and get after you pretty good, and do a good job of mixing you up, keeping you off balance. It can cause some problems."

On BYU against the run:

"The way they blitz everyone, it sometimes confuses the blocking schemes because of where they are coming from, and they are very physical, big linebackers. Their three-down guys are big and physical guys and they play hard and run hard. They look like they are a tough team."

On BYU's 3-3-5 defense:

"Just because it says 3-3-5...it's never really 3-3-5, that is the whole thing behind it. There is always five or six guys rushing, but they just come from all different areas and they just kick down the secondary. It is very multiple. In our game planning, we look at the variations that they do on defense and there is probably over 150 multiples of what they do. It's very hard to find something that they do twice. There are so many different variations on what they do."

On similarities between the BYU and Texas Tech offenses:

"From what I have seen, maybe BYU runs the ball a little more than Tech did. (They are) very similar as far as what they are trying to get accomplished. They have a really good running back and they throw the ball to a tight end more than Texas Tech did. I think their personnel may be a little different where Tech was a lot of four-wide receiver type stuff.

On BYU's team speed on defense: "They are more physical and they are bigger than they are fast. They try to keep everything hemmed in. They keep everything inside where they can use their physical style of play."

On three straight bowls:

"Sometimes if you do get used to it, you don't know what you have until you don't have it. There are probably still a few guys on this team that can appreciate the experience of a bowl game. We never want to lose that experience. I think it's important for the older guys, the leadership to surface and make sure we know what a great opportunity it is. We talked to the team about the opportunity to play another game together. It's very important. We don't want to experience not going to a bowl game to learn that lesson.

Any Changes In Preparations After Three Straight Bowl Games:

"No...it's pretty much the same. But it is different this year because it has been very difficult to manage the schedules of the players with such an early game. We are right in the middle of final. Sometimes they don't know their study group times until the night before or the day of. This has been particularly challenging trying to organize schedules and getting everybody at practice. So with recruiting, practice, and finals, it has been a pretty difficult situation to manage through this bowl because it is so early."

On recruiting with the recent postseason history:

"When you are in bowl games year after year, that gives you a great opportunity when recruits come to not only be here for the weekend and be with the players, but to be around practice, see how they practice. It's a whole different dimension when they can walk out on the field and see you practicing for a bowl game. It is very important, the consistency of bowl games, because it allows your team to practice more."

On comparing recruiting now to your first year:

"It is very different, obviously. When you are walking into a home to recruit to a 1-10 team it's different -- no question about that. The difference I think is that they feel they can come to Cal and reach their potential academically and athletically. They will have an opportunity to play for a conference championship and bowl games on a national level, be on TV. You couldn't say that going in my first year, now we can say that. There has been a history of winning and being on TV and playing in bowl games."

On recruiting momentum:

"Yeah, we have more early commitments now than we have ever had and we are continuing to receive commitments right now from very good players. Sure we are not 10-1, but we have been competitive in every game we've played, besides the USC game. We are probably only five or six plays away from only losing one game this year. There is still a lot of potential and things that are going well for this program. Our players are graduating at a very high percentage so I think there is no question that the thing that we have going for us is our academic programs, coupled with the success of our football program.

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