Tennessean: Top 10 Bears' coach not excited he must open season at UT

Cal is wary of Vols

By CHRIS LOW

Staff Writer

KNOXVILLE — Tennessee fans aren't the only ones lamenting last season's 5-6 disaster. California Coach Jeff Tedford also wishes the Vols had fared a little better a year ago. Emotion plays such a big part in college football, and Tedford doesn't need to be reminded how difficult it can be to open the season on the road against a proud program, such as Tennessee, eager to prove itself all over again. "That wasn't a typical year for them, and I'm sure they'll be highly motivated," said Tedford, whose Golden Bears will make the cross-country trek to Neyland Stadium on Sept. 2 in the season opener for both teams. "I'm sure they see us as an opportunity to get off on the right foot," he said. "I don't see them as being wounded or down at all. They'll be coming out with a vengeance, and that's the way we'll go into the game.

"We all know that we're going to be running into a buzz saw." It's a role that's not all that familiar to the Bears, who are ranked in the Top 10 in all of the preseason polls and have already been favored over the Vols in some quarters. "To even be put in the same breath as Tennessee is something that's different for our program," Tedford said. "It's something we've worked very hard to achieve and something our players embrace. It's why they came here, to be mentioned with programs as great as Tennessee. "We're not quite there yet, but we hope to get there." Taking down the Vols in Knoxville would be another huge step. Since Tedford's arrival at Cal in 2002, he's elevated the program to heights that those in Berkeley typically thought were reserved for academic excellence. Cal has long maintained a well-deserved reputation as one of the country's most prestigious public institutions.

But under Tedford, the Bears almost overnight have also been transformed into a West Coast football powerhouse. The year before Tedford got there, Cal went 1-10. In his first two years, he won more games (15) than any other Cal football coach had won over his first two seasons in more than 50 years. The Bears have gone to bowls each of the last three years, and Tedford has been named Pac-10 Coach of the Year two of his four seasons in Berkeley. His 2004 team went 10-1 during the regular season, vaulted into the Top 5 and just missed playing in the Rose Bowl. Considered one of the top offensive minds in all of football, Tedford has coached seven quarterbacks during his career who've started an NFL game, and he's tutored six who were drafted in the first round. He's not ready to say his 2006 team will be the best one he's had at Cal. But he clearly likes what he has returning and what he saw in the spring.

"Two years ago, when we were 10-1, that team pretty much had everything," Tedford said. "This team is not far from that. "The only thing we don't have on this team is a lot of experience on the offensive line. We lost three starters who were drafted in the NFL. We've got some talent there. They just haven't been on the field yet." There won't be any shortage of playmakers. Cal came within an eyelash of having two 1,000-yard rushers a year ago, and they're both back. Marshawn Lynch is a 223-pound junior who rushed for 1,246 yards in less than 10 full games. Justin Forsett had 999 yards and averaged 7.6 yards per rush. A deep receiving corps is led by sophomore DeSean Jackson, and Tedford said sophomore Nate Longshore enters the fall as his starting quarterback. Longshore was lost for the season last year after breaking his ankle in the first half of the first game.

"Nate still has to learn under the pressure of the game, which he really hasn't done yet," Tedford said. "He hasn't done it under fire. "He was healthy in the spring, but he wasn't 100 percent. He hadn't been able to recover with foot quickness and things like that. He's really worked hard and I think is getting back this summer to where he was at the start of last season." Tedford said there's no question this should be his best defense at Cal, where eight starters return. Virtually the entire two-deep up front is back, as well as both cornerbacks. Daymeion Hughes is the kind of lock-down cover guy who could go in the first round of the NFL Draft. This will be Tedford's first meeting with an SEC team since coming to Cal, although he's been on more than a few radars when SEC teams have been hunting for coaches. He talked to Kentucky after the 2002 season, and Florida sent out overtures to him two years ago before hiring Urban Meyer.

While there's a sense of newness surrounding the Vols with David Cutcliffe's return as offensive coordinator, Tedford said Cal also will present a bit of an unknown on offense. Mike Dunbar, known for his spread offense at Northwestern, takes over as Cal's offensive coordinator. He and Tedford will jointly call the plays. "Mike's brought another dimension to our team," said Tedford, whose Bears have averaged 34.4 points a game in his four seasons. "He's used to being 100 percent in the spread offense. We're not going to do that, but we're going to mix and match and find the right chemistry and the right percentages of what we want to do. I'm real anxious to see the carry-over we take into the fall."

One of the tougher challenges Tedford has faced at Cal is refuting talk each year that he's leaving for another job. Some have called him the Steve Spurrier of the West Coast with his high-powered offenses, and he's become a hot commodity with NFL owners and college athletic directors. But Tedford insists he's not in the market for another job. "It's something we have to address every year, and everybody uses it against us in recruiting," Tedford said. "I have no ambition to coach in the NFL right now, and we have so many positive things going on right here. "We have a new facility that's going to break ground at the end of this season. We're graduating over 80 percent of our players, and this is a great place to live."

Tedford's also making big money at Cal. At the end of the 2004 season, he signed a new contract that runs through 2009. He makes a guaranteed $1.5 million a year and can earn up to $300,000 more in incentives. If he remains at Cal through the duration of his contract, he would collect an additional $2.5 million retention bonus. Cal's commitment to him has been equally impressive.

When other programs were lining up to pursue Tedford after the 2004 season, donors didn't hesitate to get out their checkbooks. They raised the money to fund his new contract exclusively through private donations. "There's no other place in the country I'd like to be, and there's still a lot more we want to accomplish here," Tedford said.