Washington's Willingham Defeated Cal Seven Times During his Stint at Stanford
BY Steffi Chan
In 1995, his first year at the helm of the Stanford football program, coach Tyrone Willingham posted a narrow 29-24 victory over Cal. He would lead the team for seven years. During that time, he posted seven straight victories over the Bears. The last time Willingham faced Cal as the Cardinal coach in 2001, Kyle Boller’s desperate final-play touchdown pass was batted down in the end zone as time ran out. The floundering Bears would only win one game that year. But times have changed. Coach Jeff Tedford took the reins in 2002, and the rest is history. Almost, that is. The No. 11 Cal squad that Willingham—now the coach of Washington—will be facing this Saturday at 12:30 p.m., at Memorial Stadium bears almost no resemblance to the one the former Stanford coach faced for seven years.
“It’s tremendously different,” Willingham said. “Coach Tedford and the staff should be congratulated. It’s been a constant process since he’s taken over to mold this group into a team. I’ve always felt that there was talent at Cal, but that talent was on an individual basis. Now, he has them functioning as a team.”
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