(Thanks to Jeremy for forwarding this to me)
By Mark Schlabach
ESPN.com
BERKELEY, Calif. -- It has followed California coach Jeff Tedford around as much as his shadow. Everywhere the offensive guru has gone since the Bears' season opener at Tennessee, everyone wants to know what happened. "Everything that could have gone wrong did go wrong," Tedford tells them. Just like that, in 60 minutes in Knoxville, Tenn., on Sept. 2, the Golden Bears turned into the tarnished Bears. California's offense was supposed to be loaded. Tailback Marshawn Lynch was being touted as a Heisman Trophy candidate. Quarterback Nate Longshore had returned from an ankle injury that caused him to miss nearly all of the 2005 season. He was going to shore up a passing attack that was the worst in the Pac-10 last year.
But California never had a chance against Tennessee. The Bears got knocked in the mouth on the game's first play and never responded in a 35-18 loss. Longshore ran for his life much of the night, Lynch ran nowhere, and California's defense ran after the back of Volunteers' jerseys. On that night, at least, the Golden Bears looked like teddy bears. They looked soft. "I just don't get it," Tedford said. "I've never seen such a hangover from the media for one loss. That was six weeks ago, and that's all they want to talk about. We've played pretty good since then. We knew that wasn't even close to the way we play. "I've said it 1,000 times: Anything that could have gone wrong did go wrong. That wasn't us out there."
The wait for redemption was well worth it for California. Back in the national spotlight against No. 11 Oregon in a key Pac-10 game on Saturday night, the No. 16 Bears forced three first-half turnovers and pulled away for an easy 45-24 victory in front of a sold-out crowd of 72,516 at Memorial Stadium. It was Oregon's first loss of the season, and left the Bears and No. 3 Southern California as the only teams left with unblemished records in Pac-10 play.
Read the rest of the article here.
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