SF Chronicle's Ray Ratto: Tedford on a roll, but poll position matters

Here is the link.

For someone who disavows knowledge of or interest in the polls and their many imaginary ramifications, Jeff Tedford still votes in the coaches' poll each week. Well, I lie. His name is on his ballot each week, but whether he actually does it or not is a more open question.  We'd like to think not, frankly. I mean, it's hard to reconcile a guy who doesn't show any public interest in the result spending much time on the process - even if the process gives his team more notice from the nation at large than it has had in more than half a century.  No, we rather believe what many folks believe, that Tedford's vote is actually handled by an underling. It is standard coaching behavior in the coaches' poll, it sounds exactly like one of the many details Tedford would delegate, and besides, not caring about the polls isn't a sometimes thing. You have to not care about every day, day in and day out, and you have to make sure your not caring about it rubs off on your players.

"We've been ranked before, so this isn't anything new for us," he said in his best don't-care front. "It doesn't matter to us if we're 2, 6, 3 or 12. The bull's-eye on us no matter what."  But he does care, at least a little. At least he'd better. Though he is right that Cal has to keep winning (see USC for a fresh example of how the alternative works), the current polls still help establish position for when they actually do matter, and Cal being 2nd is still better even this early than being 3rd, 6th or 12th, no matter what the reluctant voter claims. Again, see USC for the benefit of that, as the Trojans' disastrous loss to Stanford wasn't very disastrous at all, as they fell only to seventh in the coaches' and Harris polls.  It was a classic example of pedigree working its magic, and allows USC to get back in the national title game by running the table and hoping that Ohio State loses between now and then. Cal might not be so generously treated, which is why potentially difficult games like Saturday's against Oregon State can be so worrisome.

Indeed, Cal's rise to the almost-top has been nothing short of glacial - a step here, a slow bump there. Indeed, from their start at No. 12, the Bears have needed a good deal of outside help to go to 10, then 8, then 6, then 3 and now, 2. Details follow.

 

WEEK 1

Cal beats Tennessee in what remains its signature game, while Michigan (No. 5) loses to Appalachian State and Ohio State (No. 10) pays full retail for beating Youngstown State 38-6.

 

WEEK 2

Cal struggles to beat Colorado State, but still picks up two more places because Louisville (No. 8) barely defends enough to beat Middle Tennessee State 58-42, while Virginia Tech (No. 9) is routed 48-7 by LSU.

 

WEEK 3

Cal pounds Louisiana Tech at home and clears two more bars when Texas (No. 6) barely survives Central Florida 35-32 and Wisconsin (No. 7) escapes the temptations of The Citadel 45-31.

 

WEEK 4

Cal out slugs Arizona at home 45-27 but doesn't move because USC, LSU, West Virginia, Oklahoma and West Virginia won by a combined total of 143 points.

 

WEEK 5

The big score. Marcus Ezeff's game-saving shove puts Cal past Oregon, while Florida (No. 3) loses at home to Auburn, Oklahoma (No. 4) loses at Colorado, and West Virginia (No. 5) gets smothered at South Florida.

 

WEEK 6

The diminished field above them thins out by half when USC (No. 2) celebrates its miserable win over Washington by tanking against Stanford.

 

In other words, Cal benefited from one overly cruel ballot (Ohio State punished for scheduling a school with an admirable I-AA resume near Columbus), and a near perfect storm of failures above it.  Well, that, and the fact that the Golden Bears are enjoying their best start in 57 years. There is that, too.  All that being said, Tedford is taking considerable care to assure that his team doesn't Arizona its way out of the national picture. He knows how close the Bears have been to January before, which is why he is taking particular care not to overlook teams like Oregon State, with its high-powered defensive front seven and extraordinarily high turnover rate. Or the schizzy UCLAs the week after, or the trip to Arizona State the week after that, then Washington State, and then the one everyone knew was the big one before last Saturday, USC.

In short, the No. 2 Bears are entering the spiny portion of the schedule, and given what we know about the college football season, the ranking is in perpetual danger. There are only eight unbeaten teams left in Division I-A, and it isn't hard to see most if not all of them go down before Judgment Day. The BCS' greatest failure, its inability to find the second-best team in the country, is likely to be in full evidence this year.  And the only two things Tedford can do about it is keep his team from thinking about the polls ... and vote, more or less, in one of them. Life's full of weird little ironies like that.