Oakland Tribune: Tedford could use Holmoe's SC magic

The book of Tom Holmoe at Cal was burned four minutes before he was fired in 2001. Holmoe was an earnest and polite disaster as head football coach, his record so bad even he wishes it were destroyed.  There was, however, one chapter Jeff Tedford surely could use this week.  USC comes to town Saturday and, quiet as it's kept, the Trojans gave Holmoe something for which Tedford would eat his sunglasses. Holmoe left town with a winning record (3-2) against SC. He walked off the field in triumph three consecutive times between 1998-2000.  Such success against USC had not happened since 1950, when the legendary Pappy Waldorf was on the sidelines. Insofar as SC historically wins two of every three games against the Golden Bears — 26 of 31 from 1959-89 — three straight wins could have put Cal on the national map, made a statement within the Pacific-10 Conference and dramatically narrowed the recruiting gap between the schools.

It might have done all of this — if not for Holmoe's 9-43 record against everybody else.  No, he left the non-USC work to Tedford, who has done well enough for Cal to sustainnational relevance for several years. The only coach in school history to deliver bowl games in four successive seasons, Tedford changed the perception of a program that was a joke under Holmoe.  What Tedford has not done is take the Bears high enough to look the Trojans in the eye. Can't be done, you say? Holmoe's work argues  otherwise.

Holmoe was in over his head at Cal, but he took advantage of a USC program vulnerable under Paul Hackett. Even though Cal's 1999 win eventually was forfeited in the wake of academic fraud, Holmoe's Golden Bears knocked the swagger out of the Trojans.  Tedford's teams, while highly competitive, are 1-4 against USC, though two of the losses were by less than a touchdown. Which is to say he is 3 points in 2002 and 7 in'04 from having his own, presumably untarnished, three-game win streak over the Trojans.  Which brings us to Saturday and the effects of a Cal victory over USC. And another in 2008. And another in'09.  All while playing well enough elsewhere to stay in the Top 25 picture. This Cal-USC game is one of diminished magnitude, mostly because it won't have the national ramifications once projected, yet something more lasting is available: An opportunity to generate a real rivalry.  Not in the Cal-Stanford or USC-UCLA sense; the geographic wars are cherished, customary and as enduring as the earth. No, this would be about the Pac-10, about two teams likely to be at or near the top.  Already, after many decades in which the Golden Bears often settled for USC rejects, Cal has gained enough ground to pursue many of the same recruits.  "Real rivalry" chatter is conceivable only because Cal has the goods to win, and USC is not the juggernaut it appeared to be in September.  Injuries and inconsistency have shoved USC out of the national championship race. While getting the Trojans to play for something less is sure to challenge coach Pete Carroll's prodigious motivational skills, Tedford has no such problem. His easiest job, every year, is getting the Bears emotionally prepared for SC.

"In my experience with these guys, you don't really need to go overboard with any rah-rah stuff, because they understand who we're playing," he said Tuesday. "... I think our team will be ready. They don't need a lot of pep talk to know who we're playing."  They're playing the USC that was smug enough to believe DeSean Jackson was a lock to enroll. The USC with 11 national championships, seven Heisman Trophy winners, more than 400 NFL players and, of course, all the posin' and lovin' and huggin' that comes with being Hollywood's favorite team.  Except on Oct. 6 these Trojans, ranked No.1 in the country and playing at home, lost to Stanford. Stanford! Three weeks later, clinging to national title possibilities, SC lost at Oregon.  The illustration here is one of increased parity, which provides opportunities for everyone in the conference to gain on the school Cal linebacker Zack Follett refers to as "the face of the Pac-10." And this is without regard to any speculation about Carroll's future, for he'd be a fool to leave Los Angeles.  There is, of course, no new world order without beating USC often enough to reveal its mortality, then sustaining a rivalry competitive enough for recruits and national observers to speak of both programs in the same breath.  Cal may be close but, having lost four of five to SC, not yet there. Three wins in a row changes most everything.  It also would put Tedford at .500 against Carroll, thereby leaving the book of Holmoe in a heap of ash, with no value at all.