By Matt Kawahara
Three weeks ago, the Cal football team rang in the new year by ensuring that coach Jeff Tedford will be around for at least seven more years. It was announced on Jan. 1 that Tedford, heralded as the savior of Bears football since arriving in 2001, had agreed to a two-year contract extension through the 2015 season. The move seemed to reinforce the fact that the athletics department believes Tedford-who took a one-win team to seven victories in his first season-still has the magic to lift the Bears to higher heights after leading them to a nine-win season and a win in the Emerald Bowl in 2008. "It's not easy to win nine games," Tedford said after the bowl game, flanked by three of his seniors. "That's an accomplishment for this team. I know we'll continue to come back and work hard through next season, but for these guys to go out with nine wins is something they can really be proud of." Cal's 24-17 win over Miami on Dec. 27 typified its formula for success throughout the season-a potent rushing game combined with an inspired defensive effort. Sophomore tailback Jahvid Best rushed for 186 yards and two touchdowns against the Hurricanes, while senior linebacker Zack Follett forced a late fumble that led to the game-winning touchdown. After the game, Best deflected a question about his possible Heisman candidacy next season and instead projected that the Bears will contend for the national title.
For that to happen, Cal will have to start by avoiding the kind of non-conference slip-up in 2009 that it experienced against Maryland in week three. After defeating Michigan State to open the season and then running rampant over Washington State, the Bears travelled cross-country to face the Terrapins. What they encountered was an early kickoff, brutally humid weather and a pesky Maryland offense that put up 35 points-the highest total allowed by the Cal defense all season.
The loss knocked the Bears from their newly acquired spot in the top 25. Two straight wins lifted Cal back to No. 25, but a loss at Arizona dropped the Bears out of the rankings again. They didn't climb back in for the rest of the year. Consecutive road losses to USC and Oregon State, moreover, erased the possibility of a 10-win season. But faced with an impending second-half collapse for the second year in a row, Cal rallied instead. Bolstered by a strong corps of senior leaders, the Bears went on to take the Axe back from Stanford in convincing fashion and finish the season with three straight victories. "These seniors have done a good job leading this team," Follett said after the Emerald Bowl. "To bounce back from what we had to go through last year and go through what these coaches put us through, to make sure we didn't have a season like that, these seniors, I take my hat off to them."
Cal won nine games in spite of inconsistent play from its quarterbacks. Senior Nate Longshore and sophomore Kevin Riley entered the fall battling for the starting job and, although Riley was named the starter for the opener, Longshore also played against the Spartans. It was just the beginning of a season-long struggle in which neither gained a significant enough upper hand to take over the starting position for good. The one consistent thing that came out of the Bears' offense was Best, who dismissed notions that he couldn't be an every-down back by overcoming a freak dislocated elbow in week four and carrying 194 times for 1,580 yards and 15 touchdowns. Redshirt freshman Shane Vereen, meanwhile, emerged as a reliable second option, carrying 142 times for 715 yards and four scores. The Bears' second-best offensive threat turned out to be its defense. New defensive backs coach Al Simmons inherited a secondary that had just 10 interceptions in 2007 and turned them into a unit of ball hawks. Cal finished the regular season with 23 interceptions-the third-highest total in the nation-and 32 turnovers overall, which the Bears turned into 118 points-29.5 percent of their total scoring output. As it turned out, none of those turnovers were bigger than the last one of Follett's career.
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