Even by the nomadic standards of his profession, the year that new California defensive coordinator Clancy Pendergast just had qualifies him to wear a burnoose and travel by camel. He has been on the move over the shifting sands of his fickle vocation. A defensive football coach by trade, the 42-year-old was a hand-hold short of reaching the pinnacle of his sport when the Arizona Cardinals lost to Pittsburgh in the final seconds of the Super Bowl 14 months ago.
Days later, on Feb. 6, 2009, he was fired by the Cardinals as their defensive coordinator - blamed, apparently, for Ben Roethlisberger's perfect pass and Santonio Holmes' un-defendable catch for the winning touchdown. Little more than a month later, on March 13, Pendergast was hired as defensive coordinator by the Kansas City Chiefs ... only to be fired after one season on Jan. 14 of this year to make room for Romeo Crennel in the same job. The Raiders threw a lifeline to Pendergast on Feb. 6 when they hired him as a defensive assistant. That lasted all of a dozen days before Jeff Tedford came calling a day after his defensive coordinator at Cal, Bob Gregory, unexpectedly left for a job at Boise State. Pendergast's hectic year speaks to the vagaries of the coaching profession and how one man's career move can impact another's.
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