Chris Dufresne posted the following question and answer in his mailbag column (link):
Q: Any chance that Jeff Tedford might be fired at the end of the season? I'm really tired of visits to the Emerald Bowl and I figure the money saved could be used to restore the recently cut baseball and rugby teams at Cal.
Pedro Cardenas Jr.
A: Only if enough clear-headed fans such as yourself band together, storm the Berkeley administration gates, and demand the departure of one of the most successful coaches in school history. How about a protest? You guys are good at those. Go climb in a tree and not come down until Cal finds a better coach than Tedford, who took over a program that had one victory in 2001.
Here's the backdrop to the win:
Cal's game at hapless Rutgers that year was postponed because of 9/11. The Bears were 0-10 when it came to replay the game. Rutgers, limping home at 2-8, wanted to cancel the game, you know, to save Cal some money for its baseball program. No way Cal was going to pass up its only chance of victory that year. The Bears flew across the country and prevailed, 20-10.
Tedford was hired the next year and has since gone 69-37, with eight straight winning seasons, seven consecutive bowl appearances and a 7-1 record against Stanford. It is true Cal under Tedford has been perplexing at times — that wipeout loss at Nevada this year the most recent example. But given the school's culture, politics, budget restraints and idiosyncrasies, finding a better coach than Tedford at this point might be impossible. I might, though, suggest pink-slipping a few fans.
2 comments:
Agreed. I do believe that Tedford is one of the better coaches in the country, and I do support the coach. But I do not understand these regular losses the derail the team for the season.
1) How can any top-caliber coach ever allow Cal to give up over 40-50 in a game each year? I don't see that happening from the upper echelon programs, yet we do it every season.
2) How do we get outperformed by schools such as Boise St, TCU and others who have fewer resources and opportunities than Cal?
3) I'm concerned that Cal does not have great depth at the QB position, even after recruiting very talented prospects. What's going on with the QB coaching anymore? Why can't we bench Riley until he gets his head screwed on right? He's got the talent, but not the head for it.
This is a well-coached team that loses focus easily. They should have beaten Az but their 3rd down conversions were abysmal!
Where's the Tedford innovation, precision, and confidence that we all came to know and love?
I truly believe Tedford can get us there, but does he?
We need to have faith in Tedford, he is the best thing that has happened to Cal, and we need to ride the lows with the highs!
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