SF Examiner: Don't expect many 'tweets' from Tedford and other Cal bye week notes

Rob Calonge

After Thursday's practice, Cal head coach Jeff Tedford met with the press to discuss the team and what they've been doing during their bye week.  According to Tedford, practices this week have gone really well. What hasn't been going well are some of things said/written about him and the team. "I try not to read it," said Tedford when asked about some of the criticism he gets.

He was good-natured about being questioned on criticism by deadpanning, "I didn't look at it. Thanks for telling me." Then, with a chuckle, he asked for names, "Who is it? Tell me who it is." It was a lighthearted moment in what could've been a tenuous situation, but he was also frank in his answer too.

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SF Examiner: Bears can still salvage their season

James Bucci

Lost in all the hand wringing, frustration and expletive-laced tirades regarding Cal's meltdown over the past two games against Oregon and USC is the fact a good season can still be hand. No, not a spectacular, Rose Bowl year, but a solid season, similar to ones the Bears have had before.  Expectations, usually heightened by bloated national rankings to begin the year, have led fans to believe something more existed when really, it didn't. Cal isn't as bad as its 42-3 and 30-3 losses to Oregon and USC, respectively, seem to indicate, but they weren't as good as its 3-0 start.

The Bears blew through Maryland and Eastern Washington to begin the year, survived against Minnesota and have collapsed the last two weeks. So, what kind of a team are they? That's what the rest of season is for.  It's clear though, the Bears suffered from major breakdowns on each side of the ball, not able to run, pass or tackle. Maybe a hangover from the Oregon game accounted for part of the troubles last Saturday against USC. But, playing at home, in front of 71,799 fans, you'd think the Bears would play with a tank full of confidence. Though after a Kevin Riley interception derailed the Bears' opening drive, which had moved the the USC 6-yard line, it seemed Cal played on empty for the rest of the game. To completely crumble on the road, where the combination of a hungry team and fans can have a snowball effect, is more understandable than to fall apart at home. But, that's exactly what the Bears did.

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Oakland Tribune: Bears put in extra work, then say bye, stay upbeat about the rest of the season

Jonathan Okanes

Cal's coaching staff spends most bye weeks getting a thorough look at its younger players. But this time the future is now.  The Bears ended their bye week of practice Thursday, and starters and backups took almost all the reps. After back-to-back blowout losses to Oregon and USC, Cal coach Jeff Tedford decided he couldn't afford not to let his top players take advantage of the extra practice time.  "We need the work," Tedford said. The Bears now will disperse until Sunday, enjoying one of their two Saturdays off during the regular season. When they reconvene, they will begin preparing for the rest of the season, which resumes Oct. 17 at UCLA.

"We still have a winning record (3-2) and there's seven games left," Tedford said. "Even though we haven't played well the past two weeks, two of the hardest things to do in our conference are play in Eugene and play SC. We just did that. We would have liked to have done better. There are guys out here working extra. They're encouraged."  The Bears are 0-2 in Pac-10 play, a record no team has ever overcome to win the conference crown. But there have been seven times when the Pac-10 champ has lost two games, meaning Cal simply wants to take care of business and hope the conference race gets turned upside down.

"We just have to go out there and win as many games as possible," quarterback Kevin Riley said. "Just looking at the Pac-10 so far this year, everybody has been beat up by everybody. You never know what's going to happen. We just have to go out there and win. That's it."

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SF Chronicle: Reassuring words, worried actions

Rusty Simmons

Cal coach Jeff Tedford says he doesn't hear or read the criticism. Quarterback Kevin Riley says the offense's confidence hasn't been shaken. And defensive back Chris Conte says all is well in Berkeley.

After being outscored 72-6 in two straight losses and falling from No. 6 to unnoticed in the AP rankings, the Bears are seemingly unified in their message.  But reality showed Thursday at Memorial Stadium, when Cal made a sweeping change from its usual bye-week pattern.

Instead of using the session as a scrimmage for inexperienced players, the Bears had a full-on practice for the veterans. Words say Cal is OK with the way the rest of the season will take shape. Actions say they're making the necessary changes to ensure the current trend won't continue.  "We felt like our 1's needed work and we wanted to utilize the whole week," Tedford said. "We also wanted to get a jump on the game plan."

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Oakland Tribune: A faded rose for Cal

Dave Newhouse

This reversal of faith certainly qualifies as welcome relief, yet it's regrettably painful. But I've given up on UC Berkeley returning to the Rose Bowl football game in my lifetime.  Go Bears? No-go Bears.  I've waited patiently for 50 years — Holy Oski! — for Cal to get back to Pasadena on New Year's Day. My patience has run out along with my enduring faith. I've come to the conclusion Cal is a second-tier bowl team, and that's that.  Cal's last Rose Bowl appearance ended the 1958 season — a 38-12 loss to Iowa. The Bears' half-century Rose Bowl drought is the longest among Pacific-10 Conference schools, excluding Arizona, which didn't join until 1978.

After humiliating losses the past two weekends, Cal has no chance of playing in this next Rose Bowl, which will be the rotating national championship game. Cal players can buy New Year's roses for their mothers.  Oregon and USC dragged the Bears back to reality by a combined 72-6 score. Once again, Cal teased its long-suffering, endlessly loyal alumni with great expectations then brought them more heartbreak.  My decision to abandon Cal occurred last year, however, when it lost 35-27 at Maryland then blamed the defeat on its "body clock" being on West Coast time. You never hear USC using body clock as an excuse. That's when I became convinced Cal wouldn't overtake USC for a very long time.

The Rose Bowl was Jeff Tedford's primary goal when he began coaching Cal in 2002. His secondary goal, even more far-fetched, was a national championship, which Cal hasn't claimed since the 1937 season, when it last won a Rose Bowl game — 13-0 over Alabama. 

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AP: Big losses force Cal to regroup during bye week

Josh Dubow

All those high hopes that California had at the beginning of the season have been erased by the two most lopsided losses in coach Jeff Tedford's eight seasons in charge of the Golden Bears.  The Rose Bowl, a BCS bid, a Heisman Trophy campaign have all been put to the side. The focus for the Bears during their bye week is on making sure two bad losses don't turn into a lost season.

"I still have a lot of confidence in what they're doing," Tedford said this week. "We still have seven conference games left so there's a lot of football to be played. There's no shame in being knocked down. But if we don't get back up, there is in that. That's the deal. There's a lot of football left. We have a week here to improve."  Cal (3-2, 0-2 Pac-10) plummeted from No. 6 in the nation to not receiving a single vote in the AP poll after being thrashed in a 42-3 loss at Oregon, followed by a 30-3 loss to Southern California to open the conference season. That ended any talk that this would be the year Cal would end a 51-year Rose Bowl drought.

Those performances also inevitably raised question about whether the Bears were headed to a repeat of the 2007 season. Two years ago this week, Cal was sent to move up to No. 1 in the county following an LSU loss to Kentucky. All Cal had to do was beat unranked Oregon State at home.  What followed was the worst stretch of Tedford's tenure. The Bears lost 31-28 to the Beavers when Kevin Riley tried to run it in from the 14-yard line, allowing the clock to run out.  The losses piled up after that as Cal dropped six of its final seven regular season games, barely even qualifying for a bowl.

"Everybody is thinking of the '07 team right now. It's not true. We're not going to have another '07 season," left tackle Mike Tepper said. "Our team chemistry is strong enough where don't have to be worried because we know we'll come back. I know we'll do well. It's different from the past."

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Update

I'll be updating the blog shortly. The burial for my father, a life-long Cal fan, was today.

Temporary Hiatus

Due to a death in the family I will not be updating this blog for a
few days. Go bears.

Sent from my iPhone

Seattle Times: USC vs. Cal: So much for that game-of-the-decade hype

A couple of weeks ago, USC-California was going to be the Game of the Decade in the Pac-10. Now it might not be the most interesting game Saturday in the Bay Area, ceding that honor to UCLA-Stanford.

So it's become the Biggest Game West of Walnut Creek and North of San Leandro, Late-Saturday Division.  Tuesday, the questions for Cal coach Jeff Tedford on the weekly Pac-10 conference call filled only half his allotted 10 minutes.  The Trojans-Bears game has lost some sheen with recent events — USC's loss to Washington, Cal's evisceration at the hands of Oregon, and the Monday injury to USC running back Stafon Johnson, who had seven hours of emergency surgery to his throat after a weightlifting accident.

"He's one of everybody's favorites," said USC coach Pete Carroll. "He's one of the spiritual leaders of this group. "It hit everybody pretty hard. It's hard to believe something could happen like that."  On a more mundane level, almost the same could be said about Cal's visit to Oregon, where it suffered a 42-3 loss Saturday as a favorite, the worst defeat in the eight years of Tedford's coaching regime at Cal.

Rather than writing it off to a team not being ready to play, Tedford described the loss as a lesson in what goes wrong when 10 players execute and the 11th one doesn't. "We're one guy away, here and there," he said. "We didn't make the big plays we'd been making. We were one step away from making a lot of big plays, but we didn't get it done.  "We have a play where we're pulling, and have a lead blocker, and we fall down. The first play of the game, we've got a guy running wide-open down the middle of the field, and we're late getting out of our stance, and we get sacked."

The game could evolve into a black-and-blue affair, the sort of which is becoming de rigueur in the Pac-10, because both defensive units appear superior to the other side.  Since a triple-overtime victory by Cal in 2003, Carroll has had his way with Tedford. This is the fourth straight year both have been ranked at game time, and USC has won each.

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San Jose Mercury: The day Cal shocked USC

Jeff Faraudo

This time the ball went through the uprights for Tyler Fredrickson, whose two previous field-goal attempts against USC on that day six years ago were blocked.  The 38-yarder ended a triple-overtime thriller and gave Cal a 34-31 victory over the third-ranked and undefeated Trojans, triggering a stampede of humanity onto the Memorial Stadium turf. The Bears hadn't beaten a top-five team at home in 28 years, so Old Blues could hardly be blamed for going a little berserk.  "Some girl grabbed me at midfield and gave me the biggest French kiss of my life," Fredrickson recalled. "I have no idea who she is."

"What stays with me is the belief that they had, to keep playing hard and never be intimidated," said coach Jeff Tedford, who was in his second year after taking over a team that had gone 1-10 in 2001. "People made plays. To me it had more to do with where they had come from in their confidence and self-esteem from Day 1, when they were so low."  Cal fans, still hungering for their first trip to the Rose Bowl since Jan. 1, 1959, have sold out Memorial Stadium for Saturday's Pacific-10 Conference game against the Trojans.  Still, it's hard to imagine Saturday's game eclipsing what happened Sept. 27, 2003.

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Contra Costa Times: Tedford remedy: Put Ducks debacle behind him

Jonathan Okanes

After watching the horror film otherwise known as the tape from his team's dreadful performance against Oregon on Saturday, Cal coach Jeff Tedford moved on the only way he knew how — by watching tape of upcoming opponent USC.  That may not have made him feel too much better.  The No. 7 Trojans visit Memorial Stadium this Saturday, and although they already have a loss in Pac-10 play and don't appear to be the dominant team they've been in recent years, they still will provide another challenge for a team already reeling from a devastating loss.

"The only way for me to get past it is to look at tape of USC," Tedford said Monday. "You can beat yourself up over and over and over by laying awake all night long about what you could have done in preparation or travel or meals. You think about everything. Could I have said something different?" One of Tedford's biggest tasks this week is making sure his players' confidence isn't shaken. The Bears were manhandled in every way possible during the 42-3 loss to the Ducks.

"I sit up in my little cocoon up here and stay pretty insulated," Tedford said. "But for them to be out there, a lot of people say different things to them. A lot of people have different opinions about things. And so it's really important that our guys don't listen to all the opinions that are thrown around out there and just focus on next week."

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SF Chronicle: USC-Cal a matchup of the deflated

Bruce Jenkins

Pete Carroll must be relieved to have his job back. In the wake of USC's loss to Washington, it had been taken last week by irate fans and a crabby media contingent (including the student newspaper) labeling Carroll as overrated and unprepared. Now it's Cal's Jeff Tedford in a dismantled state after yet another Pac-10 powerhouse ventured feebly into the great northwest.

The really disturbing part about the Bears' Eugene experience wasn't the final score - OK, we realize Oregon is superior - but that Cal simply wasn't ready to compete. Verran Tucker had an inexcusable drop on a deep crossing route in the first quarter. Josh Hill picked up an Oregon fumble and immediately fumbled it away. Kevin Riley and Jahvid Best botched a simple handoff in the second quarter, a turnover that led directly to the Oregon touchdown for 18-3.

Teams ranked sixth in the nation, as Cal was at the time, simply don't do that. But it was so perfectly Cal. Seasoned alums don't simply expect a devastating, spirit-crushing loss each season, we know it will happen. Maybe two or three times.

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SF Examiner: Golden Bears looking forward

"There's a lot veteran guys on this team that understand that that's one game, and it's really important that we put that behind us, that we learn the lessons from that game and that we move forward," said head coach Jeff Tedford when talking about how his team will respond to the biggest loss of the Tedford era this week.

It wasn't the most comfortable media luncheon this year, but it may have been the most resolute that everyone interviewed has been thus far.  The focus for Cal was 'moving on' or 'moving forward.'

"You learn from it, you move on. That's all that you can do," said Kevin Riley.  "...the past is the past.  We can't do anything about it now," was one of the responses by Tyson Alualu when talking about the Oregon game.

Defensive coordinator Bob Gregory wasn't looking forward to talking about the Oregon game later on after practice.  When beginning my question about what he saw on the game film from the Oregon game, he smiled and asked, "Do you want to talk about USC or Oregon?"  I asked if it was okay to talk about Oregon first and then USC and he responded with, "Not really.  I want to talk about USC," with a chuckle.  After a good laugh, he explained, "Okay, we were not good.  We didn't play well, we didn't coach well.  We didn't anticipate some of the things that they did and didn't do a good job.  So, hopefully we're going to learn from it and get better."

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LA Times: Cal a hard team for USC's Pete Carroll to figure out

Pete Carroll will begin searching today for clues, reasons for why California seemingly imploded a week before a showdown with the Trojans.  Cal's 42-3 meltdown at Oregon dropped the Golden Bears from sixth to 24th in the Associated Press media poll.

"It was so far out of character and out of line with that they'd done up until this point," Carroll said Sunday.  Cal's fall makes Saturday's matchup between the Trojans and Golden Bears a game between top-25 rather than top-10 teams.  After a 27-6 victory over Washington State, USC moved to seventh in both the AP and the USA Today/ESPN coaches' polls.  The Trojans (3-1 overall, 1-1 in the Pacific 10 Conference) also are seventh in the first Harris Interactive poll, which is part of the formula for the Bowl Championship Series standings.

Meanwhile, Cal (3-1, 0-1 in the Pac-10) is looking to bounce back like the Trojans did Saturday after losing at Washington a week earlier.  "They looked great on film, throwing it well, running it well, playing good defense," Carroll said of the pre-Oregon Golden Bears. "And all of a sudden: 42-3. It's kind of hard to figure that one out to tell you the truth. I'm sure they're thinking the same thing." The Trojans have their own issues to address before traveling to Berkeley. First and foremost: Cutting down on penalties. They racked up 13 for 115 yards against Washington State -- seven for 75 yards in the first quarter.

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Contra Costa Times: After Oregon's success, it's no mystery what Cal can expect from opposing defenses

Gary Peterson

Because we know you were wondering: Yes, Cal coach Jeff Tedford did break down the tape from Saturday's 42-3 loss at Oregon. And no, it did not break him.  "We got beat pretty soundly," Tedford said after putting his players through a light workout Sunday evening. "I don't think it's a reflection of who we are as a whole. It's that day, that environment, a very difficult place to play. It just seemed like we couldn't put anything together. You left there kind of shaking your head."

There are no secrets in the college football jungle. When one team has success against you, your next opponent is sure to notice. Among the many things Oregon did extremely well was crowd the line of scrimmage.  The Ducks overcommitted resources at the line to smother Jahvid Best, Cal's breakaway tailback. This, of course, left them vulnerable downfield, with cornerbacks playing man-to-man coverage and one safety to do the work of two. In effect, Oregon dared Cal to pass. Cal couldn't.

Quarterback Kevin Riley, who completed 64.7 percent of his passes for an average of 233 yards in the Bears' first three games, was held to 123 yards on 12-of-31 passing. With no reason to quit crowding the box, Oregon didn't. Thus Best, who averaged 137 yards, three touchdowns and 7.8 yards per carry in Cal's first three games, was held to 55, zero and 3.4. Not to be an alarmist or anything, but next up: USC.

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USC Tailback Has Emergency Throat Surgery After Weight Lifting Accident

LINK.

Southern California tailback Stafon Johnson had emergency throat surgery Monday after a weightlifting accident.  The senior who scored the No. 7 Trojans’ go-ahead touchdown against Ohio State two weeks ago was bench-pressing when the bar slipped from his right hand and fell onto his throat.

Johnson is the Trojans’ second-leading rusher with 157 yards, and he leads USC (3-1, 1-1 Pac-10) with five touchdowns. He led USC in rushing last season with 705 yards and nine touchdowns, but has evolved into the Trojans’ short-yardage specialist this season behind starter Joe McKnight.

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LA Times: Cal's new appointment with disappointment

Two thoughts to take out of Saturday: Never, EVER trust an e-mail that says you inherited millions, or California football.  The Gummy Bears botched it again, charging out to an early 3-0 lead at Oregon before allowing the next 42 points in a defeat in Eugene that left legions of Cal followers muttering that old Bill Parcells refrain, "You are what you are."  What kind of preparatory work was this in advance of incoming USC? Tie-dye shirt vendors in Berkeley are busy working on the latest prints:

* Cal: "Trying to get it right since Wrong Way Roy."

* Cal: "We're always shaky -- we live on a fault line."

* Cal: "No Heisman Trophy Winners . . . through 2009?"

After 42-3, with all that was at stake, after recovering the opening kickoff and then settling for a field goal after not giving one ball touch to the nation's best running back, what else could you say?  Cal had another opportunity Saturday to show street peddlers and pundits it should be taken seriously. With Mississippi losing Thursday, the sixth-ranked Bears had a chance to move into the top five with USC headed to Berkeley next weekend. But east is always east, west is always west, and Cal is always Cal. Every time the team gets to the brink, it blinks.  In 2003, Jeff Tedford's second year, Cal pulled off a triple-overtime win against USC in Berkeley that some thought foretold the Bears' arrival as an enduring rival to Pete Carroll's budding dynasty. Cal hasn't beaten USC since.

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New York Times: After No. 6 Falls, No. 5 Is Right Behind

The coaches of No. 5 Penn State and No. 6 California each sounded disappointed Saturday after their teams lost their conference openers. In soggy State College, Pa., Adrian Clayborn returned a blocked punt for a touchdown, and Iowa beat Penn State, 21-10.  A year after a stunning 24-23 win by the Hawkeyes knocked the Nittany Lions out of the national title race, Iowa (4-0, 1-0 Big Ten) took down Penn State (3-1, 0-1) again, this time in a drenching rainstorm.  “It was a team loss,” Penn State Coach Joe Paterno said. “No one person or one play lost it. We got licked.”  Earlier in Eugene, Ore., Oregon (3-1, 1-0 Pacific-10) held tailback Jahvid Best to just 55 yards in a 42-3 upset of No. 6 California.  Widely considered a top Heisman Trophy contender, Best went into the game ranked third in the Football Bowl Subdivision with an average of 137.33 yards on the ground. California (3-1, 0-1) had its most lopsided loss under Coach Jeff Tedford, Oregon’s former offensive coordinator. “Everybody’s disappointed when you don’t play well like that when we invest so much time and energy into what’s going on,” Tedford said. “It doesn’t feel good.”

SF Examiner:

Rich Walcoff

Cal athletic director Sandy Barbour was as giddy as a schoolgirl giving a national newspaper columnist a tour of Memorial Stadium and the new Athletic Performance Center under construction Tuesday afternoon.  Before he took part in his growing list of radio and TV interviews, Cal coach Jeff Tedford was corralled outside the football office by a Los Angeles sportswriter eager to get the inside word on Jahvid Best. Cal hasn’t quite reached the heights of the Berkeley tree-sitters, but the No. 6-ranked Bears (3-0) are in rarefied air heading into Saturday’s Pac-10 opener at Oregon.  Cal is second nationally in scoring, averaging almost 49 points a game. The Bears’ defense has 13 sacks, fifth most in the country and their 25 tackles for loss is ranked 12th in the NCAA. Best leads all of college football with nine touchdowns this season, scoring at an unheard of rate of once every six times he touches the ball.  After spending his first seven seasons in the shadows of Pete Carroll and mighty USC, Tedford finally has a team that can dethrone the Trojans. Of course, USC visits Cal on Oct. 3.

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