I want to love Jeff Tedford as a football coach, but I just can’t anymore.
I started coming to Cal games in 2002, which coincided with Tedford’s first year with the program. On the first play of the season, Terrell Williams hit David Gray on a 71-yard touchdown, and 11-year old me was instantly hooked on coach Tedford and all things Cal football.
He was absolutely cutting edge. Tedford’s offensive schemes were multifaceted, diverse and lethal, and he managed to breath life into an otherwise moribund Cal football team.
My tie-dye “Ted Head” shirt was by far my favorite article in my wardrobe growing up. Much to the dismay of my mom, I donned it until the holes encompassed more area than the fabric. Every time I wore it to school was a good day because it reminded me of why I loved Cal football so much.
But Tedford is not the same coach he was in 2002. He isn’t even the same coach he was in 2006.
The 21-3 scoreline from Saturday’s loss to Stanford belies an absolute beat-down that felt more like 210-3. Cal’s playcalling was at its best boring and at its worst embarrassing.
No one expected the Bears to have an easy time running the ball against the Cardinal, but finishing with three yards on the ground is unacceptable. Watching Isi Sofele continually trying to run inside the tackles felt like Chinese water torture.
And then in the postgame conference, it was just business as usual for Tedford, complete with the “I’m disappointed that things didn’t turn on differently” litany of answers.
The game appears to have passed Tedford up. He’s lost that spark that seemed to always propel his offense two steps ahead.
Now, they always seem two steps behind and struggling for air. It’s time for Tedford to move on.
It was physically difficult to write that last sentence, and now I feel a little depressed for having done so. This was the man that came to Berkeley and made football relevant on campus again. He dealt with decrepit facilities, tree sitters and Joe Ayoob and still managed to become the winningest coach in Cal history.
Tedford played a major role in sparking my love for this university, as I’m sure he did for numerous other fans. Cal football was a big part of my upbringing, and the fact that it was for better than for worse is largely to thanks to him.
I want to believe in Jeff Tedford, and I want him to succeed. I want to believe in a man that runs a clean program and seems like an all-around good guy. I want to believe in the coach that tirelessly worked to get Memorial Stadium renovated.
But I simply can’t anymore. Not after watching five and a half years of underachieving Cal squads that have made a habit of losing to far less talented teams. Not after watching offensive weapons like Jahvid Best and Keenan Allen wasted by timid and vanilla play calling.
And definitely not after seeing Cal lead the nation in penalties more than half way through the 2012 season.
I just want to be able to root for a team that plays the game of football with more discipline, commitment and attention to detail than its opponents, rather than one that tries to just squeak by on talent alone.
And I want a football coach that instills the same love for this place that I and so many other fans have burning deep inside.
I want 2002 Jeff Tedford back — but unfortunately that doesn’t seem possible.
There is no doubt that Tedford has done great things for this program and this school, and I hope that all Cal fans remember that and look back upon his career in a positive light.
But it is simply time for him to move on.
Connor Byrne covers football. Contact him at [email protected]
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Hire the coach from Ohio University.
um, okay. anybody remember the holmoe and gilbertson eras? the chance of getting a better coach than tedford is fairly low.
Tedford is the perfect match for a mediocre school like Cal. I’ve gotten used to it. Always will be.
Mediocre school? Umm…you must be confused.
Does Tedford sound and act like a man who expects to have a job next year? No, he doesn’t. This last game was seeming proof that he’s just phoning it in; standing on the sidelines collecting his money and not doing much else.
“Much else” would be re-designing the offense to accommodate a weak O-Line. “Much else” would be trying someone else at QB … running through his present options and holding open tryouts if THEY didn’t produce. “Much else” would be doing anything other than the same old thing.
The fact is that Tedford is acting like someone who no longer gives a crap; regardless of what he says. He’s tired, he’s rich, he doesn’t need this aggravation and he (likely) has already been told to make other plans after game #12. So why should he care if Cal gets humiliated? It’s not like anyone else is going to hire him anyway given his past record. In fact, the worse Cal looks now, the easier it is to throw up his hands over the next 3 years of collecting his millions from Cal and say “can’t get hired by anyone so pay me what you owe me”. It’s a lousy, gutless thing for him to do but whomever negotiated that contract SHOULD have anticipated this because that is what we are seeing. Evidently.
Cal has had head football coaches whom we should thank for their service. Waldorf, White, Snyder. Even Kapp & Theder. Tedford is not one of them because that man has been seemingly phoning it in like those men never, *ever* did. It is time we moved on.
Tedford’s motivation to grow and evolve as a head coach stopped the day he received his long term extension. Cal has been recruiting well but wasting talent ever since. Thank you Sandy Barbour for giving Tedford a contract that no other University in the country would have given him. Would it be too much Ms Barbour to ask you to step aside with your overpaid coach at the end of the year.
You won’t get any better than Tedford. Maynard has to be benched. There are solid young players on the team who can lift the program after Maynard goes. Tedford just has to have the guts to bench Maynard next year to give Kline a chance and not worry about upsetting Keenan Allen.
Maynard is gone next year, so there will be no need to bench him. We absolutely can do better than Tedford..With the new facilities and talent that is on this team, a competent coach would be able to come in a win immediately.
That’s part of the problem, though. Either Tedford can’t adjust to the
unique athletic abilities of his players or he is loyal to a fault. He
would not bench Maynard until the second-to-last or last game. He stuck
with Ayoob until then and a hobbled Longshore even until the bowl game.
5.3 million a year with a losing record, it’s time to move on
Tedford did great when he had Aaron Rodgers at quarterback. He was good with Kyle Boller. Other than that, he hasn’t amounted to much.
I think it was Aaron Rodgers, not Tedford who was the big asset to the team. Miss those Oak Trees yet?
Absolutely correct. There’s no doubt our players have done better in the NFL than with Tedford. He can’t seem to unlock their talent. He used DeSean’s speed as a decoy.
I don’t miss the trees. The new stadium is very nice.
Cal football is defined by guts and glory. Don’t you dare turn your back on the coach that turned around a terrible Cal program, you ungrateful spoiled brat!
Read the article carefully, not emotionally. He is not turning his back on the coach, he acknowledges Jeff and what he has done for Cal, but he also clearly identifies what we all have seen in the last four to five years. His article is objective and sumarizes what many of us eventually have to recognize with our own careers – simply time to move on.
Bottom line – Tedford is mediocre at best. His record against USC is evidence. If you want to achieve greatness, you have to get your team to play at the level of the USCs. $2.8 million for mediocrity is not a good deal – it’s a raw deal.
Bear in mind, we have the second to lowest graduation rate in the Pac-12.
LOL! Cal football has not been defined by guts or glory in quite a while.
“Turn your back”?? The university has paid this man well over $20 million to date and will owe him $5 – 7 million more over the next 3 years. In return, what has this man given us? He gave us one good year with Aaron Rodgers and not much else. Over the last 6 years? He’s given us a losing Pac-12 record and a string of QB failures in an offensive system that probably never worked but clearly does not work now. And he refuses to change or do ANYTHING differently. He’s got his money and he apparently does not care.
Your loyalty to this man is misplaced. Cal gave this man a head coaching job just a few years after he was an unpaid assistant and Cal has made this man one of the highest paid head coaches in the world. It is Tedford who owes us, and he owes us his resignation.
If Tedford were any kind of man, that’s exactly what he would give us. We deserve more than Tedford has delivered. When you run with the big dogs as Tedford has with his salary, you’d better earn it. He hasn’t. Now that we have the stadium bills to cover, we can’t settle for his incompetence any longer.
Jason Kidd was right after all. Jeff Tedfurd has turned around the program 360 degrees.
uh…he’s obviously an $C or Furd troll….