Jeff Tedford had more excuses than answers following Saturday’s loss.
The Cal football team’s head coach continued to attribute the 49-27 loss predominantly to the 21 points the Bears gave away to Utah on two kickoff returns for touchdowns and scoop fumble for a touchdown.
But Cal was down 42-13 before the second kick return touchdown and 42-6 before the Bears’ three late touchdowns. Zach Maynard threw for 219 of his 288 passing yards in the second half, which was almost trivial following a four-yard second quarter.
“Was this one of the worst games I could remember? This year, yeah,” Tedford said.
Needing to win out to make a bowl, the Bears (3-6, 2-4 in the Pac-12) are on track for their worst season since 2001, when the club went 1-10 and fired Tom Holmoe. Tedford was hired and led Cal to a 59-30 record in his first seven seasons. Since 2009, the Bears are just 23-24.
“It’s new territory, and it’s not fun, I can tell you like that,” Tedford said. “I’m not gonna put the blame on one thing … You can’t put your finger on one thing.”
Each week there is a new leak in Cal’s suddenly defunct system.
At Ohio State, blown coverage by the Bears led to the Buckeyes’ game-winning touchdown. Versus USC, Maynard was sacked nine times. Against Stanford, Cal could not run the ball, rushing for three total yards in the 21-3 loss.
In Salt Lake City, besides the critical 21 points, there were two other turnovers, the punchless first-half offense and an injury-depleted roster.
While Tedford is correct that new problems arrive every week, it is not as if early-season woes have gone away.
Pass protection remains an issue. The Bears have still allowed more sacks than any team in the country after giving up four more Saturday.
Cal ranks last in the conference in time of possession and 119th in the nation in penalties.
“It’s gotta be utmost important that when we go to the practice field, that every day is for a purpose and every drill is for a purpose,” Tedford said. “There’s pressure all the time. I have a knot in my stomach every single week.”
The squad’s relatively mediocre 2012 campaign has seen occasional flashes of success. The Bears beat No. 25 UCLA by 26 points on Oct. 6 before going on the road and dispatching Washington State.
Defensive end Todd Barr said it was frustrating that the team can’t sustain that level of play.
“We just have to have confidence and faith and know that we can be a good team,” Barr said. “We’re really reevaluating ourselves and looking at ourselves in the mirror and saying, ‘What is it we are doing wrong as a whole team,’ trying to fix it before it gets out of hand.”
Looking at a possible 3-9 season, many would say things are already out of hand.
In the last two weeks, Cal has headed into halftime with a combined score of 49-9. Stanford is a top-15 team, but Utah had not won a Pac-12 game before embarrassing the Bears.
Barr attributed the team’s losing streak to “little mistakes here and there.” Tedford said the squad needs to tighten up details by focusing on technique and fundamentals in practice.
With a Friday game, the Bears have a short week to turn things around. Washington, with two upsets of top-10 teams this season, has beaten Cal three years straight.
“The way our backs are against the wall, we just have to keep fighting and never give up,” Barr said. “Go all out, we have nothing to lose.”
Except their season and their coach.
Jonathan Kuperberg covers football. Contact him at [email protected]
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Tedford does not need a 2.4 million salary. Zach Maynard sucks.
Hopefully Barbour is listening to this outpouring of disgust for the football program. It actually would be rather hard to miss because wherever she goes, whatever she reads on the subject … there it is. And, if she thinks this doesn’t represent the sentiment of Cal alum donors, she’s more of a fool than Tedford’s contract makes her out to be.
I’m guessing she’s already been told: Fire him at the end of the year and find the money to replace him or turn in your resignation. The question is not whether we’ll get a high-profile coach to replace this incompetent clown, but *which* high-profile coach we’ll get. The only 2 requirements in my mind are A) He’s clean and B) He’s had a record of success. My money is still on Petersen from Boise. He has NorCal roots, his program is clean and he has won with zero talent. They’ve got his contract up to $2 million now with steady raises but no way BSU can compete — in money OR prestige — with Cal and a BSC conference. We want him, we’ll get him; even with paying Tedford to remain unemployed.
You also have to think they’ll talk to Gruden and he might just be the kick in the ass that this team needs. Mike Riley would be a strong choice as well; if he can bring success to Corvallis with essentially NO talent, think what he could do here.
Whoever it is, there’s simply too much at stake to let the charade we have now continue much longer or to bring in a no-name and untested coach. Funny thing about humiliation, it often brings something better. Personally, I can’t wait to see what that might be.
“We just have to have confidence and faith and know that we can be a good team,” Barr said.
Good luck with that.
This program has become an embarassment and the coach is principle cause of not preparing his team for games. This is not a new story. Tedford had all the talent in the world in 2004 and 2005 but could get his team to a Rose Bowl. How does a school that have the number of NFL caliber players in the NFL not have the ability to compete for a national title. The answer: the coach. Tedford needs to go and before the end of the season is not to soon. He has yet to get an elite college quarterback in six seasons. His play calling has progressively gotten worse. He lacks confidence in his quarterback to successfully complete a third down; so he runs the ball up the middle and repeatedly gets stuffed. Tedford has to go. Now!!
yes Tedford’s out and so should Sandy or appoint a Director of Football Programs, the whole program is “off budget” so let’s get somebody who will take us to the Rose Bowl!