For much of Saturday’s 59-17 loss to Oregon, the Bears held their own. But their performance raises more questions than answers.
“We could have won that game,” linebacker Chris McCain said.
How does the same team that went toe-to-toe with the best offensive team in the country for 32 minutes get embarrassed at home by Nevada? How does a squad hold Heisman candidate Kenjon Barner to just 65 rushing yards yet let Utah’s John White rack up 108 yards and two scores?
How does that team let a competitive game at halftime turn into a blowout for the second straight year?
“At halftime, we felt like we were going to win the game,” quarterback Allan Bridgford said.
One coaching staff made adjustments. The other didn’t.
There wasn’t much of a talent disparity on the field on Saturday. Despite Oregon’s flashy offensive numbers — scoring more than 54 points per game — the squad doesn’t beat teams on raw talent alone.
Freshmen quarterback Marcus Mariota was hardly recruited out of high school. As a running quarterback out of a small high school in Honolulu, Mariota only received two scholarship offers — one from Oregon, one from Memphis.
Yet he threw for 377 yards and six touchdowns, thoroughly outplaying his counterpart in Cal’s Allan Bridgford, who was ranked as the 10th best quarterback out of high school and turned down offers from Tennessee and Nebraska to come to Cal.
Running back Kenjon Barner is no different. Besides Oregon, only UTEP and Arizona State showed any interest in the 3-star recruit from Riverside, Calif. Yet his 1,360 rushing yards this season in a crowded backfield illustrate what a good coach can do for a team.
The Oregon offense doesn’t win due to its talent. They currently have 24 players in the NFL. Compare that to 47 from USC or 32 from Cal, which produced prominent names like Thomas Decoud, Marshawn Lynch and Aaron Rodgers.
Above all else, a football coach’s job is to first, get the most out of your players put them in a position to be successful and second, make sure your best players are the ones who make the biggest impact on the game. Oregon coach Chip Kelly does those two things better than anyone else in college football. Jeff Tedford? Not so much.
Oregon’s offense really has no business being No. 1 in the nation in the scoring. And Cal has no business being ranked No. 88 in that same category.
Kelly sees he has a pretty athletic quarterback, a slew of talented running backs and a below average offensive line. So he employs the zone read offense, which minimizes his weaknesses and plays to his strengths.
Tedford has a decently athletic quarterback that struggles with his accuracy and decision making and pairs him with what is statistically the worst offensive line in football. Then he sticks them into a pro-style offense that only works with a quarterback who is accurate, has a strong arm and makes sound decision. In case you were wondering, Zach Maynard — or Bridgford — doesn’t fill any of those requirements.
The result is an offense that ranks ninth in the Pac-12 and scores just five more points a game than Washington State’s.
Cal has made a disturbing habit of doing less with more. Oregon has made a habit of doing more with less. Assuming the Ducks make it to a national championship game, they’ll play a team with more talent, and they’ll at worst hold their own.
Not Cal. All of its four and five star recruits will be sitting at home watching the bowl games on television.
The Oregon game showed that the talent was there for Cal this year. It just needed some coaching to go along with it.
Connor Byrne covers football. Contact him at [email protected]
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Funny though, if there was one game where we should have run the ball like 70% of the time, it was this game, with Oregon’s injuries on the d-line. It was working for 2.5 quarters and then Coach Tedford panicked and went away from the run — ballgame. Plus in the red zone, Coach doesn’t seem to understand the concept of using all 4 downs to set up a TD. In other words, keep running the ball. Relying on Zach or Allan hasn’t and wasn’t going to work (nice TD by Allan in the 1st half though). Evaluation and development at the QB spot has superseded all of the above though. If the coach thinks someone like Maynard was the best chance to win week after week, coach needed to figure out how to get Bridgford, Hinder, Boehm or Kline up to speed so that our best chance to win was a more competitive one (i.e. worthy of competing for a division championship). By saying Zach was our best chance to win, coach was essentially saying we aspire to lower tier bowls (this year, that would be a dream). It’s not Zach’s fault. He went after his dream and was living it out. It’s Mr. Tedford’s fault. Sorry coach. You’re a good man and a tireless worker. Thank you for putting your blood, sweat and tears into the program. There’s much to respect. But it’s over.
I agreed 110%. Right on target. The point of adjusting at half time or during game time is needed in order to win. Some coaches do that extremely well and Chip Kelly has been doing that for years. You have to be open to adjusting……..a game plan is a game plan…..but it doesn’t have tp be in STONE………you have to adapt.
Fire the coaches, rebuild with a brand new athletic training center, find more recruits. It’ll takes a few years to get back, but this is the perfect time to do it. Please do not let Tedford continue his drunkenly ways.
In this game of football you need a good offensive line. these are the most important positions of all. Yes I am stating the obvious. But a lot of commenters seem to forget this. To be honest our o-line has not been very effective. However i n the Oregon game they played pretty good for about three quarters anyway. Where were they the rest of the season? Once again I do not feel that firing the coach in this case is a good idea. The problems are deeper than that. Mr. Tedford is, in my opinion, an excellant coach, and is best suited to solving these problems. I to would like us to win another Rose Bowl before I leave. I’m old enough to remember our last Rose Bowl win on 1 Jan. 1938 I think. Come on Bears give us faithful old blues that win.
Tedford has not demonstrated his passion to get to the Rose Bowl. He has been quoted as saying we don’t need extra motivation, we’re prepared. That says it all. He is so arrogant in believing his game strategy get us the win and get us to the promised land. Everybody can always use some extra motivation – no matter how prepared we are.
Before you fire Tedford you need a list of coaches that would want to coach at Cal. Cal needs a coach that is well known, has a dynamic personality, great recruiting skills, and of coarse most important of all someone that has a proven record as a great offensive minded coach. Cal and Sandy Barbour have done so much over the past decade to build up Tedford, I don’t think they have the guts to fire him.
Lam Research can bankroll our next coach. We’ll name it the LAM Memorial Stadium. I would think a lot of coaches want to coach at Cal give the level of talent we have. Our team is not short on talent unless you go beyond the players. Why not start with the coaches at De la Salle? Remember, Mike Holmgren started as a high school coach.
What coach would NOT want to work for a university in the best area of the country, in a BCS conference, for a salary of nearly $3 million per year and (apparently) zero pressure to perform?
Barbour and Co. found the money to get the stadium project off the ground. they can certainly find the money to fire this incompetent clown and hire someone else.
Don’t forget that Barbour also pink slipped BB and gave us MM. The woman *does* have balls (so to speak) and at times she knows how to use them; like with Braun, she just has to get fed up with the situation. Hopefully it won’t take her long after Saturday to make the call … I’m thinking Sunday morning because I’m betting she already has the money to pull the trigger. Got my fingers crossed for Petersen from Boise. NorCal bred and he knows how to win. The only question is whether we can outmaneuver $C. Certainly there’s no comparison in the job environment and expectations so the question is whether we can pay up to get him.
Like I say, cross your fingers Bears fans.
This was a really good article. It is important to recognize that teams with great players have often failed. However, teams with great coaches will usually do well. Cal’s lack of success this year isn’t due to the players. It is due to Tedford and the coordinators who were unable to coach to the level of their competition.
Finally a guy singing my tune at the Daily Cal. Tedford’s success in the past was due to some extraordinarily talented guys who actually went onto to the NFL and demonstrated more success at a higher level than what they showed in Tedford’s system/program.
Good Point
I don’t blame DeSean Jackson for holding Tedford responsible for his slipping into the second round. Jackson was first round material and there is absolutely no reason he should have slipped into second round other than (a) Tedford bad-mouthing DJ and/or (b) DJ had an unproductive second half of 2007 because Tedford abandoned the long game in favor of the quick tosses (aka short losses).
Even Aaron Rodgers got hurt with the Tedford cooties. 49er’s took Alex Smith probably thinking Rodgers was going to be another Tedford bust ala Joey Heatherton/Akili Smith/David Carr/Trent Dilfer. Little did the 49er’s know that Rodgers was contaminated for only one year so he did not carry the same baggage as the other Tedford proteges.
When asked why he drafted Alex Smith over Aaron Rodgers, SF 49′r head coach Mike Nolan replied “he’s nice to his mamma”.
There you have it. You can’t argue with stupid, all you can do is run from it if you’re a professional football team (they did) and not elect it as your president (we didn’t).
Whatever Nolan’s decision was based upon, Rodgers is NOT a good example of Tedford’s failings because Tedford (literally) rescued him from JUCO obscurity. Rodgers is probably the only Cal player in the Tedford era who *shouldn’t* carry a grudge against the man, though. DJax, in particular, has good reason not to include Tedford on his Christmas card list.
Let’s hope Barbour includes Tedford’s career serial killings in her calculations on axing the dude. Please. Stop him before he kills again.
Connor,
It was one of the most intelligent article I’ve read on DailyCal. Your analysis of what is wrong with Cal football program is dead on. In fact in the first half, it was clear how superior Cal players were compared to Oregon. Yet after halftime, it also was painfully clear which coach is capable of making adjustments and which one isn’t. Look at USC, do you honestly believe that this team with Pete Carrole would be as inconsistent as they are with Lane Kiffin. A great coach can make a huge difference. Sometimes a mediocre coach like Tedford or Auburn’s coach, Gene Chizik, get lucky with a great player and a leader like Aaron Rodgers or Cam Newton and consequently the team does great despite bad coaching. But eventually bad coaches make bad decisions like what we’re facing now. A great coach like Bill Snyder makes his team shine despite recruiting classes ranked in the
60′s. I hope Sandy Barber can identify and hire a great coach. An investment in a great coach will pay dividends soon by re-energizing the alums who’d be more than happy to donate.
Are you implying mediocrity is worth $2.3 million per year? Truth be told, Tedford’s weakness was exposed when he failed to recruit speed and went with the Marvin Jones and Keenan Allens. Tedford, himself, said you can’t coach speed. Hence, his success was due to the speed of DeSean Jackson and Marshawn Lynch. Tedford’s coaching was not needed. Without speed, coaching is needed but nowhere to be found. Hence, 3 W’s this year with 2 gimmes!!! UCLA is still beating their head against the wall trying to figure out how they lost to us this year.
If Cal wants to return to the top, we have to recruit speed because we don’t have a coach. One speedster in Bigelow is not enough – especially when the coach & offensive coordinator insist he runs east-west instead of north-south.
Holy crap, it’s zombie Al Davis!
Yes, but the difference is zombie Al Davis is advocating speed with talent and not merely speed. There’s nothing wrong with looking for the next Cliff Branch, DeSean Jackson, or Bo Jackson. I would not have drafted Darius Butterfinger-Bey. Zombie is not a numb-nut.
So your thesis is “recruit players that are fast but also good at other things.” Sounds like pretty much everyone’s strategy.
True but we’re not even recruiting speed and to the extent we have speed, the play calling doesn’t take advantage of our strengths.
Well said. Marshawn, DeSean, and Jahvid made Tedford look like a better game planner / strategist than he really was. One elite speedster on the field at RB or WR can truly change the complexion of an offense – linebackers have to respect the play action and safeties become wary of the deep threat. Needless to say good coaches and offensive coordinators should be able to exploit this.
On the flip side, Tedford helped return some prestige to the program and if it wasn’t for that, those players would not have come to Cal. BUT, he is overly committed to his pro style game plan both at a macro level (not developing a better season-long game plan for a clearly non-pro style QB) and a micro level (failing to make halftime adjustments).
I would like to also call attention to another alarming trend: the offensive coordinator position. Tedford has gone through six different OCs. What’s going on here? Have they been leaving because they can’t work with him? Or he forces them to go with his game plan? It’s true that change is common at this position but the overwhelming lack of offensive consistency cannot be ignored. The recruiting strategy has to match the offensive system (aka properly utilizing your talent) and this does not seem to be happening.
A sign of a good coach is getting all the guys on the team on the same page – ala Mike Montgomery. I don’t see that with our team for the past years. You can see the confusion on the field. Something is amiss. Jon Wilner claims the playbook is too complicated. How can it be? We see the same plays and they don’t work for one reason or another (i.e., lack of execution, the other team anticipated from our films, and etc.). So I close with that old saying, “Keep it simple stupid” ….. “but for Christ’s sake, change it up stupid.”
$2.8 million. See his contract here:
http://www.coacheshotseat.com/SalariesContracts.htm
5 years into his contract, he’s still the 17th highest paid college football coach in America. Kinda makes you wonder how much he’d be demanding if he had a winning conference record during that time, huh?
I stand corrected but I still don’t feel better knowing I understated Tedford’s compensation. To rationalize this, let’s say the salary paid in excess of what he was worth as a coach (i.e. $2.8 million) was paid to him for services in connection with the stadium remodel. According to the Bears’ web site, that was $321 million. So, that’s less than 1%. I hope that makes US feel better. I just saved myself $500 from seeing a shrink. I’m not quite sure how I will rationalize the termination payment at more than $5 million. I suppose if we amortize it over the life of the stadium, it will hurt less.