With a meeting with Sandy Barbour on Sunday about his future with the program, Cal head coach Jeff Tedford has one more chance to prove that he can right the proverbial ship.
And since he’s already headed to Corvallis, Ore. to face off with the Beavers on Saturday night, he might be wise to ask Oregon State head coach Mike Riley for a few pointers. After all, Riley was the 2011 version of Jeff Tedford.
As a coach who proved it possible to win in a place where success was previously considered impossible, Riley became a campus legend by putting together four straight seasons of eight or more wins from 2006 to 2009 — a feat that had never before been accomplished in school history. He managed to resurrect a program and make football relevant on a campus that has an all time record of 502-537-50.
Riley’s squad then went 5-7 in 2010 and missed a bowl game for just the second time in eight years, but the fans were more than willing to cut their beloved coach some slack.
Then 2011 happened. The Beavers were one of the worst teams in the nation and embarrassed not only themselves but also the rest of the Pac-12 by losing their home opener to the FCS-level Sacramento State, 29-28. Their 3-9 record was the school’s worst since 1996.
Oregon State struggled in almost every aspect of the game last year. The run game ranked dead last in the Pac-12 with just 87 yards a game, and the defense gave up more than 30 points per contest. Worst of all, Oregon State was simply a boring team to watch.
Just like with Tedford, more than a few people in Corvallis couldn’t bear what looked like a permanent downward spiral and wanted Riley gone.
But he convinced Beavers’ Athletic Director Bob De Carolis to give him one more shot. And the payoff in 2012 has been a 7-2 team that currently sits at No. 15 in the AP poll.
Riley saw that his team was going nowhere in 2011, so he treated it like an extended preseason for 2012. And that bargain worked out in his favor.
Quarterback Sean Mannion struggled as a freshman in 2011, throwing 18 picks and assuming a great deal of responsibility for the nine losses. In 2012, he led his team to a 4-0 start before tearing his meniscus muscle.
Riley made the same concession on defense, as a slew of young and inexperienced players who really had no business starting accounted for a unit ranked 88th in the nation.
Now they’ve grown up in one year and currently rank second in the Pac-12, giving up just 19 points a game.
Tedford needs to show that he is capable of a similar turnaround. He has 60 minutes of football left to prove that there is reason to be hopeful, if not excited, about the 2013 season.
It doesn’t really matter if the Bears win or lose. What matters is that next year’s stars prove that, when they’re the ones running this team, a 3-9 finish won’t even be in the realm of possibility.
Sixty minutes isn’t a whole lot of time to change a crowd’s opinion. It would have been in his best interest to scrap this season as early as possible and start a youth movement in an attempt to build towards 2013.
It took Riley only three quarters into the season to make that move, yanking quarterback Cody Vaz and throwing Mannion into the fray.
But 60 minutes is all Tedford has. And if he really wants to stay at Cal, he has no other option but to do whatever it takes to give the fans a reason to believe that 2013 will see a return to relevancy.
“We’re moving forward,” Tedford said. “We have work to do.”
There’s no questioning that. But does he have enough time to complete it?
Connor Byrne covers football. Contact him at [email protected]
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What will kill Tedford today (and his career at Cal IS dead) is not his inability to win, it is his inability to graduate his players; at least that will be the party line. There’s absolutely NO reason Barbour would call Tedford on the carpet today if the news were good for him. Nope, she’s been sharpening her knife for quite some time and she will use Cal’s dead last graduation rates as a reason.
If this has been a nightmare for us to witness, you can be certain it has been a Nightmare on Elm Street for the AD and she needs to end this right now. She will, count on it.
By the way, I’m tired of hearing that Tedford is a victim of his own success. That’s typically the case when you have one or two bad years. It’s been four bad years. OK, three bad years. Mike Mohammed saved that one year when he picked Luck’s pass to preserve a win in the big game.
I’m a factual kind of guy. The reason OSU has been “resurrected” is because Riley played Mannion as a freshman. The reason Cal won’t be resurrected is because Kline is on the bench. Two QBs who played high school in the same East Bay league with Kline achieving the higher accolades and statistics. One plays and one sits. Time for Tedford to sit down or out.
Cal football is a freaking joke. Stanford is 40 miles away and CRUSHING Cal both on the field and in the classroom.
We’re the doormat of the Pac-12 in both categories.
As much as I liked your last article, I’m not so much in agreement with this one. Riley’s two bad seasons at Corvallis was understandable. He had lost the Rodgers brothers to injury and/or to the draft. Besides, he wasn’t recruiting 4-5 star players. With Tedford, the ship’s been sinking for 5 years now despite much better pool of talents at Cal. Besides, I don’t particularly consider Riley a great coach. He’s been an inconsistent coach. This year, he’s doing great but who knows what to expect from him next year. I consider Bill Snyder at Kansas State a great coach for what he accomplished in his first stint and what he’s doing currently. Our standards (both academically and athletically) should be higher at Cal . We’re a much better academic institution, we have better facilities, and we have better recruits. Tedford should’ve been fired a long time ago.
Agree …. long time ago. Around the time Braun was fired or a year after. End of 2007 – the year we lost to OSU because some dumb ass coached called an onside kick before the half and OSU ends up kicking a field goal before the half, which, by the way, provided the winning margin.
Good analysis. It’s important to understand that the only reason Cal fans have a reason to complain is because Coach Tedford raised their expectations. He created a competitive program and largely helped get Memorial Stadium renovated. The Cal football program prior to his arrival was worthy of a stadium full of paper bag wearing fans. It was irrelevant prior to JT.
Now, I don’t know if Coach Tedford will ever get Cal to a Rose Bowl. But I think It’s clear that he will get at least another year to coach at Cal.
“The Cal football program prior to his arrival was worthy of a stadium
full of paper bag wearing fans. It was irrelevant prior to JT.”
Guess what, “The Cal football program is now worthy of a NEW stadium
full of paper bag wearing fans. It IS irrelevant UNDER JT.” JT gives new meaning to the circle of life.
We should not pay $2.6 million a year for what was done before 2007 (the year we blew of BCS hopes when some dumb ass coached called an on-side kick before halftime and OSU kicks a field goal before the half to win the game by that margin.
You’ve not been paying attention, my friend. 47% graduation rate? If Tedford delivered the Rose Bowl he was paid to deliver, MAYBE she overlooks that. Now? No way.
Dead man walking