Once A Good Fit Now Makes For A Good Fight

Before Cal football coach Jeff Tedford roamed the sidelines of Memorial Stadium, he was an apprentice to Oregon coach Mike Bellotti.

With Tedford running the offensive system, Bellotti's Ducks amassed a 38-10 record over four seasons and Oregon sent three different quarterbacks on to the NFL, including first-round draft picks Akili Smith and Joey Harrington.

Apparently, Tedford's genius was noticed during his years as the Ducks offensive coordinator.

Four years after Bellotti brought him to Oregon, Tedford was named the Bears head coach, and the rest, they say, is history.

But Bellotti and Tedford almost missed the opportunity to work with each other.

As the offensive guru at Fresno State, Tedford applied for Oregon's offensive coordinator position in 1996, but was beat out by current Arizona State coach Dirk Koetter.

However, fate couldn't stop the Tedford-Bellotti fusion of knowledge.

Koetter left Oregon in 1998 to become Boise State's head coach, and Tedford saw the opportunity to reapply.

"I didn't hold that against him the next time, and say 'Hey, you didn't hire me the first time, so I'm not coming this time,'" Tedford said. "It was a great opportunity for me to expand some of my knowledge and see how it was done at another place other than Fresno State."

The Tedford-and-Bellotti combination seemed like the right fit from the get-go.

After he was hired in the fall of 1998, Tedford's impact on the Ducks offense was considerable. In his first year, Oregon broke program records for total offense, passing yards and points scored in a single season.

"I hired Jeff the second time I interviewed him," Bellotti said. "What I saw in Jeff was that he did more with less at Fresno State. His philosophy of offense and play selection was a lot like my own. I thought it would be a good fit in terms of what we needed to do offensively."

The Ducks offense continued to improve under Tedford-while working at Oregon gave Tedford, in turn, the kind of exposure he wasn't able to get as the head of the Bulldogs program. Tedford acknowledges that his stint with the Ducks may have led to his landing a job at Cal.

"I guess you'll have to ask the people who hired me," Tedford said. "Familiarity with the conference and playing a Pac-10 school over and over made me a little more visible than if I wasn't coaching in the conference every week."

The influence Bellotti had on Tedford in his years at Oregon can be seen in how Tedford runs his football team now as well as in the calm and cool demeanor he shows on the sidelines of every game.

"One of the main things I've learned from Mike is poise," Tedford said. "Mike is a guy that is always under control, through his organization and the way he handles his team. I've taken a little bit from each coach that I've worked under and I did the same with him. I took bits and pieces of what I liked about his style."

Every game Tedford has played against Bellotti and his Oregon squad has been a tough one, and today's 5 p.m. matchup at Memorial Stadium appears to continue the trend.

Bellotti holds a 2-1 advantage in the series against his former disciple, but Tedford's teams have never lost by more than a touchdown. The Bears lost a heartbreaker, 21-17, three years ago and lost in overtime last year 27-20.

"It's like a chess match," Tedford said. "You play against what you see on the football field. Personalities on the sidelines and stuff like that have absolutely nothing to do with it. It's about schemes and plays and putting players in the right place to make plays, and that's the goal."

Even though the two coaches are on separate sidelines, it hasn't changed their relationship.

The two still talk about things other than football off the field, and Bellotti still wishes for Tedford's success whenever Cal isn't playing the Ducks.

"We are still close friends, and I think we have great respect for each other," Bellotti said. "Obviously, I root for him to do very well except for in this game, and I think it is the same way with him."

Tags: