Tony Zhou/Staff

Safety Avery Sebastian sure seemed happy to see the two-week coaching search finally come to a close following Sonny Dykes’ introductory press conference on Thursday afternoon.

“It was a long 16 days,” Sebastian said. “It was a very antsy wait. All the players would huddle around ESPN.com looking around.”

Sebastian, along with quarterback Allan Bridgford and Chris Harper, hung around the press conference area answering questions pertaining to the hiring of Dykes. As expected, the reaction was overwhelmingly positive.

“I think it will be a really nice fit for us,” Bridgford said. “We have a lot of talented wide receivers. We have a couple of incredibly talented running backs. We have tight ends that can create mismatches in the middle of the field. We definitely have the personnel for this offense.”

The offense, a variation on the Air Raid concept honed by Dykes’ mentors Mike Leach and Hal Mumme, includes many four and five wide receiver sets.

“I’m in a very fortunate position right now with the offense we’re running,” Harper said.

Although the offense looks to be prolific as ever, Dykes’ defense finished last in the country in points allowed last season. Sebastian didn’t seem worried.

“We want to be the best defense in the conference,” Sebastian said. “Now that (Dykes) is at Cal, things will change.”

Although the defensive prospects remain suspect, the players seems to be optimistic with the direction they’ve chosen to head in.

“Yes,” Harper replied when asked if Dykes made any remarks about expectations in the first team meaning, “he expects us to win the championship.”

Michael Rosen covers football. Contact him at mrosen@dailycal.org

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Tony Zhou/File

Hours before the hiring of Sonny Dykes as Cal football’s next head coach, wide receiver Keenan Allen announced on Wednesday that he intends to declare for next year’s NFL Draft.

Forgoing his senior season, the Greensboro, N.C. native has etched his name into the Cal record books as the all-time leader in receptions with 205. Allen surpassed Geoff McArthur with his 203rd reception against Utah on Oct. 27. Allen injured his knee in the game, prematurely ending his junior season and forcing him to play his last game for Cal.

“I am grateful for all of the opportunities the University of California has provided me over the past three seasons,” Allen said in his announcement.  “I have always dreamed of having an opportunity to play in the NFL, and my time at Cal has helped me get to the point in my career where I believe I am ready to take that next step.”

Allen ranks third in receiving yards and seventh in touchdown receptions all-time with 2,570 and 17, respectively.

A five-star recruit out of high school, Allen started his first Cal game against UC Davis in 2010. He recorded 4 catches, 128 receiving yards, and two touchdowns and continued to climb the NFL Draft stock ladder into becoming a likely first-round pick.

In 2011, Allen caught 98 passes for 1343 yards and six touchdowns from his half-brother, Zach Maynard. He earned all Pac-12 honors and was a finalist to the Biletnikoff Award, an accolade presented to the top wide receiver in college football.

His stats dipped in 2012 with 61 catches for 737 yards and six touchdowns in nine games, but Allen’s draft stock to the NFL never took a step back. CBS Sports project Allen as the thirteenth best prospect of 2012 — the highest amongst all wide receivers.

Contact Seung Y. Lee at sylee@dailycal.org

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Allyse Bacharach/File

As the final shattered pieces of Cal’s broken season fall to the ground, questions will inevitably be asked about who should lead the program next fall. But though this year’s string of dismal performances seems to have completed Jeff Tedford’s fall from grace among the football faithful, the financial ramifications of firing him will surely give university leaders pause before they pull the trigger.

According to his contract, the university must pay the remainder of his agreed salary should it terminate his employment. This means it would be on the hook for at least $5.4 million (the sum of Tedford’s minimum $225,000 base salary and $1,575,000 talent fee annually through 2015, the year the contract ends). When factoring in the possibility of a house cleaning so the next coach could bring in his own coaching staff — offensive coordinator Jim Michalczik and defensive coordinator Clancy Pendergast alone earned a combined $640,000 in 2011, according to the Sacramento Bee’s state pay database — that figure could balloon.

For many diehard fans, the path forward is simple: Tedford must go. But the question remains whether an athletic department that sometimes struggles to break even — even requiring a bailout from the campus four years ago — can afford to pay a coach several million dollars to not work.

(Note: A clause in Tedford’s contract stipulates that, if he were to find employment at another college football program or in the NFL during the tenure of the contract, the university will not have to pay him for the amount he earns at his new job.)

Read the full text of Tedford’s contract below (and learn about his two-car allowance, his country club membership, the terms for his various bonuses (of which there are many), and more!).

Jeff Tedford’s original contract (2002)

Jeff Tedford’s contract addendum (2011)

Contact Jordan Bach-Lombardo at jbachlombardo@dailycal.org

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Tony Zhou/Staff

When asked to sum up his performance against Oregon, quarterback Allan Bridgford had only a one-word answer.

“Average.”

And that’s about right. Bridgford wasn’t great, but he wasn’t terrible.

His stat line was pretty subpar. The redshirt junior completed just nine of his 21 passes for 113 yards, a touchdown and two picks.

For the most part, Bridgford’s offensive line gave him plenty of protection, as he was only sacked once. He also had the luxury of a functioning running game that provided 253 yards on the ground and rarely forced Bridgford into third and longs.

Multiple times, he took all of that and showed flashes of brilliance, or at least competency. His 10-yard touchdown pass to wide receiver Darius Powe — the first career touchdown for both players — was a gem of a throw, as Bridgford looked off the safety and then found his man wide open in the corner of the end zone in stride.

But there were also plenty of times where Bridgford proved that quarterback Zach Maynard was rightfully the starting quarterback for most of the year.

In the third quarter, Bridgford got flustered by pressure up the middle, and threw off his back foot into a crowded area, trying to hit his running back on a screen. The result was a pick — and the first turnover of the game.

On the next play, Oregon quarterback Marcus Mariota found wide receiver Josh Huff for a 35-yard touchdown, putting his squad up 31-17 and jamming a giant dagger into the collective heart of Cal.

Bridgford showed good pocket presence and command of the offense, but his mechanics leave plenty to be desired. His release is far too slow to be a big time quarterback, and once teams get a chance to see him on tape, the results might get ugly.

Cal’s chances next week against Oregon State are slim. Cal will be playing a better team on the road, which in all likelihood will result in the squad’s ninth loss.

Bridgford will likely get outplayed by Oregon State quarterback Sean Mannion. But, as he showed against Oregon, he at least won’t be the only reason his team loses.

Connor Byrne covers football. Contact him at cbyrne@dailycal.org

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Friday might have marked the end of a truly great epoch in Cal football history: the Zach Maynard era.

Yeah, he still might play this season after spraining his knee late in the fourth quarter on a gator roll tackle against Washington.

Yeah, head coach Jeff Tedford confirmed that an MRI showed no serious damage and that Maynard is being monitored on a day-to-day basis.

But all signs point to backup Allan Bridgford calling the shots against Oregon next Saturday, and likely for the remainder of the season.

With Maynard taking his probable last snap as a Bear on Friday, I figured I’d use my Maynard Mondays space to review Zach’s career as Cal’s starting quarterback.

The Maynard era began with promise in the 2011 season. Four touchdown passes against Colorado in a thrilling overtime victory gave Bears fans a reason to believe as the season progressed.

But Maynard never really settled into his role. Of the first nine games of the season, not once did he complete more than 60 percent of his passes. Maynard was wild and often forced too many passes to his half-brother, Keenan Allen.

In the Big Game last year at Stanford, though, Maynard started to show some promise. He completed 69 percent of his passes for 288 yards and almost led Cal to an upset victory.

He followed up the performance with another strong, efficient game (73.6 percent completion rate) at Arizona State, giving Bears fans hope that a new and improved Maynard would lead the team to greater success in 2012.

During the offseason, Tedford was high on Zach in spring camp, saying he’d seen vast improvements.

But the season opener against Nevada killed any lingering optimism. Although his stats weren’t horrible, Maynard was unable to bring the team back after sitting out the first quarter because of a tutoring issue.

After a decent performance against Ohio State that resulted in a loss, Maynard went back to his inconsistent ways: he went 18-for-33 and two interceptions against USC and 9-for-28 against Arizona State. And then, randomly, 25-for-30 and four touchdowns in the big win against UCLA.

After a season and a half of Maynard at the helm, Bears fans were still unsure what to make of the slippery, slight lefty.

Was he a mobile quarterback with an ability to throw on the run? Was he an inconsistent scrambler lacking the throwing accuracy to make in Division I?

Even to this day, these questions remain unanswerable.

As confusing as it was, we can’t say it wasn’t memorable.

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Who needs Keenan Allen?

With Allen scratched from the game due to an injured knee, the future of Cal’s receiving corps will be on full display against Washington. Four freshman receivers and a sophomore tight end will try their best to fill the void the Bears’ all-time receptions leader.

The leader of the bunch thus far this season is Chris Harper, somewhat of a surprise considering the lack of hullabaloo surrounding the three-star recruit’s commitment to Cal. But Harper has been beacon of hope for the Bears in the midst of a struggling season, particularly on the offensive side. He is second on the team in both receptions (29) and receiving yards (380) behind Allen.

And Harper has done his best Keenan impersonation with several one-handed grabs throughout the year. Still only a freshman, Harper has had his share of fumbles — but he’s a star in the making.

— Jonathan Kuperberg

Shaq Thompson, Washington nickelback

Twice a Cal commit and the younger brother of former Cal cornerback Syd’Quan Thompson, Shaq Thompson has started every game for the Huskies at nickelback, and for the most part he’s lived up to his five-star billing. His 44 tackles is one short of leading his team, and his run stopping ability has played a major roll in Washington giving up a touchdown less per game than it did a year ago.

But he’s also had plenty of moments to remind everyone that he is a freshman, and his over aggressiveness in the passing game has left the Huskies vulnerable over the top at times.

Whenever Thompson is in the game, something is exciting is bound to happen – whether it be a big open field tackle or trying to undercut a route and getting burned deep. He likely won’t be giving Cal quarterback Zach Maynard too much respect in the passing game, so Friday night could be another big run stopping night for the 6-foot-2 freshman out of Sacramento.

— Connor Byrne

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Kevin Foote/File

Cal wide receiver Keenan Allen has been officially ruled out for Friday’s game against Washington with an injury to his left knee. Allen apparently injured his left PCL during an onside kick against Utah last week, and will be sidelined for 2-3 weeks.

Though Cal likely only has three weeks left in its season, head coach Jeff Tedford isn’t ruling out a return to the field this year for Allen

“Keenan won’t play against Washington,” Tedford said in a statement. “We’ll continue to evaluate him on a weekly basis.”

Allen is able to walk normally but can’t run routes. He broke Cal’s all-time record for receptions last week against the Utes. The junior is expected to declare for the NFL draft after the conclusion of the season.

Connor Byrne covers football. Contact him at cbyrne@dailycal.org

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Gracie Malley/Senior Staff

He threw for 288 yards. He completed nearly two thirds of his passes. He had two touchdowns to just one interception. And despite getting sacked four times, he still had a net rushing gain of 30 yards.

On paper, it sure looked like Zach Maynard had a great game Saturday in Salt Lake City. Then again, on paper, Cal was a better team going into the evening tilt with Utah, and the Bears would be in for an easy victory.

The 49-27 decision told otherwise.

It is worth noting that Maynard could have played the game of his life and it would not have mattered given the lopsided outcome. Additionally, the three sacks he suffered in the first quarter were not exactly his fault.

“He didn’t panic and start throwing the ball into coverage and doing things like that,” said head coach Jeff Tedford. “He hung in there and threw a lot of really nice balls.”

Yet, more than any other player, the only stat that really matters for a quarterback is win or loss. The senior was by no means horrible at Rice-Eccles Stadium. But turning the ball over two times instead of four should not be what make his performance considered good. In fact, Maynard would have had three turnovers had he not had the awareness to recover his first fumble.

At Memorial Stadium, it seems like every time Maynard drops back and airs out a throw, the fans all collectively hold their breath. Tedford said he thinks Maynard has really grown, but in the quarterback’s two years as Cal’s starter, he has thrown 29 touchdowns to 21 interceptions, a ratio only slightly better than his sophomore season at Buffalo.

It’s not just the interceptions, it’s the timing. In two years, Maynard has had a number of game-sealing picks, including one against Ohio State earlier this season. On Saturday, his lone interception did not clinch the victory for the Utes, but it came in the game-changing second quarter.

The Bears kicked a field goal on the second play of the quarter to narrow the score to 14-6. Eight points is one score, a manageable deficit. Two possessions later, Utah ran the ball six times to tack on another touchdown. Cal had to respond quickly before the game got out of hand.

On the first play, at the 25-yard line, Maynard threw behind Keenan Allen. The ball bounced off Allen into the hands of a Utah defensive back. The Utes would score a touchdown on the drive, putting them ahead, 28-6, at the half.

Maynard did not complete a single pass in the quarter, going 0-for-3. Fifty-one of his 69 first-half passing yards came on a single throw, a safe pass to an open Richard Rodgers on a gutsy third-and-one call. The tight end was brought down at Utah’s 19-yard line, but Maynard threw incomplete passes on two of the next three plays before Vincenzo D’Amato’s 48-yard field goal in the nascent second quarter.

According to the stat sheet, Maynard exploded in the second half for 219 yards and two touchdowns. Tedford said he was really pleased with Maynard’s play for the most part.

Indeed, he made some nice throws, hitting Chris Harper for 33 yards and Allen for nine on consecutive plays. But by then, Cal was already down 35-6.

It was only after the Utes’ second kick return for a touchdown to open the fourth quarter, putting them up 49-13, that Maynard threw his two touchdown passes.

Jonathan Kuperberg covers football. Contact him at jkuperberg@dailycal.org

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Michael Tao/Staff

Has the sting of another Big Game loss dulled yet, Cal fans? Probably not. But I’m about to sharpen those pangs a bit more with this week’s installment of Maynard Mondays.

To put it bluntly, Cal’s offense looked pathetic on Saturday. True, its defensive pressure was consistent and stifling; if it wasn’t for that, the battle would surely have been much more of a gladiatorial sacrifice on the Astro Turf of Memorial Stadium.

Stanford came into the game with a laughably simple strategy: run the ball, and stop the ball on defense.

Game, set, match. The Cardinal came in with a plan, and they executed it to perfection. The team racked up an astounding 252 yards rushing with only 13 yards lost on the ground.

Cal, in comparison, put up three net yards in the run game, with a grand total of 44 yards lost and four Maynard sacks.

In short, the Bears’ run game sucked, and the final score is a sobering reminder of that.

This was the first Big Game since 1998 in which the Bears failed to score a touchdown, and no amount of Cal spirit and The Play rewinds on Youtube can erase that.

It’s hard to say the team lost its spark, because thus far this season it hasn’t really shown any spark or promise.

It’s harder to say that the offensive line’s utter absence on Saturday was singular, because the line has largely been the culprit of Cal’s woes this year.

The 115th Big Game was like a cruel flashback to the defeats at the hands of Ohio State and USC, in which the line gave up six and nine sacks, respectively.

These athletes are supposed to be protecting their leader, their quarterback. Instead, the front seven have less hold and strength than an off-brand Kleenex. Granted, Zach Maynard is no Aaron Rodgers or Andrew Luck, and he’s not going to pull spectacular turnarounds from thin air.

But Maynard should be able to consistently drive the length of a field and produce a touchdown in the red zone. And he can’t do that if his team lines up at the three yard-line, poised for its first score of the day, before being driven back for a loss of yards and no dice.

There’s some unspoken law that governs the Big Game: anything can happen, right?

In Saturday’s case, that anything was just nothing new.

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Simone Anne Lang /File

On a Cal team with three quality running backs, is Zach Maynard — gasp — the best runner of all?

Well, no, of course not, but Maynard did rush for a career-high 78 yards in the Bears’ 31-17 victory at Washington State.

It helped that Maynard did not get sacked a single time on Saturday evening, meaning he did not get negative rushing yards on the stat sheet on account of the offensive line. Getting sacked zero times after 26 in the previous four weeks thereby marks the end of the “Sack” Maynard moniker. With 10 rushes and mostly crisp passing, perhaps we can change that nickname to “Attack” Maynard.

With comparatively less defensive pressure, the senior had time to complete 14-of-23 passes for 188 yards. Most of those passes and yards went to half-brother Keenan Allen, whom Maynard tended to stare at before throwing darts to. But they were mostly bullseyes, as Allen caught 11 passes for a whopping 165 yards.

For what seems like the umpteenth time, Maynard threw an interception in the first quarter. But, as usual, Maynard rebounded from the poor pass. Against an inferior Cougar defense, Maynard faked handoffs and had holes to run right through.

It wasn’t just Maynard — Cal’s entire ground game was nearly unstoppable. Four Bears had more than 50 yards rushing, led by C.J. Anderson’s 116 yards. The senior power back averaged 7.7 yards a carry — second to Maynard’s 7.8 — and reached the end zone twice. Isi Sofele and Brendan Bigelow rushed for 63 and 58 yards, respectively. As a whole, Cal rushed for 318 yards, easily the squad’s season high.

But it was Maynard’s running that was the most surprising. Despite Maynard being a mobile quarterback, considered to be a dual threat, there have been few Maynard runs this year that were designed, or not a result of defensive pressure or well-defended receivers. But on Saturday, Maynard took advantage of his speed and the Cougars’ ineptitude. Of his 10 rushes, four were for first downs and one was a touchdown.

The running ability adds another wrinkle to Maynard’s game, which has been improving gradually, if not gut-wrenchingly slow, since his debut in 2011. These last two weeks, despite three interceptions, have perhaps been Maynard’s best two-game stretch of his career — 39-of-53 passing, 484 passing yards, seven total touchdowns, two wins.

Maybe it was the presumably lucky eye black that went from his jaw-line all the way to his nose. Or maybe it was a Washington State defense ranked 105th in the nation. Either way, Maynard rose to the occasion and left Cougar defenders dead or, rather, zombielike, in their tracks.

He is unlikely to replicate that performance next week, when the Bears’ offense challenges Stanford’s stingy defense, highlighted by a powerful front seven. But Cal’s newfound ground success, particularly Maynard’s, is one more thing for which Cardinal head coach David Shaw and company will have to prepare.

Jonathan Kuperberg covers football. Contact him at jkuperberg@dailycal.org

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