Why Jeff Tedford Is Not Overrated (Part 1)

Yes, it's a month-and-a-half to the first Cal game of the season, but since this is somewhat of a slow sports week, I figured I'd give my take on head coach Jeff Tedford.

This last season (and off-season) has arguably been the worst for Cal Football in quite a few years. The losing streak was, of course, demoralizing and a black mark on Tedford's leadership skills. And yes, we lost the Axe.

But here are some highlights from the Holmoe Era:

• 1997: 3-7; 1998: 5-6; 1999: Forfeited all games, program placed on 5 years probation; 2000:3-8; 2001: 1-10 (only win against Rutgers; a stellar 0-8 Pac-10 record).
• 0-5 in The Big Game.
• Only the most die-hard Cal fans attended the games or were even remotely interested in Cal football. In fact, only about 16,000 fans attended each home game in 2002, even as Tedford was resurrecting the program.
  

In other words, Cal was a laughing stock, but most people in the Bay Area (and probably the rest of the country) knew that already. I don't remember many bright spots or truly great moments from those five years. (This article is not meant to bash Holmoe, it only tries to contrast the state of Cal football pre-Tedford and post-Tedford)

The first half of last season had quite a few such moments: Beating Tennessee (when most SEC fans thought we would lose and lose badly - and yes we did lose an embarrassing game to them the season before), the win at Autzen, etc. Cal even (infamously) almost owned the No.1 ranking in the country, but under Holmoe, we were lucky to be 1-0 in any given season.

2007 was supposed to be a down year. The defense especially was not up to par with past Cal teams. But even among the uneven play that was sometimes frustrating, there were highlight-reel plays as well. Compare the electricity of the 70000+ crowd on hand when Worrell Williams ran a fumble recovery back 44 yards against Tennessee to this debacle.

Even with the horrendous second half last year, Tedford has never had a losing season at Cal. I won't be buying a "Tedford is God" t-shirt anytime soon, but I think that since his first game (in which Cal scored over 70 points in a blowout win), he has helped the Bears overachieve to the extent that the media expects fairly consistent winning.

There is no excuse for the 2007 collapse, and the coach rightfully took most of the blame (we'll see if his benching of Jackson and the other "stars" in the first half of the Bowl Game fires up the team for this year).

However, much like Don Nelson brought excitement, if not conference championships, to the Golden State Warriors, Tedford has undeniably brought enjoyment back to Cal Football. Considering what he started with, I would say that Tedford is not overrated.

In Part 2, I'll discuss Cal's recruiting and its impact on expectations for the program.