New Stadium, New Look...Cal In Need of a New Football Coach Too

I’m done drinking the kool-aid. After Saturday’s disgusting 42-10 loss to Washington, I now realize it is time to fire Jeff Tedford. I still believe in what I wrote earlier, that we need the new stadium at Berkeley. But I realize that with the new stadium, we now also need to clean house in total, and bring in a new coach. The reasons are quickly starting to pile up against Tedford.

Special Teams:

The play of the Cal special teams in the Tedford era has been brutal, to put it kindly. Cal, on average, kicks the ball to the opponent’s 15 yard line. Add to it that we can never tackle them when we do get down there. Hence this sets up the opposing team with excellent field position, which seems to kill any momentum Cal has after scoring. And don’t get me started on our field goal kicking, which is sub-par at best. This year we have used two kickers which are 1-4 from 30-39 yards and 3-8 from 40-49 yards. If you watched the Big 12 Championship game, you saw top tier programs with top tier kickers. Obviously it pays to have good special teams.

Loyalty:

Tedford is known to be a “loyal” guy. He has shown this to all us Cal fans. When Longshore was QB, he stuck with him for far too long. Even my 62 year old mother could tell that Longshore was constantly throwing off his back foot, scared to step into the throw and take a hit. If she could see this, wouldn’t the opposing coaches see it as well? And this year, Riley has been inconsistent to say the least. So why not throw in the redshirt freshman Beau Sweeney?

We have seen USC and Stanford play their freshman QBs, and too some degrees of success. Tedford should have gone through the growing pains of playing a young kid at QB. Riley has shown time after time that he is not taking this team anywhere near a Pac-10 Championship.

Special teams coach Pete Alamar needs to go, as discussed earlier. But rumor has it that he and Tedford have been great friends, and Tedford (being the loyalist) will not part ways with him. This will hurt the Cal program in the long run. Friends or not, if someone is not doing their job (be it a coach or player), then changes need to be made. Tedford has not shown the ability to make these changes.

His Demeanor:

Tedford has a very calm, easy going demeanor on the sideline. Rarely do we see any emotion from the head coach. The only time that he truly got animated was the 2007 Oregon St game in which Riley was engineering the last drive, and ran the last play incorrectly with no time outs. Thing is, that was not Riley’s fault (he had been subbed in on that last drive). It was Tedford’s fault for not preparing his young QB.

All one needs to do is look around the country at the top program’s coaches like Stoops, Carroll, Saban, etc. These coaches show animation, excitement on the sideline. And their teams play the same way. With Tedford, it is a very calm, mellow look. And his teams play a very low-key game, and are far too inconsistent.

Results against Ranked Teams:

If I told you a coach’s record against top 25 teams was a lackluster 10-16, would you be happy with that? Excited? Well, that is Jeff Tedford’s record against ranked teams. He has only one win against a top 10 team. If you go .500 or better against ranked teams, then you belong. Tedford doesn’t, meaning Cal does not deserve some of that “false” respect they seem to get year after year. He basically faces three ranked teams a year, wins one and loses two. Is that a top program coach? I think not. You have to beat the best to be the best, and year after year, Cal and coach Tedford fall short.

Recruiting and Dealing with Players:

Tedford has been mixed at best when it comes to recruiting. Sure, we got Desean Jackson one year. But Cal has not had a top 25 class since 2006-2007. How can one expect to compete with USC and Oregon, if you cannot recruit a class that is in the top 25? A friend of mine (and Cal graduate) has told me, “Our graduation rate in football is too high”.

What he meant by this was that the emphasis on graduating was far too important to our football coaches, than winning a Pac 10 championship. Tedford has all his coaches making sure that each player is going to and passing his classes. This is the job of the professors, tutors, and administrators at the school, not his defensive backs coach. I want my coach to COACH. If a kid is in trouble with school or grades, then discipline him. Tedford’s job is not to graduate kids, but to win football games.

After the loss to Washington (loss…that was a blowout!) Cal earned itself a bid to a red flower bowl. And no, it is not the one we want, the Rose Bowl. It is the “what’s the” Point-Setta Bowl. I’m tired of these lame bowl games we continually get invited to. Only one bowl matters to all Cal fans, and it’s the one that Jeff Tedford will never get us to. We all want to go see Cal play in the Rose Bowl. Time to make a change, and get us to the Promised Land!