Cal has grown on Tedford

(AP Photo/Mark Duncan)

With a little more than a week left before the start of fall camp, we are running down the final stretch of the dog-days of the football offseason. Soon after football begins to grab our full attention, basketball season will begin pull some of the focus.

For me, those are some rough days. So, I've done a pretty good job of avoiding this space when there wasn't much to report.

I'll be continuing my 'Stacking up the Pac-10' series through the month of August, and I haven't really decided how broad the rest of the articles will be. When I finally finish my research, we'll see how comfortable I am with each position group -- as of now, I'm nowhere near ready.

Cal's first-round submission to the 2009 NFL Draft was news over the weekend. Beginning on Friday, he was reported to be close to signing his rookie contract with the Cleveland Browns.

On Saturday, Mack did sign -- at 1:30 am! The reason for the late-night / early-morning signing was due to head coach Eric Mangini starting Browns camp earlier than the rest of the NFL. After signing the contract in the wee hours of the morning, Mack joined his teammates at practice in the afternoon. Rough night!

Well, maybe it wasn't all that rough. He was reported to have signed a five year, $11.3 million contract with $8.9 million guaranteed. Try beating that salary your first year out of college.

Speaking of Cal rookies, Will Ta'ufo'ou is signed with the Chicago Bears for a cap figure of $311,666 for the 2009 season. That's not bad for a rookie undrafted free agent, who happens to play a position that is going the way of the dinosaurs in the NFL.

Ta'ufo'ou is a longshot to make the final 53-man roster this season, but according to Brad Biggs of the Chicago Sun-Times, "If the Bears go with just one fullback there's almost certain to be one on the practice squad. Keep an eye on Ta'ufo'ou. Maybe he will carve out a niche for himself."

Apparently, Bear Backers (Chicago and Cal) aren't the only ones that hold Ta'ufo'ou in high esteem. In Ted Miller's Opening the mailbag post on July 17th, a Bear Backer mentioned Ta'ufo'ou as an underrated fullback and asked who would fill his role. Miller responded with, "Good point. Ta'ufo'ou was a bad man on those lead blocks."

After being released in June by the San Diego Chargers, Anthony Felder agreed to terms on another contract that will have him playing for the team in training camp. Don't read much into his release from the team. Undrafted free agents sometimes are released by the same team several times before making the roster or the practice squad. It's how NFL teams maximize their talent -- even if it comes at the cost of multiple signing bonuses.

After losing their long snapper to the New Orleans Saints this offseason, the Panthers' open position has better odds for form Cal long snapper, Nick Sundberg. Sundberg's chief competition for the job is J.J. Jansen, who spent his rookie season on the disabled list for the Green Bay Packers. Both players competed for rival schools back in high school, so they are both familiar with each other.

Andrew Mason from Panthers.com explains, "Long snapping jobs don't open too frequently around the league, and success at the gig often leads to a lengthy career." Right now, Jansen is the favorite to win the job, but Sundberg still has a month to change that perception.

If there is any undrafted Cal rookie with a good shot of making an NFL team, it's definitely Rulon Davis. For one, his nickname 'The Beast' fits him on game day. Secondly, and probably more importantly, the Denver Broncos' defensive line jobs are completely up for grabs this year.

Brian Howell of timescall.com, doesn't think that the Broncos upgraded their woeful defensive line. Maybe he'll change his tune after a couple of preseason games, or a couple of Rulon Davis sacks -- whichever comes first.

The Golden Bears are being picked in the top 25 by another publication -- this time it's the College Football Times. The CFT has the Bears ranked 16th to start the season and do a pretty good preview of the team, but they don't have the Bears going undefeated. Their predicted finish is a second-place 9-3 record, with losses at Oregon, and home losses to USC and Arizona.

If you haven't been checking out Cal offensive tackle Mike Tepper's blog, you are missing out. Not only is it interesting, but it's also funny. On Monday, he wrote:

There is nothing greater in life than having a machine tell you that you're obese and need to lose weight on top of the constant reminder of a coach. (Sarcasm...) I would gladly meet the creator of the statistics that says my body fat fits in the obesity category and line up against him/her in a race of any distance less than a mile. I'll blow them out of the water.

That's a ticket that Cal should think about selling.

Earlier today, Jeff Tedford did a live chat for the Oakland Tribune. One of the biggest worries in the past has been how long Tedford would remain the head coach of the football team. Every year, his name has been mentioned for open coaching positions, but this last season the frequency of that occurance was rare. That might be because he has no intention of leaving -- and his price tag has gotten much larger to do so. Here's the Q&A for that particular topic:

Q: Can you potentially see yourself being a bear for the rest of your career? I know that would be music to my and everyone else's ears!!!

Tedford: I sure hope so. We have invested a lot of time and energy in this program and have very strong feelings here. When we first arrived at Cal, everyone said that Cal would grow on us. That has definitely been true. I now have a great deal of passion for this program, its players, its alumni and fans and value all the relationships that we have been fortunate to be a part of. There still are goals to be achieved and we are dedicated to working our hardest to accomplish them and make our players, past and present, our alumni and fans proud to be Cal Bears.

I think I hear music playing!