Tedford looks disappointed against Arizona
(AP Photo/Wily Low)
Cal Bears fans are a demanding bunch. Don't get me wrong, there is nothing wrong with expecting excellence. Can that demand for excellence become a misguided call for change when ultimately, the change could bring nothing more than a path leading away from the true goal? The true goal in this case would be a Pac-10 championship, a trip to the Rose Bowl, and for some a national title game. The staff over at California Golden Blogs is back to weigh in on the Jeff Tedford era and what he means to Cal. I have to say that I couldn't agree more with them.
Breaking News: Jeff Tedford is beneficial for Cal
By the staff at California Golden Blogs
ESPN Pac-10 Blogger Ted Miller has been receiving a large amount of emails from Cal fans after Saturday's loss to Arizona. Apparently he's not the only one. Many other main stream media writers who cover Cal sports have also been receiving emails of frustrations, concerns, and anger. The concerns of those Cal fans writing these letters seem to revolve around the following three notions. First, Cal is failing to meet expectations. Second, Cal hasn't lived up to its potential since 2004. Finally, that Tedford is detrimental to Cal.
Their concerns are bewildering.
While last season was tough for Cal fans and this year's loss to Arizona was tough to stomach, these concerns are premature and ridiculous. These ridiculous concerns need to be refuted.
Cal Fans' Concern #1: Cal is failing to meet expectations.
Has Cal failed to meet expectations this year? No. Cal is 4-2. Most Cal fans predicted an 8 or 9 win season. Right now, Cal seems to be on track for an 8 or 9 win season.
Losing to a solid Maryland and Arizona team does not mean Cal has failed to meet expectations unless Cal was expecting to beat Maryland and Arizona. Cal fans who predicted an 8 or 9 win season warned that these games were trap games with Cal having a good chance to lose. It turns out those fans were right. But yet some fans were expecting to beat Maryland and Arizona hands down without question easy as pie. These same Cal fans seemingly think that Cal would defeat everyone else on its schedule too - including USC. This year was the year Cal was supposed to go 12-0 and make the Rose Bowl or the BCS National Championship Game.
These fans are suffering from USC envy and expectations. Living in the Pac-10 is tough since USC represents the dominant football powerhouse that Cal wants to become but these Cal fans must not let their aspirations to become as good as USC inflate the expectations prematurely. Nevertheless, it appears that these Cal fans have failed to temper their expectations.
Cal is not USC. Cal will probably not have 11 wins every season until Cal can start pulling more top recruits, constructs better facilities and the Cal fan base truly gets behind the program. Despite what Cal is lacking, there are Cal fans who think Cal should be having 10 and 11 win seasons left and right. These people need to set reasonable expectations. Right now, half way through the 2008 season, Cal has met expectations for the season so far. So until Cal finishes out this season or this season becomes irrecoverably lost, there shouldn't be any talk of Cal failing to meet expectations.
Cal Fans' Concern #2: Cal is getting outcoached and outplayed by inferior teams.
In the words of Forrest Gump: "it happens." Get used to it.
Even though Cal may be allegedly superior to most teams it faces in 2008, it's not heads and shoulders superior than its competition - not like USC is above everyone the Trojans play. Thus, just because Cal is allegedly superior to most teams on its schedule doesn't mean its fans should automatically expect to win those games. As every sports fan knows, sometimes superior teams play below their capabilities and/or sometimes inferior teams play above and beyond their capabilities.
Getting outcoached and outplayed by inferior teams sucks. Nobody is going to arguing against that. But Cal fans have to be reasonable. It happens.
Just ask Pete Carroll when USC lost to Stanfurd in 2007. Just ask Pete Carroll when USC lost to Oregon State in 2008.
USC is the perfect example. If a team as dominant and talented as USC can lose to teams that are across the board pretty much inferior to them, then isn't it logical to conclude that Cal, a team not nearly as talented as USC, will be more likely to get upset by inferior teams? The answer is yes.
Do Cal fans really understand how hard it is to just win a game? Aside from playing Washington State, just winning a game is hard enough as it is. With all the scouting of teams nowadays and balancing of talent across the board due to scholarship limitations, it's hard to win games.
Winning nine or more games a season is hard, especially when Cal is in the Pac-10, playing USC, Oregon, and doesn't load up on two to three cupcake opponents each year such as every SEC team and Ohio State.
Even the best coaches in the NCAA lose to inferior teams and get outcoached on occasion.
Cal and Tedford is no different.
Cal Fans' Concern #3: Since 2004, Cal has never lives up to its potential.
Since 2004, Cal has had fairly high potential but hasn't lived up to it. This is true - only if teams are expected to continue its level of play despite key players sustaining injuries.
In 2005 Cal's starting QB got injured half way through the first game of the season. Cal's backup QB wasn't quite as good as Tedford or the fans all thought and hoped.
In 2006 Cal logged a 9-3 regular season with losses to a good Tennessee team in one of the most hostile environments in college football, and lost close games to Arizona and Goliath USC. In the bowl game, Cal destroyed Texas A&M. Did Cal fail to meet expectations this season? Maybe a little considering Cal started out ranked so high - but preseason rankings are nothing more than educated guesses and mere speculation. To measure a team's success against those meaningless rankings is ridiculous. In the end, most Cal fans still considered the season a marginal success considering Cal won its bowl game and achieved a 10 win season.
In 2007 Cal was doing just fine until Longshore got injured. Basically, an injury to Cal's starting QB derailed their season. Much has been made of the season post-injury, but even if Kevin Riley had started every game after Oregon last year, Cal still would have probably lost our fair share of Cal games. The losses might not have been as emotionally brutal, but fans would still have considered it a disappointment.
So for the past three years, only one season hasn't been derailed by significant injuries. What did Cal do in that one season? Share the Pac-10 title, crush its Big-12 bowl opponent, and have a 10 win season. Outside of perennial powerhouses, very few teams in the NCAA would call that a disappointing season.
Cal Fans' Concern #4: Jeff Tedford is "detrimental" to Cal Football.
Cal is lucky to have Tedford. Cal is lucky that Tedford has stuck around considering its fan base is so fair-weather. Cal is lucky Tedford has stuck around considering its stadium and its facilities are hardly as extravagant and appealing as the teams it recruits against. Cal is lucky that Tedford stuck around for two years as a lawsuit delayed our stadium renovations. Cal is lucky that Tedford is willing to limit the pool of talent he can recruit from because of Cal's higher academic standards. Cal is lucky that Tedford is willing to recruit with what he's given when many other schools spend many times as much money on recruiting than Cal does. Cal is lucky that Tedford hasn't ditched his air mattress in his tiny office which sits on the Hayward fault for a head coaching job at another school with a posh maple wood office with a gold and electronically heated toilet seat.
Cal is lucky Tedford hasn't ditched Cal Football for a program with a more supportive fan base considering he gets so many emails and phone calls from Cal fans telling him what he's doing wrong and that they can do his job better than him.
Cal is lucky that its own whiny I-know-more-than-Coach fan base hasn't run him off yet.
Few coaches would willingly stay at Cal considering the circumstances. Even fewer coaches could do as good of a job as Tedford, with what little Tedford has had to work with, and not have been plucked away by schools with more appealing head coaching jobs.
If anyone is going to claim that Tedford is truly "detrimental" to Cal Football, then that person must be a masochist or just needs to do a serious reality check. If Tedford leaves Cal, Cal Football could quickly return to the dark ages of the Holmoe-caust and once again become the perennial Pac-10 doormat.
In the words of ESPN's Ted Miller:
"[Tedford is] not perfect. But he's perfect for Cal."
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