Cal Bears football: Tedford uses tough love

October 29, 1:39 PMCal Bears ExaminerRob Calonge

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(AP Photo/Ben Margot)

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Wednesday evening after practice, Jeff Tedford addressed the team on the field. He wasn't inspiring them to work hard during practice or to be ready for their game against Arizona State this weekend.

He was scolding them for not cleaning up their room--their locker room.

Besides the scolding, the prize for not keeping the locker room clean were a few up-downs and a promise that the locker room wouldn't be cleaned by Cal personnel until the team cleaned up their own mess.

Oh the beauty of team sports. While it may sound nit-picky or even mundane, these are the types of things that promote team unity and teamwork. This sort of discipline has been done since days of the Roman army and while it doesn't seem to be all that important, when added to a consistent regimen of 'tough love', it's what moulds boys into men.

The maturation of these boys is one of the perks for Coach Tedford. "That's actually a very gratifying part of this job is seeing how the growth of development as a person as they come through," he said after practice broke Wednesday night.

They're all going to have challenges in one way or another, whether it be in school, whether it be socially, athletically, academically, there's always challenges for guys. So you need to be there to kinda' be the father figure or kind of an extension of parental arm form as they're growing, and discipline is a big part of this job. But understanding that people are going to make mistakes from time to time, you need to be here to educate them as much in that department as anything.
- Jeff Tedford on helping his guys mature into men

With that sort of outlook, it's not surprising that the coaches would get attached to these young men. "Well there's tough love that has to be given, like today," said Tedford. "I don't like doing that, but it's something that has to be done to get a point across. It's no different than my children or in essence they are my kids because I'm here for them in a lot of different areas, as is the coaching staff. That's definitely part of the job."

Speaking of fathers, Cameron Jordan will be traveling back to his home state where is father Steve resides. The elder Jordan was an accomplished NFL tight end for the Minnesota Vikings for 13 seasons, six of which were Pro Bowl seasons.

Tedford was asked if bloodlines ever have anything to do with how highly sought a player is when coming out of high school, but he said that it isn't. "I don't know that that's a slam dunk with everyone. I don't think that's a broad statement, but I think that when you've been around football all your life, you kind of have an understanding of what it takes and what it is and it's probably been passed on to him."

"That attitude. Because people who play in the NFL, don't get there by accident so there has to be some attributes to what they do and you would think that rubs off on their kids. So there's a certain part of it, but it doesn't mean that it's a slam dunk though."

In other words, you can have all the talent in the world, but if you don't do anything to improve upon those talents with hard work and dedication, you won't be a better player. But doesn't a player with NFL bloodlines have more pressure on them to be better? Not necessarily.

"Again, I think it's case to case," said Tedford when asked if having an NFL dad increases the player's expectations. "Most of the time, I think the NFL players have lived 'IT' so they don't have to have their son live it. I think sometimes it's the people who didn't make it that live vicariously through their kids that are overbearing."

"You see it in little league all the time. Go watch a little league game, I mean it's--parents are out of control. So it's case to case really. I personally haven't seen a son of an NFL player put too much pressure on himself to be like dad or whatever."

Jordan has definitely not been one to put more pressure on himself to be like dad. He freely admist that he came to Cal with the intention of just being a pass rusher--not an all around defensive end. It wasn't until Rulon Davis was injured last season that Jordan realized he needed to get better at stopping the run as well.

"As a player, I've changed a whole bunch," said Jordan on Tuesday's media day. "From freshman year to now. Freshman year, just being so much of, what I call it, a third-down specialist. I didn't even want to play the run my freshman year. To last year, growing up a little bit and seeing that I could actually play the run. This year, we'll improve upon both."

Judging by last Saturday, it's working.

More Wednesday football notes:

• Derrick Hill did not practice due to his shoulder sprain. Tedford said that he's day-to-day and if he's unable to play this Saturday, Aaron Tipoti or Kendrick Payne would take his place. At the end of practice, we did see Tipoti in with the first team in a 4-3.
• Matt Summers-Gavin is still not ready to go, and did not practice. He's also day-to-day and would open up a playing spot for either Mark Boskovich or Richard Fisher if he can't go on Saturday.
• Syd'Quan Thompson is still sore, but he practiced with the team. Tedford said that his soreness is just below the ribcage on his side and just above the hip.
• Jahvid Best is fine, but he still suffers from soreness in his foot. Tedford said that the nagging pain probably wouldn't go away this year, but that it shouldn't affect his playing any.
• Mike Tepper has been dealing with a plantar fasciitis injury all season, which makes it difficult to run. Tedford cited that as a main reason as to why we shouldn't expect any tackle-eligible plays involving the sixth-year senior.
• Tedford was still undecided on who his kicker will be this weekend. He said that he may have one kicker for kickoffs and another for field goals.
• Right now, Jeremy Ross is slated to return punts. Should Thompson get healthy before Saturday, then he would take the spot back from Ross. It's not likely that will happen this week.
• While watching the season premier of Friday Night Lights on DirecTv's channel 101, I caught Nnamdi Asomugha's show debut. On the show, he plays a police officer attempting to help a troubled teen. The way the scene is set up, Asomugha's face is hidden at first until the camera focuses on him for the big reveal. I don't know if his acting is as good as he is at football, but I was impressed by how well he did. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised to see him acting when his football career ends. Definitely much better than other football players-turned actors.