After 11 seasons in Berkeley, and no bowl games since 2008, Cal has parted ways with head football coach Jeff Tedford.
Jeff Tedford has been relieved of his duties as Cal football coach. Yes, he has been fired.
That’s something a lot of Cal fans have been waiting to hear. Tedford brought respectability to the program, but when winning is the end game, he wasn’t getting the job done.
After two losing seasons in three years, it was time for Tedford to go. A 3-9 record in 2012 was the straw that broke the camel’s back.
Just heard from a source that Jeff Tedford is out at Cal's coach. Players are being told now.
— Bruce Feldman (@BruceFeldmanCFB) November 20, 2012
Hearing from 2 directly linked to Cal that Jeff Tedford has been fired. Mandatory team meeting within minutes
— Joe Davidson (@SacBee_JoeD) November 20, 2012
Despite having accumulated the most wins in the history of the Cal program, and leading the Bears to a 5-3 record in bowl games, Tedford had lost his mojo.
#Cal didn't have much choice on Tedford, given way this season spun out of control. He clearly couldn't fix downward spiral.
— Ron Kroichick (@ronkroichick) November 20, 2012
After reviving a doormat program in 2002, his program has sputtered over the last three seasons. Stanford, Oregon, UCLA and Oregon State have all passed the Bears in the last few years. Cal has lost three straight Big Games to their arch-rivals from Palo Alto, including two in Berkeley.
It all went badly for Tedford in recent years but he did more for #Cal football than any coach in the modern era.
— Ann Killion (@annkillion) November 20, 2012
Surely wasn't an easy decision for Cal. But once you played it out, it was tough to see how they could keep Jeff Tedford.
— Tim Kawakami (@timkawakami) November 20, 2012
Tedford’s recruiting abilities weren’t cutting it anymore. According to Rivals.com, he hadn’t landed a Five-Star recruit since 2010.
With the renovations to Memorial Stadium completed before the 2012 season, it was expected that it would help recruiting, but right now, Cal’s 2013 recruiting class ranks 52nd on Rivals.
And it didn’t help when Tedford’s defensive line coach Tosh Lupoi took a job with Washington over the winter and a number of Cal’s prized commitments backed out of their commitments. And never found that next great quarterback after Aaron Rodgers left for the NFL.
By all accounts, Tedford was a good guy, but that only gets you so far. When you’re being paid $2.3 million, better results are expected.
Two weeks ago, San Jose Mercury News columnist Tim Kawakami wrote about possible replacements. A couple of names on his list of coaches he doesn’t think Cal can convince to come to Berkeley interest me:
I know Chris Petersen's name ALWAYS gets tossed out. Heard from a source close to him 2 jobs that'd tempt him: Oregon & Cal.
— Bruce Feldman (@BruceFeldmanCFB) November 20, 2012
Kawakami believes that less sexy names like 49ers offensive coordinator Greg Roman, San Jose State head coach Mike McIntyre and Oregon offensive coordinator Mark Helfrich could be the leading candidates.
Kawakami’s colleague Jeff Faraudo has Louisiana Tech’s Sonny Dykes at the top of his list of possible replacements. Dykes was an offensive coordinator at Arizona and is signed with LaTech through 2017. But his team led the nation in offense this year, so he would bring a certain sexiness with him that could attract recruits.
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