Knee-Jerk Monday: Not for Jeff Tedford
__________________________________________________________________________Jeff Tedford is allergic to criticism. Or at least that’s what it seems like. Coming off of a second straight blowout loss, this one a must-win home game vs. USC, Jeff Tedford and the Cal Bears have once again set their sights on The Holiday Bowl, AKA the ‘Do we REALLY have to play in this game?’ Bowl.
Cal gets blown out again and will not matter in the BCS picture. But it's just all in a day's work for Cal Coach Jeff Tedford.
Just two weeks ago, Cal’s offense was straight up mauling (I wanted to say ‘flying high’ but bears don’t fly) and The Bears were ranked the #6 team in the nation. Two uninspired performances later, and The Bears, a darkhorse favorite to go to the National title game and consensus favorite by many to unseat USC for the Pac-10 crown, join the likes of Ball State, Utah, and Tulsa in College Football obscurity.
The amazing thing in all this is that Jeff Tedford is sure to get a free pass from any sort of ensuing media firestorm. The man has been expected to build and lead the ‘next great Pac-10 team’ for years now, and all he’s done is choke against Oregon State when Cal was playing at home for the #1 ranking (then go on to lose 5 of 6 games) and continuously underachieve in ‘big games’, which include losses to Texas Tech (after sniveling about not being selected to play in the Rose Bowl), the aforementioned Oregon State, and most recently, Oregon and USC. Hmm, ‘continuously underachieving in big games.” Doesn’t that sound familiar? Doesn’t it?!
It should, because Jim Tressel’s Ohio State Buckeyes underperform in big games, Bob Stoop’s Oklahoma Sooners underperform in big games, and Charlie Weis’ Notre Dame Irish underperform period. Not to mention that Pete Carroll’s Trojans have an annual hiccup to an inferior in conference foe. But they get killed for it! Just look at some of these headlines over the years about the aforementioned coaches after memorable losses:
“Jim Tressel Isn’t Capable of Winning the Big game”
(After loss to USC in week 2 of this season [Ballhype])
“Charlie Weis isn’t the right guy for Notre Dame coaching job”
(In the midst of a miserable underachieving 2008 season for Notre Dame [LA Times])
“Oklahoma fans grow impatient waiting for Bob Stoops to win title”
(Just days before OU’s National Title Tilt with The Gators [NY Daily News])
“The 10 Most Painful Losses Under Pete Carroll”
(After USC’s upset loss to Washington [The Bleacher Report])
We have been scouring the net for significant anti-Tedford articles after big Cal losses, and we couldn’t find anything from a repudiable publication that criticized Jeff Tedford on the same level as Carroll, Weis, Tressel, and Stoops. Just mindless knee-jerk dribble from drunken, and likely stoned, Cal fans. Where’s the outrage for Jeff Tedford? Where’s ‘Cal, Tedford, Gag at home AGAIN.‘? Where’s ‘Teford Can’t take next step, should be fired.’? Where’s ‘Tedford and coaching staff take dump at Oregon.’?
I guess when you’ve exported as many NFL backup quarterbacks and busts as Jeff Tedford has, you get the benefit of the doubt for at least recruiting NFL ‘talent’.
This brings me to my key point (yes, I AM going somewhere with this). I have a theory as to why Jeff Tefdford never seems to be on the hotseat, despite coaching perrennially underachieving Cal teams and constantly losing must-win games. The theory being this: Nobody criticizes Jeff Tedford for underachieving as Cal’s head coach because nobody considers Cal a big time national college football program. Tressel gets killed, Stoops gets killed, Weis gets killed, Carroll gets killed, but Tedord slips through the cracks because I doubt anybody even knows or cares who Cal’s head coach is, let alone that Cal has a college football team. Truth hurts.
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Tags: College Football, Jeff Tedford, The Big Nasty Athletic Dept.
Comments (2)
You stumble over it in the last paragraph, but you still miss the point: Tedford doesn’t get hammered because Cal fans remember what football was like BEFORE Tedford. It’s better losing big games than NEVER having been in one for decades. Berkley is just happy to be somewhat relevant in the CFB landscape. THAT’S why no one considers Cal the big program others are. There is NO track record of winning whatsoever. In a conference where every team has at least some historical era where, in the 90s before Tedford and before USCs run, EVERY school in the conference won at least one share of a Pac-10 title. Every school except Cal. Which since the 50s has just one share of a title, in 1975. This program has less historical relevance than Baylor. I’d say the fact that you are even talking about him and criticizing him and Cal means he’s done a pretty decent job. And I’m a USC grad.
Sorry about using the one word caps too much. Once or twice for emphasis is one thing but that got a bit obnoxious. And to correct myself, I meant every team in the Pac-10 won at least a share of the title in the 1990s, just left out the 1990s.