The Podcast of Sadness (EMFMV 2009 #5)
(Written by jsnell)
We’re back with — apparently by popular demand — our longest two-man podcast of the season. Though if you factor in the fact that last week there was no podcast at all, we’re still coming up woefully short in overloading you with more podcast than you can handle.
In any event, Jason and Ken are here for you. Here to tell you to think positively. Here you comfort you in your time of need. Here to… oh, who are we kidding? We’re here to weep softly to ourselves.
Topics this week: Why Jason left early; why we’re sad (hint: Oregon and USC); what the future holds; if Jeff Tedford should take out that second mortgage; the overcrowding at Memorial Stadium; the irony of Cal’s 2009 season poster; Uni Watch spots something funny in the Fun Zone; and how podcasting is cheaper than therapy.
You can also subscribe to the podcast on iTunes.
October 8th, 2009 at 12:35 pm
Just wanted to stop by and say Awesome Job again, I love both of your insights and thoughts about the game, as well as the overall on CAL Football and Berkeley. Keep it up guys!
October 8th, 2009 at 4:20 pm
Dear Jason and Ken,
This is getting ridiculous! Jason actually argued that if Tedford goes 4-8 this year he shouldn’t get fired? 4-8!?!?!?!?!?!
I want to challenge your claim that recruiting will solve these problems. We have some of the most talented players in the conference. 42-3, 30-3? We had enough talent to WIN these games. I am sure that we will get more talented players when the SAHPC is complete, but we already have enough good players to win the conference this year.
I also don’t understand the comment about Tedford earning the right to have a meltdown year. This would be 2 meltdown years out of 3. He has already had the chance to learn from his mistakes (2007). How do we know that he will improve? What evidence has he given us? 8 wins is not a good year when we have Jahvid Best, an experienced elite 11 QB, plenty of talent on defense, etc.
I am NOT calling for him to be fired now. But your comments simply go too far. We are paying him $3 million a year. There is no reason to say that we would CERTAINLY get someone worse if Tedford left.
I like Tedford. He is a nice guy. He runs a clean program. And he has done well here. But if we have a losing season with this amount of talent, especially after the 2007 debacle, he needs to go. I don’t think that will happen, and I certainly hope/expect Cal to have a mini bounce-back. But if we don’t go .500, he needs to be fired.
October 8th, 2009 at 4:28 pm
I also want to add that I respect you guys and that I think your blog is excellent. I just think you are going way too far now.
October 8th, 2009 at 4:37 pm
Yup. A single year of 4-8 after seven straight bowl-eligible years? A single year of 4-8 after providing Cal with seven winning seasons in seven years? When the previous six coaches combined for six winning seasons in 24 years? A year after going 9-4?
There’s no way I think firing Tedford after a single losing season would be REMOTELY justified. Or are you one of these people who can’t remember what Cal was like before Tedford showed up? Like I said in the podcast, the most likely scenario which leads to Cal playing in a Rose Bowl involves Jeff Tedford. Because if you replace him, it’s far more likely Cal will fall to the bottom of the Pac-10, where it’s resided for most of the last 50 years, rather than suddenly become Florida.
But beyond that, I really believe that a coach that has put together back-to-back seasons of 7, 8, 10, 8, 10, 7, and 9 wins pretty much deserves a mulligan.
Joe Paterno went 25-33 over five seasons at the beginning of this decade, with four bowl-ineligible years. Should Penn State have fired him? Maybe yes, maybe no. But in the following four seasons he’s gone 40-11.
In the “meltdown year” two years ago, Cal finished 7-6 and won its bowl game. Dude, that’s not a meltdown. It’s a letdown, maybe, but not a meltdown. 1-10 is a meltdown. Gilby finishing with consecutive 4-7 and 3-8 seasons was a meltdown. Kapp finishing with 2-9, 4-7, and 2-9 seasons was a meltdown.
You’re going to argue that Riley is an “experienced elite 11 QB?” Okay, I’ll take Tedford in that argument.
My comments “go too far”? Sorry, Duke. It’s comments like that that go too far. You sound like the typical spoiled Cal fan of this decade, convinced that Tedford’s replacement would be a miracle worker who would make things even better than they are now.
I remember that’s what we said when we were all angry at Bruce Snyder for Cal’s terrible performance in the 1991 Big Game. You know who we got in return? Keith Gilbertson. And how’d that work out?
So, to sum up: I’m going to assume that you’re caught up in the emotion of these two losses, which is understandable. Because when you look back on Tedford’s track record, an irrational emotional response is the only way to explain anyone calling for Tedford’s firing. At this point, after seven years of winning with a team that couldn’t string together two winning seasons more than once in two decades, a single terrible season shouldn’t lead to a firing.
Not that I think Cal’s going to finish 4-8. But even if they finish 3-9, I think Tedford should (and more to the point, WILL) come back for 2010.
October 8th, 2009 at 4:41 pm
@Duke: Thanks for the respect, BTW. But I’ll just point out, the only reason Cal fans even think that vying for a Rose Bowl or a National Championship is something that might happen on any given year is because of Jeff Tedford. He’s it. He’s the only reason. And when he goes, all bets are off.
And this is from guy who left the USC game at halftime in disgust with the terrible coaching. Keep that in mind.
October 8th, 2009 at 7:07 pm
Dear Jason,
Dropping from #1 in the rankings to barely squeaking into the Armed Forces Bowl absolutely qualifies as a meltdown. How can you say otherwise? To “melt down” from something, you need to start really high. Otherwise, there is nowhere to melt DOWN to. In order to get somewhere high enough to melt down to, you have to win some games, which will probably make you (at least close to) bowl eligible. We were 5-0 in 2007, and we only beat WSU in order to get into the AFB. The fact that we made a bowl after starting 5-0 doesn’t take anything away from the fact that it was certainly a meltdown.
It may very well be the same thing this year. We were #6 in the country to not receiving a single vote.
It is not that he would have had a single losing season. A losing season in 2002 or 2003 would have been understandable. But his job is to win big games in the years when he has the talent to do so. For $3 million a year, we should expect that. If the talent isn’t there, then okay. But this team has the talent.
Snyder wasn’t making Tedford’s money. Heck, JoePa STILL isn’t making $1 million a year.
And yes, Riley was an elite-11 QB out of High School. Sure, he hasn’t panned out so far, but that is not for lack of talent. He has several years of experience. He was Elite-11. How can that possibly mean that he isn’t an experienced elite-11 QB? Tedford has recruited LOTS of QB talent (even without the SAHPC). The problem is that he hasn’t developed this talent. Is it the players fault? Of course. But it is also the coach.
October 8th, 2009 at 7:45 pm
No, no, no, no. Being almost ranked #1 (Cal was ranked #2, not #1) is not even part of the equation. Rankings aren’t reality. As you could see from 2007, where Cal was CLEARLY not the best team in the country — because the best team in the country wouldn’t have lost all those games. Cal was #2 because they had a preseason ranking and a favorable early schedule. The same reason this year’s team was #6 before playing Oregon. Was this team really #6 caliber two weeks ago, and is now suddenly much worse? No… because rankings early in the season have only the most tenuous of connections to reality.
Tedford’s job is not to win big games in certain years. His job is to run a winning program.
Bringing up Tedford’s salary is equally ridiculous. If you fire him, who will you replace him with? And what would you pay him? Snyder left Cal because he wanted more money.
I understand your argument. I just think it’s completely misguided, that’s all.
October 8th, 2009 at 9:44 pm
Dear Jason,
I think its silly to argue that rankings aren’t in some way reality. Reality changes, but the rankings absolutely reflect reality. The reality of rankings kept us out of the Rose Bowl in 2004. The slip from a de-facto #1 slot in 2007 to completely unranked can only mean one of two things:
1) We really weren’t very good, and the whole world misinterpreted our 5 wins.
2) We were very good (beating Tennessee, winning at Oregon), but then we had a melt-down.
I don’t think too many people would agree with you that #1 was the case.
$3 million a year to keep us over .500 is too much. How much does Harbaugh make? JoePa doesn’t even make $1 million a year. We absolutely should expect to score more than 6 points against SC and Oregon for $3 million a year. The whole point is not to make the Emerald or Armed Forces Bowl. Don’t get me wrong… I’d rather go to one of those bowls than nowhere at all, but that is not why we pay Tedford $3mil. The expectation is for progress towards a Rose Bowl. And the last 3 years we have seen nothing but regression.
October 8th, 2009 at 9:53 pm
Thanks for the feedback, Duke. Suffice it to say that I think you’re totally off base here, and I’m not going to bother arguing anymore since you seem to keep mis-stating my arguments…
Let’s agree to disagree and leave it at that. Check back in at the end of the season and tell me if you’ve changed your mind about Tedford.
October 8th, 2009 at 10:15 pm
And also to point out that 2007 was just a really odd year in college football. The only reason we were anywhere *near* that #1 mark is because it just seemed like the top teams were going down every week. Did it hurt? Sure. I hate it when my Bears lose, especially the way they lost that game. But looking back on it, Longshore was hurt, Riley was a freshman, and there really wasn’t anybody else to turn to. And we’re a good team, not a great one (yet).
So yeah, even if the Bears go 3-8, it’ll hurt, but I think Tedford’s earned a bad year.
Besides, a couple years ago, I was showing a friend around campus, and we came to the Pappy Waldorf statue in Faculty Grove. I patted Pappy’s head affectionally and said to my friend, “Someday, there’ll be a Tedford statue here too.”
I still stand by it.
-kat
October 9th, 2009 at 9:31 am
Thanks, Kat.
I will say this: if Duke or anyone else wants to send in an MP3 rebutting anything we say on the podcast, you’re more than welcome.
October 9th, 2009 at 4:06 pm
Dear Jason,
Ha! Like I am technologically capable of constructing an MP3! I could never figure that out.
But I don’t think its fair for you to say that I am misstating your arguments. Are you referring to your claims that we didn’t have a meltdown in 2007, or that Riley was not an experienced elite-11 QB? I disagree with you, and I also disagree with you about what Tedford’s job is. But I don’t think that I have misunderstood or misstated your arguments. If I have, I apologize.
October 10th, 2009 at 9:42 am
I support Ken & Jason’s comments about Tedford. I think their strongest arugment is that it is far more likely for Tedford elevate himself into a premere coach than for Cal to recruit Urban Meyer, Nick Saban or the like.
Tedford has the potential to join the upper echelon of college coaches. Like the rest of us, Jeff needs experience to grow his abilities.
If Cal replaces Tedford, he WILL get another job. The last thing I would want to see is Tedford reaching his potential at Arizona, ASU or Washington State.
October 10th, 2009 at 12:51 pm
I’m with Jason & Ken as well. I truly believe that Tedford is the best hope for Cal to reach the true upper level of CFB. He’s not perfect, but he’s growing into the job and I really think he’ll be considered one of the best when his time at Cal is finished. It’s a long term deal. As the guys said on their podcast, Tedford has put up with a monumental level of insanity in regards to the stadium upgrades. Granted, he’s paid a lot of money but he could have been paid more somewhere else. He deserves the time that is necessary to do the job right, even if that means a few bad seasons along the way.