Washington OTRH Podcast
(Written by kencraw)
Obviously Saturday was a tough day, but I think I took that loss harder than most. You’ll hear me at my worst in this podcast. “Enjoy”:
(Written by kencraw)
Obviously Saturday was a tough day, but I think I took that loss harder than most. You’ll hear me at my worst in this podcast. “Enjoy”:
November 30th, 2010 at 4:33 pm
Hopefully not becoming bowl eligible for the first time in a long while will force this program to do some creative thinking about how to revive itself.
November 30th, 2010 at 6:20 pm
Downloading now to listen on my commute home. Looking forward to it, Ken. Love these podcasts.
December 1st, 2010 at 12:57 am
Ken,
I really feel you man on this one. I listened to every podcast of yours for the past three years, and I have never heard you like this before. I really hope that JT can change things around. Go Bears!
December 1st, 2010 at 9:54 am
Epic.
I think you summed up many fans’ feelings after the game.
December 1st, 2010 at 1:37 pm
You sound angry. Did you not eat for a week or something?
December 1st, 2010 at 1:47 pm
Amen brother!!!
We’ve been a quarterback away from being a very good team for far too long. Something needs to change, but think that Tedford can turn it around. He needs to not put all his eggs in one basket though and work with all of the qbs so if one goes down the season isn’t lost.
December 1st, 2010 at 4:21 pm
Wow, Ken. I’ve listened to almost every one of these and I’ve NEVER heard you anywhere near this state. Can’t say I disagree with much of what you said.
I almost had to laugh at the absurdity of it all. Cal loses the last game ever in Memorial Stadium on the very last play of the game. Seemed so perfect and fitting. I’ve spent a lifetime being disappointed by this team at that stadium and it was very poignant that they shut it down in such heartbreaking style.
You know what? I say good riddance, Memorial Stadium. I have a ton of good memories there, but precious few of them have to do with the product on the field. Most of them have to do with being around family and friends in the stands. Perhaps Memorial Stadium 2.0 really will usher in a new era. Whatever happens, it can’t be much worse than the previous era.
I’ve been a die hard sports fan for over 30 years and I’ve only really wanted 2 things: to see the SF Giants win the World Series and Cal make (just make, not win) the Rose Bowl. I was lucky enough to see the former this year while my father is still alive. I honestly wonder if I’ll be able to say the same about the Rose Bowl.
Seeing the Giants win the World Series has certainly helped me deal with this miserable Cal season. Without that pleasant memory, I’m sure I would have been ranting and raving just like the best of the lunatics on Bear Insider.
Anyway Ken & Jason, it’s been “fun”. Thanks again for the bloggy insights and podcast fun. I look forward to checking in during the offseason.
GO BEARS!
December 2nd, 2010 at 2:05 pm
Thanks for the podcast, Ken. That was actually really cathartic. I haven’t had the stomach to check back here or CGB or Ted Miller’s Blog since Saturday, but this was actually a pretty good wrap-up to it all.
GO BEARS!
December 2nd, 2010 at 8:30 pm
Dear Ken,
I think we are speaking the same language now. I really appreciate your passion and truthfulness. Tedford has betrayed the players, fans, students, and alumni.
Tedford is the QB “guru,” so I think he needs to own up to the fact that (with the exception of a half a season of Longshore) we have not had a quality quarterback since Rodgers.
Sarkisian, Kiffen, Stoops, etc. . . . these are not elite, stellar coaches. But they have heart, and they get their teams fired up. Where is our heart on offense?
I am absolutely sick to my stomach. We need more than “coach speak.” I want him to come out and admit that he is personally responsible. Own up to it, coach! You get an elite 11 QB every year. It’s time for you to either produce or resign.
December 2nd, 2010 at 9:45 pm
Tedford has not betrayed anyone associated with Cal. He is nothing if not dedicated to the university. His performance the last few years is suspect but his loyality is not.
December 2nd, 2010 at 10:29 pm
Dear Joshiemac,
My language was vague and easy to misinterpret. I apologize for not being more clear.
I do not question his loyalty. He is a nice guy, an upstanding member of the community, graduates his players, and leads a scandal-free program.
The betrayal I was speaking of is his failure to what we have entrusted him to do — to successfully coach our team and to put a product on the field that we can be proud of. He is the highest paid public employee in the state of California. We entrusted him to not embarrass us.
He has shown (with a few exceptions) a complete inability to develop offensive talent over the last few years. His decision to play not to lose on offense against Washington is a betrayal. His inability to develop a quarterback is striking. His stubbornness is mind-boggling. We deserve better for $3 million a year than what he gave us against Washington.
I hope Ken is right (and I am wrong) about Tedford being the guy who can turn this thing around. But I am pretty sure that the vast majority of people on the Cal boards now believe that he is failing at his charge. He’s not going anywhere, so I guess all we can do is hope for the best.
December 3rd, 2010 at 4:50 pm
Tough season that ended on a low note. What makes us Cal fans is that we’ll be back the next year for more. 🙂
I hope you all have alternate teams to fall back on during bowl season. I’ll be rooting for Texas A&M and Illinois!
December 8th, 2010 at 6:53 am
Ken:
You’ve earned the right to express your anger at this team. You’ve invested a great deal of emotional energy and it’s been a very disappointing year.
Don’t worry about Mike Mohammed and Cameron Jordan. They will be winners whatever they do in life.
Either Tedford will make the changes necessary or he will not. If not, Cal doesn’t get a new coach for a few years anyway.
Most likely, Tedford will make positive changes that will produce better results from a talented offense. However, I doubt that Tedford will ever be good enough for people like The Duke.
Cal isn’t USC and will never be — this is a good thing. I live in southern California and ‘SC fans make me sick. USC epitimizes all that is bad in college sports. Read the report about the Reggie Bush situation to remind you how sad things can get.
Cal fans represent what’s good about college football. UC Berkeley stands for excellence. I’m proud to be associated with such a great institution.
Our country is fighting two wars and we are mired in a tough recession. So what if Cal loses to those underserving Huskies — things could be a lot worse.
Now I have to go to the Holiday Bowl and watch Nebraska destroy another PAC 10 team.
December 8th, 2010 at 9:40 pm
Dear Rick,
I don’t think my aspirations for Cal football are unreasonable. In fact, I think they are the same as (almost) all Cal fans. I want Cal to go to the Rose Bowl before I die. I am 28 years old. Barring accidents or tragedies, I give myself about another 32 years or so. So my expectation for Tedford (or any other coach) is to get us to a Rose Bowl once in the next 32 years.
That’s all I want. I am not asking for national championships or undefeated seasons. Just one BCS game . . . the one in Pasadena. I think this is what almost all Cal fans want.
You are right about one thing: Cal does stand for excellence. I am a proud alumnus of the greatest university in the world. Unfortunately, Cal football does not currently represent this excellence. Many fans want to rectify this discrepancy. I am one of those fans.
Will Tedford be ever “good enough” for fans like me? I hope so. He is already exceptional in a lot of non-football related areas.
But the bottom line is this — can he get us to the Rose Bowl? Right now, it doesn’t look like it. He couldn’t even get us to the Kraft Fight Hunger Bowl. His specialities as a coach are offense and QB development — two areas that he is completely failing at (and I don’t think there is much disagreement on this point).
December 10th, 2010 at 6:32 am
Duke:
On occasion, a school like Oregon, Stanford or Wisconsin will make it to a BCS bowl. Even Boise State has been. But the major bowl games are dominated by the elite football programs (USC, Alabama, Ohio Sate, etc.) and have been for many decades.
I’m 55 years old and I remember watching USC play Ohio State or Michigan in the Rose Bowl in the 60’s and 70’s. With a few exceptions, the same schools are in the elite class today.
It takes more than one coach to take a program into elite or near elite status. It takes facilities, boosters, recruiting networks, TV exposure and of course money, lots of money. Oregon was a track school until Phil Knight sparked the football program.
Cal is on the right track. Decades from today, when you look back at the turning point in the Cal program, it will have been the upgrade in facilities. This is more important than any single coach.
Why do you think elite athletes go to Lincoln, NE, Auburn, AL or Gainsville, FL? It’s the overall infrastructure of the football program. From personal experience I can tell you it’s not the scenery or weather.
Berkeley has always had the best views and best weather of any college football town. But that doesn’t get you to the Rose Bowl. Cal has had some great players and some good coaches. But that too is not enough.
It’s easy to get seduced into thinking it’s all about the coach. It seems the elite programs have the best coaches. When Dennis Erickson was at Miami, he was considered a genius. At ASU, he’s forgettable.
The infrastructure of the Cal football program is not prime time, yet. However, it is moving in a good direction. Most probably, Cal won’t reach a BSC bowl until the next coach. And that’s if all goes well with the stadium rebuild.
Stanford is going to a BSC bowl this year, and it will be a long time before they return. Michigan will take Harbaugh away and Stanford football will be back at square one. Michigan games attract almost three times the attendence as do Stanford games.
It’s all about the overall program and an elite program can’t be build today under the tenure of one coach.
December 11th, 2010 at 12:32 pm
Dear Rick,
Thank you for the nice summary. I agree with much of what you have to say. You seem like a nice guy. But since you singled me out in my earlier post, I feel the need to respond.
There is one big contradiction in your otherwise praiseworthy post. You argue a coach alone can’t get a team to a BCS game. I mostly agree with that. But then you give Harbaugh complete credit for getting stanfurd to the Orange Bowl.
Well, which is it? Stanfurd doesn’t have a fan base, and they were absolutely horrible under Harris and Teevens (Holmoe-esque, even). But one guy came in and took them to a BCS game in fours years. He did this in spite of severe academic recruiting restrictions and an absolutely pathetic fan base.
The difference is that Harbaugh is an elite coach. Tedford is a really good guy, but not an elite coach. He seems to have fizzled out over the last 4 years.
Are you saying that Tedford is a BCS-bowl caliber coach, who simply lacks the facilities? If so, you realize that you are in the minority now. That is fine; I’ve been there for a while myself. There is nothing wrong with being in the minority, per se. But that is where you are if you believe that Tedford is a great coach who is merely handicapped by facilities.
I don’t think any team can make it the Rose Bowl in the Pac-10/12 without an elite coach. And Tedford simply is not an elite coach. There is no disagreement (to my knowledge) on this point. He was looking that way for a while, but those days are long gone. So if we want too make the Rose Bowl, we need an elite coach.
We are getting the facilities. We have the players. But over the last 4 years, it doesn’t look like we don’t have an elite coach. I really like coach Tedford in many ways. But I don’t like paying a guy $3 million per year to be middle of the pack, regardless of his many (considerable) good qualities.
I hope he turns it around. I am rooting for his team. But I am a realist.
If his contract wasn’t an issue, I think the smart thing to do would be to thank Coach Tedford for turning the program around, build a statue in his honor, and then make an offer to Leach. But this is all hypothetical fantasy. He will be here for a long time because Sandy Barbour made a terrible decision and gave him a monster contract after an 8-4 season.
Thanks for your post. I love Ken’s blog. He is a really smart guy. Although I disagree with him sometimes, this is my favorite Cal site.