(Written by kencraw)

One more coach down:
Al Simmons is “pursuing other opportunities”. This one kinda surprises me. I haven’t felt like Simmons was a weak coach. My gut is that this one came from Pendergast and not Tedford. Perhaps those two didn’t have the best working relationship. The fact that it came later also suggests it came from a different evaluation process.

Two replacements named:
Eric Kiesau is replacing Daft and will also be the “passing game coordinator”. I think this is a great move. The early Tedford passing game was marked by very consistent WR play and great hands. He obviously worked well with Tedford. Kiesau was at Cal from 2002-2005, being the early coach for everyone up through DeSean, Jordan and Hawkins. In my mind those were the last receivers we had at Cal that were truly exceptional and I have a feeling Kiesau was a part of the reason why.

Ashley Ambrose is replacing Al Simmons. This announcement came the same day as the Simmons announcement, so my gut feel is that this was less about Simmons and more about wanting Ambrose (btw, the homework assignment for all of the Catholic readers is to go look up St. Ambrose… with a last name like Ambrose, you have to be excited about this coach, right?). I know very little about him, but I have a feeling Pendergast wanted him and his NFL pedigree.