It had to be done. The signs were there in the inexplicable downward spiral in 2007. Not to say he should have been fired for one-half of one bad year, but by 2010, it should have been obvious to any observer that Jeff Tedford could no longer get the job done at Cal. And quite frankly, he should never have been let back on the plane from San Diego last December after the humiliation at Texas.
He did plenty of good. He made Cal the second-best team in the Pac-10 at a time when a crooked USC team was first, thus adding to the tragedy of the thing. He got the Axe back and held it for five years straight, even if he finished on a 3-Big-Game losing streak. He got Memorial Stadium refurbished and new athletic facilities built, even through the obstacles of a $300 million price tag and almost two years lost to a handful of hippie gutter punks that the University and the city of Berkeley couldn’t or wouldn’t deal with.
And then, all of a sudden, that was it. He couldn’t get it done anymore. The offense wilted on the vine, the discipline evaporated, the graduation rate plunged, and the losses started to stack like cordwood. In the last three seasons, Cal totaled 12 wins against Division I-A opponents. This year, they were only one score ahead of Southern Utah in the fourth quarter. That’s an unequivocally bad team.
There’s a fresh start coming next year. No longer can Isi Sofele be run smack into the middle at the goal line against defenders twice his weight, because he’s gone. No longer can Zach Maynard be forced into 5-step pocket dropbacks with no rolling out, because he’s gone. In the wings are the speed of Bigelow, Treggs and Harper at tailback and the two wideout spots, and the promise of redshirt QB Zack Kline. The cupboard is not bare for the next fellow, and for that Cal fans can and should be grateful.
Now…who? This is a major-conference opening in a non-basket-case program (Kentucky football is an afterthought and Tennessee is a dumpster fire) and by opening the spot immediately with Cal’s season over early, maybe Sandy Barbour can bring in somebody she might not otherwise get. The popular name of the moment is Greg Roman, the offensive coordinator at the 49ers – and ironically an accomplice of Jim Harbaugh in the turnaround of Stanford football. Then again, Harbaugh took over a program in shambles and was in back-to-back BCS bowls within four years. That’s the kind of turnaround Cal needs now – and ironically once got from Jeff Tedford.
Everything ends badly. Otherwise it wouldn’t end.