Comments on: Reflections/update

By: dball

dball — Sun, 25 Nov 2007 18:19:54 +0000

Too much talent under-utilized on both sides of the ball. Sad misuse of ability. After having this week of Thanksgiving to reflect, I’m thankful that Tedford came to Cal, and that he turned our program around. This lingering pain in the depths of my stomach is the knowledge that its going to be hard to retain maybe top recruits let alone add more to the commit list after this horrible downfall. It will be nice to see Desean in the NFL next fall.

By: Big D

Big D — Wed, 21 Nov 2007 06:35:46 +0000

I hope Stanfurd’s 5th string, true freshman running back doesn’t go over 200 YDS on us!

By: Jonathan Okanes

Jonathan Okanes — Wed, 21 Nov 2007 06:08:56 +0000

Jim, I doubt you’ll see any major changes, if nothing else, because it’s so late in the season. My guess is Tedford and the coaching staff will take a long hard look at what went wrong after the season and then determine if any changes should be made. Tedford never has had to deal with something like this so he’s probably searching for answers himself.

By: Bear in DC

Bear in DC — Wed, 21 Nov 2007 03:16:16 +0000

Football coaches tend to be one of two types — the technician/teacher and the psychologist/motivator. Tedford is clearly an X’s and O’s kind of guy who showed his mettle as an offensive coordinator. Guys like Mike White, Bruce Snyder, and Joe Kapp were strong motivators who understood how to use emotion and intensity. Rare is the coach is a master of both the technical and the intensity. A concern of mine all season is the painfully missing, vocal, demonstrative team leadership of someone like Desmond Bishop, Aaron Rogers or Geoff McArthur. We have all observed the symptoms, particularly the disturbing fourth quarter collapses. Balancing technique (too cool and mechanical) and emotion (too hot and uncontrolled) is tricky. Football is controlled aggression. Like many alumni, I remain a loyal Bear who wants to permanently discard the long-suffering label. Tedford remains a keeper. His relationship with players seems stronger than Keith Gilbertson, another good technician who inconsistently motivated the team. I hope Tedford can improve his identification, encouragement and empowerment of leadership on the team to balance his technical excellence.

By: R (Rich)

R (Rich) — Tue, 20 Nov 2007 06:44:46 +0000

To add to my previous comments, I think a stat was posted once on TV and it went something like this:

When Cal was Winning: Scored ~40 Points
Gave up ~24 Points

During Cal’s Losing Streak:

Scored ~24 Points
Gave up ~28 Points

This means our defense has always sucked (underperformed?) but our offense overshadowed the needed concerns.

By: R

Tue, 20 Nov 2007 06:41:24 +0000

Although Longshore’s stats look impressive (they are!) there’s one thing that most people are forgetting: Second half offense.

Cal scored 20 points in the first half and a whopping 3 points in the second half. Am I saying that was the reason for the loss? Of course not. 360 rushing yards is the reason. What I want to emphasize is that our offense still needs improvement (I admit, I’ve given up on our defense).

Even Longshore acknowledged that 3 points isn’t enough and that falls on him (I don’t think it completely falls on him but I do think the team overall is lacking leadship. Longshore is the man to take charge of the team). I give props to Longshore for understanding that improvement is still needed. It is though, awesome to see him throw so well in the first half.

By: Big D

Big D — Tue, 20 Nov 2007 01:23:11 +0000

This season reminds me of 1996 and MOOCH, only that team didn’t have half the talent this 2007 team does. We started off 5-0 and ended 6-6 with a loss in the Aloha bowl to NAVY. Deltha was a true freshman then.
I have exhausted all my disgust with this year’s team already, but being the CAL fan that I am, I’ll drag myself to the Big Game and the bowl game (if we get one), no bandwagon here… GO BEARS!

By: Dan

Dan — Tue, 20 Nov 2007 00:56:17 +0000

I appreciate and hear what you’re saying Nickle. He’s not terrible, and this what is now a whole team implosion is not all on him. That’s not what I’m saying. And I am not necessarily calling for Riley nor blaming only Longshore for this loss- what I was said was that he is not a championship caliber QB. He’s nowhere near. He plays well enough to have good stats most games, but doesn’t make the difference a championship QB does. His ints this year- UCLA, USC, UW, Arizona- all killers. He had a chance as a qb, as THE most important player on the team, to step up and lead Cal to victories, but he didn’t. Instead, he threw interceptions- right to the defense- that contributed mightily to each loss. Again, 1 TD and 12 interceptions in the 4th quarter in his career. These numbers don’t lie. Instead, they tell the whole story. Also, he has missed so many wide open receivers this season, read defenses incorrectly on WR read routes, didn’t push the ball downfield enough. He’s been a one man drive killer. Is it all on him? Of course not. A LOT of it is on Tedford- he hasn’t helped Longshore. He frequently passed only on obvious passing downs. Didn’t we all hold our breath when the pass to Jordan was short, preventing him from getting into the endzone? 1st and goal? Shades of Oregon State. Shades of Arizona last year. Atrocious, block headed play calling. That’s why the bulk of what I said focused on Tedford, even over Gregory.
As for firing Gregory, that won’t help unless Tedford is going to go out and find a new defensive coordinator that plays a whole other aggressive style of defense. That’s what we all want right? That’s what the players want. There’s no guarantee that Tedford will do that. In case everybody hasn’t noticed, Tedford is not a fan of going for the jugular, of always forcing the action, of inspirational philosophies on either side of the ball. He’s not aggressive, and that has cost Cal greatly this year. His “play not to lose” style on both sides of the ball has been very frustrating to watch, has allowed opponents to play Cal better than they should, and has cost Cal greatly this season.
Consider this – For all the accolades he has deservedly gotten prior to this year, he also is fair game for this season. Cal might be the biggest under-achiever in College this season. They might be the biggest disappointment this side of Notre Dame. He might have done the least with the most of any other top 50-60 programs in the nation. I think this deserves some consideration and discussion.
Was he really truthful when he said all these problems are due to coaching after the UW game? Was he? Because I agree with him. All the mistakes made really point to a very poorly coached team. I haven’t even mentioned the poor special teams, the O-Line penalties, the delay of game penalties (because it takes forever to get plays called and signaled in).
I was at every home game this year, 2 road games, and I watched every game on TV, even if I went to the game. I played football all the way thru college, and have many friends who coach. I know the game a little bit. And I know what I’ve seen this year. I hope Tedford figures it out. I’m not optimistic. I think we may have seen the best already. I never thought I’d consider this, but he might the football equivalent of Ben Braun.

By: todd nizzle

todd nizzle — Mon, 19 Nov 2007 23:53:25 +0000

Fire Bob Gregory Yesterday..Waaay too much talent on that side of the ball to be this bad…and for all of you that claim “fair weather” for fans who are upset and pissed about this year could use some passion, just like our team…yes it’s great that the program has turned around after years of suffering, but we loyal fans have every right to be just as frustrated as the players

By: nickle

nickle — Mon, 19 Nov 2007 23:41:30 +0000

As much as I agree with Longshore being real shaky at qb this season Dan, I was impressed with his performance this past saturday. You fail to mention his 3 TD passes, and the way the offense was cruising along when they were in sync.

Again, as much as I agree with longshore being really off this year, I feel like people are now just finding small, picky things to find reasons to put riley in. Longshore was to blame for the int that resulted in the td, but 4 pts because he underthrew rojo falls on longshore? B/c cal’s offense couldn’t punch it in to the endzone, it’s longshore’s fault? Cmon. Yes, it was underthrown, but cmon. He was NOT the difference in cal losing. When your D gives up over 300 yds rushing, I’m pretty sure that’s the clear difference in Cal losing.