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Football: Gregory on Arizona
By Jonathan Okanes
Thursday, November 12th, 2009 at 10:10 pm in Mid-week.
I talked with defensive coordinator Bob Gregory the other night about the challenge of defending Arizona’s offense. Here’s some of what he had to say:
On what Arizona’s offense presents
I think overall they have the best group of receivers. They spread you out, which we’ve struggled with a little bit. They kind of have two offenses. They have the spread, one-back deal and four wide receivers, then they get into two tight ends, power football. They keep you off balance a little bit by having two different offenses. You’re usually one or the other. These guys do a good job of doing both.
On Arizona quarterback Nick Foles
He’s very efficient. Every guy we’ve faced is very efficient. He does a good job. They’ve not fallen off without (Willie) Tuitama, who was a good player.
On Foles’ ability to get rid of the ball quickly
It’s very hard. We’ve seen people bring six guys and not even come close to him because he gets it off so fast. You have to play the game a little bit and try to keep him off balance. It’s a tough deal.
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November 13th, 2009 at 5:39 am
Can we paraphrase that as “our defense is awful. i hope we don’t get shredded on saturday. and i wish our offense was as creative and efficient as arizona’s.” i think that’s what he’s saying. that’s what i’m saying. hope we win. i hope people actually go to the game, too. we need a full house to pull this one off. is riley going to start again next year?
November 13th, 2009 at 7:59 am
I’ll be there with the entire family, coming up from So.Cal. When I bought the tickets in July, I hoped it was for a Rose Bowl berth. I didn’t realize it would be trying to prevent a Rose Bowl berth.
As much as I think this season has been a tremendous disappointment, and as much as I think Tedford simply isn’t the coach for the team anymore, I’ll still be rooting hard to see the Bears destroy Stoops & Co. Please – run hard and run often (i.e., don’t give up on the run and don’t run out of ace sets or out of shotgun formations), stay away from the Wildcat, and have Riley throw on roll-outs.
November 13th, 2009 at 8:58 am
I do not think Tedford is perfect (he would agree with that), and I believe he learns more each year, but consider,
1. In the 42 years before Tedford, CAL had 7 winning seasons. With one more, Tedford will have coached 8 straight winning seasons.
2. We talk about going to the Rose Bowl before these seasons. In the past we talked about whether we would win more than we would lose.
3. Tedford is great with his players — when he says “we were outcoached”, that is Tedford speak for protecting his players.
4. I can tell you, that in the last 7+ years, he has recruited better players (as a whole) than we have seen since I began watching CAL football in the 1970s. Yes, we have always had the occasional star, but top to bottom, these players are better than 90% or more of the teams over the last 30+ years. Note that if Hinder signs on letter of intent day, we will have 4 elite 11 quarterbacks on the roster just to highlight one position.
5. Our frustration (and I include myself) comes from expectations, not performance. We thought we would reload at linebacker, losing the best trio we may have ever had. It did not happen. Riley does not show that he yet has “it”. He may someday, but it makes no difference whether he drops back or rolls out. The offensive line is not as good as we expected (there are those expectations again) because it is for the most part very young and inexperienced.
6. We remain the number one public institution in the world, and Tedford requires his players to live up to that standard.
7. We have the worst facilities in the Pac-10, but Tedford has helped to get the ball rolling on changing this (and hung in there when he could have, by contract left).
There are many other points, but this is long enough. Eric, enjoy the game, root on CAL to stop a Rose Bowl, and just enjoy the moment.
November 13th, 2009 at 9:07 am
Well said GB77. Tedford may be the best coach we ever have.
November 13th, 2009 at 10:45 am
GB77- why do we have these ludicrous expectations?
November 13th, 2009 at 11:07 am
Noduck,
I am no psychologist, but my guess — we have come so far, we just think it is our right to keep right on going. We have to recognize that in anything you do, there are plateaus and ups and downs. CAL has gone from being no part of the discussion for decades, to occasionally part of the discussion (at some point we have been in the top ten 4 of Tedford’s 8 years, I think), and we think the next steps should be just as easy. It is not. Remember the old adage — 20% improvement gets you 80% of the way there. However, the flip side is that the last 20% takes 80%.
November 13th, 2009 at 11:09 am
Tedford is a good coach. He still has many things to accomplish to meet his goals and Cal’s goals.
He is doing a solid job, we all just need to keep pushing for bigger and better. The potential is there, we all just need to keep striving to be the best.
3 and hopfully 4 more games left. I hope our Bears finish strong. Winning 2 or possibly 3 more would be a solid accomplishment based on the way things have gone so far this year.
Go Bears!
November 13th, 2009 at 12:02 pm
GB77, couldn’t agree more. Well said.
Go Bears!
November 13th, 2009 at 12:26 pm
The problem is that our expectations are not higher, and that they are consistently based on hype and fiction rather than reality. This team right now looks to be playing at the level of a bottom-3 Pac 10 team, no better. I do not see us having any chance in the next 2 games, and to be honest, I think that in the long run maybe that will open up everyone’s eyes to the real fact that the program is still in a shambles and has shown no ability to compete with the elite team(s) in the conference. Tedford may have been the right guy when he came in, but clearly he is not winning the recruiting or coaching battles now and we need to admit that he may not be the right guy to get us to the next level. I am frustrated, upset and at a loss to explain how 50 years of mediocrity and failure can continue without any real end in sight. We need to remember that after this long, the Rose Bowl is our goal, and anything less is failure. Period.
November 13th, 2009 at 1:35 pm
Well, since we have already beaten the bottom 3 Pac 10 teams, CalBearDavid83, I can’t buy the basis of your argument.
November 13th, 2009 at 2:09 pm
JO- I am still getting basketball blog entries and comments mixed in with the football blog entries. I checked, and it does not seem to be happening on the basketball archive section of the blog. Maybe you can ask one of your tekkie people to take a look and see if it can be fixed? Not that I have anything against Cal basketball- I just like the format of having the two topics separated into separate blogs or archives or whatever you call them.
November 13th, 2009 at 2:19 pm
GB77 – well said
November 13th, 2009 at 4:57 pm
Well said GB77.
Tedford’s a great coach and still learning, still evolving, still improving. He has made a long term committment to the Cal football program and fans have to make a long time committment to Tedford. And, as Sandy Barbour mentioned in a recent USA Today article, “If we let him [Tedford] go because we’re not willing to pay market, we’ll pay a huge price, because I don’t know that we can go out and find another coach with that combination of skills and (academic) emphasis.”
http://www.usatoday.com/sports/college/football/2009-11-09-coaches-salary-analysis_N.htm
November 13th, 2009 at 9:12 pm
why pay market price to lose…i say we get tyrone on a nice discounted price and put all of tedford’s money into more classes or reduced fees.
November 14th, 2009 at 1:19 pm
GB77, well said. I am a GB65 and a Bear fan well before that and I have died a thousand deaths watching Bears football. Tedford is class. I think the recruiting has been remarkable considering the competition. Remember that Coach Tedford had the liability of a losing tradition, horrible facilities, and an environment that includes hostility to Cal athletics from some of the surrounding community. These players are people the University can be proud of; they don’t quit, the don’t take cheap shots, they support each other, and they go to class. All of this is because of the program Coach Tedford has established. I want us to go to the Rose Bowl in the worst way, but in the right way. That is why I am a Tedford fan. Go Bears!