You are right on the mark.

I am having a very hard time drinking the kool aid anymore. I am going to be skeptical, very skeptical, until I see a HUGE change in many things from Tedford’s teams before I am excited that we can compete.

Well, my football life continues to be a tough one thanks to the teams I love- Cal has been well documented, the 49ers played just well enough to lose again a game they should have won handily, and my undergrad Alma Mater SDSU, where I played, just ALMOST beat another big time in Missouri- well big time compared to my Aztecs- but choked by giving up a score in the last minute on a fluke defensive breakdown. Another new coach (Brady Hoke) to be hopeful about that almost won in a huge upset- add that to the list of almost wins at Notre Dame, Michigan, Wisconsin, Ohio State and now Missouri over the past 5-6 years. Then we go on to suck every year. Sigh…

GO BEARS!!!!!

Having been in sales for 30 years, the worst thing you can labeled is “predictable”. It means death in the business world unless you change and become innovative quickly. Reminds me of the dark Roger Theder years when the entire student body knew we were running “short side sweep”. Tedford has become predictable.

As for defensive, I think it’s just the result of an NFL coordinator inexperienced in terms of defending a spread option having to work with a linebacking squad in a 3-4 defense that just didn’t have the athleticism to match the other team’s offense. Hopefully our ridiculous linebacker recruits all pan out and give us an excellent core fore the defense come 2012/2013.

I agree with you on the Gilby coached 1993 team. At the end of the season, that was arguably the best team that Cal has put on the field over the past 35 years. It was a team that demolished Stanford AT Stanford and destroyed Iowa in the Alamo bowl. They won every game they played when QB Dave Barr started and finished.

You may also remember they beat UCLA in the season opener. UCLA went on to represent the PAC 10 in the Rose Bowl that year. It’s not hard to imagine an undefeated season if Barr hadn’t got hurt. The Bears were on their way to beating Washington at home for their sixth straight victory when Barr went down on that hard astroturf with a shoulder injury. Four games down to injury, four straight losses. And then Barr comes back and leads Cal to an inspired win over a ranked Arizona team after falling behind 20-0. Ahh, the memories.

Of course, I think the same thing about the 07 season if Longshore handn’t have got his ankle rolled in the Oregon win. Everything about that potentially magic season changed for the bad after Longshore’s injury.

It blows me away when people like you, or me, state their cases in a thoughtful, factual way that there are people here that resort to calling us names like whiners, haters, negative, etc. What gets posted here is some of the most intelligent, civil, classy, level headed comments I have ever seen on any online sports forum.

These accusers go on to say that Cal can never be a top program, or can’t be one consistently, etc. Why not? I mean really? All the excuses they give are tossed immediately aside and rendered incorrect and ridiculous when you look at Harbaugh at Stanford- NO excuses! Not that Tedford makes any excuses- his apologists here do so by lamely attacking those that dare to call out the confusing things going wrong here.

We have to hear drivel like if Tedford or the players read these posts, he will leave or recruits won’t come here. Please- it’s much worse at just about every other D1 program. Again, for the most part, class and intelligence reigns here.

Then we get the comments that if Tedford leaves, then we’ll end up with a bad coach like Holmoe, Gilby, etc. What garbage. What negative, loser-like garbage. Would Chris Peterson, Steve Sarkisian, Jim Harbaugh or Gary Patterson be a step down from Tedford? I kind of doubt it. Perhaps Justin Wilcox is the next great young head coach to be. They are definitely out there. What negativism and what a loser mentality to maintain if Tedford was ever gone or let go that we would certainly have a coach that is worse than him- according to these accusers, one that coach would be WAY worse. Again, what garbage. Do these accusers work in state government jobs? They can’t exist in the real (capitalistic) world.

In performance related jobs in the real world, where you have to improve every year (CEO, Sales) Tedford would have already been fired or on thin ice about to be. I am NOT suggesting he be fired- yet. I am suggesting he has NOT done well the past 3 years as he has not improved and he has not maintained an acceptable performance given his relative pay.

Please don’t give me a 7-5 record as a “winning” record and some sort of success because it is Cal and that’s the best Cal can do. Especially when that 7-5 has wins against 2 non-conference cream puffs and WSU and a down ASU and UCLA. How did we do against the upper tier of the Pac 10- which by the way hasn’t been in top form that past 5-6 years? Not very well for having such a highly paid, over-rated coach.

The Ben Braun comparison is spot on. I first called that 2 seasons ago here and was attacked big time. Now I read tons of people making that comparison. I think its a very fair discussion point and I think there is serious merit in the comparison. It hasn’t played out yet. We’ll see.

I do think Tedford has been open to some minor and moderate changes, which I applaud, where Braun never would. How bad was Braun’s offense? And he would never bring in a offensive coach or change his crappy system. For this and other reasons, he ran the program in the ground after some good early successes. As you watched his teams year after year, you were frustrated how often they lost close games to lesser teams, were badly out-coached, and were destroyed by top tier programs. Sound familiar?

But Tedford misses the forest for the trees I think. He has lost his mojo- his aggressiveness, his creativity, his imagination- all of which was fun, was winning, which brought out the best and the real confidence of his players. Gone, all gone.

All the conference top tier must lick their chops to play Cal now, knowing what Cal will predictably do and knowing that Tedford can’t find and develop a top tier D1 QB to save his life (QB guru? Not any more), knowing that if they can come out and get ahead that Cal will ultimately either give up or make so many mistakes that the game is essentially decided by halftime.

Look I love the class of Tedford. But it takes a lot more than that. I am tired and frustrated of the under-achieving, the inconsistency, and the fact that Cal no longer beats comparable teams in conference, doesn’t win on the road, and gets killed by the upper crust of the Pac 10- not to mention out-classed and “out-everythinged” by a Nevada team that as I posted earlier, is a a team of misfit toys that Cal/Tedford would never look twice at as a recruits- one with a mediocre defense.

This Cal program has now taken to being embarassed and humiliated on a too frequent a basis. Is that the mark of a top tier coach?

Doesn’t a great university with great sports tradition, in the best place to live in the world that will soon have top tier facilities within the conference deserve to aspire to win championships, and then have a chance to actually compete to do so just about every year?

Something is off/wrong, and has been for several years now. It has happened gradually. It’s hard to reverse something like this. Perhaps if things get so bad for our coach, he’ll be more likely to do anything, including listening to things he hasn’t listened to before. I still think he has the talent, though some may not have developed as well as it should have.

To the real haters and accusers here, there you go.

Yes, Cal got beat by a NV team with less talented athletes but with better schemes & probably coaching.

But some of these posts are over the top. Look, alot of you make valid points but this “PROBLEM” is so multi-dimensional that it is beyond solving on this blog.

Yes, Cal – The #1 Public University in the World, has brutal academic entrance requirements. Yes, Bay Area fans really dont care about NCAA Football like fans in the midwest or south. Yes, yes, yes…

But stop being so negative. Look to the future and the bright side. With the SAHPC & Memorial Stadium renovations Cal will be in the running for more elite athletes. Kids want new & shiny. Just look at what the Univ of Nike at Eugene has done with their facilities and the direct correlation to the quality of their athletes & the teams performance. Granted, Cal can not afford to pimp out the SAHPC like the TajmaPhil but you get the point.

GO BEARS!