The Cal football program is currently a “2nd division Pac-12″ team. Cal no longer has the talent to be a title contender. Tedford squandered the 3-4 year period when Cal had excellent talent from 2005 to 2008. For those who really pay attention to recruiting…Tedford was able to recruit top 10 to 15 type of talent (on a national level) after the fantastic 2004 season…all for about 4 years. After 2007 debacle of a season…Cal recruiting has fallen off the map. Cal was routinely rated the 2nd or 3rd best Pac-10 recruiting class by both Rivals and ESPN for 2004, 2005, 2006. There was a sharp drop off since 2007 simulataneous with the Rise of Stanford, UCLA and Washington. Cal does not have the talent to compete at the highest level and even when we did…our coaching was never able to get the team to play to their highest capabilities.

Now, the talent has dried up in the Cal football program. Lets look at Cal’s prospects for 2011 and beyond. Cal now gets the 4th to 7th rated recruiting classes in the Pac-10. And will possibly drop further with the addition of Utah to the conference. Tedford, will have a hard time recruiting any top talent on offense, given the problems Cal has experienced the past couple of years. Cal was projected to finish 7th in the Pac-10 this year…there is no reason to think that they will finish above an 8th place finish in the Pac-12 next year. Utah is better than Cal…and Colorado is worse. Only Colorado and WSU are clearly worse than Cal…and UCLA, ASU and Washington are all about the same level as Cal…everyone else has better talent and/or coaching. And frankly UCLA has out-recruited Cal for the past 3 years…its only that Neuheisal and his staff are about as inept as Tedford…(he should be fired as well)

The likely prognosis for Cal for the next few years is a 2nd division finish in the Pac-12…as long as Tedford is the coach.

Here is my long winded synopsis of the past 6 years of Tedford coached teams:

FINALLY! The teflon that has been protecting Tedford for the past 6 years is finally starting to peel off! I along with a handfull of other Cal fans have been “shouting” that Tedford teams have consistently “underperformed” for the past SIX years! And yet the media, the Cal administration, and much of the Cal fan base…has been lulled into a foggy belief that Tedford can lead the Cal program to a Pac-10/12 championship because of his incredibly strong coaching performance in 2002-2004. However, his resume from 2005 to Present has been consistently below expectations…and stedily declining.

Part of what has helped Tedford keep strong support from the administration and fan base is that Cal was continuing to have 8 and 9 win seasons and go to a bowl game. However, I along with a few others have been pointing out that an “8-4″ season is not “successful” if the expectations were to be “10-2″. Lets examine each year.

2005
Cal goes 7-4 in the regular season with a victory over BYU in its bowl game to finish 8-4. Cal has zero “upset” victories..meaning all 8 wins were over teams in which Cal was favored to defeat. But Cal had TWO losses (against teams in which Cal was favored (UCLA and OSU). In my analysis, 2005 is a disapointment because of two upset losses with out an “upset” victory.

2006
Cal goes 9-3 in regular season and then ends with a victory over Texas A&M at the Holiday Bowl. Again Cal has zero “upset” victories, and has 2 losses against teams that they were favored to defeat (Tennessee and Arizona). The Arizona loss was particularly crippiling, as it cost Cal a Rose Bowl appearance. In my analysis, it was a “underperforming” season for a team despite winning 10 games. The loss to Tennessee was embarrasing becasue Cal was not competitive…but that can be forgivable becasue they started a new QB in a difficult road environment (kind of like Oregon did this year). However, the Arizona loss can not be excused due to the fact that Cal was a strong favorite and the game ended up costing Cal a Rose Bowl appearance. Cal did not live up to expectations.

2007
Cal goes 6-6 in the regular season with a victory over Air Force in the bowl game. Cal has one “upset” victory over Oregon to start the season 5-0 but ended with 5 upset losses in conference play. In my analysis, this was the worst season in Tedford’s tenor…AND likely the worst coaching job nationally. The 2007 Cal team was loaded with talent…That 2007 team had TWELVE (12) future NFL playes! Marshawn Lynch, Justin Forsett, DeSean Jackson, Brandon Mebane, Dante Hughes, Bryan Storer, Craig Stevens, Lavelle Hawkings, Mike Gibson, Brian De La Puente, Desmond Bishop, and Thomas DeCoud. The 2007 Cal team had the talent to compete for a national championshipa and certainly should have challenged USC for the Pac-10 title. Player talent, was clearly not the culprit.

2008
Cal finishes the regular season 8-4 and then defeated Miami in their bowl game. 2008 ended with zero upset victories and two upset losses (Maryland and Arizona). In my analysis the season was a “slight underperformance” because both upset losses came on the road…but I consider a disappointment becasue it ended without an upset victory to offset the two upset losses.

2009
Cal finishes 8-4 in the regular season and then loses to Utah in the Bowl game. Cal had two upset losses (Oregon and UW) but they did have an upset victory over arch rival Stanford. In my analysis, the Oregon loss was on the road and at least they had a rare upset victory…so I conclude that they overall performance was about as expected…the only dissappointment could be with the fact they Cal was not really competitive in games against quality opponents (lone exception Stanford).

2010
Cal finaishes at 5-7. Zero upset victories and TWO upset losses (Nevada and UW). Competitve games against Arizona and Oregon showed Cal had potential, but blowout losses to Stanford, OSU and USC are troubling signs. My analysis for 2010 is slightly disappointing, and they still had TWO upset losses without an upset victory.

Final Analysis for Tedford between 2005 – 2010. Cal has only TWO (2) upset victories against FIFTEEN (15) upset losses over the past 6 years. The 2007 coaching performance is one of the worst in the country over the past decade – can anybody name a worse coaching performance for a team with that much talent? Tedford’s teams routinely lose at least 2 games each year agains inferior opponents…and yet rarely achieves victories against superior opponents. The fact that Cal has a losing record and there are no “talking points” about bowl game appearances…people can finaly start examining Tedford record for the past 6 years….his team have consistently underperformed and finally there are no Emerald or Las Vegas Bowl appearances to mask the underperformance of the season

Not a good sign, excuses (like rain, thanksgiving break, a 5-6 team)aside. This tiny crowd should be a very large deal. If this team was 10-1, the place would have been packed. After anger and frustration come apathy. Apathy is the worse thing you can have in a fan base.

Unfathomable that Tedford has ANY supporters on this blog. But he does. And several here think he can fix this or turn this around. Pure cluelessness.

Next year will be worse. I called how bad this season would be, and short of bringing in Mike Leach to be OC, a HUGE change in the offense, next year WILL be worse. Why won’t it. Jeff Tedford is Ben Braun.

As I type this, I am seeing Cardinal highlights on tv. It’s amazing what a college football program at an elite academic university can accomplish with a great coach. Too bad we’ll never know.

It’s all irrelevant- Tedford at $2.8M a year through 2015- GUARANTEED. Genius

Fire Ludwig because Utah was able to win in spite of him? What does that say about Tedford that CAL can’t win in spite of him? Gimme a break.

Hate to tell all you JT lovers, but until he goes we will not see anything better. I doubt we will be back in a bowl until he leaves. He should have had the team fired up and READY to end the era at Memorial Stadium on a high note. Instead he played his brand of wussie football, with a less talented QB, so what else did you expect? I can’t believe he could not even have a few plays for Brock to gain his confidence with?

All I can say is I’m glad Stanford didn’t lay up 80 points on us!! They look amazing against Oregon St. And Harbaugh will have the Cardinal in a BCS bowl in just his 4th year on the Farm.

Again..thanks for getting us a new stadium JT. Don’t let the door hit you on the way out.

Let’s hope we can rebuild the program this next season.

Whoever wants Jeff Tedford to go should look at our record prior to his arrival! You guys better know what you are talking about! You anti-Tedford guys and anti-Kevin Riley guys have something in common!