“Bears Open Game With TD Cal’s Kyle Boller to Terrell Williams to David Gray for a 71-yard pass play was the first Cal TD scored on the first play of a game since Sept. 4, 1999..”

That had to be the best post I have seen….Perhaps so because I agree with it 100%. Having been a former player at Cal (years ago) and been in the film rooms I can tell you that the young players really don’t know what the issue is because they lack perspective. I guarantee if you watch a film session with WSU (or any unsuccessful team) they are seeing the same issues as Cal is. On every play (even when they work) someone doesn’t execute. Very few run plays actually hit the holes they are designed to. Football is a dynamic game played by humans. Occasionally blocks are going to be missed and sometimes the other guy is going to win on a play.

The only time during film session that failure doesn’t come down to execution is when multiple players are getting physically beaten (i.e. when you play FCS schools). In other words the player took the correct steps, made the correct call, but simply wasn’t fast enough or strong enough to make the play. Given Cal’s high talent level over the years, they are not going to have multiple players getting physically beaten play after play.

I want to add one other fact to JO’s article relative to talent. If you followed the players on that 2007 team that lost 6 of the last 7 games, there were actually 13 future NFL players if you counted the next couple of drafts.

The bottom line, Cal hasn’t had a talent or recruiting issue. Sure there will be up and down years, but Cal has plenty of speed, size, and skill to be a better team than it has been. Dan, hit it right on the head. I’ve seen practically every snap since JT has been the coach and I cannot recall one fake punt or FG. He has only sampled “no-huddle” offense a couple times when it wasn’t expected. he uses “trick plays” only when it is safe. He coaches like he doesn’t trust the players. I think that is the primary issue. Cal plays like a team with very fragile confidence (i.e like teenagers). When things are going well, Cal has the talent to roll over you. But if you fight back you never know what you’re going to get from Cal.

I think only way for Cal to get back on track under JT’s direction is for them to find a QB that he trusts. JT can only coach with superior players, especially at the QB position. He isn’t the type of coach that can do what Mike Riley at OSU can do and get players to play above their heads.

Someone above mentioned how bad Cal’s OL was. Do you realize that every OL starter at OSU was a walk-on at one point, yet Quizz still gets his yards and the QB has enough time to complete passes.

Lastly, I want to echo Dan’s point about taking responsibility. Has anyone paid attention to what Mack Brown and Nick Saban have been saying after they’re “disappointing seasons”? They said the blame falls on themselves. This from coaches that have won three national championships and at least won their respective conferences multiple times. Right now Cal has more players in the NFL than Alabama or Florida over the last 10 years. Yet the program has not won the conference and only won moer than 9 games twice.

JT we’re tired of hearing about the facilities and/or lack of execution. Let’s see you get the most out of the talent you have. If you can’t find a QB to execute YOUR OFFENSE. Then adjust the offense to utilize the skills you do have.

Two years later, a relative stiff like Nate Longshore was regularly completing bombs to DeSean Jackson and Robert Jordan. It leads me to think the problems of late are not so much the offensive scheme, but the personnel and execution.

There’s just no excuse for a 4-year player in Tedford’s program to play as poorly as Mansion played in those last 4 games. I have to believe that the ability to see the entire field and check down to your secondary receivers is a coachable trait to some degree. It just wasn’t evident with this guy, and it must not have been evident in Beau Sweeney given that he never got onto the field. And maybe we don’t blame it all on the quarterbacks, either. I iso’d a couple of times on Marvin Woods and noticed that he was getting zero separation from one-on-one coverage in the Washington game. The kid makes some spectacular catches, but his ability to create space from a defender is certainly questionable.

I don’t think Tedford is spending near as much time as he used to coaching up the players. I specifically remember when he spent countless hours changing up Rodgers’ throwing mechanics to build him into the number one draft choice he became after the 2004 season. Did he spend that kind of time with Brock Mansion or Beau Sweeney? I doubt it. Did he bunk in his office every night during the season the way he did those first few fruitful seasons? I doubt it.

I think our head coach got too comfy with that $2.8 million annual salary, and the results showed. If JT has any pride, he will take some of his salary and spread it around to find some top quality, fiery coaches like Nick Holt at Washington and Nick Aliotti at Oregon. Tedford needs to bring in a proven young innovator, pay him top dollar from his own salary and promise him the program within a period not to exceed five years. Look no further than what Mike Belotti did with Chip Kelly if you are looking for a model to follow.

Tedford needs some distance from this whole thing for a week or two- or three. Putting his nose right back to the grindstone is what he’s said after each of the past disappointing seasons. It hasn’t worked at all.

With a little distance and a little time, perhaps some hope for some perspective. Otherwise, the definition of insanity. You can’t just work harder doing the same (wrong) thing, which is what he always does and it DOES NOT work.

Clearly, he is just reinforcing what we all suspect- the guy doesn’t get it and isn’t going to. Man, this is just even more depressing.

1) Execution- The players always say it was a lack of execution, as has Tedford many, many times. On all these scores of unsuccessful plays in every game, it’s always about the lack of execution- Sean Cattouse says it above, Brock Mansion says “it’s a foot there, an inch here”. I have heard this over and over and over from Tedford (blaming players) and also repeatedly from the players- no doubt drilled into their heads by the coaches.

The players are no doubt being taught to become men and take ownership and responsibility, which is a good lesson for football and for life. No doubt, a good deal of truth in this. But to continue, I have read it said so very many times that on every play it’s one guy not executing, frequently just one guy, a different guy, on every bad play. Other than that is the nature of football, there must be something wrong with Cal’s plays. I mean I’m sure Oregon players screw up plenty, but one player not executing must not tank their plays like it does for Cal. Re-think the plays?

2) Tedford Taking (His Share of ) Blame – I NEVER see Tedford saying it’s his fault, I mean really ever stepping up and sincerely saying he is the issue. It’s really mind numbing and mind boggling. The players come and go, the OCs and now DCs come and go, assistants leave and new ones come in- the constant here is Tedford. His disappointing and under-achieving teams have now spanned many classes and coaches. Where is his class and leadership that so many of his supporters claim he has?

Even Mike Singletary stepped up recently and said all blame for lack of success is on him- and he’s right. Again, I NEVER see Tedford do that. He has taken very small slices of blame after each of the recent successful seasons and vows to look at every inch of the program to fix what needs fixing. It seems he can only accept that a sliver of this is on him, that a sliver of this requires any change or improvement from him. He has come up with lame little things, not necessarily bad, perhaps some good, but clearly he misses the forest for the trees.

Something big is amiss here. Short of him making some VERY large, and correct, changes, this isn’t going to change. Very big, like Mike LEach as OC big. I’m not literally saying bring in Mike Leach (but why not if you could) but somethign that shows big changes are needed.

You can look at the last play of the UW game, and see by contrast what is missing from Tedford. Sarkisian goes for the win, pushes all his chips onto the table. Maybe he got that from Pete Carroll, maybe it’s all him, but he was daring enough to go for it, to play to win instead of playing not to lose. Perhaps he realized that his odds weren’t great in OT as his offense also hadn’t set the world on fire last Saturday. Who knows, but I was loving his call, I loved the guts and confidence in his team it shows. And it worked. I guarantee you that every returning UW player is fired up coming back next week and next season playing for Sark.

What do you think Tedford does there? He kicks the FG- every time. We’ve seen it with all his risk averse, wimp calls time and time again. His players have to see that and embrace his play not to make a mistake, play not to lose approach to football. I’m over it, the players have had their football souls sucked out little by little.

He continues to suck the life out of his players, out of the program, out of the fans and out of Memorial Stadium.

Because Brock Mansion off-handedly mentioned that former Cal players in the NFL said Cal’s offense is complicated?

How about the fact that JO consistently said this offense is more or less the same one that Cal has used since Tedford arrived? Or that no other players have said anything about the relative level of complication now, as opposed to say 2002-2008, when our offense usually clicked on all cylinders?

I believe we have a predictability problem. That falls on Ludwig’s shoulders to a certain extent. If we have some deficiencies on offense, figure out a way to scheme around them, or get position coaches who have a different approach than our current ones.