Quarterbacks of Tedford

Cal coach Jeff Tedford has long been considered a fine molder of quarterbacks. Several of his students have caught the eyes of many NFL coaches and scouts. Akili Smith, Joey Harrington, David Carr, Kyle Boller and Aaron Rodgers were all mentored by Tedford. All were drafted in the first round of the NFL Draft. Smith, Harrington and Carr were even top five picks. All but Rodgers performed far below that lofty draft status in the NFL. Some might even trigger the unfortunate "bust" label. Tedford's seal of approval no longer guarantees the attention of the professional folk. It may even have been the reason that Rodgers spent so much time in the green room at the 2005 NFL Draft.

I didn't see anywhere near enough of Akili Smith and David Carr in college to form any real opinions of them. I saw nothing of Smith with the Bengals. Carr, at least, had some shining moments for the Texans. He was just destroyed behind an inferior offensive line to last physically or mentally for long. I was impressed by Harrington's college career, but runningback Onterrio Smith was really the motor behind those Oregon teams. He regularly opened the game for Harrington. As a Cal fan, Smith always concerned me much more than Harrington. It was much like when Reggie Bush and LenDale White made everything peachy for Matt Leinart at USC a few years later. I was shocked that the Lions selected Harrington with the third pick in the draft. It was perhaps the first sign that Matt Millen had zero clue on how to run a franchise. Prior to Tedford's arrival in Berkeley, Kyle Boller showed a great deal of natural talent. It was just a little wild. Once Tedford arrived, everything came together. Boller was a very good college QB. That's an important distinction. Boller's leap in performance from his junior to his senior year was remarkable. It caught the attention of the NFL. I suppose that they expected similar leaps from Boller as a professional. Other than that, I have no idea why the Ravens would draft Kyle Boller in the first round. At best, I thought that he would be a very good backup QB. Most teams select those much later in the draft. The first round is a little early. After Boller proved to be only a decent backup QB, Tedford became the target of criticism. Aaron Rodgers' development into an outstanding QB is considered the exception. He was the QB that got away from Tedford unscathed. Being labeled a Tedford QB is now one to avoid. It hasn't helped that Cal has experienced a bit of a QB drought recently. Current QB Zach Maynard has shown the greatest talent since Rodgers. Nate Longshore showed some potential but faded. Jeff Tedford is now considered, in the eyes of many, a developer of fine college QBs but does them no favors in the move to the NFL. He's criticized for developing college QBs! Last I checked, his job is to develop college QBs. He's a college coach. People seem to forget that Akili Smith, David Carr and Joey Harrington went to horrible NFL teams. If they had true pro potential, the Bengals, Texans and Lions changed that in a hurry. Those players' lack of success in the NFL had nothing to do with Tedford's teachings in college. He helped them to achieve success in college as you would hope from his job as a college coach. Young Cal QBs like Maynard, Allen Bridgford and Kyle Boehm can learn a lot from Jeff Tedford. He can help make them better college QBs. He won't be there to coach them if they have the opportunity to play in the NFL.