Cal lost to a very good Arizona St. team 27-17. The margin of victory could been so much greater. Cal couldn't get out of their own way. Very frustrating. Cal's offensive line provided little protection for a quarterback that often has serious accuracy issues. That's a terrible combination. Cal is sitting poorly at 1-4, 0-2 in conference. A decent UCLA team is up next. Head coach Jeff Tedford is probably on the hot seat. I've been wrestling with this possibility for a couple of years now. It's so hard to imagine. In my Cal lifetime the football team, except for a couple splendid seasons in the early '90s, has mostly kept to themselves at the bottom of the conference standings. In my three years at Cal the team won maybe 7 games. A Tedford coached Cal team gets that total in one season and it's considered a down season. Jeff Tedford has completely changed the football atmosphere and expectations at Cal. It's difficult to imagine that his job would ever be in jeopardy but it does seem that he has hit a plateau. Those that want him gone must have forgotten what it was like before he came to Berkeley. His own job security is likely shaky because of his own success. His success has filled the stadium. His success renovated the stadium. His success built the new athletic facilities. His success made people care about Cal football again. Not many people cared about Cal football when I was a student. Cal's biggest on field problem has been consistency at quarterback. No one has come close to playing the position like Aaron Rodgers. Few can. Perhaps one or more of the "elite" quarterbacks that Tedford has recruited recently will bring something close to the consistency of Rodgers. I hope that Tedford is there to coach that team. I can't forget what it was like in the 25 years preceding his time.
I like this quote from Michigan coach Brady Hoke on his experiences with the Harbaugh coaching family. He once worked for Jack Harbaugh, father of Jim and John. Hoke says that there's one Harbaugh that you don't mess with. "Jackie, the mother, probably knows football better than any of them. You didn't want one of your guys to mess, because you're going to get a finger in your chest (from Jackie)." Ah, the coaching Harbaughs.
I love hearing most of the stories of football families. Not all of them are great. Coaching is not an easy life. There is such incredible pressure to win at both the college and the professional levels. The hours are brutal. The job security is never great. The families that handle it well are remarkable. The Harbaughs certainly seem to handle it better than most. Jennifer Allen, daughter of former Los Angeles Rams and Washington Redskins coach George Allen, wrote a terrific book about her family experiences in football. The football life is certainly an interesting one. It definitely is to me.
Houston Texans running back Arian Foster is one of the most intriguing football players that I've ever known. If I cared at all about Twitter, Foster would definitely be a football player that I'd follow. His views are always thought provoking. I hear that his tweets are a gas. He refers to himself as "an aspiring human being" on his Twitter profile. We should all be so realistic. In a recent interview with Dan Patrick I loved this question and answer:
DP: If you have to gain two yards, who is the defensive player you don't want to see in the hole.
AF: I don't want to see anybody in the hole.
So simple.
I guess that all the "experts" were wrong about the potential of Arkansas. I don't recall any college team that was supposed to be so great play so bad every week. There was preseason talk of the Razorbacks being title contenders. Certainly SEC contenders.
West Virginia knocks off Baylor by a score of 70-63. Two words. De fense. My goodness, I've heard of games getting away from teams. Sort of snow balling. I can't recall a game getting away defensively from both teams quite like that. I watched about two minutes of that game and saw three touchdowns. Crazy.
The Minnesota Vikings travel to Detroit today. The Vikings have lost eleven straight division games. Well, that's gotta end. It's gotta end today.
Go Vikings!!!!
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