Thank You Coach Tedford

Cal fired head coach Jeff Tedford yesterday. I'm a little conflicted in how I feel about this. Tedford completely changed the football environment in Berkeley. His eleven years were the best years of Cal football in my lifetime. His success brought about the Memorial Stadium renovations and construction of athletic facilities to bring Cal out of the 19th century and into the 21st. It's unfortunate that Tedford won't be around to take advantage of the place that he built. I became a little less conflicted when I learned that the graduation rate of Cal's football players had dropped to 48%. Last in the Pac-12. Far behind Stanford's 90%. That's not acceptable. The last few years have been a little rough. Really rough in comparison to Tedford's first 7-8 seasons. For all of the football thrills that you brought to Berkeley, many thanks Coach Tedford.

Now, who gets the keys to the Cal football program. This will be the hire that stamps the career of Cal Athletic Director Sandy Barbour. She's done an excellent job so far. The level of nearly all of Cal's athletic programs has risen since she came to Berkeley. The people involved with the five sports that were cut and then saved might see things differently but Cal is contending for titles in more sports than ever. Right or wrong, football counts most. If I was making the calls, I'd immediately try to pry Chris Petersen from Boise St. or Gary Patterson from TCU. Both are long shots but I'd start there. I'm not sure if it's true but I saw that Oregon and Cal are the jobs that would tempt Petersen. I'd immediately be on a plane to Boise to find out the truth.

My more realistic short list of candidates starts with Vanderbilt's James Franklin. He's turned around an always lagging program in the brutal SEC. Vanderbilt might also be the only school in the conference that requires the football players to actually attend classes. After Franklin, I like:

Sonny Dykes-head coach at Louisiana Tech
Gary Andersen-head coach at Utah St.
Bob Diaco-Notre Dame defensive coordinator
Frank Solich-head coach at Ohio

As a wild card, I'm curious about any interest that former Cal coach Steve Mariucci might have in returning to his first head coaching gig.

Whatever happens, I hope that current running backs coach Ron Gould remains. He's been at Cal even longer than Tedford. He's done a fantastic job with Cal's backs. So much so, that I'm curious if he has head coaching dreams. Some football coaches just want to coach and not have to deal with all the extra stuff that comes with being the top guy. He's an energetic, charismatic, effective football coach.

No matter what happens it should happen soon. The window for high school recruiting is closing fast.