Is Jeff Tedford the greatest Cal football coach of all time?

Whether he knows it or not, all that is left for us to discuss
regarding Jeff Tedford is his legacy.

In the latter quarter of Jeff Tedford's reign at Cal, there has emerged two distinct ways of looking at him when questions arise about his leadership of the program. The first camp points out that the Bears were a much inferior team in the years prior to Tedford's arrival, including a 1-10 year in Tom Holmoe's final season in 2001, and so Cal fans need to appreciate how good they have it with Tedford. The second group points out the fact that Tedford's best days are far behind him in terms of bringing anything close to glory to Strawberry Canyon, and that if it weren't for a fan base with lowered expectations from decades of sucking, he would have and should have been shown the door several years earlier.

I find myself somewhere in between the two camps. Tedford's body of work, on the whole, deserves respect, and I don't think his firing, if Sandy Barbour does indeed pull the trigger in this Sunday's meeting, would deserve to be considered overdue. After all, Tedford was a big reason the program was able to cobble together the stadium renovation project, and although delays and red-tape held up the project far too long, it would have been a shame if he hadn't had at least one year coaching in the new facilities. It was only in 2010, two years ago, that Tedford posted a losing season for the first time, and even last year, the Bears had a chance for a real mark of achievement had they been able to beat Texas in the Holiday Bowl (unfortunately they fell well short in a 21-10 scoreline that betrayed how lopsided the game was). Until 2009, Tedford had only lost one bowl game, the 2004 Holiday Bowl to Texas Tech, and that came in a season where nobody was pointing fingers after Cal had every right to feel angry after being snubbed for a Rose Bowl bid.

On the other hand, anyone who can't see the program is getting stale under Tedford isn't opening his or her eyes to the facts. As myself and others have pointed out lately, the Bears increasingly have found themselves getting blown out. A 20+ point loss this Saturday in Corvallis would be the 12th 20+ point loss in the last four years, a poor track record by any metric. There have also been other disturbing trends, like racking up a lot of penalties (only UCLA has more penalty yards than Cal as of today) and showing a lack of cohesion and morale on the sideline. Several instances in the last few years have seen players not responding or ignoring Tedford as he attempts to point something out to them during a game, a sure sign of disrespect. While this isn't all on Tedford (some players are just bad apples and would be no matter who the coach was), it shows a lack of strong leadership and is a recipe for failure on any team.

With the Pac-12 improving seemingly every season and a strong crop of coaches cementing many of Cal's rivals in solid positions in the standings and recruiting-wise, to tread water means to fall behind, and that is exactly where Cal finds itself. I think the right course is to part ways with Tedford now, and in five years we'll be inviting him back to Memorial for a statue unveiling (brought to you by AT&T). 

Assuming this happens, it is now time to start thinking about where Tedford's place is in history. As Stephen said in a GroupMe message today, it's entirely possible and not mutually exclusive to be the greatest Cal coach in history and deserve being relieved of your duties at the same time. Winston Churchill showed admirable leadership during World War II and won praise and acclaim far beyond Britain's shores during the time. However, he was unceremoniously dumped by voters after the war was over and his time had clearly passed, politically speaking. Tedford's time has passed too, but that doesn't mean we won't look back with fondness on the promise of 2002, the excitement of the USC upset in 2003, being the best team in the country for the early part of 2004, bringing in DeSean Jackson in 2005 and becoming co-champions of the conference in 2006.

Churchill was turned out in a 1945 election by
Clement Atlee's Labour Party, months after
the Allies emerged victorious from World
War II./Brian Bainum, SCF

There is plenty to delve into when pondering Tedford's place in the Cal coaching history books. He is the winningest coach in Cal history with 82 wins. I'm sure one thing he'd like to accomplish is to get to 100 wins, something he could stumble to in a little under three seasons at his current average. However, as Chris pointed out to me astutely today, Tedford is also the losing-est (is that a word?) coach in Cal history. The fact of the matter is, if you stay long enough, you set plenty of records. Jeff Tedford's career winning percentage stands currently at .594. Cal's record in all games since the program's inception in 1886, is .563. Tedford is beating Cal's average by about 30 percentage points, which is statistically significant, but not exactly legendary either. In fact, if you rank Cal's 32 football coaches by winning percentage, Jeff Tedford comes in at 16th. That, by definition, is mediocre. Now obviously, I'm being a little hard on Tedford, because competition wasn't as tough in the horse and buggy days, but it's more to make the point of, yes, Tedford wins games, but he also loses them too.

Statistically, Tedford falls short of several Gilded Age
predecessors, but his era had more challenges than theirs.

All four of the Cal coaches who have been with the program 10 + seasons, including Tedford, obviously deserve to be considered among the best Cal coaches of all time. Andy Smith has the highest winning percentage (.799) of any coach with at least 20 wins, led the program to two Rose Bowls (one win and one tie) and rolled off four consecutive seasons without a loss in the postwar World War I era. Pappy Waldorf's reign includes three Rose Bowl appearances to Tedford's zero, but otherwise their stints are remarkably similar, as Waldorf's final two seasons in particular were marked by a lot of losing. Stub Allison is the other longer tenured coach. He led the Bears to their last Rose Bowl win in 1938, which would make him worthy of mention.

I hate to sound like someone who just writes off the past, but only Pappy could I even consider putting above Tedford. College football is an entirely different game now than it was during Smith's and Allison's era, and even Waldorf would probably have a hard time recognizing today's game. For one, African American athletes now feature prominently on college teams, while in Pappy's day teams were only beginning to integrate, so naturally the level of play wasn't as high. Even so, "Pappy's Boys" were a nationally recognized team, much as Tedford's teams in the mid-2000s were shown some love by the national media as well.

So where to rank these four longstanding coaches? I'd have to put Tedford first, admitting my bias towards the present is strong, with Waldorf a close second, Smith third and Allison fourth.

African-American players like DeSean Jackson weren't a big
part of the game when Pappy Waldorf coached, and were non-
existent in Stub Allison's and Andy Smith's eras.

Another coach to consider is Bruce Snyder, who had the program buzzing with excitement in the early 90s, competing with eventual champion Washington in a tooth-and-nail fight in a interestingly similar game to the 2004 near-miss at the Coliseum by Tedford's Aaron Rodgers-led crew. Snyder flew the coop for ASU, ending any hope of a real legacy at Cal, but his effectiveness in 1990 and 1991 showed it would be possible for a modern football program to succeed in Strawberry Canyon.

My conclusion is that Jeff Tedford is the best coach in Cal football's long and not always good history, but that should probably not be enough to warrant keeping him. If anything, getting rid of Tedford now will ensure he leaves with some dignity intact (imagine if he continued his losing ways a few more years and his overall career Pac-12 record, already in danger of dipping below .500, was to go below .500!). I hold no ill will towards Tedford, and I hope he would hold no ill will towards Cal as he moves forward with his life. This university made him a very wealthy man and he can rebound after taking a year off, and return as an offensive coordinator somewhere and get back to his roots of being an offensive mind. He first needs some time off, though, to clear his mind, eat better, exercise more and get his mojo back. If I were him, I'd take some of the millions Cal has paid him, buy a beach house in Hawaii and coach in junior college part time. He has plenty of connections over there I'm sure.

It's certainly not a clear cut case, but I believe he has the best claim to being called the greatest Cal coach in history.

Until his replacement, that is.