Head Coach Jeff Tedford has taken Cal and absolutely splattered them all over the national college football scene. There’s just no way you can ignore them anymore. Not while Tedford keeps doing what he’s doing.

Tedford has lead Cal to a string of 4 bowl games in a row. It’s the first time Cal has ever been to 4 straight bowl games, and it sure looks like they’ll add to that record for at least the next few years. So long as they can keep Tedford a) happy and b) employed at Cal. The guy’s a big name on a lot of coaching search lists. Cal locked him up with a 5 year contract in 2004, but every contract has buy-outs. Cal seems eager to keep the coach, but if he keeps this up, they may not be able to afford him one day.

Anyway, until then, Tedford’s going to keep creating prolific offenses at Cal, and this year should be no exception.

Offense: They lose the awesome Marshawn Lynch at running back, but whoever replaces him should have a relatively unstacked defense to contend with as Cal returns veteran QB Nate Longshore and their top 3 wide receivers. They’re going to put up points. They do have a new guy under the title of “OC,” but I’m not sure that matters as long as Tedford is around.

Defense: And they’ll need those points, because the defense returns only 5 starters, and of the 6 losses, 3 of them were #1, #2, and #3 in tackles in 2006. That’s called losing your core. That’s pretty tough. Still, the coaching staff has a bit of a reputation of coaching up young talent quickly, so they may be okay.

Special Teams: Excellent kicking specialists. But they do lose Lynch here as well, so they’ll need to do some reworking on their return units.

Facts:

• Tedford was PAC10 COY in his first season at Cal and again in 2004.
• Tedford’s first 3 years are considered the best years in Cal football since the 1950s.
• Former player DeSean Jackson won the first ever Randy Moss Returnman Trophy. Can you believe they still name that thing after Randy Moss?

HLS Top 25 Meta:

• Highest spot on a HLS Ballot: 11
• Lowest spot on a HLS Ballot: 14
• Average ranking on HLS Ballots: 12.75

Why Alex Trebek Loves Them:

• The Northeast half of California Memorial Stadium is actually shifting to the Southwest at a rate of 1 cm/yr because the stadium sits atop a fault line called “The Hayward Fault.” (source) Note to self: Don’t attend any Cal games until after “The Big One.”

Around the Web:

• Cal Golden Bears Football News
• Sturdy Golden Blog

HLS Tracker 10 Forecast Says:

I’m looking for these guys to make some real noise in the PAC 10. And, by default, if they do that, that means threatening SoCal. And that means making a big splash on the national scene. I wouldn’t be surprised to find them in the top 8 at the end of the year, but probably not as high as the top 3.

Share This

• And So It’s Down To Ten…
• The HLS Totally Non-Homer Top 25 - Week 1
• The HLS Totally Non-Homer Top 25 - Preseason Edition 2008