Tedford gets credit for reviving woeful Cal football

The strange scene that is Berkeley, as if Berkeley has ever been anything else.

Cal's frisky football team and a 3-0 start that has seen the Bears average 50 points has excited Old Blues everywhere.

And they are everywhere, if in hiding, buried under 50 years of bad football, changed by the uncanny transformation of a program by new football coach Jeff Tedford.

After winning their first game against a top-15 team in almost 30 years, the 23rd-ranked Bears play Air Force on Saturday in 75,000-seat Memorial Stadium.

Officials at Cal are hoping for a crowd of 30,000. In home wins over Baylor and New Mexico State, Cal had crowds of 27,000 and 24,000.

"It takes time," said Bob Rose, the associate athletic director in charge of media operations. Bob knows about these things because he is from Stanford.

Cal hasn't had a winning season since 1993 when Keith Gilbertson coached there. It hasn't won consistently, not like the Huskies do, since the early 1950s when Pappy Waldorf was the coach.

Tedford, who coached at Fresno State with Jim Sweeney and at Oregon with Mike Bellotti, is trying to change all that.

After Cal, a 14-point underdog, beat 15th-ranked Michigan State 46-22 Saturday at East Lansing, Dave Newhouse of The Oakland Tribune wrote, "There is every reason to believe the Golden Bears can be golden again." He answered the question "When does the prince turn back into a frog?" with the declaration that, "It's not going to happen, not as long as Jeff Tedford is in Berkeley." To which skeptics ask how long Tedford -- the offensive genius behind what Oregon was doing the past four years, the guy who helped create Trent Dilfer, David Carr, Akili Smith and Joey Harrington -- will stay at Cal? That's the way Old Blues, after all these years, think. And suffer. They haven't gotten over Bruce Snyder leaving town. They don't need reminding that Steve Mariucci left after one season.

It seemed inconsequential last spring when Cal was put on NCAA probation that included a ban on playing in bowl games this season. They hadn't been to one since 1996.

With three wins already, Cal is halfway to the six it needs to qualify for a bowl. The school has appealed the NCAA decision with a personal plea from Chancellor Robert Berdahl and is optimistic it will have a favorable decision in late November.

The NCAA just this week turned down similar appeals from Alabama and Kentucky.

Two freshman football players were given credit for a class they never attended in 1999. Blame was put at the foot of a professor, Alex Saragoza, who was suspended without pay for a semester.

As college athletics would have it, while the Bears are on probation, Saragoza is back teaching and one of the players, wide receiver Ronnie Davenport, is back playing at San Diego State, which is eligible for a bowl.

Tedford, 40, has done an amazing job so far. This isn't the NFL, where you can bring in free agents. He did have the benefit of a senior team, a talented quarterback, and low expectations that come with a 1-10 season in 2001.

Right after helping Oregon humiliate Colorado in the Fiesta Bowl, Tedford flew to Berkeley and met 15 minutes with each player. He wanted to find out who the leaders were. He wanted each player to know he was wanted.

In the spring, he stressed the kinds of fundamentals that helped Oregon commit the fewest turnovers in college football last year. He hired a former Cougars player, Bob Gregory, to coordinate the defense. He hired George Cortez, who had helped develop the 49ers' Jeff Garcia while he was playing in Calgary of the CFL, to head the offense. Another former Cougar, Bob Michalczik, who coached for years with Dennis Erickson, is the offensive line coach.

Tedford has inspired the Bears with a new offense that is fun and productive. Against Michigan State, quarterback Kyle Boller both threw and caught a touchdown pass.

"The wonderful thing," said receiver LaShaun Ward, "is that we have life again." Cal was 114th of 115 NCAA schools in turnovers last season. This season it ranks No. 2 with a margin of plus-10. Last season it scored 24 touchdowns in 11 games, this year it has 19 touchdowns in three games.

Unlike when Gilbertson was there, Berdahl, the new chancellor, has put money into the athletic program. Tedford can make three times ($900,000) what previous coach Tom Holmoe did. Sometime early next year Cal will announce the renovation of Memorial Stadium, bringing its restrooms and wooden bleachers into this century.

In the meantime, Old Blues will say "Go Bears" with renewed enthusiasm as down deep they wonder just how long this wonderful winning can go on.