Mark it: Cal Football Head Coach Jeff Tedford is in trouble. The man who arguably built the new football stadium just lost in it, reminding on-the-fence fans he’s 20-18 over the last three years. To mark the occasion of the opening of the newly rebuilt California Memorial Stadium, Cal lost to a team it was under the impression it was supposed to beat, Nevada of The Mountain West Conference, 31 to 24.
And to make matters worse, Cal never once had a lead. It was a hard game for me to follow online, as I was home in Georgia. But I like masochistic practices.
Nevada outgained Cal 450 yards to 365 yards and held on to the football a full 11 minutes longer. Their star runner Stephon Jefferson ran up 145 yards and three touchdowns, with the last one nailing Cal to the loss column in the final seconds of the game.
To say that Cal Alums were upset is an understatement. Many wanted Cal Coach Jeff Tedford’s head, and took to Twitter to say so. Witness:
Now is a good time to point out Jeff Tedford is the highest paid employee in the UCalifornia system. Glad I’m not paying that bill
#Cal— Michael Saks (@MichaelSaks) September 1, 2012
Good thing Jeff Tedford is selling his house…
— Bryan Fischer (@BryanDFischer) September 1, 2012
Maybe Sark was right… RT
@yahooforde: Nevada 31, Cal 24 w less than a min. to play. Jeff Tedford’s seat uncomfortably warm. OK, sizzling.— Chris Courtney (@Courtney_247) September 1, 2012
And of course, The Bear Insider can be trusted to provide the requisite number of snarky entries one expects after a Cal game like this one:
GrizzledBear:
if the program continues in a free fall they will have to act, too much at stake financially if they are not able to put butts in seats, it’s just not an option for those in charge of the money. $6.5M will be chump change if they dont act fast. Wish JT would turn it around, but the lines on this zebra have not changed in years, nothing happening to show that they will, happy to be wrong.
Hold your donations, purchasing of gear, supporting advertisers, etc. Write the AD office and let them know that the only way to really force the change is financially, and that when positive change is made then lets get back in the financial game, till then we do have a voice, vote with your wallets. we all should use the tools we have available to us. It sucks that the kids have to suffer for this, but they are suffering the outcome now, at least this suffering offers them the chance of something better
Personally, I’m not on the “Fire Tedford” bandwagon. That’s because I wasn’t at the game to see in detail what happened, and it did not come on TV here in The South. Still, from the stats, it looked like, once again, Cal’s main problem was its defense.
Stay tuned.