Monday, December 3, 2007

Now what?

After the horrible mess on Saturday, where everyone decided to act like 5 year olds and sit and cry on the sidelines and not play, I go to the message boards and it was a blood-bath. Fire the coach, change it all - I am not going to go to any more Cal games any more - BOO- HOO.

Good riddance, losers. Go away.

This is the result of Jeff Tedford being too nice a guy and providing for us Bear fans a new level of expectation.

Tedford goes to the families of his players, recruits them, brings in guys who have good families, who have solid backgrounds, who have good skills, and who want to go the most prestigious university in the world. They come for the degree, and the chance to play big-time football on a big-time team.

In other words, they are spoiled little kids. And at the first sign of adversity, they quit on their coach, and on themselves. Nate is not having a good year, I quit. I am not getting enough receptions, I guess i'll drop the ones I do get. Even Forsett didn't look himself on Saturday.

Tedford doesn't understand that these players are not killing themselves like he did, because they have something to fall back on. They get the Cal degree, so they don't have to make it in the league. Zack Follett was inspired, played well, and called the team out. We need more Zack Folletts.

These guys are babies, and the played like it. Sometimes, you have to go through a bunch of adversity to finally grow up. I have hired college kids who think they know it all, and are lousy employees. You have to fire those guys or they will never get it. You have to be brutal and tell them they suck, learn from you elders, and stop being a bunch of smart-ass kids. I think we have a bunch of smart-ass kids who have a lot of talent, and who think they know it all. The Bears need a bunch of guys who have been through adversity.

So Tedford is to blame for that. He is looking for leaders on the team. Well, he has to create them. I would start by opening every job up for competition for the bowl game. I would throw it all away. I would find the guys who want to play. That is what USC does, and I think they are pretty successful. Yes, they are USC and they get the good players, but they have hard competition every week. We have lost these last 6 games on the line of scrimmage on both sides. We probably have the best offensive line in the Pac 10 physically, yet we let Stanford and Washington push up around. We have defensive linemen who were supposed to be great. It is not that hard to play the guys who want to play. But they were crap this year. We had no warriors out there.

Yes, Nate had problems, but this is clearly not a Nate issue. We should have had 45 points in most games. Nate still threw for 60% on the season. Yes, he had turnovers, but so did every other team in the Pac 10. This was a team that thought they deserved it - not that they had to earn it. They crushed Tennessee, and they thought it was gravy from there. That is the problem.

Dennis Erickson plays it differently, and that is why he is successful. He gets guys that only have one shot - make it big in football or else you got nothing. Cal does not have those players. Now, Dennis Erickson is slime. But that aspect of his program is part of what makes his guys play tough.

We need some of those kids on our team. We are not tough. Everyone has too many aspiration - Michalczik - want to be a head coach, forgot that the game is won on the line of scrimmage. Gregory is busy thinking about Washington State. Tedford is frankly the only one who is focused on his job, but forgot that the National Championship is not a goal. Winning each game is the goal. He forgot that, and left Nate in all season, ruining Nate's career.

The good news is, this is just the thing we needed. We will get the kids in who want to play. And we will be much better going forward for this. I truly believe that. Some coaches and players will be let go. The guys who want to win will stay. Because it clearly is not talent. It is will to win, and to put in the hard work. and not to quit.

GO BEARS!!

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I like your "Hey kids, get off my lawn" approach to Cal football.