I really had a great relationship with Coach (Jeff) Tedford ... He didn’t badger you and tell you what to do. It just didn’t work out. It was going to be a playing time issue.
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Coach (Jeff) Tedford is a heck of a coach ... He was upfront with me on things that he did with DeSean, and I have a lot of respect for him. ... He said there were a couple of things he would do different, and so I took that into consideration, and then I didn’t feel it was a problem. And you know what? He’s been tremendous here, just fit right in.
I had a chance to talk to his head coach (Jeff Tedford) and he was very up front with me on things that he did with DeSean ... I have a lot of respect for him. He's a heck of a coach, coach Tedford. He just said there were a couple things he would do different. I took that into consideration ... and I didn't feel it was a problem. And you know what? He's been tremendous here, just fit right in. He brings a great energy to our team.
Cal’s a good football team, a good football program. Ever since Jeff’s (Tedford) been there, they’ve been very competitive
Did Jeff Tedford do the wrong thing by leaving on Friday instead of Thursday to get to Maryland?
My last year, 2002, Pete Carroll was a good coach ... Now he's an icon. Mike Bellotti [Oregon] has reached the status he's deserved. Jeff Tedford [California] is now a bona fide big-time coach. Dennis Erickson [Arizona State] was already; now he's come back and rekindled the magic. The Pac-10 is a legitimate hotbed for big-time coaches — on par, I would say, with the SEC.
The biggest jump, though, came from quarterback Allan Bridgford from Mission Viejo. The Cal commit firmly cemented himself as one of the premier passers in the West in one of the best years for quarterbacks in California in a while. Bridgford had a great spring and became a hot commodity before giving Jeff Tedford and the Golden Bears a commitment.
Jeff Tedford and Mike Montgomery will bring back every penny of their salary and much more. They've been talking about renovating the stadium for 20 years, and it never got traction until we started winning. People want to invest in something that thrives, that is thriving. Athletics provides tangible, visible evidence of the fact that we're thriving. It's easy to chronicle.