Tedford Returns and Other Notes as Cal Fall Camp Winds Down

A familiar face took to the Memorial Stadium turf Monday afternoon for Cal’s practice. Jeff Tedford, back in the stadium his efforts helped rebuild for the first time in nearly nine years. Tedford, the winningest coach in Cal history, was fired after the 2012 season, and retired after the 2019 season at Fresno State. His legacy as Cal’s head coach lives on, whether it’s the football facility that his Cal success helped to jumpstart, or in Cal’s current head coach, Justin Wilcox.

“The reality is that it wouldn’t be likely that I’d be sitting here in this role if it weren’t for coach Tedford,” Wilcox noted during his Tuesday press availability.

Tedford, who won 82 games from 2002 to 2012 as Cal’s head coach, spoke to the team after Monday’s practice, after Wilcox told his team that their facility, which was finally completed in 2012 during Tedford’s tenure, would not exist without the efforts of the former Cal coach. Tedford also gave Wilcox his first full-time job at Cal, coaching linebackers in Berkeley from 2003 to 2005.

“I initially met him when I was a player (at Oregon),” Wilcox recalled, “I was on defense and he was the offensive coordinator my last two seasons. I got to know him then, he was an excellent coach and you knew that right away. Then after I finished college, I went as a graduate assistant to Boise State with Bob Gregory (Wilcox’s position coach at Oregon) who took me over there. Coach Tedford hired coach Gregory, then a year later coach (Bob) Foster retired (Cal’s linebackers coach in 2002) and Tedford and coach Gregory gave me the first opportunity to have a full-time job in coaching here. I’ll always be indebted to him for that opportunity. We were fortunate to have some great years here, he did a fantastic job, and I personally, our team and Cal, he has done a lot for all of us.”

There’s a number of reminders of Tedford’s influence in the program, from the number of support staff members still in the building from his time in Berkeley, along with the pictures of players from the Tedford-era on the walls of the building. The locker room even bears the name of Tedford’s most successful recruit, Aaron Rodgers, and that influence is seen by current players.

“I know about coach Tedford, the era he had and all the great players that came from it,” senior outside linebacker Kuony Deng said, “I had class online, I was hanging out in the dining room, and I got to talk to him for a while, coach Wilcox introduced me. That was pretty cool, obviously we want to recreate some of those things and chase some of those same things, we want to be that successful, this place means a lot to him and he means a lot to us.”

“I knew who he was, that he was coach prior to Dykes, then at Fresno State,” senior QB Chase Garbers said, “but I was a little too young when he was coaching here. He harped on the camaraderie of the team and how special it is to be together, throwing it back to his days at Cal, how they had success. He really did build Cal in a way, and we were fortunate to have him back here.”

The return was something orchestrated by Wilcox, who had been in contact with his former boss.

“I kept up with coach Tedford off and on, when you’re in coaching it’s hard to keep up with many people,” Wilcox said, “especially when you’re coaching when somebody else is coaching. This past offseason, I caught up with him a number of times, talking about a lot of different things. I asked if he wanted to come up and watch practice, now that he’s retired, we threw a few dates out, we’re glad he came up and saw us. Had him talk to the team for a few moments, I know everyone was thrilled to see him, coaches, players, a lot of support staff members who have been here a long time, it was great to have him here.”

“There’s a tremendous amount of pride in coming out of that tunnel and wearing that Cal helmet,” Tedford said in a Cal Football produced video. “There’s a lot of people over the years, I came here 20 years ago and coached here for 11 years, all the people even before that take a lot of pride in what you guys do and watching you guys on Saturdays, a lot of people are watching, and a lot of people are proud of you.”

With a couple injuries announced to Blake Antzoulatos and Craig Woodson, there’s an obvious need for more depth, especially at inside linebacker. During Cal’s Saturday scrimmage, Mo Iosefa returned to provide that, as a potential starter next to Evan Tattersall.

“Mo just needs experience,” Wilcox said, “he’s a talented young guy. Physically he’s got really good instincts, he just needs to play. Unfortunately, he was held out a little bit with some injuries, but he’s back with us. He was noticeable in the scrimmage, he made a couple really good plays, he just needs reps, he needs to keep playing, he’s a talented guy.”

In addition, Cal moved OLB Myles Jernigan inside, in a move that could get Jernigan on the field more frequently with the OLB position being a bit logjammed.

“We moved Myles in there,” Wilcox said, “he’s got a lot of tangible skills and he finds his way to the ball. He has really picked up the inside linebacker stuff really quickly and we have the depth at outside linebacker that we feel good about, and we thought moving Myles in there, he could really push for more playing time. The initial response has loked real good, it doesn’t happen overnight when you move someone from outside to inside linebacker, but he’s done a nice job working through that transition.”

The start of preparation for Nevada commences Thursday, with a final couple days of practice before then. Today is a fully padded day, prior to ramping down and starting prep in two days.

“We’ve started in the meeting rooms already,” Wilcox said, “the walkthroughs are still primarily ‘good on good,’ Cal on Cal through tomorrow, and we’ll with Nevada prep on Thursday, where we’ll actually have some service and scout teams.”

Cal does have a former member of the Nevada staff in offensive line coach Angus McClure, but Wilcox didn’t feel that gave them as big a benefit as some might assume.

“I think sometimes that can be a bit overplayed,” Wilcox said, “personnel things could help a little bit, but they’re new team. They have different strengths and weaknesses every year, just like we do. I think there’s a little bit there, it’s not something we spend a ton of time on.”