Athletes - Jeff Tedford

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	Athletes - Jeff Tedford

Jeff Tedford (born November 2, 1961 in Lynwood, California) has been head coach of the California Golden Bears college football program since 2002. A first-time head coach, Tedford has won wide acclaim for turning the once-downtrodden Cal Bears program into a winner. He lives with his wife Donna and their two sons in Danville, California.

Personal and Coaching History

Tedford grew up in Downey, California and attended both Warren High School in Downey and Cerritos College, before graduating from Fresno State in 1983 with a degree in physical education. He then played for six years in the Canadian Football League with Hamilton, Calgary, Saskatchewan, and Winnipeg.

After retiring as a player, Tedford became a volunteer assistant coach at Fresno State (1987-1988). He then coached at Calgary in the CFL (1989-1991); returned to Fresno State as quarterback coach (1992-1997); and worked as offensive coordinator at the University of Oregon (1998-2001).

After previous Cal coach Tom Holmoe resigned from his post amid a 1-10 season in 2001, worst in Cal's history, then-athletic director Steve Gladstone hired Tedford to become Cal's 32nd head football coach.

In Tedford's first season (2002), he led the Bears to its first winning football season (7-5) since 1993, the nation's biggest turnaround of the year, and was named Pac-10 coach of the year. In the 2003 season, Tedford's record of 8-6 included the upset of eventual national co-champion University of Southern California in triple overtime, as well as a 52-49 shootout victory against Virginia Tech in the Insight Bowl. The Bears won 5 of their last 6 games.

In the 2004 football season, the Bears finished with a No. 9 national ranking in both the AP media poll and the ESPN/USA Today coaches poll with a 10-2 record. The team was undefeated at home, and was the consensus No. 4 team before losing to Texas Tech in the Holiday Bowl. Following the regular season Tedford signed an extension of his contract through 2009 which will pay him approximately $2 million per year and significantly raised the pay of his assistant coaches.

In 2005, the Bears finished with a No. 25 national ranking in both the AP medial poll and the ESPN/USA Today coaches poll with an 8-4 record. They beat BYU in the Las Vegas Bowl.

NFL Quarterbacks

In addition to being an outstanding head coach, Tedford is perhaps the most renowned groomer of NFL quarterbacks in the college game today. He played a vital coaching role for each of the following first round NFL draft picks at the quarterback position:

Fresno State

Trent Dilfer
6th overall 1994, Tampa Bay Buccaneers
David Carr
1st overall 2002, Houston Texans

Oregon

Akili Smith
3rd overall 1999, Cincinnati Bengals
Joey Harrington
3rd overall 2002, Detroit Lions

California

Kyle Boller
19th overall 2003, Baltimore Ravens
Aaron Rodgers
24th overall 2005, Green Bay Packers

He also coached Billy Volek, a backup quarterback for Tennessee Titans, and A.J. Feeley, a third string quarterback for the San Diego Chargers.

Although Dilfer won a Super Bowl with Baltimore, none of the Tedford-coached quarterbacks in the NFL have become stars yet, although four of them (Dilfer, Carr, Harrington, and Boller) were starting quarterbacks at some point during the 2005 NFL season. The success of Tedford in grooming college quarterbacks to be NFL prospects can not be debated; it is still an open question whether Tedford's coaching skills have artificially inflated those players' perceived value to NFL scouts, and likely will remain so until the careers of those quarterbacks and Rodgers progress further.

[ Visit the complete Wikipedia entry for Jeff Tedford ]

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Athletes - Jeff Tedford

Personal and Coaching History

NFL Quarterbacks

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