Tedford guiding Bears to top if Cal really wants to go there

By Dennis Dodd
SportsLine.com Senior Writer

BERKELEY, Calif. -- Faded, almost rotting, aged wooden bleachers clash with the spectacular beauty of Strawberry Canyon. Look out the west side of Cal's Memorial Stadium, and you drink in an awesome view of San Francisco Bay. Look over to the east side on a given fall Saturday, and the bleachers weren't the only thing rotting.

Consistency and continuity has seldom been featured in Cal's football curriculum.

"When I was in high school it was looked down upon," said the Bears starting quarterback Aaron Rodgers, a Cali native from Chico, "one of the worst in the Pac-10."

"Cal," added Rodgers who favored walking on at Illinois over Cal at one point, "was an afterthought."

No Rose Bowl since 1959. Until last year, the last consecutive winning seasons were 1990-91. While other Pac-10 schools were busy re-tooling their programs (since 1994, seven different teams have qualified for the Rose Bowl), there was always another wrench to throw into Cal's gears.

More coaches since 1959 (10) than bowls (six). Too passive on the field. Too smart in the classroom.

"A lot of people got the misconception that we were nerds," said receiver Geoff McArthur. "Cal is the No. 1 public school in the nation. A lot of people don't realize that. The ones that do probably say (we) went to Cal because we view academics first and athletics second. We wanted both."

They've gotten both, lately. Cal never lost its academic reputation despite an ugly academic fraud dust-up that kept it out of a bowl in 2002. The football program is in the process of changing its rep. The Bears go into the fall as 2004's "it" team. Fifteen starters return from an 8-6 team that was the only one to defeat co-national champion USC last year.

<a href='http://cbs.sportsline.com/collegefootball/story/7426553' target='_blank'>CBS SPORTSLINE: Tedford has Bears headed to the top</a>

just hope cal doesnt whip our a$$ like they did last year :frown: