Tedford Upset
While watching Cal atomize Washington State, I noticed Tedford get really really upset with some people on his sideline.
Apparently, I'm not the only one to notice God's fury. A few other Cal cyber-discussion places have discussed why Tedford was upset and who he was upset at.
Unfortunately, because most of these people cannot identify the coaches and supporting staff as well as somebody who has worked in the organization, I've seen a lot of confusion and mis-identification of whom people think Tedford was pissed at. So I thought I'd throw in my two cents, clear up some of the confusion, and perhaps draw a more accurate theory as to what pissed Tedford off.
First, let's look at how it all started. In the middle of the fourth quarter, Cal faced a 3rd and 4. Mansion was the QB in shotgun and the play was a zone-read. The play got blown up in the backfield for a three yard loss. Tedford looked somewhat not happy about the result of the play but he clearly wasn't as upset as he would later become.
So this brought up a 4th down and 7. There appeared to be some confusion on the field and sidelines and Tedford personally called a timeout.
Tedford then become clearly upset.
The telecast went to commercial, and came back with Cal about to punt. Again, there appeared to be confusion on the field and Tedford called ANOTHER timeout. That's two consecutive timeouts in a row to clear up some problem with the punt team.
That's when Tedford got irate and blasted Tight Ends and Special Teams Coach Pete Alamar (see picture below).


So now Tedford is truly pissed off for having to burn two timeouts in a row (picture below). Tight-end and special teams coach Pete Alamar went on the field after Tedford called the second timeout and Tedford appears to be yelling something at Alamar. You know Tedford was pissed because he flipped up his microphone so he wouldn't blow out offensive coordinator Frank Cignetti's ears (Cignetti is the one that Tedford talks to with the headset).
As you can see in the picture below, the players looked confused. The Cal player on the 27 yardline seemed to pointing towards the gunner (the player on the 31 yardline and top hash) and the gunner appeared to have his hands out-stretched to his side in a "what?" type of manner.

Tedford immediately comes over to TE and Special Teams Coach Pete Alamar once Alamar returns from the field and wants an explanation (the man below with the blue hat on talking to Tedford is Coach Alamar).

The discussion is so intense, that recruiting coordinator Kevin Parker (the man without a hat and with the rope - "hold the rope!") comes over to see what's up. Tedford does not appear upset with Parker. I do not think Parker was at fault for whatever went wrong.

Next Tedford has even more strong words for Alamar and you know Tedford is pissed because he took off his headset (picture below). Tedford can be clearly seeing saying "IT'S ON YOU!!!" to Alamar.

Next, Tedford comes over and blasts two other people. Here is where most of the confusion lies. Many have speculated this is another position coach but it is not. The first person to get blasted is Ed Garland the Head Equipment Manager (in the picture below he's on the right side, wearing a hat with sunglasses on top of the hat).

Next, Tedford moves over to the next unfortunate soul.

That lucky person is the assistant equipment manager (the one wearing the sunglasses and without a hat). Tedford can be clearly made out saying "WHAT'S YOUR PROBLEM?!" to the assistant manager and gives him the eyes of death.

So what went wrong? Well, first Tedford didn't like the fact that a play got blown up for a loss of three yards, but that didn't set him off. No. What set him off was having to call two timeouts in a row to fix a problem which should have never occurred.
What was that problem? I don't know, but I know Tedford, and Tedford thinks it should never have occurred.
I can speculate what the problem was, and I'm going to say that there was probably an equipment malfunction with one of the players and somebody else had to go on the field for another player which lead to confusion on the punt team. The equipment guys (Garland and his assistant) are responsible for fixing all in-game problems on the sidelines when they occur to make sure the players are able to go back into the game without missing a play. In a 59-3 blowout, I wouldn't be too surprised if Garland and his assistant let their guard down a bit and didn't get a job finished in time.
I hope that clears things up.
*****
If Tedford looked intimidating, well, he is. Yes, even yours truly has felt the wrath of God himself.
It was a hot summer day and the team was live-scrimmaging under the sun in Memorial Stadium. Leaving out the important facts, I was assigned to do job A and others were assigned to job B. During critical moments on the field, there was a brain fart by other people which lead to the people assigned to do job B doing job A. Thus, we had double the people doing job A and nobody doing job B.
Tedford noticed this, and blasted the nearest person whom he thought was responsible. Me.
I had never experienced God's wrath before and I actually wondered if I'd live to see another day.
I wasn't at fault for the screwup yet I was getting blasted for it. I thought about arguing my case but figured Tedford wouldn't care. Thus I just switched over to doing job B instead.
I didn't say a word in response to Tedford. That's just how things are. Nobody questions God or tells him that he's lambasting the wrong person.
Seeing the Cal Football operation from the inside, it's rather funny how everyone in that organization, no matter what the rank, lives in fear of being the reason for God's fury. All the crap gets handed down the chain. Big fish tell medium sized fish to not screwup so the big fish doesn't get yelled at by God. In turn, the medium sized fish tell small fish to not screwup so the medium sized fish doesn't get yelled at by the big fish. In turn, the small sized fish tell the even smaller fish to not screw up so the smaller fish doesn't get yelled at by the medium fish. It goes on and on down the chain.
Moral of the story: DO YOUR JOB.
Read Related
Comments
Well, I think he was upset
Over the special teams debacles back in 2005. The Reggie Bush and Maurice Jones-Drew specials!
I'm still wondering why the Nets didn't draft Leon Powe.
by yellow fever on Sep 12, 2008 8:02 AM PDT 0 recs
Damn it Yellow!
You beat to the punch. I was going to say Tedford was still pissed about the “Pete Alamar” special that was showcased against UCLA in 2005.
“I’M STILL FUCKING PISSED AT YOU ABOUT THAT! IT’S FUCKING KARL DORREL YOU ASSHOLE!!! DO YOUR FUCKING JOB NEXT TIME AND MAYBE YOU CAN GET BACK INTO MY CIRCLE OF TRUST!!”
"It's not my fault your team's so shitty" - every AL Manager to Bob Geren
by oaktownmario on
Sep 12, 2008 9:21 AM PDT
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Haha
Tedford: Alamar! We might be up by 56, so I have no one to yell at. So I decided to scream at you for costing us the the ’04 national title at USC.
by Tedfordisgod on
Sep 12, 2008 11:28 AM PDT
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Are you sure
He wasn’t just ordering a pizza? Maybe they were arguing over what the best Simpson’s episode was. Wait, I know! Tedford was upset because that little strumpet, that whore, kidnapped herself!
Yeah, that’s it.
Mind if I do a jay?
Go Bears!
by SoCal Oski on Sep 12, 2008 8:24 AM PDT 0 recs
I think it would be fair to say that the guy with the sunglasses but no hat is calmer than Tedford is.
by joffle on
Sep 12, 2008 8:26 AM PDT
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Nothing Godly about Tedford
He’s a good football coach though that still has a lot to prove.
by Jiggets on Sep 12, 2008 8:52 AM PDT 0 recs
Now you’ve done it! That’s a one-way ticket to hades, bucko!
by OskiMonsta on
Sep 12, 2008 8:57 AM PDT
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You're lucky this isn't BN, buster
That’d be Ban-worthy talk, that would be.
Go Bears!
by SoCal Oski on
Sep 12, 2008 9:02 AM PDT
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I demand a ban hammer.
It’s times like this I wish they’d never discovered CougCenterium.
by Maharg on
Sep 12, 2008 9:19 AM PDT
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If you said something like that about Billy Beane on
Athletics Nation, people would shit their pants!
"It's not my fault your team's so shitty" - every AL Manager to Bob Geren
by oaktownmario on
Sep 12, 2008 9:23 AM PDT
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lolwut
He turns around a program that was one of the worst in college football into one of the best (or better, at least), and he still needs to prove something?
by Swamphunter on
Sep 12, 2008 10:05 AM PDT
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I think we'll know how great he is in a few years
when he has new facilities. That will be a fun time, and hopefully he stays that long (which it looks like he will) . . .
"It's not my fault your team's so shitty" - every AL Manager to Bob Geren
by oaktownmario on
Sep 12, 2008 10:10 AM PDT
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Your ideas intrigue me. I would like to subscribe to your newsletter!
I'm no The Maharg! But I try. Oh, how I try!
www.CaliforniaGoldenBlogs.com
by TwistNHook on
Sep 12, 2008 10:58 AM PDT
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I’m always appreciative that at least a few of the writers on CGB were insiders, to a degree, and can offer analysis that a casual armchair quarterback can’t. Interesting story, thanks.
I also tried working in a reference to the Book of Job and the unjust wrath of Tedford, but I can’t do it. Probably not enough coffee.
by sec119 on Sep 12, 2008 9:10 AM PDT 0 recs
Hydro
your story kinds of paints Tedford in a bad light in the sense that he is too “dictatorial”(?) to care about responsibility. He just doesn’t seem like that kind of person. Since you are one of the few who’s seen Tedford in action, is that really how he is?
I mean that he seems to me to be a person who wants people to take responsibility for their own actions, and would care about who is responsible, as opposed to yelling at the first person he sees regardless of whether or not he knows they’re at fault. Just yelling at the first person around would seem petty and counterproductive, and the type of person I would NOT want to play for if I was a player.
"It's not my fault your team's so shitty" - every AL Manager to Bob Geren
by oaktownmario on Sep 12, 2008 9:36 AM PDT 0 recs
To play devil’s advocate, I’d say he is holding people responsible for their own actions. For example, Hydro gets yelled at b/c he’s not doing Job B, even though it’s not his original job and he didn’t mess it up originally. But Hydro did know that Job B wasn’t getting done, and should have switched over when he noticed that other people messed up. Mistakes always get made, but in a results-oriented (and, on the field, a team-first) mentality, it doesn’t matter if the mistake originally got made so much as if it got fixed.
by sec119 on
Sep 12, 2008 9:54 AM PDT
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Are you saying Hydro sucks?
It’s times like this I wish they’d never discovered CougCenterium.
by Maharg on
Sep 12, 2008 9:58 AM PDT
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I am! And how!
I'm no The Maharg! But I try. Oh, how I try!
www.CaliforniaGoldenBlogs.com
by TwistNHook on
Sep 12, 2008 10:59 AM PDT
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I get the whole "team" accountability thing
but as a person, why should I get shit on b/c someone else fucked up?
If we’re a team, shouldn’t I be able to expect my teammates to do their jobs? I’m not talking about the general pick up the slack when someone else makes a mistake, but simply you do job A and I do job B and we get the job done. This just doesn’t seem like a reasonable way to treat people and I hate when people try to treat me like this:
I wasn’t at fault for the screwup yet I was getting blasted for it. I thought about arguing my case but figured Tedford wouldn’t care. Thus I just switched over to doing job B instead.
Not cool and not the type of person I would want to play for, but I mainly played baseball and soccer growing up, so maybe it’s different.
"It's not my fault your team's so shitty" - every AL Manager to Bob Geren
by oaktownmario on
Sep 12, 2008 9:59 AM PDT
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Perhaps I worded that sentence lazily. By saying Tedford wouldn’t care, I guess I mean that my argument is unimportant in the grand scheme of things. People were screwing up, and it shouldn’t have happened.
I suppose it would have been very kind of Tedford to ask who was at fault first before laying out some blame, but it was during practice, he wants things to move quickly, and taking even 20 seconds to sort out an error which shouldn’t have occurred is a waste of his time.
www.californiagoldenblogs.com
by HydroTech on
Sep 12, 2008 2:14 PM PDT
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Well, in all honesty, I really didn’t know Job B wasn’t getting done until about 2 seconds before I felt the wrath. I had little to no time or notice to do job B or tell the others that they were doing the wrong job.
www.californiagoldenblogs.com
by HydroTech on
Sep 12, 2008 2:09 PM PDT
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I wouldn’t say that Tedford is too dictorial. In the past we’ve heard he’s very receptive to his OC and Michalzcik for offensive gameplans and thus it seems as if he’s not just a “my way or the highway” kind of guy. As for my incident, I think sec119 said it right, he was just holding people responsible for their actions.
www.californiagoldenblogs.com
by HydroTech on
Sep 12, 2008 2:10 PM PDT
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Hydro, stop portraying Tedford as a human being. It makes him sound less godly.
Thank you,
Committee of Tedford is God
by BearsNecessity on
Sep 12, 2008 3:26 PM PDT
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tedfordisgod… I never knew you had a committee.
It’s times like this I wish they’d never discovered CougCenterium.
by Maharg on
Sep 12, 2008 3:27 PM PDT
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Everytime I point out a Tedford flaw, the TIG committee threatens to inject me with the god-virus. Because I have no desire to look like this:
I edit appropriately and move on. You’ve been warned Hydro!
by BearsNecessity on
Sep 12, 2008 4:07 PM PDT
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Hydro, any insight to this? I know most think Tedford represents nothing but class, and this story does little dissuade me to think anything differently myself, but did your opinion of Tedford change for the worse after being reamed by the almighty?
www.bearswithfangs.com
by bearswithfangs on Sep 12, 2008 10:05 AM PDT 0 recs
Wow, I really didn’t think my story would create such a shock among our readers. Tedford is class. He really is. I don’t want you guys to think otherwise. He’s a quality coach, a good person, he wins right, and he runs a clean program. This was just one instance where he saw something wrong which shouldn’t have been going wrong, which was a task which was to be monitored and carried out by subordinates and never brought to his attention, but it was and he thought I was responsible for the wrong (which is understandable considering the situation and he was not overly presumptive), and I got reamed.
www.californiagoldenblogs.com
by HydroTech on
Sep 12, 2008 2:30 PM PDT
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Facemask call?
I recall that Tedford made some facemask gestures when he was fuming on the sidelines. Could it be a blown call?
by Swamphunter on Sep 12, 2008 10:07 AM PDT 0 recs
The facemask call was earlier in the game, not this play.
www.californiagoldenblogs.com
by HydroTech on
Sep 12, 2008 2:14 PM PDT
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Well, Alamar has certainly had his challenges in the past. Good to see Tedford get on his ass about it. Love the analogies about big fish, medium fish, small fish, and even smaller fish. Too funny.
by CaliSeth on Sep 12, 2008 10:07 AM PDT 0 recs
You played football Hydro?
Thats straight up off the chain dawg.
by NorCalLonghorn on Sep 12, 2008 10:19 AM PDT 0 recs
I think he was the waterboy . . .
"It's not my fault your team's so shitty" - every AL Manager to Bob Geren
by oaktownmario on
Sep 12, 2008 10:40 AM PDT
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Yeah…reading the story, I never once assumed that meant Hydro actually played for the team.
www.bearswithfangs.com
by bearswithfangs on
Sep 12, 2008 10:43 AM PDT
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Unless...
…Hydrotech = Steve Levy.
www.bearswithfangs.com
by bearswithfangs on
Sep 12, 2008 10:43 AM PDT
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You mean:
Unless HydroTech = Joe Ayoob
"It's not my fault your team's so shitty" - every AL Manager to Bob Geren
by oaktownmario on
Sep 12, 2008 10:53 AM PDT
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I always thought he was Nitro’s underachieving little brother.
by joffle on
Sep 12, 2008 11:12 AM PDT
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I believe the term is HydroTechnician!
I'm no The Maharg! But I try. Oh, how I try!
www.CaliforniaGoldenBlogs.com
by TwistNHook on
Sep 12, 2008 10:59 AM PDT
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Aw man, and this whole time I thought HydroTech referred to growing things indoors.
by sec119 on
Sep 12, 2008 12:19 PM PDT
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well, growing things indoors does and can often require extensive knowledge and skill in water pumping and piping technology.
www.californiagoldenblogs.com
by HydroTech on
Sep 12, 2008 2:35 PM PDT
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Oddly enough the moral of this blogpost is against the very thing this blog promotes.
I'm no The Maharg! But I try. Oh, how I try!
www.CaliforniaGoldenBlogs.com
by TwistNHook on Sep 12, 2008 11:01 AM PDT 0 recs
Please explain . . . so confused
"It's not my fault your team's so shitty" - every AL Manager to Bob Geren
by oaktownmario on
Sep 12, 2008 11:03 AM PDT
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Do work son.
It’s times like this I wish they’d never discovered CougCenterium.
by Maharg on
Sep 12, 2008 11:08 AM PDT
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Why do I have to follow instructions so perfectly? This is awkward.
It’s times like this I wish they’d never discovered CougCenterium.
by Maharg on
Sep 12, 2008 11:30 AM PDT
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You seem worried.
I'm no The Maharg! But I try. Oh, how I try!
www.CaliforniaGoldenBlogs.com
by TwistNHook on
Sep 12, 2008 11:32 AM PDT
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I’m no longer worried.
It’s times like this I wish they’d never discovered CougCenterium.
by Maharg on
Sep 12, 2008 11:44 AM PDT
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I didn’t even know this blog promoted anything…
www.bearswithfangs.com
by bearswithfangs on Sep 12, 2008 11:02 AM PDT 0 recs
I thought the only thing they promoted was fanposts and fanshots to the main page. I think Twist is just confused.
It’s times like this I wish they’d never discovered CougCenterium.
by Maharg on
Sep 12, 2008 11:08 AM PDT
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Same jersey #?
What about a problem with jersey numbers? Last year Cal was penalized when Best and DeCoud both wore #4 on the kick-off team. Best then had to wear a pullover #14 jersey during special teams when both he and DeCoud were on the field. It would make sense that Tedford got pissed at the equipment guys if they failed to give the alternate jersey on a special teams play where two players had the same number.
I can’t tell from the blurry TV clip in the post if this was the problem, but if that’s Worrell Williams (#1) pointing at Marvin Jones (#1), then that could explain it.
by Fair Weather Cal Fan on Sep 12, 2008 11:58 AM PDT 0 recs
your idea intrigues me
I'm still wondering why the Nets didn't draft Leon Powe.
by yellow fever on
Sep 12, 2008 12:06 PM PDT
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Yeah, good thought. Perhaps that was the problem. You can only have one of a particular jersey number on the field. Thus on special teams, when you have players from both offense and defense on the field, sometimes you’ll have two #1s on the field or something and thus one of the players has to wear a temporary jersey with a different number on it.
www.californiagoldenblogs.com
by HydroTech on
Sep 12, 2008 2:32 PM PDT
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I was wondering why Tedford looked so pissed when we were up by 50 points… Thanks for the really insightful post.
Cal alumni stuck in Ohio.
by Mister Pie on Sep 12, 2008 2:46 PM PDT 0 recs
















