Golden Nuggets: Tedford is Not Afraid to Tell You to Clean Your Room

UPDATE: After having issues with the charter flight's landing gear, Tedford and company have landed safely at Sky Harbor Int'l Airport.

Rob Calonge talks about how Tedford coaches his players on more than just football.  The article goes on to talk about how Tedford feels about players whose fathers played in the NFL, but you'll have to click the link to read about that.

Wednesday evening after practice, Jeff Tedford addressed the team on the field. He wasn't inspiring them to work hard during practice or to be ready for their game against Arizona State this weekend.

He was scolding them for not cleaning up their room--their locker room.

Besides the scolding, the prize for not keeping the locker room clean were a few up-downs and a promise that the locker room wouldn't be cleaned by Cal personnel until the team cleaned up their own mess.

Oh the beauty of team sports. While it may sound nit-picky or even mundane, these are the types of things that promote team unity and teamwork. This sort of discipline has been done since days of the Roman army and while it doesn't seem to be all that important, when added to a consistent regimen of 'tough love', it's what moulds boys into men.

The maturation of these boys is one of the perks for Coach Tedford. "That's actually a very gratifying part of this job is seeing how the growth of development as a person as they come through," he said after practice broke Wednesday night.

They're all going to have challenges in one way or another, whether it be in school, whether it be socially, athletically, academically, there's always challenges for guys. So you need to be there to kinda' be the father figure or kind of an extension of parental arm form as they're growing, and discipline is a big part of this job. But understanding that people are going to make mistakes from time to time, you need to be here to educate them as much in that department as anything.
- Jeff Tedford on helping his guys mature into men

With that sort of outlook, it's not surprising that the coaches would get attached to these young men. "Well there's tough love that has to be given, like today," said Tedford. "I don't like doing that, but it's something that has to be done to get a point across. It's no different than my children or in essence they are my kids because I'm here for them in a lot of different areas, as is the coaching staff. That's definitely part of the job."

After the jump we have injury reports for Cal and ASU, articles on Cameron Jordan and ASU receiver Chris McGaha, Ted Miller's Halloween special, Monty and co. talking about their expectations this year, the rest of the weekend in Cal sports, and more.

Cal-ASU Football

• Lots of big news from last night's practice. After missing a class, Hagan will miss the ASU game. Josh Hill will start in his place. Derrick Hill and Matt Summers-Gavin will also miss the trip with injuries. Mark Boskovich and Richard Fisher will replace MSG. Lastly, Cattouse has replaced Ezeff as a starting safety.
• From bouncing off the walls as an elementary school student to bouncing off offensive linemen on his way to sack the opposing quarterback, Cameron Jordan has always been an active, enthusiastic individual.  Alualu says Cam's excited, fun-loving persona pumps everybody up in situations when they'd otherwise be tired and lethargic.
• ASU receiver Chris McGaha could pass the 2000 yard career receiving mark this Saturday.  With injuries to Kyle Williams and Kerry Taylor, McGaha has been Danny Sullivan's top target in recent weeks.  McGaha attributes his long fingers and their dexterity to his success as a receiver.
• Speaking of Kyle Williams, his performance at practice on Thursday was "the best he's looked in a long time."  Erickson expects Williams, ASU's leading punt returner, to play at full capacity Saturday.  WR Kerry Taylor is still questionable for Saturday and CB Omar Bolden and center Thomas Altieri will not play.
• After getting embarrassed by Stanford, ASU is looking to redeem itself this weekend.  If ASU wins tomorrow, it will greatly help their chances for getting into a bowl game.
• In Ted Miller's Pac-10 Halloween, Cal is the Jigsaw Team (for being hard to figure out) and Night of the Living Dead (for coming back to life after faceplants against Oregon and USC).  Jahvid Best's costume would be Flash.
• Cal faces a big test this weekend.  Cal's season so far has been a tale of two Rileys.  If the confident, accurate Riley shows up on Saturday, Cal will have a much better chance of winning.