Needless to say, several Bears out there think Cal needs to move on from Tedford if we want to take that next step. While we're still far from being a Pac-12 contender, I think Tedford's work and response to our criticism is starting to show. Am I right? Am I crazy? Can I keep this concise? Do I even understand the football? Let's find out!

The first changewas the total shake-up of the coaching staff, which has been pretty successful at getting our players to perform at their talent level.The O-line has been making some freak mistakes, but the opponents are getting much less penetration. The receivers still have some critical drops, but Jones and Allen are having a killer season (though that may have more to do with their individual talent). We don't know what Maynard was like before Tedford's increased role as QB mentor, but he's got a lot of the mental skills quarterbacks need: attitude; the desire to win; the ability to lead his team on clutch drives (sometimes); and (to my untrained eye), the ability to make the right reads (followed by throwing the ball way off target). And don't forget that winning attitude, swagger, and team unity that has been attributed to new Strength and Conditioning Coach Blasquez.

Tedford addressed concerns about being too conservative and we've gone for it on 4th down a few times and even gone for a two-point conversion. He's added a few wrinkles to the playbook to make sure we don't get stuck in the past.

Things are getting better. We had a tough overtime fight against Colorado, which past Cal teams may have lost. At the end of the day, the scoreboard shows a rout at Oregon, but we played a hard first half; this can't be said about last year's blowouts.

We got off to a fast start this season, which may have started to get some hopes up, but our two losses were against two damn good teams while on the road. I know we'd all love for Cal to be 5-0 right now, but we have to be realistic and set reasonable goals for Tedford.