Golden Nuggets: Tedford to Call the Plays this Season, Simplify Offense During Spring

After some creating some confusion by appointing a running game coordinator, a passing game coordinator, and a co-offensive coordinator, Tedford has clarified his role in the offense: he'll be calling the plays.

When Cal takes the field for its games this season, there will be a new man calling plays for the Bears.

In this case, however, it's like the old Who song: Meet the new boss, same as the old boss.

Jeff Tedford hopes that's a good thing, because he's the boss and he'll be calling the majority of plays in an effort to make his first losing season as Cal's head coach his only losing season.

"I did it the first three or four years here, then went back and forth," Tedford said. "You've got to be all in or out, one of the two. There's got to be a role you play. You get to set things up, have a good feel for things."

And when Tedford and the rest of the staff determine who will be the starting QB, they're going to simplify things on offense.

Mansion is back as a senior but he'll have to impress the coaches all over again, starting today. He will be competing with juniors Beau Sweeney, Ryan Wertenberger and transfer Zach Maynard, sophomore Allan Bridgford and redshirt freshman Austin Hinder. Incoming freshman Kyle Boehm of Mitty High will join the competition in the summer.

"We're going to take a different approach this spring," Tedford said. "Our philosophy has always been to put in everything (offensively) in spring. To evaluate the quarterbacks properly, to see if physically they can play, we need to keep it fairly basic and let them play, so they're not locked up by the paralysis of overanalyzing everything."

After the jump Larry Scott hopes to strike gold with a new Pac-12 television deal, Jorge and Kamp earn spots on the All-Academic team, and spring ball starts today!

Football

• The Pac-12 has added FX as a television partner for next season.  They plan to air one weekly game next season.
• Wilner wraps up the latest in the Pac-12's media rights contract talks.  In his typical shoot-for-the-stars style, Larry Scott is moving slowly in hopes of letting a bidding war boost the amount of revenue he'll bring the conference.
• JO has the latest on the eve of spring practice, including notes on his somewhat limited access to players (for interviews) post-practice and copy desk responsibilities limiting his attendance to two (out of three) practices per week.
• JO lays out his top five story lines to track during spring ball.
• JO wraps up his pre-practice previews with special teams and defensive backs.  Look for early enrollee Avery Walls to make a splash at DB this spring.