On Tuesday night I went to Gordon Biersch in San Francisco to attend the Coaches Tour event. There was a much smaller turnout than Monday's event in Pleasant Hill. Only about 150 people were probably in attendance despite the 250 or so who had registered.
Here are my notes from the night:
Rich Feller - Cal Women's Volleyball Head Coach
*The Pac-10 is the best volleyball conference in the nation - bar none.
*The team finished 4th in the Pac-10 but that's still good enough to make the NCAA Tournament because of the intense competition in the conference.
*Cal just signed the #1 recruit in the nation, a 6'3" outside hitter.
*The team is so talented and executes so well that he often has nothing to say during timeouts. The team knows what they're supposed to be doing and are doing it. The most he usually says to the team is to grab some water.
*Please come watch the team. The final game is against UCLA in Haas Pavilion the very same day as Big Game (afterwards).
Jeff Tedford - Cal Football Head Coach
*Cal probably has the best one-two QB combo in the Pac-10.
*Determining who will be the starting QB may require evaluation of game time performance, meaning both QBs may play against Michigan State.
*Javhid Best is an "every-down back." Shane Vereen is a "diverse player."
*There is tremendous speed at the RB position.
*The QB position is one where they get too much blame and too much praise. It's the nature of the position. It is not fair to Longshore that he received so much blame for 2007. It was a hard time for Longshore as it was for all the fans. Longshore's confidence is still high.
*Longshore lost 15 pounds this spring. Longshore is "mobile." He has mental toughness.
*Fans need to support whoever is the QB.
*Team chemistry is the best it's ever been.
*Tedford is very confident about winning the lawsuit. Getting started on building the new facilities will give Cal some credibility in the eyes of recruits and current players. Once construction begins, it will truly open up many doors for recruiting.
*Tedford officially acknowledged that the team has switched to a base 3-4 defense - the reason being that the strength of the defense is in its linebackers.
*Cignetti will call most of the plays but Tedford will continue to help out with the game planning.
*Tedford emphasized that no player on the team should ever get booed. The players are giving their best and have enough to deal with between school, practices, and the games, than to deal with negative, malicious, and non-supportive fan behavior.
*Tedford acknowledged that the media, fan chat boards, and bloggers must remain positive because it does and has had an effect on recruiting.
*How Cal fans can help the Football team: if you have internships or jobs openings for current Cal Football players and alumni, please contact Mike Anderson.