Golden Nuggets: Jeff Tedford Previews Spring Ball, Talks Quarterbacks

Yesterday Jeff Tedford held a teleconference with the local media to preview spring practice, which begins a week from today. Tedford covered the entire spectrum of topics and then some, but one of the biggest issues this offseason will be improving consistency at the QB position. Maynard and Bridgford will lead the 1st and 2nd team while Kline start off at the number three role. It sounds like Tedford is giving Kline a chance to work his way up the depth chart (though his chances of supplanting Maynard or Bridgford seem low).

On the chances of Kline being active for the 2012 season

"I have no idea. We'll have to see how everything works out in the spring. He is a true freshman. There are some other guys in front of him who have experience. While he is a gifted guy, I think we have to be careful about putting too much pressure on him. He's a talent and working really hard. I'm glad he's here this spring so he can get some experience under his belt."

On the expectations of Kline
"There's such a thing as putting too much pressure on a kid early. I just want him to come in here, be able to concentrate on what he's doing, process the offense and do his best without all the expectations, especially in this day and age with everybody who has a say in everything in terms of social media. He's a very good player, no doubt about it, but he's got to go through the phases. It's a different game at this level. We'll have to see how it goes, but we don't want to put any undue pressure on him."

On what Zach Maynard needs to work on this spring
"If you take a look at the second half of last year, Zach played really well. If you took the last four [regular-season] games, he completed 68 percent of his passes and had a rating of 154. If you took the UCLA game out, he was at the same type of numbers going back all the way to the Utah game. He really started managing the game well; he let the game come to him. He was smart with the football in terms of not turning it over. He needs to continue to understand the speed of the game. I think he's taken big steps in understanding what we're doing on offense, and now I think through his experience, he understands how to manage the game. When he did that, he played really well for us."

On Maynard's alleged academic issues
"There's nothing there as of now. He's just like anybody else on our team."

After the jump Jorge earns player of the year honors, 28 Pac-12 media members vote on postseason awards, and Marshawn signs a $31 million contract.

Football

• Faraudo recaps Tedford's media conference. Tedford's wife brought him along to hike half of Mt Diablo this past weekend. In Tedford's words "she tried to kill me."
• Uncle Ted also recaps Tedford's spring preview.
• Ted writes up an article focusing on whether or not Keenan Allen will elect to go pro after next season. Is there any reason to believe he will stay?
• Marshawn Lynch signed a four-year $31 million contract ($18m guaranteed) with the Seattle Seahawks. More from the Seahawks' SBN site.
• Thomas DeCoud signed a $17.5 million contract with Atlanta ($4m guaranteed).
• DeSean Jackson has been given the Eagles' franchise tag. He has not signed a new contract, but he should get at least $9.4m guaranteed.
• Mychal Kendricks was 6th in Ted Miller's top 25 players for 2011. Unless Ted makes an extremely questionable top-5 pick, Kendricks and Allen were the only Bears in the top-25.

Basketball

• Cal lost its shot at the Pac-12 title with a 70-75 loss at Stanford.
• Monty and Kamp spoke about the team's inability to maintain a strong, championship-caliber mental state down the stretch.
• The Cal women were outscored by 14 at the free throw line en route to an 86-61 loss to Stanford.
• Coach Gottlieb talked about her coaching strategy at the post-game press conference. Stanford's outside shooting was much better than the previous matchup, negating the Bears' strategy to shut down the Ogwumike in the paint.
• Enough bad news: Jorge Gutierrez won Pac-12 Player of the Year and Defensive Player of the Year! Allen Crabbe (first team), Harper Kamp (second team), Justin Cobbs (honorable mention), and David Kravish (freshman) also earned all-conference honors. For reasons unclear to anybody outside Seattle, Lorenzo Romar won Pac-12 Coach of the Year.
• The Pac-12 Media Survey results had Jorge as the undisputed PotY (21 of 28 votes) and gave the Coach of the Year award to a much more deserving Tad Boyle. Interestingly, one member boycotted the category. I suppose that's no worse than when a handful gave their votes to Jane Appel in 2009 (she deserved them too).
• Layshia Clarendon and Gennifer Brandon each earned one of the 15 spots on the All-Pac 12 Media Team. Brittany Boyd and Reshanda Gray earned spots on the five-member freshman team.
• Ashley Walker has signed with the Washington Mystics.
• Lunardi breaks down the probabilities that each team will receive a bid to the NCAA tournament. From most to least likely, Cal is 38th while Washington is 43rd. Oregon is 71st (first four out) and Arizona is 75th (next four out).

Swimming

• In addition to contributing to the Bears' 400m free relay championship, Tom Shields won the 100m and 200m fly. Cal finished 2nd in the conference championships, behind the 31st consecutive Stanford conference title. Not surprisingly, Tom Shields won the Muscle Milk Student Athlete of the Week award.