Cal Football: AD Sandy Barbour Says Jeff Tedford Not On Hot Seat

Cal Athletic Director Sandy Barbour was on the Bear Republic podcast yesterday for Yahoo Sports (click here to download; big file) and was able to conduct a candid half-hour interview with the folks from Rivals. She managed to conduct another solid interview that reminded us how nice it is to have a top-notch athletic director.

The topic of Jeff Tedford was brought up briefly by co-host John Breech of CBS Sports. Here's how the question and answer went (if you're following on the podcast, it's at around the 20:50 mark).

John Breech: Alright Sandy, we're going to ask you one Jeff Tedford question.

Sandy Barbour: Absolutely. Bring it on.

John Breech: Yesterday, Sports Illustrated said Jeff Tedford is the one Pac-12 coach that's on the hot seat. Is Jeff Tedford on the hot seat?

Sandy Barbour: I'll tell you what. Anybody who wants to talk about Jeff Tedford being on the hot seat. I challenge them to go and look at his body of work, look at what he has done with facilities that ... would be poor high school facilities.

Ryan Gorcey: Medieval I think is the word you're looking for.

Sandy Barbour: Medieval, I like that. There you go. Jeff Tedford has worked miracles at Cal. He is an icon as far as I'm concerned. He's done incredible things.

...

Jeff Tedford is not on the hot seat. We want to win, and we will win with Jeff Tedford.

Of course, I doubt many athletic directors would go out of their way to make pointed remarks about their coaches, so these comments aren't particularly remarkable. But Sandy's quick defense of Tedford and the reasons she cited would make me think that he'll be around for a few years to get a chance to coach the players in his new facilities and new stadium. I'm guessing barring disaster, he will serve out the rest of his contract through 2015 and we'll rediscuss things then.

This is your regularly recurring once-a-year Cal hot seat segment. Please tune into your local message board for more daily treatments on the issue.

If you want to listen to Barbour's thoughts on many other subjects like our Olympic success, the stadium renovation, the five sports they cut and reinstated, the possibility for smaller athletic renovations (lights at baseball and Edwards, tennis, aquatics and softball improvements and a basketball/volleyball practice facility), the possibility of a Notre Dame series, and more, you can click here for the podcast (warning: Large file, long podcast).

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