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Jeff Tedford hot seat rumors: Losing season could mean end of the road at Cal

The Jeff Tedford hot seat is on full blast. The rumors are circulating that the California Golden Bears head coaching tenure at Cal will reach an end if the Bears do not finish at .500 or above.

Gary A. Vasquez-US PRESSWIRE - Presswire

It begins. The Jeff Tedford hot seat is on full blast. Bruce Jenkins of the San Francisco Chronicle files this report.

Before the game, I visited a tailgate party full of wealthy, influential alums. One of them, particularly well-connected and in the know, cast a grim outlook on Tedford's future. He asked not to be quoted by name, and that's always an unsatisfying experience for the reader, but there are times when off-the-record comments reflect the tone of a crisis, and that could well be the case here.

"I'm the last one off the bus when it comes to (firing) Tedford," he told me. "But we have to move on. His game management has been awful. I mean, that 4th-and-one call at Ohio State (opting for a field goal) when we'd already racked up 500 yards! I like the guy, personally. This beautiful new stadium doesn't get done without him. But it's so frustrating. If this doesn't turn around, I really think they'll buy him out. I'm predicting that if we finish under .500, he's gone."

We all knew it was a possibility that Cal's difficult schedule would cause issues for the Bears, but it's doubful any of us were predicting before the season that Cal would be 1-4 going into October. To get back to .500, the Bears would have to go 5-2 over their last seven games, with four of those games against teams that are ranked or have been ranked at some point this season. Given how poorly Cal performed at home against legitimate but hardly overwhelming opponents, it'll be a tall order for Cal to get back to .500 this year.

Jeff Tedford started his tenure at Cal with a 59-30 record, but he's now 21-22 since 2009 with a 12-17 record in the Pac-10/Pac-12. With a new stadium to fill and rising expectations that Tedford himself set, a reboot may be in the works in the next couple of months barring a drastic change.

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