BERKELEY, Calif. -- Coach Jeff Tedford was fired Tuesday after 11 seasons at California that began with great promise and ended with a disappointing run of mediocrity.
Tedford engineered an impressive turnaround for the Golden Bears after taking over a one-win team following the 2001 season. He won a school-record 82 games, churned out numerous NFL prospects and spearheaded a facilities upgrade highlighted by a $321 million stadium renovation.
But he never was able to match early success that included a pair of 10-win seasons in his first five years and a share of the 2006 conference title.
"This was an extraordinarily difficult decision, one that required a thorough and thoughtful analysis of a complex set of factors," athletic director Sandy Barbour said in a statement. "Ultimately, I believed that we needed a change in direction to get our program back on the right track."
The program bottomed out this season, losing the final five games to finish 3-9 for Tedford's worst season at the helm.
The final two losses were the most lopsided of Tedford's career, a 59-17 home loss to Oregon followed by a season-ending 62-14 loss at Oregon State.
Tedford established himself at Cal as a quarterback guru, helping develop Kyle Boller and Aaron Rodgers into first-round picks in his first three seasons after tutoring No. 3 overall pick Joey Harrington as offensive coordinator at Oregon.
But if there was one reason for Tedford's downfall it was his inability to find another big-time quarterback after Rodgers left following the 2004 season. The Bears ran through a group of pedestrian passers like Joe Ayoob, Nate Longshore, Kevin Riley, Brock Mansion and Zach Maynard.
The inability to pair an elite passer with the top-level talent at the skill positions proved to be Tedford's undoing. The Bears often put together some of the best recruiting classes on the West Coast and had 40 players drafted into the NFL, including eight first-round picks, under Tedford's leadership.
Cal had 25 players on NFL rosters at the start of this season, ninth most in the nation. That includes stars like Rodgers, DeSean Jackson and Marshawn Lynch. But those star players were unable to get the Bears back to the Rose Bowl for the first time since the 1958 season.
Copyright 2012 by The Associated Press
