page_title: Jeff Tedford
section_title: California
hierarchical_section_title: Jeff Tedford / Coaching career / California
caption_attribution_description: Cal head coach Jeff Tedford (center) on the sidelines during the 2008 Big Game. The Golden Bears won 37-16.
context_page_description: Jeffrey Raye Tedford is an American football coach and former player. He was most recently the head football coach at California State University, Fresno, a position which he held from 2017 to 2019. From 2002 to 2012, Tedford was the head football coach at the University of California, Berkeley, where he was twice named Pac-10 Coach of the Year and holds California Golden Bears football program records for most wins, games coached, and bowl game victories.
  Tedford played college football for the Fresno State Bulldogs before playing professionally at quarterback in the Canadian Football League. In his first head coaching position, Tedford inherited a Cal team that had won only one game in its 2001 season. He was named conference coach of the year in his first season in 2002 after winning seven games. Cal was ranked No. 2 nationwide midseason in 2007, the school's highest ranking since 1951. However, Tedford's teams struggled later in his Cal tenure, particularly from 2010 to 2012, and he was fired after the 2012 season. He was the seventh highest paid California state employee as of 2016.
context_section_description: After previous Cal coach Tom Holmoe resigned from his post amid a 1–10 season in 2001, the worst in Cal's history up to that point (the Bears would later go 1–11 in 2013), then-athletic director Steve Gladstone hired Tedford to become Cal's 32nd head football coach.  Tedford inherited a program that had not had a winning season since 1993 and had only won 29 games on the field since then, including only 18 wins in Pac-10 play.
  During his time at Cal, Tedford became known for his work ethic, often working late hours in his office and sleeping on an air mattress.  In evidence of his turnaround of the Cal program, season ticket sales jumped from 16,200 in 2002 to 41,336 in 2007, setting new records each year from 2004 through 2007.
  In Tedford's first season (2002), he led the Golden Bears to a 7–5 record, their first winning football season since 1993, the nation's biggest turnaround of the year, and was named Pac-10 coach of the year. The Bears ended a 19-game losing streak to Washington and a seven-game losing streak to arch rival Stanford in the Big Game.  Despite their resurgence, the Bears didn't go to a bowl due to NCAA sanctions for academic fraud that were handed down shortly before Tedford took over.
  After the season, Tedford signed a five-year contract through 2007 to replace his original four-year contract, which ran through 2005.
  In the 2003 season, Tedford's record of 8–6 included the upset of eventual national co-champion University of Southern California in triple overtime, as well as a 52–49 shootout victory against Virginia Tech in the 2003 Insight Bowl. The Bears won 5 of their last 6 games.
  In the 2004 football season, the Bears finished with a No. 9 national ranking in both the AP Poll and the ESPN/USA Today Coaches Poll with a 10–2 record, losing to Texas Tech in the Holiday Bowl. Tedford was named Pac-10 coach of the year for a second time. The team was undefeated at home, notched the fifth 10-win season in school history (and first since 1949).
  Following the regular season, Tedford signed an extension of his contract through 2009, which nearly doubled his base salary to $1.5 million per year; in the deal he also had the pay of his assistant coaches raised significantly.
  In 2005, the Bears finished with a No. 25 national ranking in both the AP Poll and the ESPN/USA Today Coaches Poll with an 8–4 record.  Cal rose as high as No. 10 in the AP Poll and No. 9 in the ESPN/USA Today Coaches Poll in week 6 before losing to UCLA 47–40.  They beat BYU in the Las Vegas Bowl, 35–28.
  In 2006, the Bears recorded an eight-game win-streak, including five straight games scoring 40 or more points, rising as high as No. 8 in the AP poll, and remaining undefeated at home.  The Bears finished the season with a 45–10 Holiday Bowl victory over Texas A&M, a No. 14 ranking, and an overall 10–3 record.  The Bears were also co-champions of the Pac-10 for the first time since 1975.  Following the season, Tedford signed a contract extension through 2013, which raised his base salary to $1.8 million per year and included significant performance and retention bonuses.
  The 2007 campaign saw the Bears jump out to a 5–0 start and a No. 2 national ranking, Cal's highest since 1951.  Set to move to No. 1 after LSU lost, Cal instead lost when freshman quarterback Kevin Riley—playing for the injured Nate Longshore—failed to get out of bounds for a game-tying field goal and time expired in a 31–28 home loss to Oregon State. This began a streak of losses in six of the seven final regular season games, including Tedford's first losses as head coach to Washington and Stanford to end the regular season. During the losing streak, Tedford's play-calling was the subject of criticism.  Nevertheless, Cal was invited to a fifth straight bowl game for the first time in program history. Cal defeated Air Force 42–36 in the 2007 Armed Forces Bowl, giving Tedford and Cal a sixth-straight winning season.
  In 2008, Tedford led the Bears to a 9–4 overall record and a perfect 7–0 record at home. Cal accepted an invitation to play in the 2008 Emerald Bowl, the
caption: Tedford (center) at the 2008 Big Game
exif: {"Image ImageDescription": "", "Image Make": "NIKON", "Image Model": "E4800", "Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image XResolution": "300", "Image YResolution": "300", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "E4800v1.2", "Image DateTime": "2008:11:22 14:50:57", "Image YCbCrPositioning": "Co-sited", "Image ExifOffset": "284", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "300", "Thumbnail YResolution": "300", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "4596", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "7361", "EXIF ExposureTime": "5/1157", "EXIF FNumber": "22/5", "EXIF ExposureProgram": "Program Normal", "EXIF ISOSpeedRatings": "50", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0220", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2008:11:22 14:50:57", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2008:11:22 14:50:57", "EXIF ComponentsConfiguration": "YCbCr", "EXIF CompressedBitsPerPixel": "3", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "0", "EXIF MaxApertureValue": "29/10", "EXIF MeteringMode": "Spot", "EXIF LightSource": "Unknown", "EXIF Flash": "Flash did not fire, compulsory flash mode", "EXIF FocalLength": "170", "EXIF FlashPixVersion": "0100", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "2288", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "1712", "Interoperability InteroperabilityIndex": "R98", "Interoperability InteroperabilityVersion": "[48, 49, 48, 48]", "EXIF InteroperabilityOffset": "1026", "EXIF FileSource": "Digital Camera", "EXIF SceneType": "Directly Photographed", "EXIF CustomRendered": "Normal", "EXIF ExposureMode": "Auto Exposure", "EXIF WhiteBalance": "Auto", "EXIF DigitalZoomRatio": "17/5", "EXIF FocalLengthIn35mmFilm": "1030", "EXIF SceneCaptureType": "Standard", "EXIF GainControl": "None", "EXIF Contrast": "Normal", "EXIF Saturation": "Normal", "EXIF Sharpness": "Normal", "EXIF SubjectDistanceRange": "0"}