Cal Defensive Coordinator Leaves for Boise St.

admin — Fri, 19 Feb 2010 06:50:12 +0000

In a surprise move, Cal announced today that 8 year Cal defensive coordinator Bob Gregory is leaving the Golden Bears for Boise State. While a move to Boise State might make sense given the Broncos’ success lately, something fishy is going on once you look to the particulars of the change. Gregory left Cal not to become Boise State’s defensive coordinator, but instead to become a “defensive assistant” with an unidentified title. What’s clear is that Gregory will not be the defensive coordinator, as Boise’s coaching vacancy at that position was already filled in the offseason by Pete Kwiatkowski after Boise St.’s defensive coordinator left for Tennessee. So, Gregory is taking a position downgrade to move from the Pac 10 to the WAC.

The move also has strange timing. The start of spring ball is only 2 weeks away at this point. It is odd for Cal or Gregory to make a decision like this so late in the game when practices are about to get underway. Plus, the explanation for the late move is vague and less than satisfactory. Head Coach Jeff Tedford commented on the change by saying: “This was coach Gregory’s decision all the way to make what he feels is the best move for his family.” Gregory echoed this rationale without explaning why moving from his home of 8 years to take a demotion is best for his family.

Basically, this move seems like a rush job to get Gregory out of town. Perhaps there were disagreements in defensive philosophy, as Tedford has noted that the Bears need to be more aggressive on defense. Gregory often played a soft zone coverage during the season, limiting blitzing opportunities for the Bears and relying on 3 man rush and a “bend don’t break” philosophy. Cal’s defense was highly touted coming into the season, with an experienced secondary, but drastically underperformed after a stellar 2008 performance where Cal lead the nation in turnovers. Perhaps Tedford and Gregory couldn’t come to an agreement on the sort of changes the Bears needed to make on defense. Ultimately, Gregory’s firing means that Cal will be shifting to a more aggressive defensive philosophy, and may even change schemes depending on who they bring in. For now, we can only speculate about why this strange move occurred and wait until Cal selects a new defensive coordinator.

The PAC-1 Conference?

admin — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 07:17:12 +0000

Something very interested happened in today’s Bracketology by the (in)famous Joe Lunardi on ESPN.com. According to Joe, only one–count ‘em –ONE Pac 10 team will make it to the big dance this year. (The great Cal Golden Bears, in case you were wondering.) Even more embarassing is that the Pac 10 has ZERO teams ranked in the top 25 of the ESPN/USA Today Coaches’ Poll this week for the first time since the poll’s creation and has ZERO teams in the top 25 of the AP Poll either. As if it could get any worse, basketball powerhouse HARVARD currently has more votes than any Pac 10 team in the AP Poll at ONE. That’s right– no Pac 10 team even got a vote in the AP Poll this week. This begs the question: Is the Pac 10 that bad this year? Will it really only get one automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament?
Well, that Pac 10 isn’t as good as it has been historically, and it certainly isn’t a good conference by any objective measure, but there’s no way the conference only gets one bid come March. The favorite right now in the conference looks to be Cal, sitting at 10-5, has no great wins out of conference but explainable losses (to Ohio St., Syracuse, then undefeated New Mexico, Kansas, and UCLA in OT). Cal has had injury problems too, with Theo Robertson previously out and point guard Jose Gutierez currently injured. Bascially, it’s a team that has a chance to gel and perhaps make a run at respectability in the tournament. Cal’s RPI sits at 32, well within tournament respectability.

Washington also has the potential to be respectable and make it in. Washington started out strong at 10-2, but has lost 3 games in Pac 10 play. Washington has a good core who plays fast, and just needs to right the ship. Pondexter and Isaiah Thomas could easily get things together and put a run together at seasons end.

USC has been playing well, including beating recent- number 1 topping Tennesee , but will be unable to enter the tournament due to self imposed sanctions by the University for recruiting violations realted to OJ Mayo. While that may deflate the number of teams that can make the tournament in the Pac 10, it means the conference isn’t as bad as the voters think.

However, all that being said, the rest of the conference is pretty damn lackluster. The nonconference schedule was brutual for the Pac 10. The conference’s best win outside of USC’s beatdown of Tennessee is Washington’s victory over Texas A&M, ranked 35 in the current RPI. That’s not pretty compared to years past. While the Pac 10 undoubtably looks way worse than usual, I’ll guarantee that at least 2 teams end up in the dance, with at least 1 in the sweet 16.

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Cal Defensive Coordinator Leaves for Boise St.

The PAC-1 Conference?