BCS Resume Review: Cal

Is there a coach in the country that has done a better job over the past few years than Jeff Tedford? In just a few years, Tedford has led the Golden Bears of California from a one-win season to narrowly closing the gap between the mighty Trojans of USC and the rest of the Pac-10.

This year, Tedford's team has become a mainstay in the top-10. If not for a very close loss to the number one team in the county, in a game that could have gone either way, Cal would be considered a strong national championship contender. Can the Bears fight their way back to the top? Let's take a look at their resume.

Schedule and Results

Cal 56, Air Force 14

Cal opened the season with an impressive 42-point victory on the road against team that many expect to play in a bowl game. At a glance, one might see the 3-3 record of Air Force and think that Cal deserves little credit for their performance. But Air Force's three losses came versus Cal and Utah (both top-10 ranked teams) and one-loss Navy (by just three points). At Utah, Air Force finished with a lesser margin of defeat (16) than any of the Utes opponents this season, including Texas A&M and North Carolina. Cal's performance versus Air Force is more impressive than it may seem on the surface.

Cal 41, New Mexico State 14

This is the least impressive of Cal's performances. New Mexico State did beat Troy in a surprising outcome, but otherwise has been a less than impressive team. Cal should lose nothing because of outcome of this game, after all we don't want to encourage running up the score, but they gained nothing from this performance, either.

Cal 49, Oregon State 7

Any 42-point victory in the conference is noteworthy, even if it came versus a four-loss team at this point in the season. But much like the Air Force victory, we have to take a bit of a closer look to fully appreciate the significance. Oregon State's four losses each came against ranked teams (LSU, BSU, ASU, Cal). The bottom line is that Cal played like a top-five team in this game.

USC 23, Cal 17

Once again Cal played like a top-five team as they nearly defeated USC for the second consecutive season. This score versus USC was no aberration, like for example Stanford's performance versus the Trojans. Cal proved that they can play with any team in the country, on any given week, home or away.

Cal 45, UCLA 28

In this game, Cal gave up more than 14 points in a victory for the first time this season. But UCLA can put points on the scoreboard against everyone. Cal's offense came through with its normal 40-plus in a convincing victory.

Summary

Cal could be the second best team in the country for all we know. We may never find out how Cal would do against Oklahoma, Miami, or Auburn. But they have given us every reason to believe that they would, at the very least, be in the game. Cal should be the highest ranked one-loss team in the country, in my opinion. Yet they continue to trail Florida State and Georgia in the Coaches Poll (only FSU in the AP).

The most curious fact regarding where Cal find themselves in the polls is how they were jumped by Florida State. Going in two weeks ago, Cal was at seven and FSU was at nine in the Coaches Poll. Cal lost by less than a touchdown at USC and Florida State won by less than one touchdown at Syracuse. Yet the Golden Bears and the Seminoles swapped places in the poll for some reason.

If you isolate that week, as I think is fair since that is when FSU passed them, we see the problem with the human polls. Cal clearly played like a top-five team versus USC. And one could argue that Florida State did not even play like a top-25 team that week. Yet a four-spot swing in favor of the Seminoles followed.

Cal's best hope, at this point, is to land in the Rose Bowl if USC ends up playing in Miami on January 4. Its tough to foresee the Trojans losing twice in the conference, which is what the Bears would have to have to get back in to the Pac-10 picture. Nevertheless, Cal is working on a very impressive resume and could land themselves a BCS bowl birth regardless of what happens to USC.