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A bright young mind for Cal Last month, we caught up with Cal’s new football coach, Jeff Tedford, who was in Los Angeles on one of his first recruiting trips for the Golden Bears. We asked him what he was saying to the young players he visited. “That Berkeley is a wonderful opportunity, both athletically and academically,” he replied, “and that my staff and I are committed to turning the football program around and making it successful.” Tedford, 40, is considered one of college football’s bright young minds, especially on offense. He was plucked from his position as the highly successful offensive coordinator at the University of Oregon, which last season won the Pac-10 title and wound up being ranked second in the nation, winning the Fiesta Bowl over Colorado. At each stop in his 14 years of coaching—at the Canadian Football League’s Calgary Stampeders (1989–91) and at his alma mater Fresno State (1992–1997) before Oregon (1998–2001)—Tedford has come up with record-setting offenses. The quarterbacks he has helped develop include current NFL player Trent Dilfer (at Fresno State), and Akili Smith and Heisman Trophy finalist Joey Harrington (at Oregon). “As we went through the arduous, six-week national search, it became clearer and clearer every day that Jeff Tedford was the right man for this job,” said Cal athletic director Steve Gladstone when he announced the appointment in December. “Jeff has been successful everywhere he’s coached. We believe he’s now ready to succeed as a head coach and restore the great football tradition at the University of California.” “It’s a long time coming,” said Dilfer, now playing for the Seattle Seahawks. “I believe Jeff is one of the finest minds in all of football. He’s certainly the finest coach I’ve ever been around. He’s a great leader and a great teacher. He has very high expectations for himself and the people around him.” What does the new coach see as Cal’s biggest problems? “Right now, I’d say it’s togetherness, working as a team; and discipline and dedication.” He says: “We need to win the close games,” pointing out that his former team, Oregon, won a lot of close games against Cal. Tedford, who grew up in southern California, played quarterback at Fresno State, setting career marks for passing yardage (4,872) and touchdown passes (35). After earning his degree in physical education in 1983, he played pro football in Canada for six seasons. Tedford says his first contact with Cal football came when he played in the 1983 East-West Shrine Game. One of his West teammates was a Golden Bear by the name of Kevin Moen—the man who bowled over the Stanford trombone player at the end of The Play, one of the great Cal victories of all time. Any word for long-suffering alums? “We’re looking to contend in the Pac-10 and on a national level,” says the enthusiastic Tedford. “We need to create an atmosphere where Memorial Stadium is the 12th man. We want to make it hard for other teams to come in and play against us.” Fine, coach, but what about the Axe? “We played Stanford twice while I was at Oregon,” he says. And? “We won one and lost one.” Now you’re talking! —Russell Schoch
Death stalks the campus One-third of the trees and plants surveyed on campus have tested positive for the fungus that causes Sudden Oak Death, including several coast redwoods—a species not previously thought to be susceptible to the disease. Since 1995, Sudden Oak Death has killed tens of thousands of oak trees, from Big Sur to southern Oregon, but none so far at Berkeley. The disease is caused by the fungus Phytophthera ramorum, a species new to the country which has been found to infect not just oaks, but a wide variety of trees and plants, including rhododendrons, ornamental plants which may be the source of the disease. The fungus was first discovered on campus last fall in Faculty Glade by Matteo Garbelotto, an assistant professor in environmental science who has become the world’s authority on Sudden Oak Death. He noticed yellowed leaves on several California bay laurels and a California buckeye; once Sudden Oak Death was confirmed on those trees, he conducted a comprehensive survey of trees and plants around campus. Out of the 102 samples he analyzed, 34 contained DNA from P. ramorum. “It’s pretty clear now that the spores are everywhere,” says Jim Horner, the campus landscape architect. The pathogen was also found in the Botanical Garden and in People’s Park. Disturbingly, several coast redwoods also tested positive for the spores. Horner is quick to point out that this does not mean redwoods are hosts for the disease or that the organism is harmful to them—just that they have been exposed. “If we looked we could probably find it on a parking meter,” he says. But a diseased redwood that was cut down in the Eucalyptus Grove also tested positive for P. ramorum, which seems to implicate the fungus. Garboletto is currently conducting tests with seedling coast redwoods to determine whether the species is indeed susceptible to Sudden Oak Death and, if so, what happens once the trees become infected. He expects his results to be available this month. If Sudden Oak Death were to spread to coast redwoods, it would be a terrible blow to California since these great trees are a unique part of the state’s natural heritage. On campus, the most pressing concern right now is for the 800 to 1,000 coast live oaks, many of which were planted around 1870 and several of which are almost 200 years old. Oaks, more than any other tree, are considered an integral part of the history and composition of the Berkeley campus. So far, none has been affected, but Horner and his colleagues are keeping a close eye on them, watching for any signs of infection, such as thick, dark sap bleeding from the bark. As a precaution, they have applied copper sulfate solution to a number of oaks, and they plan to treat many more in the coming weeks. While no treatment for Sudden Oak Death is completely effective, last year Garbelotto’s lab found that copper sulfate can help prevent the disease from spreading. Signs will also be put up warning people to stay on campus footpaths to avoid cross-contamination from diseased trees. Horner says that the campus is taking every precaution to prevent the loss of large numbers of trees, but expects that some will die. Having researchers like Garbelotto here on campus will help, adds Horner. “It puts us in a great position to be able to defend against this.” Garbelotto is also cautiously optimistic: “Our hope is that the information we gain here will not only preserve the landscape on campus, but will also help save trees and plants beyond Berkeley.” Crazy like a fox Many new graduates see today’s world as frightening and uncertain,
but at last December’s graduation ceremony, keynote speaker Peter Chernin ’74 pointed out that “everything and nothing has changed” since he was an undergraduate nearly three decades ago. He recalled his student years as “a unique time in American history, when our place on the planet was discussed every day, when international events were talked about over coffee on Telegraph Avenue as the latest military news was broadcast on TV. You are leaving Berkeley at another truly significant time that looks a lot like that one.” Some 500 students attended the second official December Graduates Convocation on December 7, 2001. Chernin, president of News Corporation and chairman and CEO of the Fox Group, has overseen projects from The Simpsons to Titanic, and credits Berkeley for introducing him to an “exploded culture” of ideas and opportunities. “I suppose there are colleges that take wayward kids and straighten them out,” he noted. “Berkeley did the opposite for me, and I’ve been grateful ever since.” |
 Cal's new football coach Jeff Tedford
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