Ex-Cal coach Jeff Tedford working as a consultant with Washington
Washington coach Chris Petersen has brought in the former head coach of a Pac-12 rival in as a consultant.
Jeff Tedford, who coached at Cal from 2002-2012, is now a consultant for Washington. According to Petersen, Tedford can’t serve in any coaching capacity to Washington’s players.
Yeah, he can’t coach any of the players,” Petersen said Friday at Pac-12 Media Days. “He can be in all of our meetings. He can look at tape. We can talk to him. He can be in as many conversations in terms of all that type of stuff. What prompted it is he didn’t want to coach – he wanted to get back into college football, and there wasn’t an opportunity out there for him this year that he – making him a head coach or some other position like that, and he knows a lot of guys on our staff, and really that’s what this thing is all about is being around people you want to be around.”
Since leaving Cal, Tedford has coached in two different professional leagues. He was the offensive coordinator for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in 2014 and served as the head coach of the British Columbia Lions in the CFL in 2015.
At 54, it’s conceivable Tedford could be an attractive coaching candidate for a school, even as an assistant. Petersen said Friday that Tedford wasn’t using the consulting gig to get a job from the Huskies.
[Check out Dr. Saturday on Tumblr for entertaining things you won’t see on the blog]
“He is not here at Washington to come here to get a job from us,” Petersen said. “He’d be the first to tell you that. He’s just here to – he gets it, and he gets how a guy like that could come and upset the apple cart in terms of what his role is and all that. I wouldn’t – there’s a lot of coaches maybe with his stature out there that maybe you could get to come aboard if they didn’t have something going, and I wouldn’t do that with a lot of people, but I know what Jeff is all about and I know what his heart is. And he’s truly in it for being around us and helping us and not trying to – he’s not thinking about a job here at Washington right now, he’s just thinking about being part of our deal and his role.”
Tedford had a record of 82-57 in his time at Cal, where he coached first round picks Aaron Rodgers and Kyle Boller. His only two sub-.500 seasons with the team came in his last three years at Cal. The Bears were 3-9 in his final season in 2012.
[Visit Dr. Saturday on Facebook for stories you might have missed and chat with the writers]
– – – – – –
–
Nick Bromberg is the assistant editor of Dr. Saturday on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at nickbromberg@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!
Follow @NickBromberg
