Tedford has that Midas touch

Jeff Tedford is a popular man these days.

In his third year as a head coach in college football, he has already been anointed the savior of California football, with the Bears ranked No. 4 in this week’s Associated Press poll. That’s ahead of three undefeated teams — Wisconsin, Utah and Boise State — despite the fact that his team has one loss this season.

He’s not just considered the savior of the team he currently coaches. During a Tuesday conference call, he was asked by media members about both high-profile job openings in college football, one in the Pacific-10 Conference at Washington and the other all the way across the country at Florida.

For his part, Tedford said he wasn’t aware that his name was being batted around in Florida as a possibility for the Gators job. When asked about the Huskies’ opening, he responded by addressing the job he already has.

“I’ve made it clear that I’m very happy at Cal and I hope everything works out here,” Tedford said. “I’m looking forward to talking with our people here at the end of the year about the future at Cal.”

The speculation comes in part because of a clause in Tedford’s contract that allows him to depart if facility upgrades aren’t pushed through in Berkeley, and also because of some turnover in the school’s administration.

But while Tedford’s name has drawn plenty of attention as a potential coaching candidate, he has plenty on his mind with this year’s Bears, a team lined up for an at-large spot in a BCS bowl should they win out.

The Bears still have four games left — three in the Pac-10, then one at Southern Miss on Dec. 4, a makeup for a game delayed by Hurricane Ivan in September — but they appear to be sitting pretty on the heels of two consecutive shutout wins over Arizona and Arizona State. This week’s matchup is with Oregon, a team with which they are tied for second in the Pac-10 at 4-1.

“I’ve walked by the TV from time to time and seen the BCS thing,” said Tedford, who added that he doesn’t pay much attention to the polls. “As our team goes, I think they understand it doesn’t really matter until the end of the season.”

Coming into the year, it was assumed that Cal would have an outstanding offense with quarterback Aaron Rodgers, running back J.J. Arrington and wide receiver Geoff McArthur. But the defense’s spectacular play of late has been an extra boon for the Bears.

“They’re very well-prepared going in and guys have been making plays,” Tedford said. “They hustle, they fly around the field. They’re just playing very, very well right now and hopefully they can stay healthy.”

Sun Devils setting

Three weeks ago, Arizona State was 5-0 and sitting pretty in a tie atop the Pac-10 with USC. Since then, the Sun Devils have dropped two of three and find themselves in the middle of a muddled Pac-10 race.

Dirk Koetter’s Sun Devils are in a three-way tie for fourth with UCLA and Oregon State at 3-2, but they’ll have a good opportunity to get back to their winning ways at home against a Stanford team that struggled in a shutout loss at UCLA last week.

The Sun Devils are ranked 23rd in both polls, and Koetter said that given the quality of the conference this season, a win would go a long way for his team.

“We’re still in the top 25 and have a chance to stay in there,” Koetter said. “I think Pac-10 football is strong. … My charge to my team will be consistency, the team that played well weeks ago against Oregon.”

Notes

It appears that the fourth quarter of the Oregon-Washington State game has had as dramatic an effect as any from the Pac-10 season. When Oregon scored 27 points to complete a two-touchdown comeback against the Cougars, it touched off not only a four-game losing streak for WSU, but also a four-game winning streak for the Ducks. “I just watched that game again yesterday and we did not play well in the first three quarters,” Oregon head coach Mike Bellotti said. “All the sudden something clicked. From then on, we’ve been a pretty good football team.” … ASU’s Dirk Koetter also said he does not expect to have sophomore running back Loren Wade coming back this season.