Bears have quickly turned tables on Huskies

SEATTLE – For 26 years, whenever the Washington and California football teams got together, the Golden Bears had no chance of winning. Leading, yes. Prevailing, no. The outcome always seemed preordained, resulting in 19 consecutive Cal defeats during that period.

Today, a similar situation is at hand, only the Huskies are the ones faced with a hopeless situation, if not extremely long odds, as 30 1/2 -point underdogs.

“Of course, nobody is going to give us a chance,” UW linebacker Joe Lobendahn said. “We’re only 1-8.”

Another defeat and the Huskies begrudgingly will match their all-time worst record over 115 seasons, 1-9 in 1969, with the possibility of surpassing it the following week against Washington State in the Apple Cup.

How roles have changed, with the haves replacing the have-nots practically overnight.

Cal (7-1 overall, 5-1 Pacific-10 Conference) brings one of the nation’s elite teams to Husky Stadium to face one of the sorriest, arriving with a Bears coach, Jeff Tedford, considered one of the hottest commodities around, to go head to head with a former Bears coach, Keith Gilbertson, being discarded by the UW.

The Berkeley entry, with only a tough-to-swallow 23-17 setback at Southern California spoiling an otherwise perfect season, still has visions of playing for a national championship, and is receiving plenty of encouragement along these lines.

Orange Bowl officials in attendance for a recent Bears game weren’t shy at all about promoting a possible USC-Cal rematch.

At the least, the Bears could wind up in the Rose Bowl for the first time since 1959, not a bad consolation prize.

“If we get into a BCS type of season, that would be unbelievable,” Cal defensive end Ryan Riddle said. “We would rather go to the Orange Bowl than the Rose Bowl, because you always want to play for a national championship. It would just be nice going to the Orange Bowl, personally for any team.”

While the Bears once yearned for what the Huskies had, even hiring Gilbertson away from the Huskies’ 1991 co-national championship team, the home club appears to covet the mastermind behind Cal’s success.

Tedford’s is a name that’s been frequently mentioned as someone Washington should pursue to replace the ousted Gilbertson and clean up a general mess created by scandal, poor recruiting decisions, injuries and probably bad karma for all the decades of previous good times.

One line on his resume looks good: Tedford is 2 for 2 against the Huskies.

No one in an official capacity at either school would dare acknowledge the possibility of one Pac-10 school raiding a neighbor for a head coach, but the players are aware that anything goes in the free-wheeling collegiate game these days.

“I don’t have any strong comments about that, other than I hope he stays and builds a dynasty at Cal,” Riddle said. “But it’s ultimately up to him and what he wants to do.”

Said UW linebacker Evan Benjamin early in the week, “I know he’s a great coach in this league, and a lot of teams are looking at him.”

Only three coaches have gone directly from one football program to another inside the conference: Tommy Prothro, Oregon State to UCLA in 1965; Larry Smith, Arizona to USC in ‘87; and Bruce Snyder, Cal to Arizona State in ‘92.

Prothro took both of his schools to the Rose Bowl in consecutive seasons. Smith and Snyder each got fired at the second stop.

Three other head coaches have spent time at two conference schools, although with interruption between jobs: Leonard “Stub” Allison, UW and Cal; Dennis Erickson, WSU and OSU; and Gilbertson, Cal and UW.