Idiots Write About Sports

Offensive Coordinator Mike Dunbar is leaving Cal to take an O.C. job at Minnesota.

As many readers know, the Dunbar family is close to my uncle and his family. We were lucky enough to be the Dunbars’ guests at the Big Game, and got to meet Mike and Linda in person. Really nice people.

It was clear at the outset that Tedford’s move to bring in Dunbar was an odd one — a spread-formation coach coming in to run the offense under Tedford, who clearly has some differing philosophies? We’ll never know the real reasons, though I suspect Tedford wanted someone who he could trust as playcaller and was intrigued by the idea of using the spread more. In the end, my guess would be (and no, I have no inside information) that Tedford wanted to use the spread less, Dunbar wanted to use it more, and in the end it wasn’t a marriage that was going to work.

Some of the more, um, colorful Cal bloggers out there have said “good riddance” to Dunbar. I suppose if you believe that Tedford is God, you’ve got to place all your blame on Dunbar.

As for me, I think it’s fair to call the Dunbar hire a reach by Tedford. Tedford wanted to try going in a different direction, but in the end it was clear that it wasn’t working. I don’t blame Tedford or Dunbar for wanting to resolve the situation. But let’s be clear — it was Jeff Tedford’s decision to bring Mike Dunbar to Cal. I’m not quite sure why we need to spread blame around about a year when Cal won a share of the Pac-10 championship for the first time since 1975. But if there’s blame to be placed, let’s not place it on Mike Dunbar for being exactly the person he was before Jeff Tedford hired him. Tedford took a shot, tried something different, and it didn’t work.

Now the Dunbars get to move on to Minnesota, where I have every expectation that they’ll do well. And Tedford will learn from this experience and go another route, presumably with an Offensive Coordinator who will be his playcaller but fit more clearly within Tedford’s established style.

So it goes in the football business.

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