Bears to name Tedford as coach.

Byline: BOB CLARK The Register-Guard

Jeff Tedford, for the last four seasons coordinator of the Oregon offense, will be introduced this morning as the new head football coach at California.

The Bears have called a 10 a.m. news conference, amid widespread reports that the 40-year-old Tedford was offered the job Tuesday evening and accepted. Tedford was at the Casanova Center working Tuesday but did not return a message left at his office, and there was no answer on the telephone at the Tedford home Tuesday evening.

Contacted on a recruiting trip, UO coach Mike Bellotti declined to discuss Tedford's expected departure or possible successors until after Cal `did something officially.' Bellotti had said a day earlier that the situation was `a double-edged sword for me,' in that he was helping Tedford in his pursuit of the job, while also obviously more than happy to keep Tedford in charge of the UO offense.

Only a week ago, Tedford turned down an offer from San Diego State to become the head coach of the Aztecs, who then named junior college coach Tom Craft.

Cal has been on a monthlong search for a successor for Tom Holmoe, who was ousted after a five-year mark of 16-39, including 1-10 this season. The Bears had appeared headed toward offering the job to Marvin Lewis, the defensive coordinator of the Baltimore Ravens, but he backed out of a second visit to Berkeley, saying he wanted to remain in the NFL.

Other finalists for the position were believed to be Rod Marinelli, a former Cal assistant now with the Tampa Bay Bucs; Charles Strong, defensive coordinator at South Carolina; and Bruce Snyder, the Oregon graduate who was himself head coach at California before leaving the Bears a decade ago for Arizona State.

Tedford has no head coaching experience but has built a reputation for running offenses and developing quarterbacks, first at his alma mater of Fresno State and then with the Ducks. He produced a first-round NFL draft choice with the Bulldogs in Trent Dilfer and then repeated that feat in his first season with the Ducks when Akili Smith finished second in the nation in passing efficiency in 1998 and was subsequently the third selection of the NFL draft, by Cincinnati.

A.J. Feeley, Oregon's backup quarterback after being replaced in 1999 by current UO starter Joey Harrington, was drafted last spring by Philadelphia and has spent the season as a backup for the Eagles, and Harrington seems a certain pick next spring.

Tedford is the third offensive coordinator in the seven seasons that Bellotti has been the UO head coach, following Al Borges and Dirk Koetter. Borges left the Ducks after one season for the same position at UCLA while Koetter was at Oregon two years before being named the head coach at Boise State, and has since becoming the head coach at ASU.

With Oregon's national reputation for offensive play, there is likely to be no shortage of high-quality applicants to replace Tedford. Two who will immediately come to the forefront of the search are Chris Petersen, for six seasons the receivers coach at Oregon until taking the offensive coordinator position at Boise State last winter, and former UO quarterback Bill Musgrave.