Jeff Tedford

Jeff Tedford grew up in sunny California and played his first two years of college football at Cerritos College before transferring to Fresno State University for his final two seasons. While at Fresno State he set career records with 4,872 yards passing and 35 touchdown passes as a senior. After earning his bachelor's in physical education in 1983 he played six seasons in the Canadian Football League with Hamilton, Saskatchewan, Winnipeg and Calgary. After retiring as a player in 1988 he took up coaching and served as an offensive assistant with the Calgary Stampeders in the CFL for two seasons. He then returned to his alma mater, Fresno State, where he served as the offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach for five seasons. From 1998 to 2001 he served in that same role at the University of Oregon before being named head coach at the University of California in 2002.

Over the next ten seasons, he led the Golden Bears to eight Bowl Games, a Pac-10 Conference Championship in 2006 and 82 wins. In 2014 he signed on as the offensive coordinator with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and then spent a season back in the CFL coaching the BC Lions before returning to the college sidelines at Fresno State.Just like Tedford did at Cal, he revitalized the Bulldogs program, In his first season, he won ten games and was named Mountain West Conference Coach of the Year. Tedford followed that up with a 12-2 campaign in 2018, the MWC title and a top 25 ranking. He chose to step down at Fresno following a 4-8 2019 season, but returned to the program two years later.