Page One

Tom Holmoe is a man under pressure. 

Holmoe, the Cal head football coach, is in the fourth year of a five-year contract, and his teams have yet to achieve a winning record or reach a bowl game. And Holmoe feels this year is his make-or-break season. 

“This season is my last chance to prove myself here,” he said at a press conference Wednesday. “We have to win this year.” 

Those are pretty dire words coming from a coach with a contract that runs through next season. But Holmoe refused to back down from his self-imposed deadline of this season. 

But here’s the kicker: Holmoe has had an contract extension on his desk, needing only his signature to become official, since the end of last season. Cal Athletic Director John Kasser has said the offer is open-ended. Yet Holmoe said he will not sign the extension unless the Bears win this year. 

“We haven’t played as well as we can the last couple of years, especially last year,” he said. “In my mind, I haven’t earned the extension. And I can’t take something I haven’t earned.” 

Holmoe’s expectations for the upcoming season seem to be quite a bit higher than what many predict for the Bears, which is a battle with Washington State University to stay out of the Pac-10 cellar. Not to mention that all three non-league opponents, Utah, Illinois and Fresno State, are coming off of bowl seasons and have raised expectations. 

Holmoe even held out the possibility of a Rose Bowl berth for the Bears. 

“I’d say that there isn’t one team out there that can go wire-to-wire in the Pac-10,” he said. “I mean, (conference favorites) Washington and USC are both good squads, but they’re not the dominant teams they were in an earlier era.” 

He pointed out that many of the Pac-10’s Rose Bowl teams of the past decade have been picked to finish in the bottom half of the league before the season. 

“Look at Stanford last year, or Washington State (in 1998) or Arizona State (in 1997). They weren’t picked to win the conference,” he said. 

The key to a winning season for Cal is the offense, which was the worst in the Pac-10 last season. Kyle Boller started at quarterback as a true freshman, and his inexperience showed, as he threw 15 interceptions and completed just 38.6 percent of his passes. 

But Holmoe came to his prize recruit’s defense, saying the problems can’t all be blamed on the young quarterback. 

“There were times the receiver ran the wrong timing route, and Kyle ended up throwing up a pop-fly for the safety to intercept. You can’t blame Kyle for that. But he never said anything to the media, or even to the coaches. He took it all on himself,” Holmoe said. “The kid is so tough, he a real champion.” 

A full spring practice season to work with his receivers has helped Boller immensely, according to Holmoe. 

“He had to come in last year and just concentrate on preparing for each week’s game, instead of learning the offense at a regular rate. He’s really learned so much more since last season,” Holmoe said. “There’s no question in my mind, he’s going to be a hell of a player.” 

That said, the Bears will lean heavily on the running game early in the season, with four starters returning on the offensive line and good depth in the backfield with Joe Igber, Joseph Echema and Saleem Muhammad. In fact, the Bears are so deep at tailback that Marcus Fields, who led the team in rushing in 1998 and gained 123 yards against Rutgers in last season’s opener, is being moved to receiver to give Boller more options in the passing game. 

With improvement from the offense, Holmoe is confident the Bears can be competitive in the Pac-10. The defense got a huge boost when preseason All-American defensive end Andre Carter turned down a chance to be a first-round draft pick and decided to return for his senior season. 

“I can’t say enough about Andre. He’s really a great example of the term ‘student-athlete.’ He’s a great player and an even better leader,” Holmoe said. 

Holmoe also stressed that the special teams should be a strength this year, with punter Nick Harris joining Carter on many preseason All-America lists. 

“People don’t talk about special teams that much, but it’s a huge part of the game. So there are three parts to successful team: offense, defense and special teams. Last year we had two out of three, which isn’t bad. But this year we need all three to come through.” 

The defense should be good enough to keep the Bears in most games, but the offense will have to come through for the season to be a successful one by any standard.