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Washington again raided California to complete its revamped coaching staff on Tuesday, hiring Eric Kiesau away from the Bears.

Cal confirmed Kiesau's departure with a short statement from coach Jeff Tedford and athletic director Sandy Barbour. It has been reported that Kiesau will be the Huskies' offensive coordinator -- he coached receivers for Cal -- but it seems likely that head coach Steve Sarkisian will continue to call plays, as he did with former coordinator, Doug Nussmeier, who is leaving for Alabama.

On Monday, the Huskies hired Tosh Lupoi away from Cal. He is considered perhaps the best recruiter in the conference.

Kiesau is the fifth new coach Sarkisian has hired this offseason. In addition to him and Lupoi, Sarkisian hired Justin Wilcox (defensive coordinator) and Peter Sirmon (linebackers) away from Tennessee and Keith Heyward (secondary) away from Oregon State.

What has become clear: Washington is willing to pay big money to stock a staff around Sarkisian. When the numbers are published, it's possible that Washington could have the highest paid coaching staff in the conference in 2012, though USC doesn't release salary information. It's certainly clear that Cal couldn't keep up, even though both schools will rake in big money from the Pac-12's new TV contract. Simple fact: Washington is a wealthier athletic department, as Mitch Sherman notes here.

Here is the statement from Tedford: “Tosh and Eric have decided to take other jobs, and we wish them the best. When people have career opportunities they make decisions based upon a wide array of reasons that are important to them. We appreciate their contributions to Cal football, and we exhausted all of our resources to try to retain Tosh and Eric within the confines and continuity of our coaching staff, but both chose to take advantage of new opportunities. We will proceed to replace them with quality coaches who will continue to stand for what the University of California and our football program represent, just as Tosh and Eric did.”

And from Barbour: “Tosh and Eric are outstanding football coaches that did a terrific job during their tenures on the Cal staff. We certainly valued everything they brought to our football program and appreciate their time with us. We did all we were able to do to have them remain at Cal and appreciate our community’s willingness to assist in that effort. We remain excited and confident about the direction of Cal football under the leadership of Jeff Tedford.”

And, yes, it is fairly unusual for the coach and athletic director to release statements after they lose assistant football coaches. Tedford and Barbour probably felt they needed to in this case because Cal fans -- understandably -- aren't taking this well, particularly so close to national signing day on Feb. 1.

USA Today has published its new database on athletic director's salaries, and UCLA's Dan Guerrero tops the Pac-12 list at $688,296.

From the article:

ADs average about $450,000 at the NCAA's top-tier schools, according to a USA TODAY analysis, rivaling the pay of many university presidents. But at least five ADs make more than $1 million, and since August 2010, at least 10 public schools have given their AD's pay raises of $75,000 or more.

Here are the Pac-12 ADs and their salaries.
Dan Guerrero, UCLA, $688,296
Scott Woodward, Washington, $553,000
Bob De Carolis, Oregon State, $540,356
Rob Mullens, Oregon, $500,000
*Greg Byrne, Arizona, $500,000
Sandy Barbour, California, $460,997
Bill Moos, Washington State, $455,000
Lisa Love, Arizona State, $448,000
Chris Hill, Utah, $400,000
Mike Bohn, Colorado, $253,500

*Byrne recently signed a new contract that included a raise from the $392,000 listed in the USA Today database.

USC's Pat Haden and Stanford's Bob Bowlsby both work at private schools that don't release salary information.

Next Thursday California visits Oregon, and you know what that means?

Football? Nooo. Silly.

It means revisiting fake-injury-gate! Can I get a flop from the congregation!

Any Oregon fans know to what I am referring? I mean, you guys never bring this up or anything.

To refresh memories, in last year's surprisingly tight Oregon-Cal clash in Berkeley, a number of Bears clearly faked injuries -- some were poorer actors than others (Aaron Tipoti) -- in order to slow down the fast-paced Ducks offense.

Cal wasn't the first team to do this, and it won't be the last. But it became public that Bears defensive line coach Tosh Lupoi instructed his players to fake injuries. In other words, he lost the plausible deniability that other coaches had (yeah, talking to you Arizona State and Stanford).

And for that Lupoi was suspended for season finale at Washington by coach Jeff Tedford and athletic director Sandy Barbour.

Thinking ahead like all good beat writers do, Jonathan Okanes of the Contra Costa Times caught up with Lupoi to ask him about what went down last year. Lupoi, not unexpectedly, says he'd prefer to just leave it in the past and refuses to go into detail. But Lupoi, widely considered one of the Pac-12's best recruiters, also takes responsibility.

“Regardless if every opponent did it in the previous weeks, it doesn’t make it OK and it doesn’t mean that we or I can match the behavior of others,” Lupoi told Okanes. “Regardless of what everyone else is doing, it doesn’t make something OK.”

Lupoi tells Okanes, however, that he never heard a negative word about what he did afterwards. Perhaps Lupoi needs to spend more time on Addicted to Quack (but, really, don't we all?).

Lupoi ultimately describes the controversy as a learning experience:

“You always have to be thinking ahead. Every action you take, there could be a consequence involved. You have to evaluate every action you take. You have to be held responsible of your actions at all times.

“I’m moving on. The consequence was served and I took responsibility for what happened. The way this job works, you don’t have time to dwell on the past, good or bad. I think that’s where your focus has to be — living in the moment and trying to get better.”

Now Ducks fans, if a Cal player happens to get hurt next Thursday in Autzen Stadium, please don't automatically boo him. At least wait until you are 67 percent certain he's faking it.

Third in a series looking at potential dream and nightmare scenarios for all Pac-12 teams.

Understand: These are not predictions. They are extreme scenarios and pieces of fiction. You can read last year's versions here.

We're going in reverse order of my post-spring power rankings (which might not be identical to my preseason power rankings).

Up next: California

Best case

California fans were giddy well before Zach Maynard completed his 24th consecutive pass against Fresno State in Candlestick Park, but just about everyone wearing blue knew whose revered name had just been knocked from atop the school record book during a 38-17 victory.

"That's true," said Cal coach Jeff Tedford. "But Maynard runs a lot better than Aaron Rodgers did, so I don't want to compare them."

Colorado was eager to take vengeance for an embarrassing 52-7 loss in Berkeley the year before, but it couldn't stop Maynard and his half-brother Keenan Allen, who caught 11 passes for 131 yards and two touchdowns in a 27-19 victory in Boulder.

After beating the Fighting Blue Hose of Presbyterian 103-4 -- third string centers with bad shotgun snaps! -- the Bears head to Seattle to take on Washington, which has won two consecutive games in the series, the first an embarrassing blowout, the second on a last-second TD that handed Cal a losing record for the first time in nine years under Tedford.

Maynard throws three TD passes, Isi Sofele and Covaughn DeBoskie-Johnson both eclipse 100 yards rushing and the Bears defense sacks Huskies QB Keith Price four times in a 31-13 drubbing.

"I am struggling with this," types GooooooooooBEARS -- a longtime anti-Tedford gadfly -- in the comments section of the Pac-12 Blog. "For so long, I have been hating on Tedford. But... well. I just need to be alone for a little bit to get back in touch with myself."

A 15,000-word essay appears on the California Golden Blogs -- complete with 15 different charts and graphs -- that claims to mathematically prove that Maynard is the reincarnation of Samuel Adrian "Slingin' Sammy" Baugh.

"It actually pencils out nicely," says Tsit-Yuen Lam, Berkeley Mathematics Professor of the Graduate School Emeritus. "I still think Tedford should go for it on fourth down more often, but that's a topic for another day."

The Bears go nose-to-nose with No. 1 Oregon before falling 24-20, becoming the first team to hold the Ducks below 50 points.

A 55-yard field goal with four seconds left from Giorgia Tavecchio bests USC, 27-24. After a 30-20 win over Utah, the 6-1 Bears move up to 10th in both major polls.

The Old Blues starting thinking Rose Bowl. But those dreams get torn apart during a mistake-laden upset loss at UCLA. Fans consider a bandwagon jump.

"Hey, gang, I recommend keeping a level head," types GooooooooooBEARS. "We love our team. We love our coach. We must have faith and support them. Unite, Blues! We've only begun to fight!"

The Bears pound Washington State and Oregon State, which sets up the Biggest of Big Games against No. 1 Stanford, which is fresh off a victory over previously-No. 1 Oregon.

Tedford walks into a team meeting on Monday. He wordless flips on cut-ups of the 2010 Big Game, which featured Cal picking a pre-game fight then showing no fight while the Cardinal bludgeoned the Bears 48-14, Stanford's most lopsided win in the rivalry in 80 years. He shows QB Andrew Luck running over safety Sean Cattouse. He shows a post-game interview of then-Stanford coach Jim Harbaugh: "Our guys really kept their cool and I think that was a big difference today. They kept their poise. I don't like that kind of football where you try and talk and intimidate. ... Just play football. Shut up and play football."

Tedford then turns to his team: "Shut up and play football."

Cal upsets the Cardinal 35-27, with Cattouse sealing the deal with an 87-yard interception return of a Luck pass.

The Bears nip Arizona State to finish the regular season 10-2. They then whip Texas 45-3 in the Alamo Bowl. Cal fans spend most of the game, which was decided by halftime, serenading Longhorns coach Mack Brown, who in 2004 talked his team into the Rose Bowl over a more deserving Cal squad.

Cal earns a final No. 9 ranking.

Wisconsin blows out Stanford in the Rose Bowl, and immediately thereafter offensive linemen Jonathan Martin and David DeCastro as well as linebackers Shayne Skov and Chase Thomas opt to join Luck in the NFL draft a year early. Coach David Shaw steps down to pursue a career on Wall Street, and athletic director Bob Bowlsby brings back Walt Harris, "to take care of unfinished business."

Worst case

Zach Maynard was brilliant for three quarters. Then, early in the fourth against Fresno State, he falls awkwardly out of bounds.

Cal wins 28-20, but Maynard suffers what is notoriously called a "high ankle sprain."

Brock Mansion gets the start at Colorado, and the Buffaloes get their revenge for their 2010 beatdown in Berkeley, beating the Bears 24-21.

After pounding Presbyterian, Cal falls 28-20 at Washington.

"I think we'll get Zach back after the bye week at Oregon," says a hopeful Jeff Tedford.

Maynard does return at Autzen Stadium, but he's sacked six times and is noticeably limping in the fourth quarter. He also throws two interceptions.

With Mansion back under center for Cal, USC rolls over the Bears inside half-empty AT&T Park. At 2-4, things start to get tense in Berkeley.

"Is it just me, or are things tense in Berkeley?" a one sentence post on the California Golden Blogs queries.

Tedford opts to start Allan Bridgford against Utah, and Bridgford is solid in a 28-24 victory. He then leads the Bears to a win at UCLA, which evens their record at 4-4, but he gets hurt in the second quarter against Washington State. Maynard comes off the bench but isn't sharp. The Cougars prevail on a late Jeff Tuel TD pass.

The first "Cal needs to fire Tedford" column appears in the San Jose Mercury News. The column says, "Tedford led the Bears back from oblivion, but then he hit a plateau. Instead of rising above that plateau, the program has redirected to another unhappy valley. Credit Tedford for what he accomplished but he must be held accountable for what he hasn't. Not only has he failed to maintain a winning program, he now has led it back to losing."

Tedford refuses to engage the topic, but his players rally around him and beat Oregon State 20-17, kicker Giorgio Tavecchio giving Tedford the game ball after he kicked a late winning field goal.

But that rally doesn't last through the Big Game. David Shaw, coach of unbeaten, top-ranked Stanford, perhaps showing a bit more mercy than his predecessor, yanks his starters early in the fourth quarter of a 38-10 victory.

The Bears, with Maynard at quarterback and still needing just one win to earn bowl eligibility, play with surprising verve at Arizona State. But they fall 24-20

"It's not Coach Tedford's fault," receiver Keenan Allen says after a second-consecutive 5-7 finish. "Players win or lose games. And if we'd had Zach healthy the entire season, we'd have won a lot more games and we wouldn't be having this conversation."

But too many Cal fans have turned against Tedford. Athletic director Sandy Barbour announces that "with great regret" she is terminating him.

Tedford sits out a year before being hired by the Oakland Raiders, whom he leads to a victory in Super Bowl XLVIII.

Stanford wins the national championship, whipping Alabama 41-10.

"What the heck -- I'm coming back!" announces quarterback Andrew Luck, which inspires every Cardinal to do the same and not leave early for the NFL draft.

Barbour hires Eugene F. Teevens III -- most know him as "Buddy" -- to replace Tedford. "I thought he was so close to doing some good things at Stanford," Barbour explains.

While Willie Lyles provided Oregon comically worthless recruiting material for $25,000 -- at least as far as what Oregon has made public -- what he gave California for $5,000 in 2010 appears to be of legitimate value, according to multiple reports.

Writes Jon Wilner of the San Jose Mercury News:

Monday, [California] made available a prospect list provided by Lyles entitled “2010 Texas recruits.”

All of the 49 prospects were found to be members of the class of 2010 – the list includes Oregon signee Lache Seastrunk, whose relationship with Lyles is part of the NCAA probe — and all but one is from Texas. The exception, Trovon Reed, is a receiver from Thibodaux, La., whose recruitment by Auburn is reportedly under examination by the NCAA.

The prospect list includes contact information such as street address, email address and home and cell numbers, all of which has been redacted by Cal, which cited federal privacy laws.

From The Oregonian:

Seastrunk's relationship with Lyles is at the heart of the NCAA’s investigation into Oregon’s dealings with Lyles, who was paid $25,000 for a recruiting package that, based on what has been released, pales in comparison to the one Cal received for 80 percent less money.

LSU also received poor value for its $6,000 payment to Lyles.

This doesn't have much to do with the NCAA's inquiry at Oregon, though it does answer one issue: Lyles did provide a legitimate service at least once and wasn't only an alleged street agent/influence peddler. Seeing that all of the previously released material from him was worthless, that's new information. Though it's notable that it appears he gathered much of his information while working for another recruiting service: “That’s their problem," Cal coach Jeff Tedford told Wilner.

Also, California fans who were worried that the Bears might get nipped by the NCAA here can probably relax. We now better understand why Tedford and athletic director Sandy Barbour seemed so confident in their position, and Barbour told Wilner they haven't heard anything else from the NCAA since they handed over information pertaining to the Bears work with Lyles.

While Oregon fans have been enjoying all the fantastic publicity Willie Lyles has provided them this summer, the Ducks aren't the only football program that worked with Lyles.

California, in fact, also paid Lyles for his "scouting services."

Jon Wilner chatted with Bears coach Jeff Tedford about that business relationship -- here's his additional blog entry on the story -- and the general gist is this: It doesn't appear at present that Cal has the same potential NCAA exposure as Oregon.

While it might be premature to completely close the book, it appears Cal has dotted its T's and crossed its I's in this matter. (And, yes, that phrasing was purposeful because everything associated with Lyles feels squirrely).

The NCAA contacted Cal about Lyles in the spring, Wilner reports, and athletic director Sandy Barbour expressed confidence that the matter is over.

“Given that it’s been a while, I don’t expect that they have concern about what we sent,” she said, adding that she believes Cal’s dealings with football scouting services “fully comply with the rules.”

Barbour said the school has not received a notice of inquiry from the NCAA, which signals the start of an investigation.

Neither has Oregon, by the way, so that doesn't necessarily indicate Cal is free and clear.

Some other highlights:

• Wilner: "Tedford said he has never spoken to Lyles on the phone, never text messaged with him and only met him once -- they were introduced during Lache Seastrunk’s official visit to Cal." That would mean Tedford's relationship with Lyles was different than Lyles and Oregon coach Chip Kelly, who called, texted and wrote personal notes to Lyles.
• Wilner: "Cal used Lyles’ former company, Elite Scouting Services, in 2009 but dropped ESS when Lyles formed Complete Scouting Services. When asked why the Bears went with Lyles’, Tedford said: 'He was charging half what [ESS] was charging. Why pay $10,000 when you can pay $5,000.' He said Cal used Lyles’ service for one year, then dropped it in favor of 'a more inclusive service.'"

So what did Cal get? That's always been the question with Lyles, and it has yet to be answered. Does Lyles actually produce high quality recruiting material worth thousands of dollars, $25,000 in Oregon's case; $5,000 for Cal?

Again, there's just a bit of murk here. Cal also received a “2010 National package."

The only document reviewed by the Mercury News thus far was sent from Lyles to Cal in 2009 and included contact information on prospects in the class of 2010.

Last week, Cal released (to the Merc and the Oregonian) an invoice from Lyles for $5,000, with a ship date of March 23, 2010.

Wilner notes that means Cal received 2010 recruiting information after signing day in February. But there's an explanation.

According to a Cal official, the Bears paid Lyles for two classes worth of information.

They received game film, player reports and contact info on class of 2010 prospects during the fall of 2009, and they received player reports and contact info in the spring of 2010 on players in the class of 2011.

The date on the invoice (3/23/10), according to the Cal official, represented the date Lyles shipped reports and contact info on the class of ‘11.

“What he really should have done for the ship date,” the Cal official said, “was include a range, from Sept ‘09 to March ‘10.”

But Tedford said Cal used Lyles for "one year" (bolded above).

While the NCAA apparently has seen what Lyles provided Cal -- and perhaps is satisfied with that material -- there's just enough sloppiness here to inspire a "hmm."

Further, if Lyles actually produce a reasonably good recruiting product, why didn't Oregon get it?

Your feelings are correct. It does feel like we are wandering around in an ever-expanding gray area with Lyles and his clients.

Happy Friday.

• Will Vontaze Burfict go down as Arizona State's best defensive player?
• What did California athletic director Sandy Barbour have to say?
• Before the big Pac-12 TV contract kicks in, Colorado is looking for media partners.
• The hype is well under way for LSU-Oregon. Or is that Oregon-LSU?
• Stanford announces some walkons.
• USC's talented Devon Kennard is moving back to DE from MLB. It's a good move.
• Utah fans are beginning an important process: Learning to hate Colorado. Those, those, darn Buffaloes!
• A chat with Washington's new QB commitment.
• A look at Oregon from a Washington State perspective.
• APR -- Academic Progress Rate -- changes might put the squeeze on some programs.

California athletic director Sandy Barbour released a statement Monday on her reported candidacy for the same post at Miami.

"I am not a candidate to be Athletic Director at the University of Miami and categorically deny having interviewed for the position, as has been reported by some media outlets. I have no interest in other universities and remain committed to the University of California, where I expect to be for a long time to come."

Seems pretty clear to me.

Thanks to some nice legwork from the California Golden Blogs, it appears we now know the Golden Bears final 2011 schedule, which includes a conference game that is not a conference game and a battle with the Blue Hose.

Seriously.

Cal has yet to make official the filling of two voids -- Sept. 10 and Sept. 17 -- on its schedule, but Presbyterian College (the Fighting Blue Hose) apparently couldn't wait to announce it will act as a sacrificial lamb on Sept. 17 in the home opener at AT&T Park, where the Bears are playing home games while Memorial Stadium is being renovated.

Presbyterian, an FCS team out of the Big South Conference, finished 2-9 last year and lost 37-7 to Stony Brook.

Further, during a recent Q&A at a Cal booster event, athletic director Sandy Barbour confirmed that the Bears will play at Colorado on Sept. 10 as a nonconference game, even though the Buffaloes will be playing in the Pac-12 South in 2011.

California was down an assistant against Washington because defensive line coach Tosh Lupoi was suspended for instructing a player to fake an injury against Oregon on Nov. 13.

Apparently Lupoi acted alone: Head coach Jeff Tedford was not aware that Lupoi instructed nose tackle Aaron Tipoti to take a dive on a play that was an almost comically bad acting job.

The Pac-10 released a statement from commissioner Larry Scott.

The Pac-10 takes the integrity of the game very seriously. Instructing a student-athlete to feign an injury is an unethical and unsportsmanlike practice in violation of coaching ethics as outlined in the NCAA Football Rules and Interpretations. This behavior is unacceptable and will not be tolerated by the Conference. Nothing is more important than the integrity of our programs and the role our play in building good character in our student-athletes. We commend California's Coach Jeff Tedford and Director of Athletics Sandy Barbour for the forthright manner in which they have addressed this issue and for the positive example they are setting by reinforcing the importance of the principles at stake.

Here's the San Francisco Chronicle on the matter. And the Contra Costa Times.

Hopefully this solves an issue that has lingered throughout the season: Defenses trying to slow down Oregon's fast offensive pace by faking injuries. It also was an obvious issue against Arizona State and Stanford, so Cal wasn't unique in this.

Lupoi is taking a fall in order to discourage this tactic in the future, which is a good thing.

But it also would be a good idea if Oregon fans stopped booing injured players. Twice against Arizona on Friday, legitimately hurt players were booed. Not good.

California will announce today that it's playing its 2011 home games in AT&T Park while Memorial Stadium is undergoing a $320 million renovation, according to reports.

Cal coach Jeff Tedford, athletic director Sandy Barbour and San Francisco Giants president Larry Baer are scheduled to be at the 10 a.m. PT news conference in AT&T Park.

The renovation is expected to be completed in time for the 2012 season. Cal will play its home games in Memorial Stadium this fall.

Cal picked AT&T Park over Candlestick Park and the Oakland Coliseum.

Posted by ESPN.com's Ted Miller

There are some things which cannot be learned quickly, and time, which is all we have, must be paid heavily for their acquiring. They are the very simplest things and because it takes a man's life to know them the little new that each man gets from life is very costly and the only heritage he has to leave.

• A sad story: Former Arizona offensive lineman Bill Wacholz died in his sleep last week.
• Arizona State has received a commitment from a top JC receiver. 
• California's Sandy Barbour has been named one of four regional Under Armour Athletic Directors of the Year by the National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics (NACDA).
• Buy your Oregon tickets ... now!
• More from a recent Oregon State quarterback commitment.
• Considering San Jose State's decision to back out of a game at Stanford in favor of a visit to Alabama.
• Two UCLA transfers have found their destinations, but the Bruins also picked up a commitment with big-time USC ties. By the way, UCLA's game at Tennessee on Sept. 12 will kickoff at 1 p.m. (PDT) -- and will be televised by ESPN (game wasn't listed on Pac-10 TV schedule that was released yesterday).
• Tracking Washington's scholarship players.
• Why did Ryan Leaf fail so completely?
• And speaking of busts, whatever happened to Akili Smith?
• Some interesting Pac-10 recruiting notes here.