Cal Assistant Bob Gregory Promoted To New Inside Linebackers Coach
Gregory has nearly a decade of experience at Berkeley and was Tosh Lupoi's first direct boss at Cal.
Bob Gregory is a veteran of many a college football campaigns. He started his career in 1987 at Washington University of St. Louis, when Tosh Lupoi was six years old. Now he appears to be taking on another role working under his former subordinate, this time as inside linebackers coach. Gregory was on Cal’s staff last year as a defensive analyst and was retained with several other assistants.
Gregory was the defensive coordinator at Cal from 2002-09 during the heyday of the Jeff Tedford era. He helped bring on Lupoi as his new defensive line coach in 2008 after coaching him directly as a Cal player in his first few seasons. He also had brief defensive coordinating stints at Washington under Jimmy Lake and Boise under Dan Hawkins, as well as a six-year stretch at Willamette.
He then moved to positional coaching in Boise State and Washington under Chris Petersen, coaching linebackers, including for a few Pac-12 title teams and a College Football Playoff semifinalist. Before Cal, he was a defensive backs coach at Oregon.
At 62, Gregory feels like an experience hire who can bring his development skills and coaching acumen to gameplanning and development. It’ll pair well with new defensive coordinator Michael Hutchings, who should also have active recruiting responsibilities.
Here’s a look at the full Cal coaching staff.
Confirmed Cal coaching staff
Tosh Lupoi, head coach (Oregon defensive coordinator)
Jordan Somerville, offensive coordinator (Buccaneers assistant QB coach)
Nick Rolovich, quarterbacks coach (returning)
Jeff McDaniels, assistant quarterbacks (returning)
Keith Bhonapha, running backs coach (Michigan State RB/ST coach)
Pat McCann, pass game coordinator (Oregon State WR coach)
Ike Hilliard, wide receivers coach (long-time NFL WR coach)
Geoff McArthur, assistant wide receivers coach (Cal legend)
Steve Haunga, tight ends coach, run game coordinator (Oregon offensive analyst)
Mike Saffell, assistant tight ends (returning)
Famika Anae, offensive line coach (returning)
Viane Talamaivao, offensive tackles coach/RGC (Stanford assistant OL coach)
Michael Hutchings, defensive coordinator (Vikings safeties coach)
Da’Von Brown, defensive backs/co-DC (Western Kentucky, same roles)
Keith Heyward, defensive pass game coordinator (returning)
Darrion Daniels, defensive line coach (Oregon defensive analyst)
Ed McGilvra, assistant defensive line coach (Sacramento State defensive line)
Bryan Barraza, edges coach (Oregon staff)
Lorenzo Alexander, assistant edge coach (Cal football legend, runs linebacker training camps)
Ryan Berry, defensive assistant (Syracuse quality control)
Bob Gregory, inside linebackers coach (returning)
Sione Ta’ufo’ou, assistant inside linebackers (returning)
Connor Boyd, safeties coach (Oregon defensive analyst)
Duke DaRe, assistant defensive backs coach (Baylor quality control)
Zach Tinker, special teams coach (Oregon special teams analyst)
Jason Novak, head athletic performance coach (returning)
Tosh has recruited a solid coaching staff and has gone all out on portal and high school recruiting efforts. I don’t think we could ask for more but, as always, the proof will be in the ability of this mostly new coaching staff to meld together a winning program from all these new pieces that have been brought together. Time will tell but it at least feels like a new direction with huge potential.
The long awaited ILB coach announcement, and he's already here! Hard to argue with his experience in multiple roles, especially on a staff that's a bit thin on it. He's been a part of some incredible teams. It's nice having a grizzled, respected sage around from the good ol' days.
No idea how good his recruiting acumen is these days. As a named positional coach, I am guessing he will be recruiting?
I would imagine that our Edge coach Barraza would cover both OLB and DE positions.