Cal hires Jeff McDaniels as assistant tight end and assistant offensive line coach
Cal will be getting additional support on their offensive coaching staff.
The California Golden Bears have hired another additional coach to assist up front with Famika Anae and Mike Saffell. Eastern Washington wide receivers coach Jeff McDaniels was named assistant offensive line and assistant tight end coach.
McDaniels used to be a graduate offensive assistant and offensive analyst with offensive coordinator Bryan Harsin at both Boise State (2020) and Auburn (2021-22) respectively. Previously, he was at Davidson (his alma mater), Texas State and Old Dominion in various offensive roles.
With the frontline coaching staff filled out, this is likely to be a role similar to that of Nick Rolovich—McDaniels will be primarily helping with gameplanning, practices and in-game coaching. He will probably not be permitted to recruit. Giving Saffell and Anae additional assistance will hopefully provide an overburdening scenario like Mike Bloesch faced last year as offensive coordinator and offensive line coach.
There does seem to be a wide range of experience on this offensive staff, but the theme is the same among position coaches—young, rising talents whose best years are in front of them. Adding McDaniels to a bunch that includes Saffell, Anae, Kyle Cefalo and Julian Griffin could lead to a young and energetic room that could produce exciting results on offense, if all gels well.
Welcome to Cal Coach! Go Bears!
I like this hire. He has a history with Harsin and Harsin wants him. That speaks well of him. My guess is he will be more of a technique guy in practice, eyeballing the little things that are so important, while position coaches focus more on schemes, etc. When I started my coaching career I began the same way. I look at what Bloesch coached and he was a disaster at coaching up the fine points of technique (you gotta teach O-Linemen how to hold, when to hold and get away with it, as well as all the other stuff: ass down, low, over your feet, head up, position, attack points, first step, nasty until the whistle, responding to defensive reads to set up a defensive player, and on and on...). Anyway, I like this hire.
Love to see so much focus on the line.