Cal Special Teams Coach Zach Tinker Emphasizes Experience For His Unit
The California Golden Bears will have some senior talent on their ST unit to try and bring the Bears up to standard.
Special teams may often be overlooked, but for Zach Tinker, it’s where a program’s identity is most visible at University of California, Berkeley.
“We want to be known as the culture of the team. The pillars of the program — what we’re all about — relentless effort, ball excellence, power of unit — those are all encompassed in special teams.”
“We want to reflect our team with what we do on a daily basis. That’s what brought us here — to really reflect that message. That’s what we should look like.”
On personnel and experience
Tinker pointed to veteran experience as the foundation of the unit.
“We have three seniors. If you look at the big picture, we’ve got a senior punter in Angus Davies, transfer from Tulsa. He has game experience — over 100 punts in his career, I think around 160 — so good experience there, good holding experience.”
“David Bird is a senior snapper from Alabama who was with us at Cal years ago and is back. He’s got a bunch of snaps, three-year starter, SEC experience.”
“Chase Meyer is a senior kicker — he has kicking experience — so we have experience there, especially with field goals.”
He also highlighted additional depth.
“Towns McGough is a sophomore transfer from Auburn. He’s got kicking experience — over 70 kickoffs in the SEC with almost a 70% touchback rate.”
“We’re developing some players behind those guys as well. So it’s a good room, and it’s good to have guys who have been out there. You can’t simulate experience — you have to be on the field to really know what it’s like.”
On returning to Cal
Having previously coached at Cal, Tinker emphasized the value of familiarity — both culturally and personally.
“It’s great. I mean, I know where the food is at — that helps. But no, it’s been great. We knew what we had here the first time around, and it was good experience to come back.”
“If you sit down with Tosh and have a visit with him during a staff retreat, he’ll tell you about his experience here. So we really knew what his vision was going to be.”
“When the opportunity presented itself, it was a pretty obvious choice for us to get back to the Bay.”
For Tinker, the fit extended beyond football.
“Being a Pacific Northwest guy, I like the sunshine a little bit.”