Cal Hiring Oregon Analyst Steve Haunga as Tight Ends Coach, Run Game Coordinator
Tosh Lupoi goes back to the Oregon well to make a host of first-time hires as full-time coaches.
Cal announced a slew of assistant coach hiring on Saturday. Tosh Lupoi has gone back to his Oregon coaching days to look for rising coaches who are looking for an opportunity to grind, recruit and close. All of these coaches hired yesterday are currently on the Oregon staff as analysts. In modern college football, analysts are practically position coaches who are not allowed to recruit off-campus, but otherwise served in roles to help specific positions on the field.
Here’s one of the four hires:
Steve Haunga - Tight Ends/Run Game Coordinator
Coach Haunga’s resume is relatively long for this batch of hirings. He began his career at Kuna High School in Idaho before moving up to the collegiate ranks. He actually made a stop as a strength and conditioning intern at Cal, then moved onto Boise State. He then became a graduate assistant to Tulsa and then Auburn in 2019.
Later, he moved to North Texas where he worked as a quality control coach for the offense under our old friend Mike Bloesch (who, by the way, returned to coaching at UNT this offseason under the same title as Haunga as tight end coach/run game coordinator). After three years there, he moved to Oregon, where he has spent the last couple of years as an Offensive Analyst.
Haunga hails from the Bay Area, a native of Richmond, California. He joins Lupoi (East Bay), Michael Hutchings (San Francisco), and Keith Bonapaha (Oakland) as Bay Area locals on staff. Could the Bears have more local recruiting success after decades of struggle in their backyard?
Welcome back to the Bay Coach Haunga!
Here’s a current look at the announced 2026 Cal football coaching staff that has been hired to this point:
Tosh Lupoi, head coach (Oregon defensive coordinator)
Jordan Somerville, offensive coordinator (Buccaneers assistant QB coach)
Nick Rolovich, quarterbacks coach (returning)
Keith Bhonapha, running backs coach (Michigan State RB/ST coach)
Steve Haunga, tight ends coach/RGC (Oregon offensive analyst)
Michael Hutchings, defensive coordinator (Vikings safeties coach)
Da’Von Brown, defensive backs/co-DC (Western Kentucky, same roles)
Darrion Daniels, defensive line coach (Oregon defensive analyst)
Connor Boyd, safeties coach (Oregon defensive analyst)
Zach Tinker, special teams coach (Oregon special teams analyst)
A group of exciting hires; however, I do wonder about Tosh's statement about all the established, recognizeable names who were calling him and interested in joinging the Cal staff. Who were they?
OK, now let's hit the ground running -- particularly after the showing in Hawaii. Looks like a very good first coaching staff.