I’m concerned about any Cal media staff or whomever was responsible that would post a photo of any new Cal coach wearing RED…speaking about not paying attention to details.
Going "young, smart, but unproven" is a high-risk, high-reward strategy. But we really do need a "high-reward" payoff so I am perfectly fine with taking the risk. It feels like we're doing a lot of the things Oregon did to help Chip Kelly turn them into a powerhouse (without hiring 2025 Chip who doesn't seem capable of it). Rolo's title seems more legitimate than nominal now given his coaching experience. And there's Rivera himself. I get what Ron's assembling here.
I'm very excited about next year! For the first time in a while I have no idea what the team will look like, but I'm certainly intrigued and hopeful! Go Bears!
Yes. There have been a good number of young OCs in college over the past 15-20 years who were unknown until they were the next up and coming offensive genius. Lupoi has known this guy for a long time and he definitely would not have hired him if he weren’t all in on his coaching and recruiting. Should be exciting to watch.
Seems fine, but I do have concerns about the unproven part. We have to have faith in Tosh/Ron. He will benefit from JKS staying and hopefully improved players, especially from the portal. GO BEARS!
Off topic. Just read that former Cal alum, Cal player, and Cal coach Mike White died. Worthy of a tribute article. “Hail to California” and “All Hail Blue and Gold”. May he RIP.
Alabama hired Tommy Rees, 30, with no OC experience in 2023 and Oregon hired Will Stein, 36, with only one year of experience as a co- OC. Both were successful and that's where Tosh was, so no surprise he's going that route. Many other examples, Sean mcvay, etc. bottom line you need elite players. This whole thing hinges on Cal elevating their recruiting from avg 60th to top 25. With the portal opening and cal with supposedly a big checkbook, grab your popcorn folks ..
Excluding small stops, Rees had been OC at Notre Dame and spent 5 years there as a position coach. Stein had been a position coach for 2 years then OC. That’s way more than someone who has been a position coach for 2 year and an assistant position coach since then. This is a massive risk.
May not have OC experience, but has worked with RBs and QBs and has been both a run game and pass game coordinator. Also has been a recruiting coordinator and was, apparently, a good one at UNM (which is not the easiest place to recruit to).
Definitely an intriguing hire. I'll take it over a retread. At the least, they won't have much tape!
I like Famika. We went from 51 sacks to 31 sacks allowed in his one year. He also helps with the Poly Pipeline. The unit had a lot of issues especially with penalties but I still hope we keep him.
I like Famika as well. I think our OL woes come from a lack of personnel rather than scheme. Rugbear talks a lot of technique and nastiness - just looked like we lacked the horses to get any type of push whatsoever off the line in the run game.
Definitely better in the passing game - the pre-snap penalties were maddening tho. Seemed we had more of those than holding calls.
Mendoza took a ton of sacks in '24...the OL struggled, but Fernando did them no favors. That of course improved in Bloomington, as Cignetti fielded an elite OL. But that 31 sacks allowed would likely have been higher in '25 had Mendoza still been at Cal.
Interesting. I thought the OL continued to be terrible. Sacks is a good metric though. I tend to think terrible due to (a) persistent reshuffling of players, (b) Wilcox's exasperation in some post-game press conferences about "we don't teach lean and grab..." and (c) Rolo immediately using a 6th OL for 30+ snaps against SMU!
All well and good. We are trusting Tosh to make the right personnel decisions and for Ron to play an active part in overseeing the program. I do not think money is a problem. Cal can pay them if Tosh can find them and entice them to come to Berkeley. Frankly, what I really want to see is a real upsurge in recruiting the right talent on both sides of the ball -- big, tough OL guys who can protect JKS and block like crazy when it comes to the run game. I want to see us recruit a really big, effective back like Chuck Muncie who puts the fear of God into the defense every time he lines up and who can serve as a dangerous complement to JKS's passing ability. Give me that and some really great WRs that JKS can count on to catch his well placed balls and along with a punishing DL and bunch of line backers and swift defensive backs, we may actually have a competitive football team. And while I recognize that freshmen out of high school can have an immediate impact, I really do not care where Tosh gets his talent as the portal may well offer up a number of targets of opportunity. I want CMS filled to capacity for every game and I want the ground to shake when Cal comes on to the field and for Ohio State and Indiana to wonder if maybe they'd be better off just forfeiting the game. And, yes, the dispensary I got this stuff from has plenty for everybody!
Chuck Muncie was special. I recall him destroying Stanford in the Big Game (it took several hours to get into the stadium thru the mud at Stanford for that game)
The 1975 Big Game: Muncie ran for 166 yards, scored 4 TD's and threw a passed for a another TD for a 48-15 victory over Stanford. I had a good feeling watching the team perform.
That + Ferragamo to Sweeney with 3 secs on the clock + the play are among my most cherished memories of Cal football. And little things like the smell of the turf after the 10,9,8 countdown & rushing the field as kids/waiting outside the locker room to get autographs.
Just going out on a limb, but thinking “It starts at the top.” That would be Ron Rivera in this instance. We gotta believe that RR knows what he”s doing and has the support of Chancellor Lyons and the Collective (The $$$). RR is not going to let Tosh fill his staff with unqualified folks—due diligence has certainly been done. This will surely be a collaborative effort. There’s one chance to get this right and those driving the bus surely know this! Go Bears!
This is absolutely a key point. Cal has fundamentally changed the structure of the football program by bringing in RR as the GM and insulating football from the athletic department. We have to give this structure time to take effect before going down the road to doom and gloom. It’s still very early in the process. RR and Tosh know damn well the importance of every move, every hire, every recruiting decision they make on the outcome for the football program as will be clearly measured for all of us to see on the field next fall. Let’s just let this process play out until we can fairly assess the results which will be readily apparent when the team comes into CMS on September 5th to play UCLA!
I think an important thing to realize is that the staff need to be in tune with Tosh, so it makes sense that he would want to get "his guys" in there. Given Tosh's intensity, I dont think we can assume that whomever looks the best on paper would work out here.
I suspect Tosh will demand his staff have similar energy and also demand the most out of their players, and be very hands-on in practice --so not just game planning and calling plays from coordinators.
He’s a culture fit for Tosh but a big question mark as an OC. We have the best QB in the nation and we’re bringing in a glorified assistant to lead the offense. I don’t want to hear any excuses of this guy still learning how to be an OC next season.
I like your standard! It's also a little cause for concern that Ron is a defensive guy too, so what would he know about offense either..? But I look at how he held fort and engineered keeping JKS throughout the entire season.. Im putting my trust in him that we hire a good staff because he's committed to winning
Don't know much about him but I prefer a fresh face with upside than a retread and trust the current folks in charge to determine he's smart and hardworking. I hear he's a good recruiter too which I'm sure was a big factor.
I am afraid of my personal, blue-tinted glasses altering the reality of this hire. The truth of the matter is Jordan Sommerville doesn't have experience designing his own offensive schemes and calling his own plays. It is not clear which offensive philosophy and identity he will adopt or has learned from. I guess we will find out his ability as offensive coordinator once the 2026 season starts. Recruiting better players matters, but having smarter schemes matters too, especially if we want to punch above our own weight.
He doesn't have any playing experience and made it to the NFL coach in his 20s. That is very impressive. If the NFL and Tosh thinks highly of him, I trust and am excited for this hire.
Not to diminish but he’s an assistant position coach. So it’s not like he’s some huge upstart running a position room at 29. He was an analyst in Oregon and then an assistant position coach. This is a massive leap for him.
You are not providing his full resume...in particular, you are missing his experience at ASU and then UNM. At UNM he was the running backs coach and run game coordinator, as well as the recruiting coordinator....before he got to Oregon.
And, he is not just an assistant position coach with TBB, he is also the passing game coordinator. I would not make the guy a head coach, but he's qualified for an OC job. He must have a great upside or Tosh would not be bringing him in.
Do we want Jet back? He hasn't been good this year: just 3.6 yds / carry. I think we will have good roster options and don't need to focus on getting back with our exes.
I didn't spend any time watching UCLA this year, but I think his numbers actually may have gotten worse as the season went along. I remember checking on him earlier in the year out of perverse curiosity and seem to recall he was averaging around 4.5 carry.
Regardless my point is more that I'd prefer us targeting guys that fit whatever system we put in place versus guys that were good for us at one time. If Jet's skills fit that vision, then yes, go get him. But otherwise there are probably many other better options that would like to be here playing with JKS and for this staff next year.
So we brought in a 29 year old position coach with no experience as an OC to lead our offense. He's going to help Tosh, a defensive coach, run our offense. I hope this rumor is wrong otherwise I'm not feeling very bullish about the long-term prospects of our offense for the next few years.
The Rolovich hire makes a lot more sense now beyond just JKS retention. Gives the young OC a rock to lean on and provides stability for what will be a potentially rocky transition through coaching staffs. Keeps JKS focused through it all. I'm guessing as Assistant HC, he has more say on the offense than he normally would.
This just sounds backwards to me unless Rolo specifically did not want to be OC. Otherwise, make Rolo as OC and bring Somerville as a position coach. Rolo can mentor while also have an experienced hand at developing offenses, calling plays and managing the offensive staff.
I'm guessing Rolo wants to go back to being a HC, not an OC. And many schools don't want to take a chance at him because of his history. In the end, Cal isn't flush with cash and we're going to have to get creative to put together the kind of extensive staff that we're competing against.
This is my worry. I hope we're not still trying to do this on the cheap because that's one of the core reasons why we can't have sustained winning. We can't roll-the-dice our way to a sustained, top tier program.
This is a bigger discussion, but I felt like with Wilcox (and Sonny) we mostly got what we paid for. We budgeted for a mid-tier program and got mid-tier results. I hoped that along with a change to staff, the money situation and the commitment had also changed. Otherwise, we're just moving the deck chairs here.
I’m all in on this hire. An up and coming coach with recruiting chops. And Rolo will be a great mentor, until his next gig, as mentioned, most likely a HC opportunity.
At the Buccs he appears to be more of an assistant than a position coach. The position coaches for the passing game are George Edwards and Kefense Hynson, both grey beards.
Ok, yeah I realized he is just an assistant QB coach, not the QB coach. I looked up the staff and the QB coach is Thaddeus Lewis. Hynson and Edwards are not position coaches.
Anyway I guess assistant QB to the actual QB coach is an upgrade but not something worth much to convince moving down to the college level. He can be mentored by the senior staff at Tampa too.
I'm for a penny, in for a pound with Tosh. He's bringing in the staff he believes will be highly effective. And I really like that Tosh is building his Cal staff while serving being with Oregon during their playoff run.
Take off that red shirt!
YUP!
I’m concerned about any Cal media staff or whomever was responsible that would post a photo of any new Cal coach wearing RED…speaking about not paying attention to details.
Well it was national media not Cal media
After seeing the parade of dinos the past few seasons and seeing average results, I'm all in on new blood.
Going "young, smart, but unproven" is a high-risk, high-reward strategy. But we really do need a "high-reward" payoff so I am perfectly fine with taking the risk. It feels like we're doing a lot of the things Oregon did to help Chip Kelly turn them into a powerhouse (without hiring 2025 Chip who doesn't seem capable of it). Rolo's title seems more legitimate than nominal now given his coaching experience. And there's Rivera himself. I get what Ron's assembling here.
I'm very excited about next year! For the first time in a while I have no idea what the team will look like, but I'm certainly intrigued and hopeful! Go Bears!
Yes. There have been a good number of young OCs in college over the past 15-20 years who were unknown until they were the next up and coming offensive genius. Lupoi has known this guy for a long time and he definitely would not have hired him if he weren’t all in on his coaching and recruiting. Should be exciting to watch.
Seems fine, but I do have concerns about the unproven part. We have to have faith in Tosh/Ron. He will benefit from JKS staying and hopefully improved players, especially from the portal. GO BEARS!
Off topic. Just read that former Cal alum, Cal player, and Cal coach Mike White died. Worthy of a tribute article. “Hail to California” and “All Hail Blue and Gold”. May he RIP.
The 1975 Cal football team finished with a 8–3 record (6–1 in Pac-8) and tied for the Pac 8
title. The team led the nation in total offense.
The offense gained 2,522 passing yards, with quarterback Joe Roth leading the way.
Roth had a completion rate of 56%, averaging 8.3 yards per attempt, and threw 14 touchdown passes.
The rushing offense also totaled 2,522 yards with Chuck Muncie.
The team was averaging about 30 points per game.
Other stars included Wesley Walker, Steve Rivera, Jim Breech.
Thanks for posting that!
https://calbears.com/news/2025/12/15/former-cal-football-head-coach-mike-white-passes-away.aspx
My coach.
Alabama hired Tommy Rees, 30, with no OC experience in 2023 and Oregon hired Will Stein, 36, with only one year of experience as a co- OC. Both were successful and that's where Tosh was, so no surprise he's going that route. Many other examples, Sean mcvay, etc. bottom line you need elite players. This whole thing hinges on Cal elevating their recruiting from avg 60th to top 25. With the portal opening and cal with supposedly a big checkbook, grab your popcorn folks ..
It's not the X's and O's, it is the Johnny's and the Joe's that makes the difference.
Excluding small stops, Rees had been OC at Notre Dame and spent 5 years there as a position coach. Stein had been a position coach for 2 years then OC. That’s way more than someone who has been a position coach for 2 year and an assistant position coach since then. This is a massive risk.
Everything I’ve heard is that this guy is like the boy genius of football. I’m gonna be confident until proven otherwise.
May not have OC experience, but has worked with RBs and QBs and has been both a run game and pass game coordinator. Also has been a recruiting coordinator and was, apparently, a good one at UNM (which is not the easiest place to recruit to).
Definitely an intriguing hire. I'll take it over a retread. At the least, they won't have much tape!
I like it.
As usual, the OL coach will be just as key.
Will it be Anae or a fresh face?
Last year we were once again one of the worst running teams in all of P4…THAT needs to change.
I like Famika. We went from 51 sacks to 31 sacks allowed in his one year. He also helps with the Poly Pipeline. The unit had a lot of issues especially with penalties but I still hope we keep him.
I like Famika as well. I think our OL woes come from a lack of personnel rather than scheme. Rugbear talks a lot of technique and nastiness - just looked like we lacked the horses to get any type of push whatsoever off the line in the run game.
Definitely better in the passing game - the pre-snap penalties were maddening tho. Seemed we had more of those than holding calls.
Mendoza took a ton of sacks in '24...the OL struggled, but Fernando did them no favors. That of course improved in Bloomington, as Cignetti fielded an elite OL. But that 31 sacks allowed would likely have been higher in '25 had Mendoza still been at Cal.
Snapping was a huge issue too. I really wished it was fixable.
Putting an offensive guard at center for most of the year did not help this.
Interesting. I thought the OL continued to be terrible. Sacks is a good metric though. I tend to think terrible due to (a) persistent reshuffling of players, (b) Wilcox's exasperation in some post-game press conferences about "we don't teach lean and grab..." and (c) Rolo immediately using a 6th OL for 30+ snaps against SMU!
hopefully a fresh face!
Did Anae coach at New Mexico with him?
Somerville was at NM 2020-21
Anae was at NM 2024
Good question.
All well and good. We are trusting Tosh to make the right personnel decisions and for Ron to play an active part in overseeing the program. I do not think money is a problem. Cal can pay them if Tosh can find them and entice them to come to Berkeley. Frankly, what I really want to see is a real upsurge in recruiting the right talent on both sides of the ball -- big, tough OL guys who can protect JKS and block like crazy when it comes to the run game. I want to see us recruit a really big, effective back like Chuck Muncie who puts the fear of God into the defense every time he lines up and who can serve as a dangerous complement to JKS's passing ability. Give me that and some really great WRs that JKS can count on to catch his well placed balls and along with a punishing DL and bunch of line backers and swift defensive backs, we may actually have a competitive football team. And while I recognize that freshmen out of high school can have an immediate impact, I really do not care where Tosh gets his talent as the portal may well offer up a number of targets of opportunity. I want CMS filled to capacity for every game and I want the ground to shake when Cal comes on to the field and for Ohio State and Indiana to wonder if maybe they'd be better off just forfeiting the game. And, yes, the dispensary I got this stuff from has plenty for everybody!
Chuck Muncie was special. I recall him destroying Stanford in the Big Game (it took several hours to get into the stadium thru the mud at Stanford for that game)
The 1975 Big Game: Muncie ran for 166 yards, scored 4 TD's and threw a passed for a another TD for a 48-15 victory over Stanford. I had a good feeling watching the team perform.
Muncie just could not be stopped. A performance for the ages.
That + Ferragamo to Sweeney with 3 secs on the clock + the play are among my most cherished memories of Cal football. And little things like the smell of the turf after the 10,9,8 countdown & rushing the field as kids/waiting outside the locker room to get autographs.
Sounds like the team I used to watch when I was an undergrad. 2003-2006.
Just going out on a limb, but thinking “It starts at the top.” That would be Ron Rivera in this instance. We gotta believe that RR knows what he”s doing and has the support of Chancellor Lyons and the Collective (The $$$). RR is not going to let Tosh fill his staff with unqualified folks—due diligence has certainly been done. This will surely be a collaborative effort. There’s one chance to get this right and those driving the bus surely know this! Go Bears!
This is absolutely a key point. Cal has fundamentally changed the structure of the football program by bringing in RR as the GM and insulating football from the athletic department. We have to give this structure time to take effect before going down the road to doom and gloom. It’s still very early in the process. RR and Tosh know damn well the importance of every move, every hire, every recruiting decision they make on the outcome for the football program as will be clearly measured for all of us to see on the field next fall. Let’s just let this process play out until we can fairly assess the results which will be readily apparent when the team comes into CMS on September 5th to play UCLA!
I think an important thing to realize is that the staff need to be in tune with Tosh, so it makes sense that he would want to get "his guys" in there. Given Tosh's intensity, I dont think we can assume that whomever looks the best on paper would work out here.
I suspect Tosh will demand his staff have similar energy and also demand the most out of their players, and be very hands-on in practice --so not just game planning and calling plays from coordinators.
He’s a culture fit for Tosh but a big question mark as an OC. We have the best QB in the nation and we’re bringing in a glorified assistant to lead the offense. I don’t want to hear any excuses of this guy still learning how to be an OC next season.
I like your standard! It's also a little cause for concern that Ron is a defensive guy too, so what would he know about offense either..? But I look at how he held fort and engineered keeping JKS throughout the entire season.. Im putting my trust in him that we hire a good staff because he's committed to winning
The standard must be championship level hiring. This is a comfort hire. There is nothing in this guy’s resume that signals offensive excellence.
Don't know much about him but I prefer a fresh face with upside than a retread and trust the current folks in charge to determine he's smart and hardworking. I hear he's a good recruiter too which I'm sure was a big factor.
I am afraid of my personal, blue-tinted glasses altering the reality of this hire. The truth of the matter is Jordan Sommerville doesn't have experience designing his own offensive schemes and calling his own plays. It is not clear which offensive philosophy and identity he will adopt or has learned from. I guess we will find out his ability as offensive coordinator once the 2026 season starts. Recruiting better players matters, but having smarter schemes matters too, especially if we want to punch above our own weight.
Top talented players are far more important than schemes imho. Without top talent any scheme will fail.
He doesn't have any playing experience and made it to the NFL coach in his 20s. That is very impressive. If the NFL and Tosh thinks highly of him, I trust and am excited for this hire.
Not to diminish but he’s an assistant position coach. So it’s not like he’s some huge upstart running a position room at 29. He was an analyst in Oregon and then an assistant position coach. This is a massive leap for him.
You are not providing his full resume...in particular, you are missing his experience at ASU and then UNM. At UNM he was the running backs coach and run game coordinator, as well as the recruiting coordinator....before he got to Oregon.
And, he is not just an assistant position coach with TBB, he is also the passing game coordinator. I would not make the guy a head coach, but he's qualified for an OC job. He must have a great upside or Tosh would not be bringing him in.
If Harsin is out can we get Jet back?
Do we want Jet back? He hasn't been good this year: just 3.6 yds / carry. I think we will have good roster options and don't need to focus on getting back with our exes.
Raiola to the portal...would we want Nyziah back? ;-)
Hunter absolutely!
I would take him back in a heartbeat.
Love Nyziah, but I think we'll have a lot of good options to fill out the WR room this offseason. That will be a portal priority for sure.
Hunter would be a great flip back. He did have a good year and with Raiola gone they are starting over
Him and Ott had not so good years. I guess the grass isn’t necessarily greener unless you hit the perfect situation like Mendoza.
Hopefully Ott finds a way to resuscitate his career, but it won't be with us. Maybe he goes to N'western to partner with Aristotle.
Hard to imagine Tosh losing a talented player like Ott. Along with losing Mendoza, it doomed Wilcox.
Much of that was a terrible OC prior to Neuheisel taking over
I didn't spend any time watching UCLA this year, but I think his numbers actually may have gotten worse as the season went along. I remember checking on him earlier in the year out of perverse curiosity and seem to recall he was averaging around 4.5 carry.
Regardless my point is more that I'd prefer us targeting guys that fit whatever system we put in place versus guys that were good for us at one time. If Jet's skills fit that vision, then yes, go get him. But otherwise there are probably many other better options that would like to be here playing with JKS and for this staff next year.
So we brought in a 29 year old position coach with no experience as an OC to lead our offense. He's going to help Tosh, a defensive coach, run our offense. I hope this rumor is wrong otherwise I'm not feeling very bullish about the long-term prospects of our offense for the next few years.
The Rolovich hire makes a lot more sense now beyond just JKS retention. Gives the young OC a rock to lean on and provides stability for what will be a potentially rocky transition through coaching staffs. Keeps JKS focused through it all. I'm guessing as Assistant HC, he has more say on the offense than he normally would.
This just sounds backwards to me unless Rolo specifically did not want to be OC. Otherwise, make Rolo as OC and bring Somerville as a position coach. Rolo can mentor while also have an experienced hand at developing offenses, calling plays and managing the offensive staff.
I'm guessing Rolo wants to go back to being a HC, not an OC. And many schools don't want to take a chance at him because of his history. In the end, Cal isn't flush with cash and we're going to have to get creative to put together the kind of extensive staff that we're competing against.
This is my worry. I hope we're not still trying to do this on the cheap because that's one of the core reasons why we can't have sustained winning. We can't roll-the-dice our way to a sustained, top tier program.
Well, money doesn't just appear out of thin air.
This is a bigger discussion, but I felt like with Wilcox (and Sonny) we mostly got what we paid for. We budgeted for a mid-tier program and got mid-tier results. I hoped that along with a change to staff, the money situation and the commitment had also changed. Otherwise, we're just moving the deck chairs here.
I’m all in on this hire. An up and coming coach with recruiting chops. And Rolo will be a great mentor, until his next gig, as mentioned, most likely a HC opportunity.
Why would NFL position coach come to Cal at the same position?
At the Buccs he appears to be more of an assistant than a position coach. The position coaches for the passing game are George Edwards and Kefense Hynson, both grey beards.
Ok, yeah I realized he is just an assistant QB coach, not the QB coach. I looked up the staff and the QB coach is Thaddeus Lewis. Hynson and Edwards are not position coaches.
Anyway I guess assistant QB to the actual QB coach is an upgrade but not something worth much to convince moving down to the college level. He can be mentored by the senior staff at Tampa too.
I'm for a penny, in for a pound with Tosh. He's bringing in the staff he believes will be highly effective. And I really like that Tosh is building his Cal staff while serving being with Oregon during their playoff run.
Go James Madison! A win over Oregon & Tosh will be released as HC for our Bears.