Why Tosh Lupoi should be the top choice to lead the next era of Cal football

It's time to dream. It's time to dare to be great.

Credit: Max Torres

This is an opinion piece that reflects only the opinions of this writer, and not the site itself.

It’s a story you might all know very well Cal fans.

A beloved Golden Bear is getting accolades left and right. He steps up into a difficult position in a program that is going sideways. He starts providing a light with wins on and off the field, generating energy and enthusiasm for the program. And this person loves Berkeley so much that it’s hard to envision them anywhere else.

But unfortunately, despite this relationship with the fans, this person does not feel they are being treated well internally for their role within the program. The coaches do not back him in critical moments. Decisions are made that sideline this person. The team loses in inexplicable, painful fashion. The offers start coming in from programs in better places, on the rise, with coaching providing him a better path.

Then they leave. And it causes a firestorm.

I am of course talking about Fernando Mendoza.

Mendoza leaving was essentially the beginning of the end for the Justin Wilcox era at Cal, as it cascaded into the exodus of the skill talent needed to succeed in 2025. From a fan’s perspective, it was a bitter pill to swallow. From a quarterback’s perspective, after being benched for Chandler Rogers multiple times, after being relentlessly pressured and sacked behind one of the worst offensive lines in college football, and after knowing the next quarterback inbound was talented enough to compete for the starting job in a year, the tough decision became easier.

I forgave Fernando pretty quickly for his decision, because it was clear that he wasn’t going to achieve his goals with the California Golden Bears as we knew them, and we quickly found another special quarterback who could be good, if not better. And it appears like his decision was vindicated, as he’s now on the cusp of the College Football Playoff and a Heisman Trophy.

There are many sides to all stories, and not everyone can agree with them. Cal has their own story of why Mendoza left; Fernando has his. But in life, we can only make the best decisions for ourselves, and see where they take us.

This is what Fernando Mendoza had to do recently to leave Cal. And this is what Tosh Lupoi had to do in the past.

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In the last few months, as the Justin Wilcox era, a piece of old lore has been circulating from a decade-and-a-half ago, from another site, in another world.

This is a piece that hasn’t aged well. It was a piece written in anger and in sadness, knowing full well that a chapter of our program was coming to an end. It has been a piece that has circulated for a decade, and has probably damaged the feelings of a lot of Cal fans and donors toward bringing him back.

It was still in the halo era of Jeff Tedford, when we felt the man could do little wrong, before the word “APR” became a standard in our lives. Shaq Thompson, Arik Armstead, Deforest Buckner, Stefon Diggs, all names that could’ve ushered in a new era, all gone. A new generation of Cal football dashed, leading us to the wilderness we’ve all been scouring since.

Tosh Lupoi has been on the shortlist for Cal position jobs in the past, particularly when the man who hired him away in 2013 became Cal’s head coach. Reportedly the bad blood from these times kept him from being seriously considered.

At the time, Tosh was easy to blame for leaving, because it was harder not to look at the factors that went into the decision. There was the Oregon fake injuries debacle that UC leadership demanded a suspension for—and the coaching staff chose Lupoi, even though it was clear the decision had come from higher on up the team.

There was Tosh winning National Recruiter of the Year and landing top classes for the Bears two years straight, only to wait in line for other more senior (but in my opinion, less deserving) Cal position coaches to get their pay raises. Despite landing recruiter after recruit, Lupoi kept waiting in line for his turn. When Steve Sarkisian and Washington came calling to offer to double his salary, the ears were more receptive than they ever should have been.

Perhaps, two decades apart, we should start looking at our beloved university, one that hasn’t tried to realistically compete for more than a handful of years at its most important athletic program, and determine if they are the ones at fault more than the people who choose to eventually leave. And we have to acknowledge that Tedford was himself not quite the same in his final years, making decisions that ultimately sank his tenure here.

When you have one position coach win a national championship within years of leaving Cal, and another quarterback become one of the best stories in college football only a year after departing, and both trying their hardest to make Berkeley work despite all extenuating factors, shouldn’t we start asking ourselves why Cal didn’t create the best environment for them to succeed?

Shouldn’t we self-examine how Cal could screw up a situation this badly with someone who should’ve been a Golden Bear for life?

I do not expect everyone to forgive Tosh, nor should I expect it, if he ends up becoming the next Cal head coach. We all have our own opinions, our belief systems, and they will not always align. But if Jeff Tedford can hug Lupoi on the field mere months after that decision at the Cal-Washington game, and Cal alum like Cameron Jordan and Chase Lyman and Bryce Treggs can all vouch for him, and his boss Dan Lanning (in the middle of a national title hunt) gives him a letter of recommendation, aren’t we capable of re-examining our priors?

So if the person above who wrote that article can say that he regrets what he wrote, and is ready to move on for what’s best for Cal, I hope you can as well.

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Credit: ESPN/GoldenBearSports

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Feelings aside, when it comes down to it, it’s harder to put on paper a better candidate for what Cal needs at this very moment than Tosh Lupoi. Lupoi is one of the few living Cal grads who can claim to be a college football national champion, multiple-time conference champion who has seen a New Year’s Day sunset at the Rose Bowl. He’s vouched for by Tedford, Nick Saban, Dan Lanning and Steve Sarkisian. There are fewer more qualified coaches with stronger bona fides who would ever consider the Cal job the one they want most.

He has proven to be an exceptional coach everywhere he has gone. His defensive lines have been some of the best in college football everywhere he’s gone. He has graduated from tactician to a strategic planner, coordinating defenses at Alabama and Oregon to top ten numbers. Oregon’s defense is their strength in 2025, carrying them to another playoff bid.

The recruiting acumen remains incredible. Lupoi remains one of the best recruiters in the nation. From Keenan Allen to Dylan Moses, Najee Harris to Shaq Thompson, Jaylen Waddle to Trevon Diggs, to Vita Vea to Matayo Uiagalelei, the list of NFL pros and potential pros who he has recruited and coached is endless.

Most importantly, like Rich Lyons and Ron Rivera, he is a Cal grad who demands excellence and likely can be a bit more ruthless in an era of college football that is more unforgiving than ever. Lyons gave Rivera the blessings needed to take over football, and eventually send Jim Knowlton packing. Rivera made a quick call to end the Wilcox era, and is now looking to make a quick decision to hire the next candidate. These are serious people who want Cal to succeed, but also are in the process of selling non-stop, and Lupoi will likely share that same temperament and attitude.

You can count on your fingers how many more years left Cal has to prove themselves as a program for the next round of realignment. There are other fun things like rugby and water polo and gymnastics that have provided us a taste of Cal athletic excellence. With the change in athletic leadership, money has started pouring in. Through all this, the most engaged fans have stayed loyal, mostly through our own self-entertainment and various cultural victories.

But football is the juice, and it needs to be good, NOW. If Cal is not good here, everything else (our Olympic tradition, our glorious athletic alumni, our Nobel Prizes, even the Calgorithm) become irrelevant. Cal Athletics will not have the necessary support or resources it needs to get an invite into the major conferences.

Tosh Lupoi provides that juice. He is a natural extrovert who will be able to sell his vision of the program to donors, fans, admin, and many others. He will have much greater institutional backing with Rivera and Lyons to hire the staff he needs. He has the national profile to attract attention from a lot of coaches, both ones he’s worked with and ones on the up-and-up. He can hit the transfer portal quickly and build an ACC championship-level squad in a very short turnaround time. He can rebuild the fractured recruiting relationships we’ve had locally since his departure.

It’s time to dream big at Cal. Tosh Lupoi is the best person to lead that dream.