Cal Football Head Coach Tosh Lupoi Introduction and Press Conference
The prodigal son returns
The growing calls from the Cal fanbase for a coaching change ebbed and flowed throughout the 2025 season, and reached a fever pitch in the hours after the team’s stunning 31-10 loss to Stanford in the 128th Big Game. With an opening at Head Coach, the voice of the fanbase coagulated into one cohesive unit, with one name; Tosh Lupoi. Just under two weeks later, the official announcement came down that they got their wish.
This morning, in front of a Field Club full of athletic department personnel, press, former players, and boosters, Ron Rivera laughed as he introduced the return of Cal’s prodigal son, joking with the fanbase “You guys didn’t help, just so you know, cause the emails, the text messages…you took away our leverage.”
The day began in earnest as Lupoi and his family touched down at Oakland International Airport, greeted by Rivera, the Cal Band, and a Cal themed 1955 Thunderbird. Between then and his introductory press conference, Lupoi had the opportunity to speak with the current Cal roster.
During the course of the introduction and the press conference to follow, themes of alignment between the school, athletic department, and football program were stressed repeatedly, with the Chancellor, General Manager, and Head Coach, all having received their undergraduate degree from Cal. Lupoi opened his statements with his appreciation for the program that helped make him who he is today, “People say this too much, but this is a dream job for me, the place I’ve put the sweat, the blood, literally, into the bucket.”
Sketching out his vision for the program, Lupoi placed an emphasis on talent acquisition permeating all processes. “I’m not going to stand up here and guarantee, and talk about how many games we’re gonna win…that will ultimately be the result of the process that we put in place here.” There was a weight given to the theme of relentlessness, “I’d rather not share the details of that relentlessness because I don’t want any mothers to have fear in here.”
There are also clear ideas about what the team will not be. “One thing we’re not going to be, is we’re not going to change our themes and our culture and make t-shirts every week about what we’re gonna be. We’re gonna create an identity.” explained Lupoi.
Cal was not the only program with an interest in making Lupoi their Head Coach. He made it clear to all interested parties that he intended to finish out the year as the defensive coordinator of the Oregon Ducks, a position he stood firm on that took some schools out of the running.
Nevertheless, the new Head Coach is ready to get to work. He explained himself, “Every minute I keep talking here is a minute I’m not on FaceTime with someone who can help us.”
So begins the Tosh Lupoi era in Berkeley.
Thanks for this beautifully written statement about the arrival of Tosh Lupoi as the new California football coach. I've been a Cal football fan for over 65 years, following our team through thick and thin. I look forward to following the team under the leadership of our new coach, and I appreciate the support that Chancellor Rich Lyons has given the team, particularly by bringing Ron Rivera aboard. We welcome Tosh back to Bear Territory and look forward to his efforts to bring glory to our beloved football team. Go Bears!
This story does not do justice to what happened at Memorial Stadium on Friday, December 5, 2025.
Tosh Lupoi is not the most polished speaker who will dazzle you with his intellect. Hell, he even talked about being proud to get a C+ in a tough Business class at Cal. In his own, by the bootstraps, work for everything you get style, what he did was provide insight into how he is thinking about Cal Football, what its potential is, and how to realize it, in a way that has never been done at Cal before.
The first and most important thing to note is that Cal had both an internal "welcome" event and a traditional press conference on YouTube. The welcome event allowed Cal to control the narrative, which included the Chancellor making abundantly clear to everyone how Cal is now aligned with Football as a priority from the top of the organization. This has never existed at Cal in most of our lifetimes, if not all of them.
Lupoi touched on so many topics that demonstrate the scale and ambition of his vision for the program, but also made sure to be humble, saying he needs people to follow him, and he won't ask anyone to do what he won't do himself.
When is the last time you heard anyone associated with Cal Football talk about players getting out in the community to build support for the program, and how there are business interests that can support the program? Or my personal favorite, saying it's not enough for former players to come to games. Tosh wants them at practices too.
This is not a guy who thinks he can use Cal to get to a preferred destination. It is one who believes he can make Cal the preferred destination, with a track record of bringing people along with him to make it happen.
I do not hesitate to say Cal got the best Head Coach of any hire this cycle, because of how perfectly Tosh fits as Cal's HC, how committed he is to the university, and the lock-step alignment he has with Ron Rivera and Rich Lyons that will open up so much untapped potential.