The California Golden Bears are getting into their hat into the ring in what’s undoubtedly one of many extra high-profile “teaching carousel” faculty soccer seasons in current reminiscence.
A number of big-time applications have fired their coaches this season. That record consists of, however just isn’t restricted to, Florida firing Billy Napier, LSU firing Brian Kelly, Penn State firing James Franklin (who has now turn into the pinnacle coach at Virginia Tech) and Auburn firing Hugh Freeze.
Cal is now part of that infamous record after firing Justin Wilcox on Sunday after a 31-10 loss to Stanford.
They’re going to now search for one other head coach with the steering of former NFL head coach Ron Rivera, who’s this system’s basic supervisor, however the Golden Bears could not have to show far to search out their subsequent coach.
Cal ought to pursue Oregon Geese’ Tosh Lupoi
Nicely, a minimum of they will not have to depart the West Coast, as a result of the hands-down finest goal for them is Oregon Geese defensive coordinator Tosh Lupoi.
Lupoi makes a ton of sense for Cal, largely as a result of he performed for the Golden Bears as a defensive lineman from 2000 to 2005.
That is an enormous tie for him to this system, however it’s not the one tie. His first teaching gig was at Cal from 2008 to 2011, when he was the crew’s defensive position coach.
Lupoi made some big-time stops as an assistant. That features 5 seasons underneath Nick Saban at Alabama, the place he labored as every part from a defensive analyst early on to a defensive coordinator in 2018. He then spent three seasons within the NFL as an assistant with the Cleveland Browns, Atlanta Falcons and Jacksonville Jaguars earlier than Dan Lanning introduced him in to run Oregon’s protection in 2022.
That is one heck of a resume for Lupoi, and his time as a participant at Cal makes him the right match. He is 44 years outdated, so he is nonetheless younger, and he is often called one of many higher recruiters in faculty soccer. He reduce his tooth as a recruiter at Alabama and had a hand in recruiting gamers like Najee Harris, Dylan Moses, Mack Wilson, Tua Tagovailoa, Jaylen Waddle and Trevon Diggs to Tuscaloosa.
Throw within the championship expertise he acquired as a coach underneath Saban, and there actually cannot (or a minimum of should not) be one other contender for this Cal job.
The Golden Bears should aggressively go after Lupoi as a result of there will likely be different suitors for him. His place is clearly Berkeley, California, although.
