By Stewart Mandel, Ralph Russo, Chris Vannini and Christopher Kamrani
Cal fired ninth-year head coach Justin Wilcox on Sunday, a day after the Bears’ gorgeous 31-10 loss to rival Stanford. Wilcox was 48-55 and had not completed with a successful file since 2019, although the Bears are at present 6-5.
Offensive analyst Nick Rolovich, who was fired as Washington State’s head coach in 2021 for refusing to adjust to the COVID-19 vaccine mandate for state of Washington staff, will function interim head coach. Rolovich has a 33-33 file in five-plus seasons as a head coach at Hawaii and Washington State. In January, he misplaced his lawsuit towards Wazzu alleging the varsity violated federal and state legal guidelines by discriminating towards him primarily based on his spiritual beliefs.
Cal’s final regular-season recreation is Saturday towards 8-3 SMU, which can advance to the ACC Championship Sport with a win.
Wilcox’s staff was simply two weeks faraway from an upset at then-No. 14 Louisville that secured bowl eligibility for a 3rd straight season. However Cal imploded Saturday night time in Palo Alto, breaking a four-game successful streak over Stanford in a recreation that noticed the 3-7 Cardinal return two fumbles for touchdowns and Cal commit 120 yards of penalties.
Wilcox for the reason that summer season had reported to former NFL head coach and Cal alum Ron Rivera, who was named normal supervisor of the soccer program in March and took over supervisory duties after athletic director Jim Knowlton retired.
Cal’s 2025 prospects appeared dim earlier than the season after this system noticed an exodus of high-profile transfers like quarterback Fernando Mendoza, now a Heisman frontrunner for Indiana. However the Bears obtained off to an encouraging 5-2 begin thanks partially to breakout freshman quarterback Jaron-Keawe Sagapolutele. They’ve misplaced three of 4 since.
Cal has been caught in a state of mediocrity for greater than 15 years, far faraway from the success Jeff Tedford had for a lot of the 2000s when he coached stars like Aaron Rodgers and Marshawn Lynch. Rivera has made it clear in public feedback he expects this system to turn out to be nationally aggressive once more.
“We’re in an excellent place now,” he informed The Athletic earlier this month. “We’ve got an excellent younger quarterback, and we wish to construct round him and construct towards the longer term.
Some potential names to look at for the job embrace Oregon defensive coordinator Tosh Lupoi (a Cal alumnus), UConn head coach Jim Mora, San Diego State head coach Sean Lewis and UC Davis head coach Tim Plough.
