Cal targeting Oregon defensive coordinator Tosh Lupoi as next head coach: Sources

Oregon defensive coordinator Tosh Lupoi is the top target in the search for Cal’s next head coach, sources briefed on the talks said. athleticThe job will represent a homecoming for Lupoi, a Bay Area native who played at Cal from 2000 to 2005 and later spent three seasons as the Golden Bears’ defensive line coach,

Since then, Lupoi has coached at Washington, Alabama and Oregon, where he has been since 2022, in addition to several stints on NFL staffs. This year’s Oregon defense ranks fifth nationally in yards per play, and the Ducks are expected to host a first-round College Football Playoff game. Lupoi has been rated as one of the best recruiters in the country, especially on the West Coast.

His NFL stops included the Jacksonville Jaguars, Cleveland Browns and Atlanta Falcons.

Cal general manager Ron Rivera had fired coach Justin Wilcox a little more than a week earlier, after the Golden Bears fell to 6-5 on the season following a 31-10 loss to Stanford. With Nick Rolovich serving as interim head coach, Cal upset SMU on Saturday, knocking the Mustangs out of the ACC championship race.

The move will increase optimism about the Golden Bears retaining talented freshman quarterback Jaron-Kiwe Sagapolutele, a former five-star recruit who shined in his first year on campus. Sagapolutele has a relationship with Lupoi: he initially backed out of a prior Cal commitment to sign with Oregon as a recruit in the class of 2025, before coming back again and enrolling at Cal. With Rivera as the GM and the administration behind the program, Lupoi will bring a familiar face and a successful track record back to Berkeley. His father John Lupoi, a former BYU player, was once a graduate assistant on the Cal staff.

The 44-year-old Lupoi will become the third assistant on the Oregon staff of Dan Lanning, who was named Kentucky’s next head coach earlier this week, to leave for a Power 4 head coaching job, following Arizona State’s Kenny Dillingham and current Ducks offensive coordinator Will Stein.