Kyle Cefalo Joins Bears As Wide Receivers Coach/Passing Game Coordinator

Kyle Cefalo has been named the new wide receivers coach/passing game coordinator of the California football program, Travers Family Head Football Coach Justin Wilcox announced Friday.

Cefalo has over a decade of coaching experience at the FBS level and has helped produce some of the most prolific offenses in the country during that span. During his time as an offensive coordinator and wide receivers coach, Cefalo has been part of six teams that have been ranked in the top 25 nationally in both total offense and passing offense. Three of his teams have been ranked in the top 10 in the country in passing offense, including the No. 2-rated squad in passing offense when he was the wide receivers coach and special teams co-coordinator at Arkansas State in 2020.

Most recently the offensive coordinator/wide receivers coach at Utah State, Cefalo directed a unit this past season that produced 467.7 yards per game – which ranks seventh in the nation and second in the Mountain West Conference. 

Cefalo has also overseen the development of some of the top wide receivers in the country. He coached two Associated Press Second Team All-Americans and Biletnikoff Award semifinalists at Arkansas State – Omar Bayless in 2019 and Jonathan Adams Jr. in 2020. Adams was also the 2020 Sun Belt Offensive Player of the Year. 

Utah State's Deven Thompkins was also a Biletnikoff Award semifinalist, Third Team All-American and First Team All-Mountain West performer in 2021. He finished second in the country with 1,704 receiving yards and currently plays for the Carolina Panthers. Jalen Royals was a Third Team All-American for the Aggies under Cefalo's guidance in 2023, when he ranked second nationally with 15 touchdown catches.

Cefalo began his coaching career at Arkansas State in 2013 and spent three seasons there as a graduate assistant – the first of which he worked under then-Red Wolves head coach Bryan Harsin, who was named Cal's offensive coordinator/quarterbacks coach on Tuesday. Cefalo was also a grad assistant at Maryland in 2016 before returning to Arkansas State as inside wide receivers coach in 2017. Cefalo moved on to Utah State in 2021 as the Aggies' wide receivers coach and passing game coordinator before becoming the program's co-offensive coordinator in 2023. He took over sole offensive coordinator duties for Utah State this season.

During his coaching tenure, Cefalo has been involved in 10 bowl games and three conference championships. He played wide receiver for the University of Colorado from 2009-13.

Cefalo is a native of Boston, Massachusetts and earned his bachelor's degree in history from Colorado in the spring of 2012.