Cal DL Coach Tony Tuioti Reportedly Nebraska-bound
Reports have surfaced indicating that Cal defensive line coach Tony Tuioti is set to receive a sizable raise to take over Nebraska's open defensive line coach position in Lincoln.
The 42-year old Tuioti came to Cal in 2016 as outside linebackers coach before moving to defensive ends coach in 2018 and to defensive line coach after the departure of veteran DL coach Jerry Azzinaro for UCLA in 2018.
Reports indicate Tuioti may be receiving a salary approaching 500k -a pay level commensurate with many defensive coordinator positions and a hard offer to pass up -even working in the frozen environs of Nebraska’s Memorial Stadium in Lincoln.
Tuioti has overseen a defensive line that’s played a solid role in Cal’s defensive resurgence after the return of Cal head coach Justin Wilcox to Cal after getting his coaching start as a linebackers coach under Jeff Tedford 16 years ago.
Before taking his position at Cal, Tuioti coached at Hawaii and with the Cleveland Browns, as well as serving as Director of Player Personnel at Michigan for a year before moving to Cal.
Should the Bears choose to make an internal hire, a prime candidate could be quality control defensive assistant Andrew Browning.
Browning played DL for Boise State under Wilcox and moved to quality control assistant and grad assistant for the Broncos following graduation. He then moved on to serve as defensive line coach at UTEP for five seasons, fielding some strong d-lines with both programs. He came to Cal last year after the UTEP staff turned over and has served as a defensive quality control assistant at Cal since then.
Stay tuned should any official announcement be forthcoming about any coaching changes in the next couple days.