Saffell Named Tight Ends Coach

Travers Family Head Football Coach Justin Wilcox announced Saturday that Mike Saffell has agreed to become the tight ends coach for the California football team. Saffell, who was a four-year letterwinner as an offensive lineman for the Golden Bears (2017-20), has spent the past three seasons on Cal's football staff as a student coach (2021) and graduate assistant (2022-23) working with the offensive line.

Saffell worked with Mike Bloesch, who was elevated Dec. 2 to the Bears' offensive coordinator/offensive line coach, when the Golden Bears averaged 181.1 rushing yards per game over their 12 regular-season contests in 2023 (most since 2012). The team's 2023 ground game has been led by first-team All-Pac-12 selection and league rushing leader Jaydn Ott, who is also seventh nationally in rushing yards per game (114.5) and 13th in total rushing yards (1,260). In addition, the Bears have made tremendous strides in protecting the quarterback and not allowing negative plays under Bloesch and Saffell in 2023, improving from 10th to fourth in the Pac-12 in sacks allowed (2.58 to 1.50) and 11th to tied for fifth in tackles for loss allowed (6.08 to 5.42) from a year ago.

Saffell played in 28 career games with 23 starts, including all 17 Cal contests at center during his junior and senior campaigns before announcing his medical retirement from football with one season of eligibility remaining before the 2021 campaign. Saffell helped Cal to back-to-back bowl games with the Bears, appearing at the Cheez-It Bowl in 2018 before knocking off Illinois at the 2019 Redbox Bowl to finish 8-5 overall. As a senior, he was named the Pac-12 Football Scholar-Athlete of the Year.

"Mike Saffell has been a tremendous asset to Cal football ever since he arrived as a player in 2017," Wilcox said. "Mike knows this program better than anyone and is universally respected. He has proven over the last seven years that he is absolutely dedicated to doing everything he can to help us win, and it will be exciting to see what he will accomplish in his new role."

"I am grateful to coach Wilcox and the other coaches on this staff for showing their confidence in me," Saffell said. "Cal is a special place that has given so much to me, and I'm excited to be taking on this new role."