This is the twelth and final article that has covered every aspect of the program including the coaching staff, including a review of 2024, the roster comings and goings and the projection of the unit going into the Spring.
There is nothing more determinant of a college football programs success than its head coach and to a lesser degree, the staff he builds around him. The head coach creates the culture, the
Catharyn Hayne / KLC fotos
Head coach Justin Wilcox
spirit and the essence of the program - it’s more than scheme and teaching. It’s also recruiting and sweating every last detail, ideally with as close to single-minded purpose as possible - winning football games.
2024 Recap:
While it’s a subjective analysis, it’s not difficult to argue that Justin Wilcox, in his eighth season as the head coach at Cal had his deepest and most talented roster. They had back to back strong portal transfer classes with few costly departures and more than a few splashy new additions. There was continuity as well. Coach Wilcox has had eight seasons in Berkeley, making him among the longest tentured head coaches in the ACC and prior to that, the Pac--12. The program returned the defensive and special teams staff intact and had promoted OL and run game coordinator Mike Bloesch to the OC and OL dual role after a strong debut season which saw the OL play improve considerably. There was but one new addition, QB coach Sterlin Gilbert,
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Defensive coordinator Peter Sirmon
hand-picked by Bloesch to help him develop the QB room and passing game planning and play calling.
Evaluating head coaches is not difficult, it’s about winning games. Cal went 6-7 last year, bringing Wilcox’s overall record as a head coach to 42-50 and with a 2-6 mark in the ACC, he’s now posted a 23-43 mark in conference play. Adding to those disappointing tallies, the Bears are now 1-18 in their last nineteen games against foes that finished the season with a winning record. And in one score games, Cal is 5-12 over the past three seasons.
On the flip side, the Bears made a bowl in their second consecutive season (losing both) and have now beaten arch rival Stanford in four straight contests. Underlying the less than stellar results was an offense that took a meaningful step back after Wilcox replaced Jake Spavital with Bloesch, in particular, the poor play of the OL. The team had its second consecutive year of outsized injuries and was rarely as strong and powerful in the trenches as its opponents.
2025 Departures:
Mike Bloesch (OC and OL coach)
Sterlin Gilbert (QB and Passing game coordinator)
Burl Toler III (WR coach)
Aristotle Thompson (RB Coach)
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Offensive line coach Famika Anae
Tre Watson (Co-Secondary Coach)
Brian Johnson (Strength and Conditioning Coach)
2025 Returners:
Peter Sirmon (Defensive Coordinator and ILB coach)
Vic So’oto (OLB coach)
Mike Saffell (TE coach)
Andrew Browning (DL coach)
Terence Brown (co- Secondary coach)
2025 Additions:
Brian Harsin (Offensive Coordinator and QB coach)
Allen Brown (Co-Secondary coach)
Julian Griffin (RB Coach)
Jason Novak (Strength and Conditioning Coach)
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Wide receivers coach Kyle Cefalo
Kyle Cefalo (WR Coach)
Famika Anea (OL Coach)
Nick Rolovich (Senior Offensive Assistant)
Projections:
There’s no getting around the reality that a head coach sets the tone and is the primary assembler of talent on a college football team. In general, successful coaches stay successful, even with roster and staff turnovers and coaches that have struggled don’t often see meteoric rises from new talent on the roster and staff. That said, this is clearly Wilcox’s best offensive coaching staff. Harsin, a former successful head coach and well-respected offensive mind and Rolovich, another former head coach and offensive guru, instantly raise the schematic and teaching acumen of the staff. Jason Novak will have a hard time not being a meaningful upgrade on Johnson. Players who transferred in were almost universally disappointed and confused with the low quality of the training program at Cal when Johnson led them. Kyle Cefalo, the new WR coach, has a wonderful reputation and has coached and developed four All-American wide receivers in his young tenure and Famike Anae, while young is seen as a rising star in the OL coaching ranks, leading a New Mexico squad who lost virtually every lineman on their roster, including all starters to the #1 sacks allowed and #4 rushing offense in the country in his first season there in 2024. New running backs coach Julian Griffin is seen as a rising young star in the coaching ranks, replacing the veteran Thompson.
How big of an impact can these changes have on the team’s performance in 2025? Offensively, there’s a lot of room for immediate improvement and despite a higher beta QB room, optimism is likely to prevail that side of the ball. Defensively, the talent and experience level have come down and not much has changed coaching-wise. Expect to see a solid but unspectacular defensive group as has generally been the case the last five seasons. Special teams? They’ve improved
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Head football athletic performance coach Jason Novak
incrementally the past two years with placekicking being the one very material anomaly. The on-paper talent has taken a dip and Ryan Longwell, who leads that group, remains in place.
Past results are very often indicative of future performance. There’s a large body of evidence that suggests that Justin Wilcox is a well known and understood leader of the football program. Possessing extremely high character and of top-notch integrity, he is a proven defensive coach who during his first four years in Berkeley, did wonders to turn around a diminished and unethusiastic donor base and to make systemic changes to Cal’s porous levels of support for the football program. That rate of improvement has stalled out the past few campaigns and while not all of that is on Coach Wilcox, some of it clearly has to fall at his feet.
Wilcox and Cal have a chance to take a step forward in 2025. The schedule could not be more favorable, the offensive staff changes are almost certainly a step forward and perhaps he can be that rare counter example of a head coach who finds meaningful success late in a tenure that has thus far not been successful.
Previous articles in this series:
The Safeties
The Cornerbacks
The Quarterbacks
The Running Backs
The Inside Linebackers
The Wide Receivers
The Outside Linebackers
The Tight Ends
The Defensive Line
The Offensive Line
