Cal's Tosh Lupoi, new coordinators discuss Bears entering 'extremely physical spring'

BERKELEY — If you haven’t already, get used to hearing about the three pillars.

Relentless effort. Ball excellence. Power of unit.

The ideological trio was echoed throughout Tuesday morning as Cal coach Tosh Lupoi, offensive coordinator Jordan Somerville, defensive coordinator Michael Hutchings and special teams coordinator Zach Tinker spoke individually with the media at California Memorial Stadium.

“We want to be known as the culture of the team, the pillars of the program, what we're all about,” Tinker said when asked about his group’s identity. “Relentless effort, ball excellence, power of unit; those all are encompassed in special teams. We want to reflect our team, with what we do on a daily basis, and that's what Tosh brought us here to do — really reflect his message, and that's what we should look like.”

“Those are the things you guys are going to hear Coach Tosh really say from the top down and hear us say as coordinators,” Hutchings added.

You get the gist.

While the program’s pillars, as literal pillars do, laid the foundation for Tuesday’s discourse, Lupoi and his coordinators did share a few noteworthy crumbs.

For one, Lupoi said there will be “a lot” of contact during spring ball, which is a rarity at this point of the year for teams at all levels of the game.

“Why is contact important in football?” Lupoi deadpanned before saying, “We need to establish ourselves as a physical group, and that's what we've got to go earn the right to perform in that manner. So we got to go practice it. So, certainly anticipating an extremely physical spring, and majority of our practices will be in full pads.”

Lupoi also said his team is adhering to NFL-like phases. 

The Bears just completed “Phase 1,” which was centered on building camaraderie and chemistry, learning fundamentals and techniques, improving strength and conditioning and grasping introductions to schematics. They are now entering Phase 2, which is about applying “Phase 1” to “more of a true football setting” with heightened speed and physicality.

More phases are to come.

Somerville, meanwhile, offered a peek into his offense.

“You’ll see reminiscence, so to speak,” Somerville prefaced about his offense compared to Cal’s 2025 season. “Everybody, to tell you the truth, is going to run some type of zone; everybody's going to run some type of gap. I think the biggest thing — and the biggest difference — that you'll see is how we go about doing it. And it all goes back to people.

“The one thing that is different from this year and last year, obviously, is the people, both players and coaches involved. And so for us, the way we attack it from an offensive standpoint is it's all going to sit around people. So, who are the people on the grass? And we're going to get some good information come springtime of who those guys are.”

Somerville, who admittedly has only called plays at the 12-U level, added that he is a believer in observation and has done plenty of note-taking throughout his stops in the NFL and NCAA. 

He also said it has been “awesome” getting to know and collaborate with quarterback Jaron-Keawe Sagapolutele and quarterbacks coach Nick Rolovich.

On the defensive end, Hutchings was much more reserved, leaning into the program’s aforementioned pillars.

However, the first-time play-caller shared his appreciation for returning to his home region and working for a program he had idolized growing up.

“It's a great opportunity, obviously being local, being native of here is always special thing for me,” Hutchings said. “I went to De La Salle, a place that holds a lot of roots, obviously in the Bay Area, and nationally, as a high school. But I think it's always nice to come back to a place that you grew up watching, knowing the history of it, guys that you idolized as a kid. 

“I think that was really one of the key pieces that was huge for me, just to be coming back home; still have family here, and you've been away for a few years, as this career does to you, and then a chance for you to come back home is almost like a full-circle moment, I would say.”

Hutchings shared he grew up watching classic Bears such as J. J. Arrington, Aaron Rodgers, DeSean Jackson and Mychal Kendricks.

For what it’s worth, Tinker spoke for under three minutes; he and we media members seemingly agreed there wasn’t much to say or ask.

Lupoi, though, shared a few more neat nuggets during his availability; I asked him about the constant visits from alumni, such as Marshawn Lynch and Cameron Jordan, and he responded with two minutes on the importance of having Berkeley legends around the program.

“It was a goal of mine on Week 1,” Lupoi said. “I voiced to the guys that there wouldn't be a single week that goes by where we didn't have somebody of great magnitude that represented this university in the past that's visiting here.”

Lupoi mentioned having “literal billionaires” speak to his team, as well as utilizing the Cameron Institute, a UC Berkeley institution dedicated to student-athlete development, which — you guessed it — has its own three empowering pillars; we’ll leave those for another day.

Cal’s head coach, off the top of his head, also shouted out 12 former players who’ve been around the program: Tyson Alualu, Cameron Jordan, Trevor Guyton, DeSean Jackson, Marshawn Lynch, Jared Goff, Tully Banta-Cain, Geoff McArthur, Lorenzo Alexander, Chase Lyman, Wendell Hunter and Zack Follett.

Additionally, Lupoi discussed supporting Sagapolutele’s off-the-field endeavors, such as the launching of his “JKS” apparel line on Monday afternoon at the Cal Student Store.

“In this building, we're focusing on our team aspect and our culture. But in this day and age, of course, (we’re) supporting our players with any NIL opportunity,” Lupoi said. 

“What I love about Jaron is that he's not just a very promising player with great potential; he's a great person. So he's somebody that I've really enjoyed growing closer towards, any opportunity I can.”

Lupoi, along with general manager Ron Rivera and several players, showed up to support Sagapolutele and his brand on Monday. Lupoi added that he joined Sagapolutele for Bible study hours later.