Cal Football Weekly Presser: Potential Changes Afoot For Game Planning, Special Teams

Today’s weekly press conference was an abbreviated one, with only head coach Tosh Lupoi on the mic rather than both coordinators and a pair of players joining him, as usual.

The strategy seems to indicate wheels are in motion with a shakeup in playcallling responsibilities on offense and special teams after the Bears have struggled prodigiously in those two of the three phases of the game, with only the defense rallying after a rough season-opening performance in the loss to UCLA to become a relative bright spot of the program.

Lupoi wasn’t specific about any changes, including potentially reassigning struggling offensive coordinator Jordan Somerville or special teams coach Zach Tinker but made it clear that it won’t be just business as usual or a case of the staff working harder to correct mistakes.

“I’ve got a lot of faith in what we're doing moving forward,” Lupoi said. “I have just elevated...we’ve got a great staff. You’ve got Pat McCann, a former offensive coordinator that's had a lot of success. Nick Rolovich, former offensive coordinator and head coach. Keith Bonifa that's one of the best in the business, running backs coach. We got great staff and elevating some responsibilities within owning some specific roles, organizing.

“As a defensive head coach, (I’ve) spent a lot of time with our defense naturally, and I've still attended plenty of offensive meetings, special teams, throughout this season, certainly, and I'm going to do a much better job of just making sure in all three phases that we're held to a specific standard in every aspect of this program, so want to want to give our players great clarity, as they deserve, get coached to a high standard.

“You guys have heard me for the last eight months celebrating what an awesome staff we have, and I stand by that. And we're also a staff that's got to challenge ourselves to recognize where we faltered and make that better.”

It would stand to reason with soph QB Jaron Keawe Sagapolutele’s relative lack of sharpness compared to last season, that a simplification of their NFL-style playbook and the complex reads required by the QB might be simplified going forward.

Lupoi would only hint at developments of that nature, referring to the “flat-out unacceptable production from our offense.” 

“That must improve and love my plan going forward of exactly how we're going to do that,” the head coach said. “But the fact is, our defense has scored as many touchdowns as our offense in the last two Power Four games, and it's completely unacceptable. So I'm not up here to talk about, ‘we're going to go back and focus on the basics, and little things will lead to big things.’ I'm going to do something about it. That's exactly what I'm doing right now.

“I love where we're at, and most importantly, these guys, the way they worked and what they deserve and what we're capable of. At the end of the day, when our quarterback's feet are set and he has clarity of his rules, there's nobody better in the country, and we've got enough talent there to produce more. And I’ve got a lot of faith in the direction we're going forward. 

“So we've got to clear up and cause clarity for sure of his progressions, where the ball needs to go, and doing that,”

As for special teams, Lupoi didn’t go into possible coaching changes but noted that personnel changes were in order to try and give the coverage units every chance to turn the tide in what has been woeful coverage to-date, including surrendering a back-breaking 65-yard punt return touchdown to Clemson returner Bryant Wesco Jr to break a tie late in the third quarter after a short and low punt where several players failed to stay in their lanes on the return.

“Special teams, it's a profession there, right?,” Lupoi said. “That's why it's called special, and it's a specialist. And the fact is, Angus (punter Angus Davies) has done an incredible job, but he is in a job where one mis-hit can be the difference of the game. And you’ve got to always acknowledge as well that he is also a difference of us being successful and having a chance to win as well, with the amount of success and pinning the team down so that's the tough part about that.

“When you get a 2.72 line drive hang straight to an NFL player, it makes it extremely difficult to give up that critical moment. So I can assure you and invite anybody to to watch the film, this is not a lack by any means of a motivated team or a lack of effort. You know, I wish it was that easy. These guys, they are they are operating to the standard. You’ve got guys like AJ Tuateli, Kingston Lopa who are clocking over 70 reps because of their commitment to special teams as well, putting our starters on that after having some mishaps early in the season and making sure that we have our absolute best personnel to put us in the best position there.”

Saturday’s kickoff will be at 12:30 at Allegiant Stadium on CBS Sports Network. This will be the third all-time meeting between Cal and UNLV and first at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas and Cal’s second road trip of the season.

Cal won the first-ever matchup between the Golden Bears and the Rebels on Sept. 10, 2022, in Berkeley with a final score of 20-14.  The most recent contest between the two programs was at the 2024 LA Bowl where the #24 Rebels downed the Bears 24-13 at SoFi Stadium.

The Rebels come in at 2-2 after victories over Hawaii (21-6) and Akron (38-10) and defeats to Memphis (27-21) and North Texas (44-6).