Cal targeting Oregon defensive coordinator Tosh Lupoi as next head coach: Sources

Oregon defensive coordinator Tosh Lupoi is the top target of Cal’s search for its next head coach, sources briefed on the negotiations told The Athletic. The job would represent a return home for Lupoi, a Bay Area native who played at Cal from 2000 to ’05 and later spent three seasons as the Golden Bears’ defensive line coach.

Since then, Lupoi has coached at Washington, Alabama and Oregon, where’s been since 2022, in addition to multiple stints on NFL staffs. This year’s Oregon defense is fifth nationally in yards per play allowed, and the Ducks are expected to host a first-round College Football Playoff game. Lupoi has also been considered one of the best recruiters in the country, especially on the West Coast.

His NFL stops included the Jacksonville Jaguars, Cleveland Browns and Atlanta Falcons.

Cal general manager Ron Rivera fired coach Justin Wilcox a little more than a week ago after a 31-10 loss to Stanford dropped the Golden Bears to 6-5 on the season. With Nick Rolovich serving as interim head coach, Cal upset SMU on Saturday, knocking the Mustangs out of the ACC championship race.

The move would add to the Golden Bears’ optimism about holding on to talented freshman quarterback Jaron-Keawe Sagapolutele, a former five-star recruit who flashed in his first year on campus. Sagapolutele has a relationship with Lupoi: He initially flipped from a prior Cal commitment to sign with Oregon as a recruit in the Class of 2025, before flipping back again and enrolling at Cal. With Rivera as GM and an administration getting behind the program, Lupoi would bring a familiar face and a successful track record back to Berkeley. His father John Lupoi, a former BYU player, was once a grad assistant on the Cal staff.

The 44-year-old Lupoi would become the third assistant off Dan Lanning’s Oregon staffs to leave for a Power 4 head coaching job, following Arizona State’s Kenny Dillingham and current Ducks offensive coordinator Will Stein, who was named Kentucky’s next head coach earlier this week.