Cal Bears: Justin Wilcox New Head Coach, Jake Spavital Out

The Cal Bears have their replacement for Sonny Dykes. They have an agreement with Justin Wilcox to be the new head coach, but are losing OC Jake Spavital.

After surprisingly firing head coach Sonny Dykes after four seasons, the Cal Bears have their next head coach. The Bears have a verbal agreement with Justin Wilcox, formerly the defensive coordinator for the Wisconsin Badgers, on a five-year contract.

This is Wilcox’s first head coaching gig, but he has been coaching at the collegiate level in various positions since 2001. Prior to that, he played his college ball with the Oregon Ducks as a defensive back, splitting time between safety and corner, from 1996 to 1999. He was invited to training camp with the Washington Redskins in 2000, but didn’t make the roster.

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His coaching career began the next year, when he joined Boise State’s staff as a graduate assistant. He spent two seasons with the Broncos before coming to Cal for the first time, where he served as linebackers coach for three years. In 2006, he went back to Boise State for his first coordinator job.

Wilcox was defensive coordinator for Boise State during one of the most successful periods in school history. During his four-year tenure, the Broncos went 49-4 and routinely found themselves among the nation’s best defenses. Boise State won the Fiesta Bowl twice during that period, including in January of 2010 to cap off a 14-0 2009 season.

Wilcox moved to the Tennessee Volunteers in 2010, where he would spend two seasons before heading back to the Pac-12. He was defensive coordinator for the Washington Huskies for two years, and then for the USC Trojans for another two years.

The 2016 season was the only one Wilcox spent with Wisconsin, and it was a very successful one. The Badgers finished the season 11-3 and ranked ninth in the nation after ending the Western Michigan Broncos undefeated season in the Cotton Bowl. Wisconsin was led by one of the nation’s top defensive units.

The Badgers finished seventh out of 128 FBS teams in total defense, allowing 301.4 yards per game. They were third-best against the run, allowing 98.8 yards on the ground, fourth-best in terms of scoring (15.6 points per game allowed) and third-down defensive (27.9 percent conversion rate), and second in the nation with 22 interceptions. Outside linebacker T.J. Watt was a Second-Team All-American according to AP (First-Team by ESPN and Sports Illustrated’s standards), while cornerback Sojourn Shelton was a First-Team All-Big Ten player. Nine other players earned All-Conference nods.

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Wilcox will have his hands full with Cal’s defense. The Bears were ranked 127th out of 128 teams in scoring, allowing 42.6 points per game, and 125th in total defense, allowing 518.3 yards per game.

They also were 105th with 1.5 sacks per game (18 total), and 78th with 18 total forced turnovers. They held opponents under 30 points only twice in 12 games, beating Utah 28-23 on October 1st, and holding UCLA’s downtrodden team to 10 points in the season finale. By comparison, Wisconsin allowed 30 or more twice in 14 games, losing to Penn State 38-31 in the Big 10 Championship game and losing to Ohio State 30-23 in October. Both Ohio State and Penn State finished in the top-25 in terms of scoring.

Defensive tackle James Looney, who has one year of eligibility remaining, was the only defensive player from Cal to earn All-Pac-12 honors, as an honorable mention.

Wilcox is also known as a very good recruiter, but there isn’t much time ahead of National Signing Day.

Another candidate for the vacancy was Jake Spavital, who spent 2016 as Cal’s offensive coordinator. He was said to be one of the two finalists for the job (the other being, of course, Wilcox), but Cal went the defensive-minded outside candidate. Spavital earned a lot of support from Cal players on social media after being named interim head coach following Dykes’ firing, but was not promoted to permanent head coach. Instead, he is on his way out of Cal entirely.

Spavital is going back to West Virginia, where he previously served as the team’s quarterback coach from 2011 to 2012. He also earned a reputation as a great recruiter while there, and is now going to be the team’s offensive coordinator. Spavital earned his first OC job in 2013 with Texas A&M (as a co-offensive coordinator) before being promoted to the lone OC in 2014. He spent two years in that position before moving to Cal for one season.

With Spavital as the offensive coordinator, Cal had the 10th-ranked offense overall, gaining 513.2 total yards per game. Their passing attack was fourth in the nation at 358.8 yards, but the rushing attack lagged behind despite cries to continue pounding the ball on the ground. They were 88th in the country with 154.3 yards per game, and 111th with 414 rushing attempts.

Next: Cal's Rabb Named Pac-12 Player of the Week

For the first time in 15 years, Cal has a head coach with a defensive background. Jeff Tedford, the Bears’ leading man from 2002 to 2012, served as an offensive coordinator for nearly a decade before joining Cal. Dykes spent most of his coaching career working with wide receivers before getting offensive coordinator jobs at Texas Tech and Arizona.

LATE UPDATE: CSN Northwest is reporting that Steve Greatwood, who has been on Oregon’s staff since 2000, is also expected to join Wilcox at Cal. Greatwood, now 58 years old, began his Oregon coaching career in 1980 as a graduate assistant before being promoted to offensive line and tight end coach in 1982. He left for the NFL in 1995 before coming back to college with Maryland in 1997. Greatwood spent two years after that with USC before coming back to Oregon as a defensive line coach. He moved back to offensive line in 2005, where he remained until he was let go along with head coach Mark Helfrich last month.

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