Cal Bears Hire Beau Baldwin to Replace Jake Spavital as OC

The Cal Bears’ coaching staff continues to take shape as Beau Baldwin has been hired to take the place of Jake Spavital as offensive coordinator.

The Cal Bears continue to add to their coaching staff. A few days after hiring former Wisconsin defensive coordinator Justin Wilcox as their new head coach, the Bears have Jake Spavital’s replacement. With Spavital heading to the West Virginia after one year in Berkeley, Cal has hired Beau Baldwin, former head coach at Eastern Washington, as the offensive coordinator.

Baldwin has spent the last nine season with Eastern Washington, an FCS team, and helped guide them to an 85-32 record, and to the FCS playoffs six times during his tenure. His team has beaten a Pac-12 team twice in the past four seasons, knocking off Oregon State, 49-46, in 2013, and beating Washington State, 45-42, to open the 2016 season.

More from Golden Gate Sports

The Eagles’ routinely had impressive offenses during Baldwin’s time at the school. They averaged 42 points per game in 2016, making them the third-highest scoring team in the FCS. In 2014, they were the number one-ranked scoring offense, and were seventh in 2013.

Baldwin’s star pupil at Eastern Washington was Cooper Kupp, a wide receiver. Kupp ends his college career with 6,464 receiving yards, making him college football’s all-time leader across all divisions. He is the FCS all-time leader with 428 receptions and 73 touchdowns. He was twice named the Big Sky Conference’s Offensive Player of the Year (2015 and 2016), and was the Freshman of the Year in 2013.

Baldwin also coached Vernon Adams, Jr., who transferred to Oregon for his senior year. Adams led the Ducks to a 7-3 record as the starter, and turned in a fantastic season personally. Adams went undrafted, and was unsigned by an NFL team despite being invited to two different rookie camps. He currently plays for the Montreal Alouettes in Canada.

More from Cal Bears

Baldwin’s offensive attack isn’t all that dissimilar from the “Bear Raid” attack that Cal ran under Sonny Dykes. Eastern Washington ran a spread offense, and wanted their quarterback to get the ball out of his hands quickly. Baldwin will have some talented receivers to work with at Cal, most notably Demetris Robertson (Freshman All-American, eighth in Pac-12 in receiving yards) and Melquise Stovall, both of whom will be sophomores in 2016. Those two are the most likely candidates to replace the production lost by Chad Hansen, the Pac-12’s leading receiver who entered the NFL draft a year early.

The player throwing those passes is more the question now. Davis Webb filled in nicely in 2016, his only year at Cal after graduating and transferring from Texas Tech. He threw for 4,295 yards, the second-most in school history, but now leaves a void at the position.

Chase Forrest, entering his junior year, is the only Cal quarterback on the roster to have thrown a pass in college so far. He went 10-18 passing over three games in 2015 as a freshman. Ross Bowers, also a junior, took very limited snaps as a quarterback last season, but didn’t actually throw a pass. They also have freshmen Max Gilliam and Victor Viramonte as quarterback options. Both redshirted in 2016.

Next: Cal Football: Wilcox New Head, Spavital Out

This move means that there likely won’t be much of a transition period, since the offense won’t need to be overhauled to fit Baldwin’s system. With Wilcox, a former coordinator for some very good defenses, as head coach, it seems both sides of the ball are in good hands.

Home/Cal Bears