Bucs' Todd Bowles Approves of Cal's Offensive Coordinator Hire

Tampa Bay Buccaneers head coach Todd Bowles recently gave his stamp of approval regarding Cal’s hiring of Jordan Somerville, who on Friday was officially named the Golden Bears offensive coordinator in 2026 under new head coach Tosh Lupoi.

Somerville has spent the past three seasons as the Buccaneers assistant quarterbacks coach, and he will remain with the Buccaneers through their 2025 season. The Bucs’ final regular-season game is January 4, and they have a good shot at reaching the playoffs, which begin January 10.

There is little to go on regarding what his offense will look like because the 29-year-old Sommerville has never been an offensive coordinator.

Bowles suggested on Wednesday’s that Somerville will be a good fit at Cal:

Video: Todd Bowles says Jordan Somerville will stay with the Bucs through the end of their season and says Cal is getting a smart young coach to run their offense. pic.twitter.com/oC3D3sN7Ts
— Greg Auman (@gregauman) December 17, 2025

“Outstanding young coach, extremely smart, doesn’t get nearly enough credit for the things he does,” Bowles said. “We’ve got a lot of good coaches, a lot of good you coaches. For him to get the OC job at Cal, I think they got a great hire. He’s a heck of a person, very fair, extremely smart, and he’s going to run an offense they way he knows how to run it.”

But what will Cal’s offense look like under Somerville, who was an offensive lineman when he played at Arizona State?

He will be the Golden Bears’ fifth offensive coordinator in five years and the sixth in eight years. Besides being the youngest of the previous five Cal offensive coordinators, Somerville is distinctive from the previous five in one important way: He has never been an offensive coordinator.

The Bears previous five offensive coordinators – Beau Baldwin (2017-2019), Bill Musgrave (2020-2022), Jake Spavital (2023), Mike Bloesch (2024) and Bryan Harsin (2025) – all had been offensive coordinators at the college level before taking that position at Cal.

Four of those five were unable to generate a strong offense at Cal, with Spavital being the exception.

The Bears rank 13th in the ACC in scoring offense and 14th in total offense this season under Harsin, although Harsin seems to be getting the most out of freshman quarterback Jaaron-Keawe Sagapolutele in recent games.

Sagapolutele recently announced that he will be staying at Cal for the 2026 season, and how Somerville is able to utilize Sagapolutele’s considerable talent will go a long way toward determining the success of both Somerville and Sagapolutele.

Somerville is given some of the credit for Baker Mayfield’s success in Tampa Bay the past two seasons, so that bodes well for his relationship with Sagapolutele.

Somerville will also get the assistance of Nick Rolovich, Cal’s interim head coach for the Hawaii Bowl who will be retained to be Cal’s quarterbacks coach in 2026. Sagapolutele has already developed a strong relationship with Rolovich, who served as Cal’s senior offensive analyst during the regular season before being promoted to interim head coach.

Prior to the NFL, Somerville was an offensive analyst at Oregon in 2022, when Lupoi was defensive coordinator for the Ducks.

Recent articles:

Former Cal and NFL star named head football coach at JSerra Catholic High School

Cal reportedly expected to hire Oakland native as running backs coach

Cal QB Caminong plans to enter the transfer portal

Cal WR Jacob De Jesus on the doorstep of 100 receptions

Cal adds an ACC game to its 2026 home schedule

Buccaneers assistant coach reportedly will be Cal's offensive coordinator

Mike White, who was the head coach of Cal’s powerful 1975 football team, dies

ESPN names Jaron-Keawe Sagapolutele as one of 15 candidates for 2026 Heisman

Cal graduate Fernando Mendoza wins the Heisman

Cal basketball wins seventh straight game, improves to 10-1