Can Tosh Lupoi Achieve What None of His Cal Predecessors Did?

Tosh Lupoi is the 21st head football coach Cal has hired since legendary Andy Smith back in 1916.

Lupoi has an opportunity to do something none of his predecessors achieved in their debut seasons: post a winning record, beat Stanford in the Big Game and lead his team to a bowl game.

Only seven of those 20 coaches achieved a winning record in his first season, none since Jeff Tedford in 2002.

Only five won the Big Game in their first try, most recently Tedford.

Only one guided his squad into a bowl game, with Steve Mariucci getting that done in 1996.

None of the 20 accomplished all three of those goals in their first season with the Bears.

Lupoi, whose Bears open their season Sept. 5 at home vs. UCLA, seems a decent bet to pilot Cal to a winning season. The return of budding star quarterback Jaron-Keawe Sagapolutele, an influx of talent and a somewhat favorable schedule provide a pathway to success.

Winning the Big Game is never a sure thing, but the Cardinal also is starting over with a first-year, home-grown coach in Tavita Pritchard. A year after Cal’s 31-10 loss at Stanford led to coach Justin Wilcox’s firing a day later, this Cardinal team is universally projected to finish near the ACC basement.

Accomplish those two goals and the postseason is all but certain in a landscape featuring 35 traditional bowl games and a 12-team college football playoff format. In other words, 82 of 138 FBS teams will get a bowl invite after this season.

The Bears seem unlikely to match the dazzling debut seasons recorded by Pappy Waldorf in 1947 or Stub Allison in 1935. Both went 9-1, but neither won the Pacific Coast Conference, which was their only avenue to a bowl game at that time.

Waldorf’s next three teams were undefeated in the regular season, winning three straight PCC titles before losing each time in the Rose Bowl.

Allison’s 1935 team posted seven shutouts before losing 13-0 to Stanford.

Two years later, the Bears beat Stanford by that same 13-0 margin and went on to shut out Alabama 13-0 for their most recent Jan. 1 victory in the Rose Bowl.

Other noteworthy Cal coaching debuts:

— Tedford’s 2002 squad opened with a 70-0 rout of Baylor and lost by two points each to Air Force and USC. But the Bears were ineligible to play in a bowl game that season due to previous NCAA sanctions for violations committed under previous coaching regimes.

— Steve Mariucci’s 1996 squad began the season 5-0, including a road upset of USC. That got the attention of the 49ers, who hired Mariucci after the season to replace George Seifert as head coach. But the Bears stumbled the rest of the season, losing six of their final seven games, including a 42-38 loss to Navy at the Aloha Bowl.

— Joe Kapp’s 1982 season climaxed with The Play and a 25-20 victory in the Big Game. But the Bears’ 7-4 record was a bit deceiving. Their four defeats came by a combined margin of 154-38. Cal did not play in bowl that season.

— Mike White’s 1972 season was challenging, including losses to No. 1 USC, No. 2 Colorado and No. 3 Ohio State. But the Bears pulled off a comeback from 17 points down to win the Big Game when Vince Ferragamo threw an 8-yard touchdown pass to Steve Sweeney on the game’s final play.

— Buck Shaw (1945) and Smith (1916) didn’t get the chance to coach the Big Game in their debut seasons. Stanford didn’t field a team either season — in ’45 because of World War II and in ’16 while still playing rugby before returning to football two years later.

Cal coaching debut seasons

Follow Jeff Faraudo on Twitter, Facebook and Bluesky

Add us as a preferred source on Google