Dan Lanning Endorses Tosh Lupoi, the Early Favorite to Be Cal's Next Head Coach

Nearly every report this week about Cal’s coaching vacancy suggests that Oregon defensive coordinator Tosh Lupoi, who played and coached at Cal, might be the leading candidate to be Cal's next head football coach.

Oregon head coach Dan Lanning this week gave a glowing report of Lupoi’s readiness to be a head coach, and we will get to that later. But first let’s try to investigate whether Tupoi might be general manager Ron Rivera’s choice to be the Bears’ next head coach.

Rivera said specifically that the next Cal head coach does not have to have head coaching experience, so Lupoi, who has never been a head coach, fits that model.

Rivera also said that some of the candidates on his list might be in the College Football Playoff, and Oregon and Lupoi certainly fall into that category.

And there’s one other thing that caught my ear in Rivera’s description of what he’s looking for. He wants someone who understands the University of California, which Lupoi certainly does, not only as a former player and assistant coach at Cal but as a native of the Bay Area, growing up in Walnut Creek, California, and attending De La Salle High School. But then Rivera said he would ask any candidate, “Why would you want to come back to Cal?” Rivera, perhaps noticing what he implied, quickly added, “Or why would you like to come to Cal?”

Maybe this is reading too much into a single comment, but hints could be anywhere.

There is a precedent for hiring a coordinator from a top football program with no head coaching experience to become the head coach elsewhere. Kirby Smart was Alabama’s defensive coordinator with no head coaching experience when he was hired at Georgia, and that has certainly turned out well. Lanning was the defensive coordinator at Georgia and had not been a head coach when Oregon hired him, and the Ducks have prospered. Ryan Day had no head coaching experience when he was promoted from offensive coordinator to Ohio State head coach, and the Buckeyes are currently No. 1.

And Jeff Tedford, Cal’s most successful head coach since World War II, was Oregon’s offensive coordinator with no head coaching experience when Cal hired him.

As a defensive coordinator at Alabama and Oregon, Lupoi certainly fits the bill. And his reputation as an outstanding recruiter and his experience as an NFL assistant coach pad his resume.

However, Justin Wilcox was a respected defensive coordinator with no head coaching experience when Cal hired him, and that did not work out. Plus, Cal may want an offensive-minded head coach this time considering the Bears' shortcomings on that side of the ball in recent years.

It might depend on whether Lupoi would want the Cal job, and there have no reports indicating whether he is interested in the Cal opening.

Cal could name him as its head coach before the bowl seasons begins. Tedford was named Cal’s head coach nearly three weeks before Oregon played in the Fiesta Bowl following the 2001 season.

According to College Football HQ on SI, Oregon this year extended Lupoi’s contract to 2027, at a salary of about $2 million per year. Lupoi would have to pay 50% of the value remaining on his contract if he left Oregon before Feb. 1, 2027.

Lupoi drew some ire from Cal fans when he redirected a Cal commitment to Washington when he left Cal’s staff to become a Washington assistant, but that should not be a major issue.

Earlier this week, Lanning did exactly what a head coach is supposed to do: pump up his assistant coaches for head coaching vacancies.

Here is what Lanning said about Lupoi’s readiness to be a head coach, with the key phrase being, "Anybody that wouldn't look at him would be crazy.":

“Tosh is an unbelievable coach. I learned from him as much as, and now getting to work together in this setting as a head coach, but I’ve learned from him back when I was a GA at Alabama. And he is a relentless worker and an unbelievable guy in preparing. He’ll make an outstanding head coach, when the opportunity comes that he wants and it makes sense for him.

“Anybody that wouldn’t look at him would be crazy. I mean he does an unbelievable job and it’s not . . He has a reputation of doing an unbelievable job as a recruiter, but that’s not all that he is. He’s an unbelievable coach. He can coach every position on defense, understands offensive ball, puts in the time and effort.

“So when he gets his opportunity I know he’ll kill it, and at some point that’ll happen. And I always talk about my goals for our staff and really myself is for me to be able to help people advance for opportunities for themselves that make a lot of sense. And will that happen this year for Tosh? I think it has to make unbelievable sense for him for it to happen same for Will [offensive coordinator Will Stein] and same for several coaches on our staff. We have a bunch of coaches that are going to be phenomenal head coaches when they get that chance, but we also have a really good product here that a lot of these guys have said no a lot of great opportunities because they don’t want to leave what we have here.

“So will he get that opportunity some day? I hope he does if he wants that, and the same for all the other coaches on our staff because they’re certainly deserving. We get to have a great team here because of what they’ve done”

Here is Lanning’s complete press conference, with the portion in which he talks about Lupoi starting about 11 minutes into the video:

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