GM Ron Rivera Lays Out His Plan for Hiring Cal's Next Head Football Coach

Cal football general manager Ron Rivera explained on Tuesday why Justin Wilcox was fired now instead of at the end of the season, but more importantly Rivera discussed how he plans to conduct his search for the Golden Bears’ next head coach.

The elements of his search that were revealed Tuesday include the following:

---Rivera already has a list of 14 names that he considers candidates. He may add to that in the near future, then try to pare it down to 10 or so before beginning the serious process of finding a head coach.

---Coaches on teams that will be part of the 12-team College Football Playoff are likely to be considered by Rivera as candidates for the Cal job. Those will presumably assistant coaches on those teams, but Rivera did not specify that.

---It is not essential that the Bears’ next head coach have head-coaching experience.

---Rivera will form a committee of donors, alumni, faculty and former players to help conduct the search, with Rivera making the final decision. Current players will also have a say in the process. A search firm will not be enlisted to identify candidates.

---The next Cal head coach must know what the University of California is all about, given the distinctive qualities of the university.

---Cal offensive coordinator Byran Harsin and interim head coach Nick Rolovich are included on Rivera’s list of 14 candidates.

---Cal hopes to convince freshman quarterback Jaron-Keawe Sagapolutele that the next coaching staff will work in his best interests so that he will not transfer elsewhere.

---Rivera, a two-time NFL head coach of the year, suggested he would not be a candidate to be Cal’s next head coach. “I don’t think so,” he said.

---Rivera will not be rushing his decision on a new head coach to have him on board by the time the early signing period begins December 3.

To get to this point, Rivera had to make the decision to dismiss Wilcox one day after the Bears’ 31-10 loss to Stanford, dropping Cal's record to 6-5 heading into Saturday's home game against SMU. Rivera implied that losing to Sanford and the way it happened convinced him Wilcox needed to be removed immediately.

“Losing the Big Game really got me thinking really more than I anticipated,” said Rivera, who added that after losing that game “The wheels started to turn.”

“Once the game finished I went through a huge thought process, trying to go through my mind what just transpired, what it would mean for the program going forward,” he said. “And as I considered it and continued to talk about it, the realization that if there is an opportunity to do it now, let’s do it now. That way we can make the break.

“I talked to several people about this, decided to sleep on it, woke up in the morning about five [o’clock] and started thinking some more, and called a couple other people I needed to talk with, called the chancellor [Rich Lyons] and told him that now is the opportunity to move forward, to let Justin go and start planning for our future.”

He said his conversation with Wilcox about the decision was professional and called Wilcox “a class act, a character man,” and said some of the players really took the news hard.

“The hard part is obviously is we’d love to see more success in terms of wins and losses,” Rivera said.

He said Chancellor Lyons went along with his recommendation following a discussion in which the chancellor was convinced all issued had been considered.

“This is hard what we’re doing,” Rivera said. “It’s hard on Justin, it’s hard on the players, it’s hard on the staff, coaches, everybody, because there is a big question mark for all of us.”