Tosh Lupoi in Negotiations to Become Cal's Head Coach

It appears Oregon defensive coordinator Tosh Lupoi is coming back to Cal as the Golden Bears new head football coach.

Bruce Feldman reported Tuesday via twitter that Lupoi is in negotiations to become Cal’s next head football coach. California Golden Bears on SI confirmed through a source Tuesday night that Lupoi is "very, very, very close" to being named Cal's head coach.

If the hiring goes through as expected, the 44-year-old Lupoi would succeed Justin Wilcox, who was fired a week ago after Cal lost to Stanford 31-10 in the Big Game.

Lupoi's hiring at Cal could be announced within the next few days, possibly even Wednesday.

He has never been a head coach, but Cal football general manager Ron Rivera had said a candidate for the Cal head coaching job did not necessarily need to have head-coaching experience.

Oregon's Dan Lanning, Georgia's Kirby Smart and Ohio State's Ryan Day had all been coordinators at major colleges but had no head coaching experience before landing their current jobs.

Nick Rolovich has been serving as Cal’s interim head coach in the meantime. Presumably Rolovich would remain Cal's interim head coach for Cal's bowl game, but that has not been announced.

Lupoi was born in nearby Walnut Creek, California, and attended De La Salle High School in Concord. He played for De La Salle during the school's record-breaking 151-game winning streak.

Lupoi was a member of the Cal football team for six seasons (2000-2005) and was on the Golden Bears coaching staff under Jeff Tedford for six years, including two years as a graduate assistant (2006-2007) in his first coaching experience and four years (2008-2011) as a full-time defensive line coach.

Making Tupoi the Bears’ head coach might improve Cal’s chances of retaining talented freshman quarterback Jaron-Keawe Sagapolutele, who was named the ACC quarterback of the week for his performance in the upset of SMU.

This season, with Lupoi as their defensive coordinator, the Ducks rank third in the nation in total defense and ninth in scoring defense, allowing 14.8 points per game. Oregon is No. 5 in this week's AP poll.

Lupoi became Cal’s defensive line coach at the age of 26 and was the Pac-10’s youngest fulltime assistant coach in 2008 and 2009.

After a stint at Washington, Lupoi became the defensive coordinator at Alabama under Nick Saban in 2018, and was a defensive line coach for three NFL teams – Cleveland Browns (2019), Atlanta Falcons (2020) and Jacksonville Jaguars (2021).

He has been an assistant coach under a number of successful head coaches, including Tedford, Saban and Oregon's Dan Lanning. Also, Lupoi played under legendary high school coach Bob Ladouceur at De La Salle.

It remains to be seen whether the news that Lupoi is expected to be Cal's head coach will have any influence on recruits. The early signing period begins Wednesday (tomorrow), and Cal has 18 players committed to Cal for 2026.

One of Lupoi's greatest assets as an assistant coach was his ability to recruit effectively. Cal had some highly rated recruiting classes when Lupoi was an assistant coach for the Bears, and Lupoi was given much of the credit for that success.

The day Wilcox was fired, Lupoi became the No. 1 contender for the Bears head coaching job. His resume, his recruiting prowess and his previous affiliation with Cal and the Bay Area added to his appeal to be Cal's head coach.

Rivera, who headed the search for a new head coach, had emphasized that he wanted someone who understood what the University of California was all about, and Lupoi certainly fills that requirement.

Cal currently has a 7-5 record and is awaiting word on which bowl it will play in.

Former Cal star and current Delaware State head coach Desean Jackson, who was a Cal teammate of Lupoi in 2005, and ex-Cal standout and current NFL star Cam Jordan, who had Lupoi as his position coach at Cal, both advocated for Lupoin to be Cal's next head coach.

This the Man For the Job @CalFootball We all behind you & Supporting it!! @CoachLup leggggggo🐻 pic.twitter.com/K7A4eSnoBB
— Desean Jackson (@DeSeanJackson10) December 1, 2025

@CalFootball I seee the Vision!!! Cal Legend! C’mon baaack!!! Who better?! Player, position coach, d-coordinator! No brainer, bring this guy baaack to Blue and Gold @CoachLup pic.twitter.com/jBsAyQpTZ4
— Cam Jordan (@camjordan94) December 1, 2025