Tosh Lupoi Willing to Change Coaches' Roles to Fix Cal Offense

Cal head coach Lupoi did not say he was replacing Jordan Somerville as the Bears' play-caller, but he didn't rule it out

Tosh Lupoi | Photo by Jake Curtis

Tosh Lupoi knows the Cal’s offense has been lousy, and he suggested Tuesday he may be making changes to some of the offensive coaches’ roles to try to fix it.

Asked specifically if he is comfortable with offensive coordinator Jordan Sommerville continuing to be Cal’s offensive play-caller, Lupoi did not give a direct answer but did not dismiss the possibility.

“I’m going to evaluate in all three phases,” Lupoi said in response to that question. “I’m comfortable for producing at a high level with anybody. So if we’re producing at high level? Absolutely. If we’re not, it’s my job to make sure, right, nobody is bigger than this team, this university, this organization, so it’s my job to make sure that we’re producing to the standard and in position to win games.

“All three phases, if any coordinator if that is not to the standard, and we’re not, then that’s my job to fix, right. I’m going to do everything in my power to make sure that we’re getting positive results. . . . We all know we played a lesser team [Wagner] where Jaron [Keawe Sagapolutele] experienced his career high, but you evaluate more so not who you’re playing but the things you need to grow from the first two weeks, and then you go into the next game and that’s exactly where we’re at as far as unacceptable production out of our offense. So it’s my job to fix it and that’s exactly what I’m doing.”

It was noteworthy that neither Somerville nor defensive coordinator Michael Hutchings was present at Tuesday’s weekly press conference as they had been after Cal’s first three games.

There are no complaints about the defense.  Afterall, in Cal’s two ACC games – a win over Syracuse and a loss to Clemson – the Bears’ offense has scored 14 points and the Bears’ defense has also scored 14 points.

Cal (2-2) ranks 13th in the ACC in scoring at 26.0 points per game, but if you subtract the 14 points scored by the defense and the 49 points scored against FCS-level Wagner, the Bears’ offense is averaging 13.7 points per game against FBS opposition and has not score a single fourth-quarter point in those three games.

The 30-year-old Somerville had never been an offensive coordinator and player-caller before this season, and if Lupoi opts to make a change the obvious replacement as a play-caller would be Nick Rolovich, Cal’s quarterbacks coach and one of the few coaches retained from Justin Wilcox’s staff.

Rolovich called offensive plays while he was the offensive coordinator at Hawaii, and though he did not call the plays when he was the head coach at Hawaii and Washington State, he constructed the offenses at those schools. Plus Rolovich has developed a strong relationship with Cal quarterback Jaron-Keawe Sagapolutele, who has struggled a bit this season amid enormous expectations.

Pat McCann, Cal’s passing game coordinator who was Fresno State’s offensive coordinator and play-caller for two seasons (2023 and 2024) is also a possibility. The Bulldogs went 9-4 and averaged 30.5 points in 2023 and finished 6-7 while averaging 26.1 points in 2024.

Lupoi seems willing to make changes.

“Elevating some responsibilities within, owning some specific roles, organizing,” he said of possible changes in coaching responsibilities.

He said he did not want to announce any specific changes for fear of giving a competitive advantage to UNLV, which is 2-2 and hosts Cal on Saturday afternoon.

But Lupoi is not apt to keep the status quo.

“Not going to sit around and use hope as a strategy,” he said.

He added the word “creativity” several times on Tuesday and suggested he will be more involved with the offense even though his experience is as a defensive coordinator.

“I’m going to do something different tonight with the offense and I think it’s going to be cool,” he said, adding that his influence will be with regards to the approach. “Just trying to take over some things where I’m by no means pretending that I’m an offensive guru and have specific offensive answers, just some of the things we’ve implemented from a defensive perspective.”

Lupoi ended his Tuesday press conference with this warning:

“So buckle your ass up for Saturday.”