Cal Football: Bill Musgrave a Great Hire. Can Cal Keep Him?

Cal’s hiring of Bill Musgrave as its offensive coordinator seems like a great move. Not often does a program like Cal, which has not been a Pac-12 contender for more than a decade, land a guy with so much experience as an NFL offensive coordinator.

It seems to be a step up from former Cal offensive coordinator Beau Baldwin. Musgrave has been a practitioner of the West Coast Offense, or at least his version of it, so the Cal offense is likely to have a pro look. And any similarity to the offense Bill Walsh invented cannot be a bad thing.

But the hiring provokes one major question and one significant follow-up question.

The big question is this: How long will Musgrave stay at Cal?

The man has spent 20 of his 22 seasons of coaching in the NFL, and he has had the prestigious job of offensive coordinator with six NFL teams.

The only time he coached a college team was when he spent two seasons as Virginia’s offensive coordinator in 2001 and 2002 before bouncing back to the NFL as Jacksonville’s offensive coordinator in 2003.

Coordinators who earned a reputation in the pros tend to want to get back to the pros.

The 2019 season was the first one since 1996 that Musgrave was not a coach at some level. He may have had other opportunities for 2020, but the Cal situation provides an opportunity to look good in a hurry.

The Bears were last in the Pac-12 in both total offense and scoring offense each of the past two years, but the return of nearly every key offensive player and the potential shown in the 35-20 Redbox Bowl win over Illinois suggest Cal could make a sizable improvement on the offensive side in 2020. A year or two of such improvement would look good on Musgrave’s resume, making him a candidate elsewhere, perhaps back in the NFL.

I do not know Musgrave and have not spoken to him, so I don’t know his intentions, so I am just connecting some apparent dots.

Head coach Justin Wilcox no doubt questioned Musgrave about his long-term plans, and Wilcox made a point of saying he needed the right “fit” for his next offensive coordinator. That may suggest that Wilcox thinks that appropriate “fit” will keep Musgrave at Cal for some time. At age 52, Musgrave may not have too many career moves left.

The follow-up question is this: Who cares if Musgrave is only around for a year or two?

If Musgrave has the impact Cal is hoping for, the Bears could establish themselves as a player in the Pac-12 race. That would certainly push the Bears’ program in the right direction, and a subsequent offensive coordinator could build on the momentum Musgrave starts.

Any program wants continuity in its coaching staff, but the No. 1 priority is to win games. That attracts good assistant coaches to replace the ones who leave. Alabama seems to lose half its coaching staff every year, but if Tua Tagovailoa had not been injured, the Crimson Tide might be playing in the national title game for a fifth straight season.

Obviously Cal is not comparable to Alabama, but losing its offensive coordinator to the NFL would not be the worst thing in the world. It would reflect success.

This is all speculation at this point, of course. Musgrave has not designed a single game plan or called a single play at Cal yet. It remains to be seen whether he'll have the influence Cal expects.

Who knows? Maybe he will be the Bears' offensive coordinator for the next decade, and maybe Cal's offense will flourish with him.

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Click here for the reaction when Musgrave was hired by the Eagles in 2014.

Click here for Musgrave's statistics as an NFL quarterback. He started one NFL game.

Musgrave was on the San Francisco 49ers' roster when the 49ers won a Super Bowl over the San Diego Chargers in 1995 (1994 season). He was Steve Young's backup.