A Conversation With New Cal Offensive Coordinator Jake Spavital
Offensive coordinator Jake Spavital, who arrived back at Cal in early December six years after his first one-year stint here, was excited to find his old office at Memorial Stadium and to reunite with folks in the building he got to know in 2016.
Mostly, Spavital is energized by the potential he sees in the Bears’ offense, starting with sophomore-to-be running back Jaydn Ott, TCU transfer quarterback Sam Jackson V, a talented corps of wide receivers and an offensive line group he thinks is better than most folks believe.
Spavital, 37, was coordinator for the Bears in Sonny Dykes’ final season, when he tutored quarterback Davis Webb, who continues to find a place on NFL rosters a half-dozen years later.
The Bears averaged 37 points and 513 yards of offense in 2016, but Dykes and his staff was let go after a 5-7 season in which Cal allowed more than 42 points per game.
That ushered in coach Justin Wilcox, whose teams have generally been solid to very good on defense but subpar offensively. Cal averaged 23.9 points this past season, and that was its most prolific season in five years.
Jake Spavital at Texas State last season.
Photo by Daniel Dunn, USA Today
Spavital was offensive coordinator at West Virginia for two seasons after exiting Cal, reunited with his mentor Dana Holgorsen, one of the pioneers of the Air Raid offense. The past four seasons Spavital was head coach at Texas State, where he was 13-35 while coaching in the Sun Belt Conference.
“Who would have thought that my first head-coaching gig would be through COVID and through Name, Image, Likeness and through the transfer portal. A lot of uncharted waters,” he says in the video below.
“I’m just excited to be back in Berkeley.”
Spavital has coached 10 quarterbacks who have played in the NFL, including Johnny Manziel, Kyler Murray and Geno Smith.
In our wide-ranging, half-hour conversation, he talked about the importance of landing dual-threat QB Sam Jackson V, who put his name into the transfer portal the day after TCU’s loss to Georgia in the national championship game.
“When we got wind of that, you have to move quick. Entering the portal so late, it literally knocked out the recruiting of a lot of schools because they had already started their college semesters, which really worked out in our favor,” Spavital says in the video at the top of this story. “And we still had to hold on in the end. But we were pretty fired up when we got him to class and he’s here. He’s fitting in and he’s pretty anxious to get this thing going.”
The spring term at Cal began on Tuesday of this week.
Jackson played sparingly as the Horned Frogs’ No. 3 quarterback, but the 5-foot-11, 185-pounder was a big-time recruit out of high school in Illinois. Spavital referred to him as “a very dynamic player” with “a unique skill set in terms of how athletic he is and how fast he is.”
He arrived at Cal last week with three years of eligibility.
Jackson’s speed reminds Spavital of Murray, now the stating quarterback for the Arizona Cardinals. “It really bails you out of plays at time and really stresses the defensive coordinator where you’re going to start seeing a little bit different type of coverages,” Spavital explained.
“He brings an electric style of play that’s going to be fun to see what he can be in the spring.”
And he’s a player Spavital coudn’t have landed at Texas State?
“Not even close,” he said.
Jackson and returning freshman Fernando Mendoza are the only scholarship quarterbacks on the current roster. Redshirt sophomore Zach Johnson has entered the portal, joining 2022 starter Jack Plummer and No. 2 Kai Millner, who have transferred to Louisville and Northern Arizona, respectively.
The first player Spavital reached out to after getting the job at Cal was Ott, who gained national attention last season when he rushed for 274 yards against Arizona.
“He’s a special player,” Spavital says in the video above. “He was firm about staying — he’s such a great person. But I’ll bet he had a lot of people knocking on his door. The potential I see with him in this offense is going to be very fun to watch.”
The Bears added two more running backs in Oregon transfer Byron Cardwell and Tennessee transfer Justin Williams-Thomas. Spavital gave credit to running backs coach Aristotle Thompson for cultivating the running back room.
The Bears lost sophomore wideout J.Michael Sturdivant to UCLA, but leading the returnees is Jeremiah Hunter, who caught 60 passes for 965 yards and five touchdowns.
“I think they’re a very explosive group. That was probably the most appealing thing to me when coach Wilcox called me — the receiver corps and Jaydn Ott. Just very young, dynamic players,” Spavital says in the video above. “You look at Jeremiah — when you turn on the (tape of) the explosive pass plays from last year, it’s Jeremiah. He’s leading the charge on all those.”
The Bears signed two wide receivers — Illinois transfer Brian Hightower and highly rated Salinas prep Nyziah Hunter, and Spavital says they expect to added another couple players at that position at the Feb. 1 signing period.
Two promising sophomore tight ends have transferred — Jermaine Terry II to Oregon State and Keleki Latu to Nevada — but Spavital promises tight end will be an important piece of the Bears’ offense. When he arrived at Cal in 2016, there wasn’t a tight end on the roster. That won’t be the case this time, even though seven tight ends at Texas State last season combined for just 14 receptions.
“The tight ends I had at Texas State were 215 pounds. The tight ends I had at West Virginia are still playing in the NFL because you can get that quality of tight end,” Spavital says above. “That’s probably the hardest position to recruit in college football because if you’re a 6-foot-5, 245-pound, 250-pound guy who can run everybody in the entire country is going to be after you.”
Cal’s offensive line allowed 31 sacks last fall and was only sporadically able to spring the run game. Two players from that group, including starter Ben Coleman, defected but Spavital does not see a glass that’s half empty.
“I think the offensive line is in better shape than what most people think,” he says above. “What I’ve learned is it’s very difficult to drop back a lot because the pass rushers have gotten so much better over the years.”
In other words, he hopes to defuse that pass rush with a mobile quarterback, a running game and a scheme that doesn’t give the pass rush an easy target.
As many as 16 offensive linemen are back from the 2022 roster, including veteran Matthew Cindric. Spavital said he and new offensive line coach Mike Bloesch intend to add perhaps three more to the group.
A common reaction to the fast-tempo offense the Bears ran under Dykes was that it contributed to Cal's defensive problems because those defensive players were back on the field too quickly and became fatigued. Spavital explains in the video above why he believes the two can co-exist.
It was a conversation he would have sometimes with his defensive coordinator at Texas State, who happened to be his brother, Zac.
“I told coach Wilcox, I’ve slowed it down, I’ve sped it up,” he says. “What I’ve learned is it’s about efficiency. If you’re playing at a high level in terms of pace, you better be very efficient at what you do. But if you’re three-and-out, you’ve got to find another way to move the ball.”
Spavital has spent his first 5-6 weeks in Berkeley getting to know Cal’s returning players while also recruiting new ones. That process will continue for a while but spring practice looms in mid-March and Spavital says everyone is eager.
“I can’t wait for that part. Trying not to get too far ahead. The kids are anxious, they’re excited. I’m trying to get everyone to pump the brakes a little bit,” he says.
In the meantime, he’s preaching a consistent message to Cal’s offensive players.
“I talk a lot about confidence and identity and a belief that you have to have to play offense, and I think these kids are going to keep buying into it.”
Cover photo of offensive coordinator Jake Spavital during his first time at Cal in 2016 by Al Sermeno, KLC fotos
Follow Jeff Faraudo of Cal Sports Report on Twitter: @jefffaraudo
