Breaking Down the Cal Coaching Staff: Justin Wilcox
With fall camp fast approaching, we're putting together breakdowns of every coach on Cal's coaching staff. It all starts with the head coach, as Justin Wilcox is entering his fifth year as the head coach of Cal Football.
Here's a handful of things to know about the Cal coach.
From the Bellotti Tree Leading to Cal
The tree of coaches under Mike Bellotti, the longtime Oregon head coach and a big piece in the program's turnaround (along with his predecessor, Rich Brooks), has had a massive impact on the west coast. Cal, UCLA, and Washington all have current coaches who either coached under Bellotti (Chip Kelly), played for him (Wilcox), or coached under one of Bellotti's former assistants (Jimmy Lake, who coached under Chris Petersen)
Wilcox played for Belotti at Oregon from 1996 to 1999, a time where Bellotti had multiple assistants who would become head coaches. Dirk Koetter, Jeff Tedford, and the aforementioned Petersen were on staff during those years (with Koetter leaving for Boise State prior to the 1998 season). In addition, Cal defensive coordinator Peter Sirmon played with Wilcox all four seasons.
The connection to Oregon is how Wilcox ended up at Cal in 2003, as both Bob Gregory (Cal's defensive coordinator from 2002 to 2009) and Bob Foster (Cal's linebackers coach in 2002), had coached Wilcox at Oregon
The way it happened was really fortunate," Wilcox told Golden Bear Report last April, "because Bob Gregory had come (to Cal) with coach Tedford, and Bob Foster, who had a big influence on me, he had coached us at Oregon as well. Coach Foster was here (at Cal), when Tedford came here he brought Bob Gregory as the defensive coordinator and he brought coach Foster. (Foster) had been around coaching for a long time, he’s a Davis guy and helped to get things going. He came out of retirement, because he had retired at Oregon while I was playing there, came out of retirement to help these guys out, did it for a year and retired again. That all happened in late December of 2002, and essentially the only thing that could’ve happened for me to have an opportunity to get hired did. Bob Foster retired, and coach Gregory called and said ‘do you want to coach here?’ I’m like, ‘are you kidding me, of course I do.’ I came over here and interviewed. It was coach Tedford, who I had already known, so I was really lucky. I had ten days before I had to move from Boise, I was planning on packing my stuff up and heading somewhere to find employment."
Already tenured in the Pac-12
Wilcox, heading into his fifth year as Cal's head coach, is already the fourth most tenured coach in the conference. He's behind Kyle Whittingham, David Shaw, and Clay Helton, as eight other Pac-12 programs have changed coaches at least once since Wilcox has been at Cal (both Arizona and Colorado have changed coaches twice in that period).
More than half of Wilcox's coaching experience has come in the Pac-12 or Pac-10, with 2021 being the 12th season out of 21 that Wilcox will coach in the conference, having made stops at Washington and USC as a defensive coordinator.
Winning Record Against Former Bosses
Wilcox has had the opportunity to go against three of his former bosses while at Cal, with the Bears being 4-3 in those games. He's played three times each against Petersen (Cal is 2-1 in those games) and Helton (Cal is 1-2) in those games. He also faced Dan Hawkins, the first coach to hire him as a graduate assistant (Cal beat Hawkins' UC Davis squad in 2019).
In the future, Cal will have a chance to take on other coaches Wilcox has been on staff with, as the Bears will take on a Bryan Harsin led Auburn team in 2023 and 2024. The two were GAs together at Boise State in 2001 and 2002, and sold pizzas during Boise's high school camps in order to make rent during the summer months.
From A Football Family
The Cal head coach is one of two sons of former San Francisco 49ers linebacker Dave Wilcox. The elder Wilcox, known as 'the Intimidator' during his pro days roaming Kezar Stadium and Candlestick Park, was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2000. Justin Wilcox would joke that he knew his father as a 'hall of farmer' instead of a hall of famer, having been born after his father's playing career. The elder Wilcox notably knocked out former Cal quarterback Joe Kapp in a game, as seen in this NFL Films clip below.
In addition, Wilcox's brother Josh might be the opposite of the Cal coach. Playing tight end for Oregon in the mid-90s, the older Wilcox brother was known for being colorful, and played in various professional football leagues (including stops in the NFL, NFL Europe, the Arena Football League, and winning the only XFL Championship with the Los Angeles Express). He also trained as a professional wrestler under 'Tough Tony' Borne and Matt Borne (who is better known for originating the Doink the Clown persona) in Portland, making an appearance for Extreme Championship Wrestling on their TNN (now known as the Paramount Network) show, teaming with Tommy Dreamer in a losing effort against Rhino and Steve Corino.
He Keeps to Himself
In a sport that brings coaches to the forefront, there isn't much out there about Wilcox. He's quiet about his personal life and hobbies with the media. It's unclear if he owns a television, as various media members and guys on his team attempted to get him to watch Game of Thrones while it was still airing. He has taken Bart to work in the past, and has been surprised when people recognize him.
The most various media members have found out about him is his enjoyment for pizza (particularly Zachary's) and his enjoyment of fishing (where he's a fishing buddy of Gonzaga basketball coach Mark Few).