Cal Co-DC Tim DeRuyter Set To Take Oregon DC Job

Cal will be looking for another coach on defense this offseason, as this morning, co-defensive coordinator/outside linebackers coach Tim DeRuyter was reported to be leaving for the defensive coordinator job at Oregon. This news has since been confirmed.

DeRuyter was the primary defensive coordinator at Cal from 2017 to 2019, before moving to a co-DC/associate head coach role in 2020. During his time as Cal's defensive coordinator, he cut Cal's points per game allowed in half, from 42.6 the year before he arrived to 20.4 in 2018. His defense at Cal had a 14-game stretch of holding teams to 24 points or less, and 18 of 20 games from October of 2018 through the end of the 2019 season.

Along with current defensive coordinator Peter Sirmon, DeRuyter was named Linebackers Coach of the Year in 2019, for their work with Evan Weaver, Kuony Deng and Cam Goode. Goode posted 14 TFLs and 9.5 sacks in 2019, both career highs and the highest totals for a Cal player in those categories in over a decade. Cal's 36 sacks in 2019 ranked second in the Pac-12 and 21st nationally.

DeRuyter, a graduate of the Air Force Academy, will now be the defensive coordinator at his seventh different school, having been the coordinator or co-coordinator at Ohio, Navy, Air Force, Nevada, and Texas A&M in addition to Cal.

With DeRuyter heading to Oregon, only two of Wilcox's initial hires made four years ago remain on staff, tight ends coach Marques Tuiasosopo and special teams coordinator Charlie Ragle. Now Justin Wilcox will have to hire a new outside linebackers coach, as he's had to hire at least one new coach every cycle during his four year tenure.

Cal's outside linebacker room returns both starters from 2020 in Cameron Goode (who returned for a sixth year) and Braxten Croteau. The room also will return Orin Patu, Myles Jernigan, and Curley Young Jr. The Bears added early enrollee Patrick Hisatake to the room in the 2021 recruiting class, and could play any one of their other 2021 linebackers (Kaleb Elarms-Orr, Moses Oladejo, and Nate Rutchena) at the spot as well.