The Golden Bears will add a few more fresh faces to the staff for the 2022 season, with Kenny Hill, Ben Gaus, Austin Taylor and Allen Brown joining the fray.

Hill, a former four-star quarterback who played at Texas A&M and TCU, will join the Bears as an offensive quality control coach. Hill started his coaching career at TCU, where he was an assistant from 2018-19, then moved to being an offensive analyst in 2020. In 2021, he served as TCU’s quarterback coach.

Gaus will join the staff to help lead recruiting efforts along with director of player personnel Marshall Cherrington and director of recruiting Benji Palu.

Cal adds Taylor as a defensive graduate assistant. He previously he held the same title at the University of Washington.

And Brown, who was the defensive backs coach at Cal Poly and then Eastern Washington, will serve as the defensive quality control coach in ‘22.

It’s a pretty impressive roster of coaches to get for roles that aren’t directly tied to on the field preparation. Nabbing two young position coaches away from their alma maters (Brown is an EWU alum and Hill graduated from TCU) is a massive sign that the Bears are continuing to build their reputation.

It’s also a sign that whatever renegotiated salary pool exists for Justin Wilcox and Co. is paying dividends already. It’s been a point of emphasis to acquire and retain talented coaches over the last few years, with an emphasis on the latter. All of these additions to the support staff should signal some hope for Cal fans.

Turns out a bigger budget can help after all. Go figure.