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Cal has their DB Coach: Tre Watson

Cal has their defensive backs coach, and it's a name familiar with the Cal coaching staff. Tre Watson, who coached cornerbacks at UNLV in 2020, has been tapped as the next defensive backs coach of the Golden Bears and Watson continues a quick rise into the coaching ranks with this move to Cal. Football Scoop was the first to publish the news.

Watson (who is not the Cal running back who played for the Bears from 2014-17) has overlapped with a few members of the Cal staff at more than one stop. Watson played for Justin Wilcox at Washington during the 2012 and 2013 seasons, where Wilcox was the defensive coordinator and Keith Heyward was the secondary coach. Peter Sirmon was also on staff as the linebackers coach.

"Tre is one the nation's top young coaches and rising fast in our profession," Justin Wilcox said in a release. "He brings a high level of energy and enthusiasm to the table. Tre has always impressed me with his work ethic, knowledge of the game and tremendous attitude ever since we coached him at Washington. He developed an excellent rapport with the student-athletes he worked with at Oregon and UNLV over the last three seasons, and he took advantage of a great opportunity he had to work closely with coach Heyward at Oregon. That helped him lay an excellent foundation for his coaching career."

"I want to thank God for this opportunity," Watson said in the release. "I have learned and grown a lot from the places I have been, and I'm very excited to be a part of this family, join a terrific staff and represent a program that is on its way up under great leadership from coach Wilcox. Go Bears!"

Watson has the story of a grinder in playing for Wilcox at Washington. He walked onto the Huskies roster after two years at Division II Central Washington, pushing then-UW coach Steve Sarkisian for a spot on the roster, as detailed in this article with the Las Vegas Sun.

Prior to spending 2020 at UNLV, Watson worked under Heyward at Oregon in 2018 and 2019 as a defensive graduate assistant, working with the defensive backs. Oregon led the conference in interceptions in 2019.

In Watson, Cal gets a coach who has years of experience around the current members of the Cal staff. He doesn't have the experience coaching a full secondary at the college level, but the Bears have a supporting cast, including Wilcox, who can assist Watson in making the transition.

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