With Keith Heyward leaving Cal's staff to become the defensive coordinator at UNLV last week, the Golden Bears reached across the Pac-12 to land his replacement, hiring Vic So'oto away from Colorado.

So'oto spent the last two seasons as the defensive line coach at USC. With the coaching change there, he initially landed at Colorado this offseason, but the Cal opportunity was too good to pass up.

"Vic is one of the nation's top rising young coaches and recruiters," coach Justin Wilcox said in a statement. "He has a versatile coaching skill set having developed both defensive linemen and outside linebackers, which will help him in our defense. Vic also establishes strong and genuine relationships with players and recruits, and having recently played at the highest level, he has a strong understanding of what it takes to be successful. Vic is well-respected, dedicated to coaching and teaching others, and will be a great addition to our staff."

"I'm looking forward to joining the Cal football program, making contributions to the tremendous staff coach Wilcox has put together and learning from some of the best minds in football," So'oto said in a statement. "It's been a goal of mine to coach outside linebackers and broaden my impact on the defense. I can't wait to get started."

Interestingly, Colorado tried to spin the move as being "purely family related," as Buffaloes coach Karl Dorrell said in a statement, as reported by the Denver Post. But So'oto quickly clarified on Twitter that he was simply pursuing a better opportunity at Cal.

“He has five young children and with most of both sides of his family living in California, they can use the additional support. So we understand why he wants to take advantage of an opportunity to move back and be closer to them," Dorrell said in his statement.

So'oto then posted two tweets explaining the actual reasons for the move.

"I'll address this once since I now have family and close friends reaching out to check on us. Proximity to 'support' was not on the list of my reasons to leave CU. This next opportunity was purely one I couldn't pass up. I'll go anywhere to coach if the opportunity is right," he said. "Coached across the country and I'll continue to do so. I'm thankful for Rick [George], Karl and the gang and wish them nothing but the best. My decision was based on a lot of reasons and thankfully we aren't in dire need of support at this moment, like the statement sounds."

So'oto spent the 2017-19 seasons as the defensive line coach at Virginia under his mentor Bronco Mendenhall before making the move to USC. He played college football at BYU and later bounced around several NFL rosters for a few years.

So'oto is known for his intensity and for expecting high standards from his players. He helped three-star prospect Tuli Tuipulotu develop into one of USC's best defensive linemen almost immediately as a freshman in 2020, while helping his older brother Marlon Tuipulotu to his best season that same year as he was named a first-team All-Pac-12 selection by the AP and was drafted in the sixth round by the Philadelphia Eagles.

Last season, So'oto dealt with depleted depth at several positions, including an injury-mired season for projected NFL draft pick, outside linebacker Drake Jackson, who led the team with 8 tackles for loss and finished second to Tuipulotu with 5 sacks.