Cal will have another coach to search for a replacement for, as offensive line coach Steve Greatwood announced his retirement. Greatwood announced his retirement to the team after yesterday's practice, with a release from Cal Athletics today. Greatwood will coach through the Redbox Bowl on Monday. Greatwood coached for 40 seasons in college football, starting as a graduate assistant at Oregon (his alma mater) in 1980.

Greatwood was the first hire of Justin Wilcox at Cal, after coaching from 2000-2016 at Oregon. During this year's Cal-Oregon matchup, seven out of the ten starting offensive linemen were recruited by Greatwood, as he has plenty of respect from his peers.

"I have the utmost respect for coach Wood and the work he has done over the last four decades," Justin Wilcox noted in the release, "He was the first person I hired at Cal three years ago. The impact he made both on and off the field in the lives of our young men and his fellow coaches during his three seasons with our program will have a positive influence on our program for many years to come. I wish we could keep him around longer because he will be very difficult to replace, but he has built a tremendous foundation for our offensive line unit to build upon in the years ahead. If anyone has earned the right to enjoy his retirement and enjoy life, it's coach Wood."

Greatwood helped rebuild an offensive line that only had nine scholarship players when he came in, as the group is projected to have a healthy 15 guys on scholarship at the spot. He brought in Valentino Daltoso, who has started 31 games over three years, worked with Jake Curhan, who has started 37 consecutive games, and brought in Matt Cindric, Mike Saffell (recruited by Brandon Jones initially, kept by Greatwood in the 2017 class), McKade Mettauer, and Will Craig, all of who have played solid reps over the past two years.

"I've had the pleasure of doing what I love to do for my entire adult life," Greatwood said om the release. "I've been a pretty lucky guy in that respect and maybe even luckier to have been able to spend so much time with so many tremendous people. It's tough to leave this job that I love so much and a program that is on such an upswing under the leadership of Justin Wilcox, but there comes a time when you know it's just right to move on and that's where I'm at in my life. It's been an unbelievable job for the last 40 years and I'll cherish all of the memories forever."

With Greatwood retiring and both Beau Baldwin and Nick Edwards leaving after the bowl game to head to Cal Poly, the Bears will have three coaching spots to in the coming weeks.