There's the Boy Scout rule, leave the campsite better than how you found it. That's what Steve Greatwood set out to do as Justin Wilcox's first assistant hire at Cal. He had nine scholarship offensive linemen to work with in the spring of 2017. His belief, as he retires from coaching, is that he's done that.

"I hope I left my group and my room better than when I found it," Greatwood told Golden Bear Report, "I think I have, but I know I’ve got some great young men in that room, and I think that the prospects for Cal, not just on the offensive line, are on the way up and much brighter than when we arrived. I’ve just really enjoyed working here with Justin and the other guys, it’s just been a fantastic three years for me, and that’s what makes this decision even harder. I didn’t want to feel like I was running out on anybody, and hopefully I’ve left my position group better than how I’ve found it, and I think the guy coming in, whoever takes my place, will have a chance to really get this group, continue with it, and I don’t think they’ll disappoint him."

Greatwood took some time after Cal's practice this afternoon to answer some questions about his decision to retire:

To start, what were some of the main factors that went into making this decision?

"Just a lot of factors, I have been blessed in my career to work at some great places with great people, and I felt with personal reasons, this is all I’ve known since I was 21 years old, it’s what I’ve been doing. It was more of a feeling of, ‘it’s time to explore some new avenues of life.’ I had a new granddaughter that was born three weeks ago that had a bit of an influence in it, but really, this job isn’t getting any easier. At times, I know I still have the energy to be on the field coaching the guys, but the other things, the recruiting, the non-stop, 365 recruiting, I don’t know if I have the energy to continue to do that year in and year out."

You announced your retirement to the team Friday at practice, what was their reaction?

"I think they were all pretty happy for me, it was emotional, I was surprised at the number of players, not just the players at my position group, but there were other position groups that came up to me after practice and just thanked me. That means the world, hopefully that they’ve respected the work we’ve put in to making this a better place."

You had a chance to coach one of your 2020 recruits last weekend in Everett Johnson, what did you see in the short period of time you got to coach him?

"I think he’s going to have a fantastic career. He’s a good worker, obviously he’s got all the measurables, the size, but he’s more athletic than I thought he was going to be and he’s eager to compete. We threw him in there for a couple days to get some live work and he did a nice job. He didn’t know where he was going half the time, I had to tell him that, but he’s got some natural instincts about him, I think he’s going to develop into a first-rate offensive lineman."

You won't have the opportunity to coach another one of your 2020 recruits in Ender Aguilar, but what did you see in him in recruiting him?

"Ender is a guy that obviously, his experience on offense was limited to this season, having moved over from being a defensive lineman, but his length and athleticism attracted me to him, and I think he’s going to develop. He’s got that smoothness about him, he doesn’t have the size that Everett has right now, but he has the frame and he has the length, he can bend, he can run, he can change direction, you see all that when he’s playing defense. I went down and watched him play against Orange Lutheran, he was the only kid on the field that was playing both ways. I just love his motor and his approach to the game. It’s hard for me to not be around to coach those two kids, because I’m genuinely excited about them, but I know they’re going to have great careers."

Your line is about as healthy as they've been all year, what's your expectation for them in this final bowl game?

"I just want us to execute, play clean. I think the last two games, against Stanford and UCLA, we did a pretty good job of executing our assignments, playing with pretty good technique, not having a bunch of miscues or penalties. I think if we can go out, continue to execute in that manner, open up some holes in the run game and protect Chase, I like to think we can execute our gameplan and go out to win this game, it’d be nice to go out with a win."