Since making a move to change offensive coordinators shortly after the regular season ended, Justin Wilcox has decided to completely reshape the Bears' staff following a 6-6 campaign this fall.
Friday, the program made another significant move with former Washington State and Hawaii head coach Nick Rolovich set to join Cal as a senior offensive assistant following the recent hiring of former Auburn head coach Bryan Harsin as offensive coordinator.
Rolovich has been out of college coaching since being fired by Washington State in 2021 for failing to adhere to a mandate requiring all state employees in Washington to be vaccinated for COVID-19.
The Novato native has extensive experience as a college coach having led a successful program at Hawaii before making the move to Pullman to take over for Mike Leach at Washington State in 2020.
A former Hawaii quarterback, his addition to the staff at Cal bulks up the support on that side of the ball following a disappointing season for the Bears as a whole. Quarterback Fernando Mendoza finished with 3,004 yards passing but the running game struggled under first-year offensive coordinator Mike Bloesch eventually leading to Wilcox replacing him with Harsin this week.
The Bears also added receivers coach and passing game coordinator Kyle Cefalo on Friday following his successful stint at Utah State as the Aggies' offensive coordinator this fall.
Rolovich, who began his career as an assistant at San Marin High School, holds a 33-33 record as a college head coach but finished his time at his alma mater, Hawaii, with a 10-win campaign in 2019.
His Run and Shoot offense has become known for producing stats and led to the Cougars being third in passing yards in his lone full season as the head coach in Pullman in 2020.
New rules put into place ahead of the 2024 season allow coaches outside the typical 10-man staff to play a larger role in on-field instruction giving Wilcox an opportunity to utilize Rolovich's experience in practice and game settings next season.
"With the way that the college football is changing, and the rules have changed on who can coach and who can't and countable recruiters and who's not countable, there's just a lot more flexibility than there used to be," he said last week. "... It's also an opportunity for us to grow and get better with the new rules and coaching and who's available to coach and not coach."
The Bears still have one remaining game this season when they take on UNLV in the LA Bowl next Wednesday at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood.
