With football in a nebulous position and the recruiting process in a relative holding pattern, we at Golden Bear Report are looking to do interviews wherever we can. This week, we got Cal co-defensive coordinator/associate head coach Tim DeRuyter on to talk about why he coaches, how he ended up at Cal, shifting coverage for Desean Jackson and more.
This is part two of an interview that has been transcribed and lightly edited for clarity.
Previous Installments: Justin Wilcox, Part One | Justin Wilcox, Part Two | Charlie Ragle, Part One | Charlie Ragle, Part Two | Peter Sirmon, Part One | Peter Sirmon, Part Two | Aristotle Thompson, Part One | Aristotle Thompson, Part Two | Angus McClure, Part One | Angus McClure, Part Two | Tim DeRuyter, Part One
TT: How does an Air Force guy end up at Navy like you did?
TD: That’s a good question (chuckles). Again in this business, it’s all about relationships, and the head coach at Navy was a guy named Charlie Weatherbie, he was at Air Force when I played, he was there on the staff when I went back there and coached as well. When his defensive coordinator moved on, he called me up and offered me the job to go to Annapolis.
At first I was taken aback a little bit, did I really want to go there, but I realized when I thought a bit deeper that they’re really the same guys that Air Force gets, they’re recruiting against each other all the time, and I love that experience, of coaching guys where football isn’t the only thing that they’re about. They obviously have to be students and they also have to be aware of the service they’re about to go into. I’ve never been around higher quality people than while in the military, their sense of service and love of country, it was an opportunity to live in one of the most beautiful places in Annapolis. Even though I didn’t want to leave coach Grobe and what was going on at Ohio, I got one of those offers that you can’t refuse and ended up moving to the Naval Academy.
TT: It’s obviously not the same recruiting guys to Cal as it is recruiting guys to the Naval Academy or the Air Force, but do you feel that you’re recruiting similar types of people now at Cal?
TD: Absolutely, because of our academic requirements that you need to be successful at Cal, as you look at players, if you’re looking at just players and not their academics, you’re going to get the wrong fit. The guys that are going to qualify for Cal are academically the guys that are going to qualify for the service academies. Those people typically are grounded the right way, they’ve got a work ethic in the classroom and they put their work together. It’s a similar type of athlete, but hopefully we’re getting someone a bit longer and twitchier, little more productive than what the service academies can because it’s the University of California and we play in the Pac-12. There’s a lot of similarities in the character of the guys we recruited at the academy versus what we’re recruiting now.
TT: In your coaching career, you came back full circle, back to Ohio and then back to Air Force, how did that happen for you?
TD: Well, I went back to Ohio because coach Weatherbie got let go, was needing a job, and Brian Knorr was one of my teammates at the Academy, and he hired me there for three years, then went to Nevada, trying to get back closer west. I was there with Chris Ault and we had some pretty good success, went to a couple straight bowl games and were co-champs of the WAC, that was a fun time and it was neat to be under another coach who’s in the hall of fame. Coach Ault does it a little bit different than most guys. Just like everybody, you learn some things that you like and some things that you wouldn’t do.
Troy Calhoun, who’s currently the head coach at Air Force, was another guy who was with us at Ohio, when I was a grad assistant (at Air Force), he was a freshman on the team that went to the Bluebonnet Bowl, so I’ve known Troy forever. He ended up getting the Air Force job when coach DeBerry retired, he called me up and said ‘do you want to get the band back together?’ I was his defensive coordinator out there for four years.
TT: That 2007 Air Force team played Cal in the Armed Forces Bowl, do you remember that game at all?
TD: Unfortunately, I do. I remember that Cal team was really talented, at some point, wasn’t Cal poised to be number one in the country?
TT: That they were, most people choose to forget about the rest of that season...
TD: Well, they had some pretty good talent, Desean Jackson was one I can absolutely remember, had some really good offensive linemen. My memories go back to when I believe we were up 14-0 (editor’s note: it went up to 21-0) and we had put in a plan for Desean Jackson, we called it ‘Uno’ coverage, wherever he was going to line up we were going to roll to him. That first quarter, I believe he was suspended for the first quarter and we get up 14-0, I guess it was only a one quarter suspension, because I think he had probably 100 yards receiving in the second quarter, and unfortunately we ended up losing the game because we couldn’t contain.
TT: On a different topic, you have an affinity for Texas high school football and getting to know those coaches as a part of what they’ve called ‘Straight Line Recuiting,’ how did that affinity come about?
TD: When I was at the Academy, we recruited a bunch from Texas, and I think Texas, more than any other state I’ve recruited, their football coaches have a better connection with their players than most others. Most of the players in Texas look at their coaches as counselors for where they should go to school. I had developed a lot of relationships while I was at Air Force, and the Texas high school football coaches would come up. Then going to (Texas) A&M further solidified that, and if you’re going to recruit in Texas, you better know those high school coaches, because they do such a great job and are such big influences.
I carried that (forward), and one of the advantages Texas has is that there’s a state law (that says), you can’t coach Texas high school football unless you’re a member, not necessarily of the faculty, but you’ve got to be employed by the school. So they’ve got sixteen coaches in the building at every Texas high school. They also have mandatory PE and an activity period, so these coaches have access to the players throughout the day, it’s not just from 3-5 that’s the only time they see their coaches.
TT: Do you remember when you met Justin Wilcox for the first time?
TD: I know I ran into him a couple times on the road recruiting, but it was kind of a ‘hey, how’re you doing, good to meet you,’ type of thing. When I was at Fresno, I reached out to him and wanted to get together because we have some common opponents and did a lot of similar things (defensively). We were trying to get together and clinic in the offseason and it never materialized.
Then when he got the head coaching job (at Cal), I texted him and said ‘hey, I know you’ve probably got a list of guys, but I’d definitely be interested in coming to talk to you about being on the staff.’ Eventually, I was persistent enough that he called me back and it worked out.
TT: Did it help that you guys have similar philosophies?
TD: I think so, when you watch a lot of tape, you start seeing people who do things similarly. We sat down on a weekend in January and talked through how we set things up, how we view things, and it meshed probably 99%, and I said ‘great, let’s do this thing.’
TT: You have the unique piece of having been a head coach prior to being at Cal in the DC/co-DC role, how has that helped being a DC at Cal?
TD: Being a head coach is so unique in that you can’t just be a master of your craft of coaching one particular unit or position. You’ve got so many other things that touch football now, like media, the fundraising aspect, being part of the university campus, the visibility of being a head coach on a campus, it’s unique. Justin’s going through that challenge, I kinda laugh and tease him about the head coaching thing sometimes.
I didn’t get back into football to be the head coach and do that other stuff. I love being around the players and the coaches, having a challenge, working all year long at that goal, ‘we’re not going to start until September, but it really starts in January,’ the whole ebb and flow of a season, that’s why I love the sport. It’s the calls you get on a Saturday night at one in the morning that one of your players is in trouble, those are the things that aren’t that fun, and as a head guy, that falls on you. Everything does, because you’re the head of the program.
How that’s helped me, is being able to see things through Justin’s eyes, knowing the things he’s got to deal with that you had no idea (about) when you’re an assistant. Especially when I was a young assistant, I was always questioning, ‘why are we doing things this way or why do we have to do this,’ and you have a better appreciation for things that may not make sense to you individually, but decisions that have to be made for the program.
TT: You also have the unique experience of hiring a member of Cal’s current staff while at Fresno, what led you to hire Burl Toler as your WRs coach there in 2016?
TD: We were looking to hire a younger coach, someone with energy who was a great recruiter and a number of guys got recommended, but I thought his knowledge of the Bay Area, and when I met with him, his character and the type of person he was, I thought this guy is going to be a great fit. I was really pleased with the job he did for us, nobody worked harder than Burl, particularly in recruiting, and he’s just a great person.
TT: You also have another coach you work pretty closely with in Mike Bruno (quality control, defense), what has he done for you guys so far?
TD: Bruno’s invaluable, he’s got a unique personality because he’s from the east, but he’s somebody nobody works harder than, he practically lives in that office. He’s Radar O’Reilly as far as finding detail in everything and being ahead of anything that can come up. He does a fantastic job of detailing things for the coaching staff, putting together video, helping out recruiting, he loves finding east coast guys. He’s really been a big time help for me personally and for the entire staff.
TT: To close this, why Cal, for you?
TD: For me, selfishly I’m at a point in my career where I can be pretty selective about where I want to coach and who I want to coach with. Getting an opportunity to coach with coach Wilcox and the people I knew he would put together drove me to wanting to be here.
I’ve got family in the Bay Area, my brother lives in San Ramon, and I love living in the Bay Area. I had opportunities to go other places, but I wanted to stay here. To be able to coach at a place like Cal, where you’ve got the world’s number one public university to recruit to, a place I wanted to go to back when I was in high school, but I wasn’t quite good enough football-wise to get in here, I just thought it was a great place to be in at this point in my career and to be able to coach the guys that we get a chance to coach every day.
