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 defensive backs coach Marcel Yates on to talk about how he got to know Justin Wilcox, coached Gerald Alexander, and more

This is the second part of the interview with Yates and the final installment of this series.

TT: After working in Bozeman, how’d you end up back in Boise?

MY: Dan Hawkins was the head coach at Boise, and when you talk about my senior year, I was pretty much special teams. Dan Hawkins was the special teams coordinator, and my senior year when guys were going in to watch offensive film and defensive film, I was going in to watch special teams, so we became pretty close at that point.

He had a corners job (at Boise) that had come open, he had interviewed me earlier and offered the job to someone else, who was there for two weeks and left to take the job at Eastern Michigan. Dan Hawkins called me back and said, ‘if you want this corners job, it’s yours,’ and I took it. I was there with Dan Hawkins for three years as a corners coach.

TT: And that led to you staying on when Chris Petersen took up the job?

MY: Yes, coach Petersen came, he became the head coach, named coach Wilcox as the defensive coordinator, Pete Kwiatkowski as the DL coach, and then I had the whole secondary all to myself.

TT: You played defensive back, so there was obviously some affinity for the position for you, but why coach the defensive backs in particular?

MY: It was what I was comfortable with, it kinda happened that way where coach Hawk had called and offered me that job and I kinda ran with it. You kinda coach what you know, over the years, I’ve coached linebackers as well, so that kinda helped me out, you get a much better understanding of the front stuff. With me playing the position and coaching the position, I think there’s questions that have answers that aren’t necessarily in the playbook, and when you play the position you can tend to answer those questions with the guys, and they can understand it, you can understand it when you played the position.

TT: What was your impression of meeting Wilcox when he came onto the Boise staff in 2006?

MY: Quiet, but competitive in the most competitive way. Can’t stand to lose, not a big talker, doesn’t run his mouth, but wants to beat you at all costs. That’s where he and I probably fit the best, I’m the same way, I don’t need to tell you what I’m going to do or write it down, I’m gonna do my job, work my butt off, go out there and win, so I think our competitive nature is what we have in common.

TT: There’s a lot of Boise influence on the staff, how was it having some of that familiarity in coming on to the Cal staff back in January?

MY: It was great, I’m at the point in my career where it’s about the right fit, a great fit. Everybody says that and you wonder ‘what does that mean,’ but we’ve been at places together and we kind of know what it’s supposed to look like and how it’s supposed to feel. Walking through the door at Cal, and I haven’t coached with coach Wilcox for a long time, but seeing the way he runs the staff meeting, seeing the staff organized, seeing the players, the culture is the main thing I’m explaining. It was a great fit for me coming in here, knowing how he is and what he’s trying to build, what he expects and what he wants.

The main thing is when you and the person you’re working for, you’re working with, you have the same common goal and expectations, and there’s no hidden agenda, I think it’s a good fit.

TT: I read an excerpt from a book about Boise’s run under Petersen, it said you were the one who moved Gerald Alexander to safety (which ended up helping Alexander to a big year in 2006, the Fiesta Bowl year), do you remember doing that?

MY: Gerald was a hard worker, Gerald was athletic, Gerald was very knowledgeable, he was a coach on the field. What I saw was when he was at corner, Gerald was good, but with his range and speed and cover ability, and he would tackle, I thought that moving him to safety would make him more marketable. I thought that would help him as far as his career and it would help us as well, having him at safety. It happened where that move worked out for him and the team. Gerald was very good at reading his keys and moving fast.

TT: What was the process of getting hooked back up with Wilcox in January?

MY: Once he found out that Gerald was interviewing for jobs, he had contacted me about the job. For me, I thought that whatever job I was going to take after being let go by Arizona, it needed to be the right move with somebody who I knew was a good fit for me, and I was a good fit for them. When Gerald took the job (with the Dolphins), (Wilcox) called and offered me the job, and I took it. I was excited, I knew a lot of guys on the staff, that always makes things easier too. He asked me if I wanted to come down and see the place, I’m like ‘no, we don’t need to do that, I don’t need to come down and do the whole (thing),’ if I’ve seen one football office, I’ve seen them all. You give me a computer, a locker, and a football field, and I’m good. I’ve been to Cal before

TT: Right, you were at Arizona for the 2017 game, the double overtime one…

MY: Yeah, no defense, I was on the right side of that one but I wasn’t happy either, even though we won the game.

TT: How familiar were you with the Cal DB group before coming in?

MY: I knew Cam Bynum, I knew Elijah Hicks, Chigi, I recruited Chigi at Arizona. I always watched Cal’s defense because knowing Wilcox and what he runs, I always knew those guys would be well coached. I watched a lot of film on their defense whenever I was game-planning against any teams they had played against.

TT: In particular, what do you look for from a defensive back when you’re evaluating them out of high school?

MY: Mentality first, I do want to see, if you’re coming to Cal, if you can do it academically, but also the mentality on the football field, are you physical? If you’re not physical, you’re going to have a hard time being on any team where your secondary coach is Marcel Yates and your head coach is Justin Wilcox. That’s the first thing we’re going to look at. If I look at a DB and I like him, but he doesn’t fit the physical standard that we want, he probably isn’t going to get past me, but he does get past me, he’s not going to get past Justin Wilcox.

We like guys that can run, good hips, and just love football.

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 | Tim DeRuyter, Part Two | Andrew Browning, Part One | Andrew Browning, Part Two | Burl Toler, Part One | Burl Toler, Part Two | Bill Musgrave | Marques Tuiasosopo, Part One | Marques Tuiasosopo, Part Two | Torre Becton, Part One | Torre Becton, Part Two | Marcel Yates, Part One