Why They Coach: Cal Head Coach Justin Wilcox, Part One

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. Today, we got Justin Wilcox on the phone, hopefully as the start of a series, talking about why he got into coaching and everything that comes with that.

This is the first half of our conversation.

TT: To start, what sports did you play growing up?

JW: I really grew up playing everything, I came from a small town where that was kinda how it was there. We had football in the fall, then you’d have basketball, then you’d have baseball or track, then you’d have either summer baseball or basketball. Then, as you got into high school, it was still three sports, but most people in athletics, that’s how it was, that was the norm. We really started playing whatever we could play as early as we could play it.

TT: And at that point, there was no real talk of specializing in any single sport, was there?

JW: Not even close, especially in a small town like that, that was not even a discussion. People would never even talk like that, ‘what do you mean you’re going to specialize?’ It’s football season, you play football. In basketball season, you’d play basketball, some guys would wrestle. Then in the spring, (it was) which one are you going to do, ‘are you going to do track or are you going to do baseball?’ There was never, (laughs) we weren’t sophisticated enough or probably talented enough to worry about specialization.

TT: If you’re playing three sports, you’ve got to at least be somewhat talented, right?

JW: Well yeah, but again, it’s a real small town, and it was awesome, we had some talented athletes, don’t get me wrong, but it’s not like going to De La Salle or one of these places. It was simpler, it was a different time in the 90s, you didn’t know as much and that’s just how things were. Again, didn’t really grow up around the big time, the De La Salles, the Serras and the Mater Deis. That was a foreign world to me, so I just did what we did, I loved it, and most all my friends did the same thing.

TT: Was there a point where you knew you wanted to coach (growing) or did that come much later?

JW: Much later, I was always so involved with being in the sport. I remember, more than anything, the relationships that I had with my coaches growing up, whether that was middle school, but especially high school football, high school basketball, high school track. Those guys played a big part in my life, and I still use a lot of what they taught me in many ways. I would say maybe that, subconsciously, played a big part in it, I’m sure it did because of the experiences I had. Same for college, because I played for some really great people.

I really started thinking about it when I was finishing my college career and understood my place as a player. I got my chance to play and I really enjoyed it. I was also well aware of where I stood, finished college and I think I made it six practices in a minicamp and got cut, and I was not the least bit surprised. I had already prepped for potentially getting into coaching, and it goes back to the experiences.

I played for Bob Gregory (current UW linebackers coach), he had a lot to do with it. He and coach (Nick) Aliotti (longtime Oregon defensive coordinator) and coach (Chris) Petersen, who was the receivers coach at Oregon when I was a player there, there were a lot of guys that I was around who were really good, super people. Shoot, coach Tedford was the offensive coordinator there when I was a player, so I’d gotten to know him.

As I got out (of playing), Dirk Koetter was the first guy that I talked to, he was at Boise State at the time and I was potentially going to GA for him. He got hired at Arizona State, and Dan Hawkins got hired at Boise State to take over and Bob Gregory got the defensive coordinator job. He called and asked if I wanted to be a grad assistant at Boise State, and to be honest, what I was doing was going to Europe to be a player coach on one of these club teams, in Provence, France. I was about ready to leave, I was about two weeks from leaving, but I went up, did a 180 and said ‘let’s do it.’ I went up with coach Gregory and coach Hawkins, and that’s where I started.

TT: That leads into my next question, which is what was your first coaching job and what was the first coaching job you got paid for?

Let’s see, the summer after I got done playing I coached at some camps, I guess you get paid a couple hundred bucks for doing that. My first coaching role was a grad assistant role at Boise State, coach Gregory was the defensive coordinator, coach Hawkins was the head coach. I went there to be a grad assistant on defense, and I remember, Bryan Harsin, who’s the head coach at Boise State, we were GAs together, he was the offensive GA, I was the defensive GA. There were only two at that time.

We were essentially on scholarship, but you only got that (stipend) during the school year, so during the summer, Harsin and I would sell pizzas at our high school camp and that’s how we made our summer rent. That’s just what you did and it was great, I had a little apartment, getting to live in Boise and getting to coach. My two years finished up, and I was trying like heck to find a paying job, and I was really not having too much luck. With things in our profession, timing is so critical, so I was trying to find some things, I remember there was potentially an opening at Sacramento State. This is in December of 2002, we were just getting ready to play Iowa State in the bowl game, they had Seneca Wallace at the time. We were getting ready for them and I was trying to find a job, because I was done on January 1st, I didn’t have any employment (after that) and I couldn’t go to school anymore.

The way it happened was really fortunate, because Bob Gregory had come (to Cal) with coach Tedford, and Bob Foster, who had a big influence on me, he had coached us at Oregon as well. Coach Foster was here (at Cal), when Tedford came here he brought Bob Gregory as the defensive coordinator and he brought coach Foster. (Foster) had been around coaching for a long time, he’s a Davis guy and helped to get things going. He came out of retirement, because he had retired at Oregon while I was playing there, came out of retirement to help these guys out, did it for a year and retired again. That all happened in late December of 2002, and essentially the only thing that could’ve happened for me to have an opportunity to get hired did. Bob Foster retired, and coach Gregory called and said ‘do you want to coach here?’ I’m like, ‘are you kidding me, of course I do.’ I came over here and interviewed. It was coach Tedford, who I had already known, so I was really lucky. I had ten days before I had to move from Boise, I was planning on packing my stuff up and heading somewhere to find employment.

It’s a little bit of a funnier story, within those ten days that Cal had a position come open, and I ended up getting an opportunity and the job offer, and within four days there were two other things that happened. I basically went from nothing to getting hired at Cal because coach Foster decided to retire.

TT: On the topic of Cal then, do you remember who the first linebacker you recruited to Cal was?

JW: I came in mid-year, there were some guys who had already signed (as JUCO LBs), I remember when I was coming in Joe Maningo had signed as a junior college transfer, Francis Blay-Miezah was coming in at that time, Greg Van Housen was a freshman coming from the Los Gatos area, coming in in that class.

The next year, we signed Worrell Williams, it’d be the class of 2004, I think Marlin Simmons was in that class, Marlin didn’t make it, the next year was (Anthony) Felder and (Zack) Follett. Des (Bishop) was the next year as well (class of 2005). Then the 06, when I was leaving (for Boise State to be the defensive coordinator), one of the last guys I was recruiting heavy, I remember making the trip out there many times, a long drive every week, was Mikey Mohamed. There were a couple guys in that class (as well). We could go through all those guys as well.

I walked into the room with a really good group, there was Sid Slater, Wendell Hunter, a really good room and I was fortunate, really good guys and I enjoyed being around them.

TT: You played defensive back at how Oregon, how did you make the transition to coaching linebackers?

JW: I started doing that at Boise when I first got out there as a grad assistant, it’s one of the best things I did, and I think people should do that, move to a different position, especially if you’re a DB, you should go up front (to the front seven), with a different position group.

I was coaching outside linebackers when I was a grad assistant, I was doing that with coach Gregory and Ron Collins (now the defensive coordinator at Ohio University). It was a great learning experience, you’re tied into the whole defense, I really enjoyed that. There was a lot of studying, I went and met with a lot of guys, asked a lot of questions.

TT: How much did your experience of moving around in coaching linebackers play into your current philosophy, after you moved around some coaches on offense in 2019?

JW: I think it’s good for everybody, just because you played one position, it doesn’t mean that’s the only position you’ll coach. You look at all the staffs across the country, Mike Riley (the former Oregon State coach), he was a defensive coordinator before he was an offensive coordinator. There’s a lot of people like that and I think you learn football, for all of us it’s teaching the position, teaching the game, teaching the life skills that correspond with it.

I think it’s been great, and I’ve experienced it at different places, whether it was at Boise State or some of my other stops where guys would coach different spots. I remember when I was at Boise, Jeff Choate (current head coach at Montana State), he was our special teams coordinator and he was our running backs coach, then he ended up moving to defense, and he did a fantastic job. There are a lot of examples of that, I always thought that was good and healthy, whether it’s the same side of the ball and different positions, or guys cross over and it’s a good fit for everybody.