Next Cal Football Coach Odds: Who Will Rivera Land?
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One of the nation’s eminent academic institutions is on the market for a new head football coach for the first time in nearly a decade.
That’s because the California Golden Bears have officially fired Justin Wilcox after the ninth year head coach went 6-5 this season, with Saturday’s 31-10 rout in Palo Alto against a mediocre Stanford Cardinal team being the final straw in Berkeley.
To get a sense of where Cal General Manager Ron Rivera will go next, Bookies.com compiled some hypothetical college football odds on which candidates have the best shot at landing the Golden Bears gig this go-round.
| Coach | Current Position | Percentage Chance | Odds |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tosh Lupoi | Oregon DC | 22.2% | +350 |
| Ryan Grubb | Alabama OC | 19.1% | +425 |
| Sean Lewis | San Diego State Head Coach | 11.1% | +800 |
| Jason Eck | New Mexico Head Coach | 10.0% | +900 |
| Bronco Mendenhall | Utah State Head Coach | 7.4% | +1250 |
| Steve Wilks | Jets DC | 7.4% | +1250 |
| Jim Mora | UConn Head Coach | 5.4% | +1750 |
| Dan Mullen | UNLV Head Coach | 3.8% | +2500 |
| Eric Bieniemy | Bears RB coach | 3.8% | +2500 |
| The Field | 10.0% | +900 |
Who Replaces Justin Wilcox at Cal?
Wilcox will be paid $10.9 million to leave Berkeley, with former Hawai’i and Washington State head coach Nick Rolovich leading Cal as interim head coach through the rest of the season.
With that all in mind, here’s who could be the next man up in Berkeley:
Tosh Lupoi (Oregon defensive coordinator): +350
The 44-year-old California native has been a defensive assistant in the NCAA and NFL ranks since 2008, since playing for the Golden Bears from 2000 to 2005.
Lupoi’s main stops include time spent as defensive coordinator at Alabama (2017-2018) and Oregon (2022 to present), with stops in the NFL as a defensive line coach with the Cleveland Browns, Atlanta Falcons and Jacksonville Jaguars in between.
For now, we’re giving Lupoi the best odds of any candidate at replacing Wilcox in Berkeley, at +350, potentially proving that you really can come home again (in college football, at least).
Ryan Grubb (Alabama offensive coordinator): +425
Few offensive coordinators in the college game have done more in the modern era than Grubb, who has been Kalen DeBoer’s right hand man at Fresno State, Washington and now Alabama from 2017 to 2025.
While Grubb’s one-year stint in the NFL with the Seattle Seahawks in 2024 wasn't great, he has rebuilt his status as a true offensive guru in Tuscaloosa this year, leading the Crimson Tide to a 9-2 record, potentially opening the door on returning to the West Coast in 2025.
Grubb enters the Cal coaching carousel as our No. 2 guy, at +425, as the 49-year-old has never been a head coach at any level, potentially giving Rivera and the Golden Bears search committee members pause, though he’s certainly going to get a crack at an opening this time around.
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Sean Lewis (San Diego State head coach): +800
After a five-year stint at Kent State that saw him win 24 games and make two bowl games, Sean Lewis made waves by leaving the MAC behind to be Deion Sanders’ first offensive coordinator at Colorado in 2023.
While Lewis’ time in Boulder was brief, he was able to land a head coaching job with the San Diego State Aztecs, where he’s gone 12-11, with this year’s team posting a 9-2 mark overall.
Lewis has no direct ties to Cal, having previously coached as an assistant at Syracuse, Bowling Green, Eastern Illinois, Akron and Nebraska-Omaha, though he’ll certainly be a hot name on the coaching carousel this offseason.
Jason Eck (New Mexico head coach): +900
The first-year New Mexico Lobos head coach has already made waves in the Duke City, with Jason Eck leading UNM to a 8-3 mark so far, the program’s most wins in a year since going 9-4 in 2016.
While the former Idaho head coach has no direct ties to the Golden State, Eck’s name will be thrown around a lot this year, given his overnight success in Albuquerque and the glut of coaching roles that are open around the country at the Power Four level.
Bronco Mendenhall (Utah State head coach): +1250
Few head coaches in the nation have jumped around like Bronco Mendenhall has of late, with the 59-year-old going from retiring at Virginia in 2021 to coaching New Mexico in 2024 and Utah State this year.
The former BYU head coach has thrived across the board in 19 years as an FBS head coach, with a 146-83 (.611) career record and a 6-5 mark in Logan this season.
Whether Mendenhall would want to take on another Power Four gig at this point in his coaching career arc is unknown, though he’d certainly be a solid candidate should he have any interest in coming to Berkeley this offseason.
Steve Wilks (Jets defensive coordinator): +1250
The first non-NCAA assistant or head coach on our Cal board is Steve Wilks, who is currently serving as the New York Jets defensive coordinator after serving as a head coach with the Arizona Cardinals in 2018 and on an interim basis with the Carolina Panthers in 2022.
Wilks has no direct ties to Berkeley, having attended Appalachian State as a player and coaching across the NCAA and NFL with no stops at Cal.
He does have a direct relationship with Rivera, however, having spent six years as the Panthers assistant coach in a number of roles under him from 2012 to 2017, which is why we’re throwing him in here at +1250 to replace Wilcox at Cal.
Wilks was also the runner-up to Bill Belichick for the UNC opening this time last year.
Other Names to Keep An Eye On in Berkeley
Outside of the names above, the longshots that could get a crack at the Cal job this go-round include former UCLA and current UConn head coach Jim Mora Jr. (+1750), as well as UNLV head coach Dan Mullen and Chicago Bears running backs coach Eric Bieniemy (+1750 each).
Mora has turned the Huskies around during his four-year stint in Storrs, with nine wins in each of the last two seasons and two bowl game appearances to date (with a third coming in 2025).
Mullen’s first year back as a head coach has gone well in Las Vegas, with the former Mississippi State and Florida leader going 9-2 in Sin City after getting canned by the Gators back in 2021.
Finally, Bieniemy’s road to Berkeley came through a host of stops as a NCAA and NFL assistant, most notably as the Kansas City Chiefs’ offensive coordinator from 2018 to 2022.
While Bieniemy has no direct ties to Cal, he has served as an assistant at UCLA twice, doing so between 2003 and 2005 and again under Deshaun Foster in 2024, while working with Rivera as the Washington Commanders’ assistant head coach and offensive coordinator in 2023.
Whichever candidate gets the Cal job will be tasked with elevating the program from its current run of on-field apathy to stable success, with Wilcox failing to lead the team to more than eight victories in any of his nine seasons with the school.
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