Darren Yamashita-Imagn Images/Chris Jones-Imagn Images
Cal GM Ron Rivera and head coach Tosh Lupoi
College football teams usually give a new head coach at least a couple of years to find their footing before they think about going in a new direction. However, it sounds like Tosh Lupoi is already on the hot seat midway through his first year at Cal based on the blunt assessment GM Ron Rivera delivered in the wake of his underwhelming start.
Cal has never really been a college football powerhouse, and fans of the Golden Bears have become largely accustomed to mediocrity (and some downright awfulness) while rooting for a team that has posted a double-digit win total on three occasions in the past 75 years.
Justin Wilcox was unable to add to that number during the nine seasons he spent as the head coach at Cal after taking over in 2017, as the team peaked with an 8-5 record two years after he kicked off a tenure where they went 48-55 under his watch.
Wilcox was fired before the end of the season last year, and Cal was obviously hoping to upgrade after poaching Tosh Lupoi, who previously worked as the defensive coordinator at Oregon. However, that hasn’t really been the case so far, and he may not even have a chance to improve on his inaugural showing after being put on notice by the team’s GM.
Ron Rivera hinted Tosh Lupoi could be done after his first season as head coach while criticizing his performance
Cal was not expected to be a major player in the ACC prior to the start of the season, and that has indeed been the case.
The Golden Bears are sitting at 3-6 (and 2-4 in conference play) during a bye week, and on Thursday, Ron Rivera, the former NFL coach who has served as the GM at Cal since 2025, had the chance to assess Lupoi’s debut during an interview on The Murph & Markus Show on KBNR.
Rivera chalked up some of the team’s issues to Lupoi’s decision to hire “a couple of inexperienced coordinators” and alluded to offensive struggles that have been pinned on Jordan Somerville, who was previously an assistant coach with the Buccaneers and was stripped of his play-calling duties after Cal lost to UNLV at the start of October.
However, he asserted the buck ultimately stops with Lupoi while criticizing his ability to take criticism and consider feedback, saying:
“He has bumped his head a lot. We have talked a lot, tried to give him a lot of advice, point him in the right direction.
Some of it, he’s been very receptive, and other portions of it, he hasn’t. And it’s those things that sometimes you’ve gotta learn for yourself before you think, ‘Oh wow, this is it.'”
Rivera acknowledged the head coach “is a guy that’s learning, growing,” but he strongly hinted the clock is ticking, adding:
 “We have to show that we are growing. There has been some growth and development of our players, our team, and the culture is getting stronger. Those are all things that you have to have going forward.
We’ve got to get this foundation put down, we’ve got to show that we have solid roots in the ground, we are ready to go forward.”
Cal will finish the season with games against Virginia, Stanford, and Pitt, and all three of those are winnable on paper when you consider those programs have also struggled to get things clicking this season.
Rivera obviously isn’t blameless here, as Lupoi wouldn’t have been brought on board in the first place without his seal of approval. It also sounds like he might be engaging in some backseat coaching, and while it’s hard to blame him for wanting to chime in given his background, you do have to wonder if that kind of friction is detrimental in the long run.