SportSpyder - The Latest California Golden Bears Football Podcasts

DBD 2026-07-31: Gaius Julius Caesar

Fri, 31 Jul 2026 10:11:28 GMT

Welcome to the DBD, a Write for California community board where one can talk about anything – Cal-related or off-topic. Comment threads are sorted by topic. Anything is fine, so long as you're generally civil

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Bear Insider Ultimate Insider E130: Cal RB Ashten Emory

Bear Insider — Thu, 30 Jul 2026 23:14:47 GMT

Cal Athletics hits new landmark fundraising goals in 2025-26

Thu, 30 Jul 2026 20:43:56 GMT

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Cal Athletics closed the 2025-26 fiscal year with a record $88.5 million in gifts and pledges, topping last year’s then-record $82 million. The haul included more than $40.6 million for operational needs — coaching, training, academic services, travel, and nutrition — and was driven by 18 donors giving $1 million or more, the most in department history. Headlining gifts included $11 million commitments toward a new basketball practice facility and several large anonymous gifts to football ($10.5M and $6.5M), men’s basketball ($2M), and women’s basketball ($2.6M).

$18.3 million in endowments were raised, including a $3 million gift for the women’s tennis head coaching position, another gift for field hockey, a $2.5 million gift for men’s crew, and gifts to endow two men’s soccer assistant coach positions. Four crowdfunding campaigns raised over $5.3 million from more than 3,600 donors. Revenue-sharing fundraising in support of NIL exploded from $6.8 million in 2024-25 to $30.6 million this year, as Cal ramps up support under the new post-House Settlement compensation model.

This builds on an already record-setting 2024-25, when Cal raised $82 million, anchored by a historic $26 million gift from the Spieker family that endowed men’s swimming/diving and water polo, plus golf and rugby program endowments. That year’s Fight for California campaign launched in response to the NCAA House Settlement, with an $2 million football challenge in just eight days — the biggest crowdfunding push in UC Berkeley history.

For a good comparison of success, UCLA raised $41 million in FY2025-26 from over 6,500 donors, an 80.6% two-year increase. This is a successful mark for the Bruins, who are well on their way to catching the flagship university of the state in athletic contributions. We’ll see them on the field in just over a month!

Lots of good news, but as long as Cal remains hamstrung in the ACC with reduced revenue payouts, the fundraising must go on.

ACC Preseason Poll RELEASED! Cal picked to finish.....12th?? No players on the preseason team??

Bleav Podcast Network — Thu, 30 Jul 2026 12:05:00 GMT

Topics:

ACC releases preseason poll
ACC releases preseason team
Thomas crashes out
Training camp start date revealed

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DBD 2026-07-30: Christopher Nolan

Thu, 30 Jul 2026 10:07:12 GMT

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Cal picked to finish 12th in ACC Preseason Poll

Wed, 29 Jul 2026 17:42:57 GMT

There are still a lot of questions surrounding Tosh Lupoi’s first season with the California Golden Bears, which is why they remain at the back-half of conference media predictions.

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The Miami Hurricanes, national championship runner-ups, are the prohibitive favorite to win this conference, but Cal will avoid them for the second season in a row.

Cal will face the 2nd, 4th, 6th, 7th, 8th, 9th, 13th, 14th, and 17th projected best teams in this conference. It’s a challenging but not difficult schedule, where Cal faces two playoff contenders, several bowl-likely squads, and then three must-wins. The schedule projects to be a step up from last year’s relatively easy slate (where the Bears faced only four of the top 11 teams in the ACC) that put Cal at 7-5.

So Cal should have yet another reasonable path to their first conference winning record since 2009. And it’s more evident than ever that this is a season where this should happen, it must happen, for the sake of our program.

DBD 2026-07-29: Ulysses

Wed, 29 Jul 2026 10:03:14 GMT

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Bear Insider Ultimate Insider E129: Cal ILB Tristan Jernigan

Bear Insider — Wed, 29 Jul 2026 04:02:02 GMT

Cal Depth Chart Discussion and Projections - Offensive Coaching Staff

Tue, 28 Jul 2026 13:30:26 GMT

Previous post: Cal Depth Chart Discussion and Projections - QB + Skill Players

Previous post: Cal Depth Chart Discussion and Projections - Offensive Line

“School of Athens” is a fresco by Raphael (not the turtle) depicting the famous teachers, philosophers, scientists, and generally people who would also really enjoy the intricacies of college football (Also, I have yet to ask Plato if he thinks Oski embodied the ideal of Godliness in his form).

In a way, Head Coach Tosh Lupoi has assembled a veritable school of coaches on offense, increasing the number of staff on offense from six to ten by mostly augmenting the ranks with experienced assistant coaches.

I want to zoom into the hires and what they say about the new regime. The increase in the staff is a signal: We are finally investing into the coaching staff and the assistant pool at a level comparable to our peers in the ACC. There is also more specialization, with coaches having fewer responsibilities and more help on a position level.

We also have three staff retentions on the staff: Nick Rolovich, Famika Anae, and Mike Saffell. I will dig into each in their own section, but each makes sense:

Rolovich has a massive influence on JKS and Hawai’i recruiting overall, as well as being a great offensive mind as a Run-and-Shoot disciple;
Anae remains a high-ceiling technical coach from his time at New Mexico, who also sports strong recruiting chops, bringing in two four-star OL last cycle (McMorris and Hasenhuetl);
Saffell is a high energy coach who sports strong Cal ties, being both a player and alumnus. He’s also showcased strong recruiting and talent identification chops in finding Mason Mini and Taimane Purcell.

A pattern emerges, where Tosh retained likely the best three recruiters and talent evaluators on the team last year, all of whom have recruiting experience west of the Mississippi.

Offensive Coordinator: Jordan Somerville

Per CalBears.com:

In 2023, his first season coaching at the NFL level, Somerville helped in putting together a Pro Bowl campaign for Mayfield during his debut season in Tampa Bay. Mayfield set career highs in completions (364), completion percentage (63.4%), passing yards (4,044) and passing touchdowns (28) on his way to the 2023 Pro Football Writers of America Most Improved Player award.
Prior to the NFL, Somerville was an offensive analyst at Oregon. While with the Ducks, he was a part of an offensive staff that ranked sixth among Power 5 programs in scrimmage yards per game (500.5) and 10th in points per game (38.8). Somerville worked with future NFL quarterback Bo Nix and helped him finish fourth among all Power 5 quarterbacks in passer rating (165.7), while also finishing top 10 in passing yards (3,593), passing yards per attempt (8.78) and passing touchdowns (29).
Prior to Oregon, Somerville served as the running backs coach and recruiting coordinator at New Mexico for two seasons (2020-21). Before his first full-time coaching role, Somerville was a graduate assistant in 2019 with the Arizona State Sun Devils, helping them to a berth in the Tony the Tigers Sun Bowl.

What does this say? The first playcall he will call against UCLA for Cal will be the first time he will make a playcall with actual football consequences in his career. This also means that we’re in the absolute dark about what scheme he prefers, what his tendencies are, and what to expect from him as a first time play-caller.

I believe that he will bring some experience from Oregon where Bo Nix had one of the most dominant seasons of a QB in the history of the NCAA, including breaking the single season completion percentage record including coming 3rd in Heisman voting.

He will also very likely bring in influences from the Dave Canales, Liam Cohen and most recently Josh Grizzard offensive playbook. Canales and Cohen come either indirectly (via Canales being the QB coach under OC Shane Waldron) and directly (via Cohen, who worked as QB coach and OC with the Rams) come from the Sean McVay tree. And if you were to zoom out to the Kyle Shanahan tree, we have Grizzard, who worked under Dolphins HC Mike McDaniel, who worked with Shanahan and McVay.

What does this mean? I think we’re going to marry a lot of the RPO concepts Oregon was famous for in the Bo Nix era with the modern McVay offense where multiple TEs, and a stronger emphasis on the power run blocking concepts. Taking a gander at the Liam Cohen 2021 playbook from his stint as Kentucky’s OC we also see a lot of condensed formations with 2 TEs and 2 WRs.

What’s a condensed formation?

As seen above we have the entire offense coalesced around the OL. conceding the space on the outside and making the middle of the field a congested mess where the defense has to sift through traffic to find their assignment. There are drawbacks to this: by bringing the defense into the middle of the formation, we’re effectively stacking the box with defenders even if we’re in a more passing personnel look.

Associate HC/QB: Nick Rolovich & Assistant QB: Jeff McDaniels

The first retention of the staff from the previous regime, Rolovich brings in a bevvy of experience in the collegiate game both as an OC and HC in Hawai’i and WSU. He also serves as an advisor for OC Somerville in converting his NFL experience into the modern college game. That experience will vary from scheme adjustments, knowing how much you can really teach teenagers who, at least at Cal, have to attend classes; and insight into game-time man management, making sure the right players are on the field at the right time.

A minor retention with Jeff McDaniels, who was elevated from assistant: There is less to glean about McDaniels’s experience—before his 2 year stint at EWU as the WR coached, he worked and climbed the ranks at Auburn all the way to Interim RB coach. Over his other stops at Davidson, Boise State, Texas State, and Cal he cycled across a variety of offensive quality control and analyst roles. I must assume that his familiarity with the team and wide experience with the nuances of each position help him work with the QB room best.

OL: Famika Anae

Another holdover from the last year of the Wilcox regime. He came here on the heels of a very successful stint at the UNM Lobos, where his OL was cited for not allowing only 5 sacks and 26 TFLs (I assume it helped that Devin Dampier is an athletic QB who rushed for over 1,000 yards). However, life at the ACC level was harder, with Cal’s ever-changing cast of OL playing at each position and sometimes out of position.

He has shown good recruiting ability, likely the reason for his retention, by bringing in 4* OL Daniel McMorris in the 2026 cycle and 4* IOL Justin Hasenhuetl in 2025. Now can he prove that the 2025 OL performance was a fluke and show significant improvement upfront with another new insertion of portal talent, and avoid being labelled just a great recruiter at this level?

WR and co-OC: Ike Hilliard & Assistant WR: Geoff McArthur

Coach Hilliard’s accolades speak for themselves. The question was if he had the recruiting chops to back up his accolades. Alongside Cal Athletics Hall of Famer Geoff McArthur, he has proven that he can assemble the best wide receiver recruiting class in the recent era, with talents like Zion White and Demare Dezeurn on their way.

Not to mention, coming in this year are two NFL Draft-potential wide receivers in Ian Strong and Chase Hendricks, who elected to come to Cal instead of entering the Draft or going to any other program where they would’ve been the unequivocal WR1s in other places.

I do think that the coaching for the players will be impeccable, and at a level we haven’t seen in a while at Cal, and Hilliard’s and McArthur’s work will be essential in unlocking the offense’s ceiling.

RB & Recruiting Coordinator: Keith Bhonapha

Another extremely solid addition to the coaching staff. On top of the clear connections to the Hawai’i islands and the West Coast on the recruiting front, he also has coached some impressive running backs, with the most notable ones below:

Jay Ajayi (Miami Dolphins)
Doug Martin (Tampa Bay Buccaneers)
Myles Gaskin (Miami Dolphins)
Ashton Jeanty (Las Vegas Raiders)
Damien Martinez (Seattle Seahawks)

He also brings a verifiable track record of being a plus recruiter, with guys such as Salvon Ahmed, Dante Pettis, and Myles Gaskin being his guys he has brought in for Washington. This experience is likely why Bhonapha was given the “recruiting coordinator” title and the associated pay bump.

Will he be able to expand on his resume at Cal? We’ll see; he does have one of the most dynamic RBs in the portal to come and be the bellcow back for the offense.

TE/RGC: Steve Haunga & Assistant TE: Mike Saffell

Mike Saffell is taking a mild demotion from his previous position as the TE coach and will support new addition Steve Haunga, who will take over the room for the first time in his career.

Haunga and Saffel present the biggest unknown on the staff. Both have shown the ability to both identify talent (Mike Saffell and the recruiting staff in 2025 found an extremely underrated TE in Mason Mini, who broke out in 2026 as a viable passing game threat) and recruit/retain high-end talent in Dorian Thomas and Taimaine Purcell. From a coaching perspective, can they show that the guys they have under their wings can reach the ceiling their respective talent promises? This system will often field 2 TEs, who will need to do everything from run blocking, to motion, while running deep crossers or quick option routes to exploit space in the short passing game.

Passing Game Coordinator: Pat McCann

Usually the PGC title is given to a coach whose usual title and contributions undersell his impact on the field. Here we have a case of a coach who likely straddles the space between position coach and assistant coach/analyst. McCann comes with the Jeff Tedford stamp of approval, where at Fresno State he was the OC for the last year of the Tedford regime.

His varied experience leading the WRs up and down the west coast should be a plus in the… passing game!

I feel, I think, I know

I want to end every segment of this series with some feelings, thoughts, and beliefs I have on the group of players discussed, based on the level of evidence and confidence. These are my takes on the offensive coaching staff

I feel that…

This is overall a vastly improved coaching staff on the offensive side of the ball. The only viable comparison would be the 1st Justin Wilcox staff, where he plucked an up-and-coming FCS HC (Beau Baldiwn) and paired him with the legendary Oregon OL Coach Greatwood. In this case, we have a young hot-shot OC paired with the mixture of experienced and new faces. There is a tantalizing ceiling on this staff, but the uncertainty of the floor will loom across the season.

I think that…

Week 1 schemes and concepts will be vastly different from the ones we will see in Week 11 (after the Week 10 BYE week), and that there will be some players who will break out with new scheme adjustments and coaches. We saw that last year with the reduced usage of motions, and the emergence of Jacob de Jesus as a versatile receiver outside and in the slot. I do think the quality of coaching here will keep the arrow pointing up.

I know that…

We’re going to have a lot more recruiting power on the offensive side of the ball than we have had in the past. But I also believe that players we do recruit will be less likely to bust due to the higher levels of talent ID, especially in the TE/RB/WR rooms. There is too much quality of recruiting and experience on this side of the ball.

DBD 2026-07-28: 3D printing

Tue, 28 Jul 2026 10:47:23 GMT

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Bear Insider Ultimate Insider E128: Cal OLB Justin Beadles

Bear Insider — Tue, 28 Jul 2026 03:10:21 GMT

Cal Coach Tosh Lupoi Travels the Bay Area, Showcasing The Benefits Of Golden Bear Life

Mon, 27 Jul 2026 18:04:52 GMT

California Golden Bears head coach Tosh Lupoi was on a mission this month to find the best places to take the recruits this spring.

He started in Monterrey, where Ron Rivera calls home, in tow with tight ends coach Mike Saffell, to check out the famed Pebble Beach Links (home to next year’s US Open).

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Up next was a trip to the beaches of Santa Cruz, surf capital of Northern California, where he met more of the coaching staff.

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Lupoi enjoyed running those sands quite a lot.

Santa Clara was the next stop, as Lupoi and Saffell went to Levi’s Stadium, meeting up with Cal alum/current 49er Jake Tonges. The Levi-Strauss family has a long history of donating to Cal, with the Haas Family of course being the most prominent donors as of late with their contributions to the top in the world UC Berkeley Haas Business school, and of course Haas Pavilion.

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Then there was a quick stop to Apple HQ for a new iPhone, followed by a trip to meet Giants CEO and Cal alum Larry Baer.

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More surprises await in the remaining Tosh Cal football videos in this series!

DBD 2026-07-27: Slovenia

Mon, 27 Jul 2026 10:53:53 GMT

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Bear Insider Ultimate Insider E127: Cal WR Cooper Perry

Bear Insider — Sat, 25 Jul 2026 18:58:31 GMT

DBD 2026-07-24: Oops

Fri, 24 Jul 2026 14:18:32 GMT

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Photo by Jelleke Vanooteghem on Unsplash

Cal running back Adam Mohammed wants to build a legacy in the Bay Area

Thu, 23 Jul 2026 21:28:04 GMT

Adam Mohammed arrived at Cal with a clear sense of what drew him to the program, and it started with the names who came before him.

“Just seeing the history with the running backs over here, that played a huge part into coming here. I’ve met Marshawn Lynch, Jahvid Best. Just talking to those guys, knowing the culture they had over here and just wanting to continue it. That’s what I’m trying to continue.”

Tosh Lupoi’s recruiting pitch landed in a personal way, and there was one voice that sealed it.

“He actually flew in from Miami after the Texas Tech game. We sat in the office for like two hours just talking about ball and life. My mom was comfortable and whatever mom says, if she’s comfortable I’m comfortable. It was just overall the better fit for me.”

On how the program’s core values translate to the field, Mohammed kept it simple.

“That’s what we preach. Relentless effort, ball excellence, power unit. We’re going to dominate for six seconds, we’re going to protect and score the ball and we’re going to be tight together.”

Despite being one of many new transfers, Mohammed said the adjustment to a new group of teammates felt almost immediate.

“From the very first day it was really just getting to know everyone’s name and after that I feel like I’ve been here for years. Just being with the guys, I feel like I’ve known them for a long time. We all go over to each other’s houses and chill. We just kick it. It’s not that hard.”

DBD 2026-07-23: Holes (in your nose)

Thu, 23 Jul 2026 09:01:32 GMT

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Cal QB Jaron-Keawe Sagapolutele Reflects on Growth From Freshman Year at ACC Media Day

Wed, 22 Jul 2026 20:46:17 GMT

On his evolving perspective as a sophomore starter

Asked how things differ from being a true freshman at Media Day last year:

“It’s changed a tremendous amount, but same thing’s the same thing. Just continue to keep the main things the main things, and just continue to build this culture. Just continue to get in with these guys, just the continuous reps to be ready for season. I’m just so excited to head into this new season with a bunch of great guys.”

On GM Ron Rivera and playing a coast-to-coast schedule

“Coach Ron Rivera has been tremendous, especially to our program. Just being able to talk one-on-one with him pretty much on the weekly has been great. What he’s helped me do, just making me feel comfortable in everything I do — he’s been a tremendous help for me, not just for me, but for the program.”

On facing East Coast road trips while keeping the Stanford rivalry alive:

“Playing on the East Coast, I really find it exciting. Being able to travel to new places and just see new stadiums and new fan bases, just being able to take on a challenge is always fun for me. While also keeping that Stanford rivalry is fun as well — they’re a great program, very well respected. I’m just excited for this new season, this new challenge ahead.”

On the new receiving corps (Ian Strong, Chase Hendricks, Cooper Perry)

Asked about spring practice with the transfer additions:

“Those three, super talented guys. Their talent jumps off the roof and you see it right away. I’m just blessed to be able to throw to those guys, and all the guys that we’ve brought in and the guys that we’ve kept. We have so much talent in our receiver room, running back room, tight ends room, and especially our O-line — it’s where it starts. We have great talent all over.”

On the now-legendary story of Coach Lupoi’s midnight flight to Hawaii

Asked when he found out Lupoi was flying out and what came of that meeting:

“It caught me by surprise. I was back home watching my alma mater in the state championship, and it’s around 9:00 — I get a call from my mom that he’s flying in, used to land around 12. Gets in about 1:30, and we talked all the way to like about 4:30 in the morning.
“It was a great talk. It just felt right, knew this is where I wanted to be. He’s a head coach about winning, and that’s obviously what I want to do as well. The culture that he’s brought has been tremendous — relentless head coach that just wants nothing but the best for the program and for the players.
“Being able to just continue to meet with him weekly and continue to talk ball, life — has just been great for mental health, everything. It’s just been so great and tremendous for sure.”

On his Manning Passing Academy invite (not in the original article)

Asked about being invited to the camp this summer:

“It was a great blessing to be able to be invited to the Manning Passing Academy. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to attend it, but just being able to be on the eyes of such prolific people like the Mannings is really a blessing for sure, and definitely would love to attend it next year. Just grateful that I was on their radar.”

On having the trust of two different coaching staffs

Asked about earning belief first as a true freshman starter, now as a sophomore under a new staff:

“It’s tremendous. I’m just so grateful that I have people that believe in me — especially this new staff now, that’s been full-on, not just me but all the players that we brought and the guys that we have in the building. We’ve been working relentlessly this whole offseason getting ready for our first game, September 5th. We’re just excited to show what we can do on the field, and we’re going to continue to keep working the rest of summer into fall camp as we get into that first game.”

@CalFootball 🐻 ","username":"accnetwork","name":"ACC Network","profile_image_url":"https://pbs.substack.com/profile_images/1078693792142766080/tyr2o44L_normal.jpg","date":"2026-07-17T19:43:09.000Z","photos":[{"img_url":"https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!Zxt2!,w_1028,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:best,fl_progressive:steep/l_play_button_usfui2,w_88,e_colorize:0/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F__ss-rehost__tw-video-preview-13_2078203822501928960.jpg","link_url":"https://t.co/upIYaOpUPJ"}],"quoted_tweet":{},"reply_count":0,"retweet_count":29,"like_count":196,"impression_count":27587,"expanded_url":null,"video_url":"https://video.twimg.com/amplify_video/2078203822501928960/vid/avc1/720x900/mrTA41auNHdvqWQZ.mp4?tag=14","video_preview_media_key":"13_2078203822501928960","belowTheFold":true}" data-component-name="Twitter2ToDOM">

The Bearcast Returns for 2026: Korea, ACC Media Day & Early Predictions

The California Golden Bearcast — Wed, 22 Jul 2026 13:00:00 GMT

Opening:

Where the F Have You Guys Been?

Explain the extended break

ACC Media Day:

Biggest comments from Tosh Lupoi and the players

How Cal was received by the ACC media

Dialpad Jersey Patch:

Initial reaction to the patch

Other hypothetical Cal sponsors we would accept

ESPN Prediction:

What ESPN predicted for Cal

Fair, disrespectful, or optimistic?

Closing:

What's ahead?

Subscribe and send questions

Go Bears

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DBD 2026-07-22: Does a 2 HUMP camel make a 2 HUMP poop?

Wed, 22 Jul 2026 09:01:01 GMT

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Bear Insider Ultimate Insider E126: Cal DT Jericho Johnson

Bear Insider — Tue, 21 Jul 2026 19:07:22 GMT

DBD 2026-07-21: Next big sporting event

Tue, 21 Jul 2026 09:01:43 GMT

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DBD 2026-07-20: La Furia Roja

Mon, 20 Jul 2026 09:01:13 GMT

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Bear Insider Ultimate Insider E125: Cal TE Mason Mini

Bear Insider — Sun, 19 Jul 2026 20:54:53 GMT

HAUL! Cal Football lands DaJohn Yarborough and EXCITES at ACC Football Media Day

Bleav Podcast Network — Sat, 18 Jul 2026 12:05:00 GMT

Topics:

Cal lands DaJohn Yarborough
Why is Cal's messaging landing with recruits?
What did Tosh, Jaron, Adam and Ricky say at media day?
What impact did they have?

Socials:

https://www.on3.com/sites/golden-bear-report/join (Subscribe for just $1!)

https://x.com/Thomasdunn24

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