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After Jeff Tedford was relieved of his duties as head coach back in Novemeber, four of Cal's assistant coaches were released (defensive coordinator Clancy Pendergast, linebackers coach Kenwick Thompson, special teams coach Jeff Genyk and defensive line coach Todd Howard) while five remained to deal with the head coach transition and with recruiting in the interim.
Well, it looks like those remaining coaches have been shown the door. Offensive line coach/offensive coordinator Jim Michalczik, QB Coach Marcus Arroyo, RB Coach Ron Gould, Secondary Coach Ashley Ambrose, and WR coach Wes Chandler have all been notified that they will not be retained under Coach Sonny Dykes' new regime according to Jeff Faraudo.
There were some whispers that a few assistants might be retained, most notably RB Coach Ron Gould who has coached at Cal for 16 years, well before the Tedford era even starter.
But alas, it looks like Dykes will start fresh with a staff he knows and trusts.
[Edit: Geez, ok, so despite my last correction, it turns out the original report is true. All the previous assistant coaches have been released. MoragaBear at theBearInsider as the semi-definitive word:
Just in case there's still confusion about Coach M - Today, 04:45 PM
He'll be moving on with the rest of the holdover coaches.
My tweet from today was: Despite information floating around to the contrary, #Cal will not be retaining any of their holdover coaches. Best of luck to all of them.
My tweet from last night was: Look for a completely new coaching staff at #Cal under new HC Sonny Dykes.
That's still the case, despite info out there to the contrary.
Best wishes to a group of men that have given a lot of blood, sweat and tears to the Cal cause.
]
A few more thoughts on the moves after the jump.
First off, it's completely understandable that Dykes wants to bring on a new staff. It's far from uncommon for a new coach to bring in people he trusts and has worked with before. There's far too much room for egos and personalities to clash when there are coaching holdovers from a previous regime.
Dykes has been emphasizing "fits" in all of his public statements about his vision for the team and the staff in that he wants people who are going to work best together. He appears to place a premium on the ability to work cohesively to turn out an end product rather than simply looking at what a coach has done individually.
Keep in mind, most of the assistant coaches that Dykes has worked with has seemed to work pretty well for him thus far, and he sees little reason to change what has worked.
Still, I'm probably the most bummed about seeing Ron Gould go. He's been one of the best ambassadors for Cal for the past 16 years, and he's said himself that he bleeds blue and gold. He's easily one of the best at what he does, and for anyone to try and argue otherwise at this point is a bit ridiculous. I for one, would have liked to have seen him stick around, but again, I understand why Dykes has chosen to go in a different direction.
In a somewhat interesting side note, WR Coach Wes Chandler seems to be a bit irked that he wasn't told from Dykes himself that he was no longer needed:
“I understand it. He wants to have his own guys,” said Chandler, who said he was only unhappy that he didn’t get a direct answer from Dykes. “He could have said, `Hey, I don’t have a place for you.’"
Fair enough. But again, I'm not sure if Dykes was obligated to. But I understand the frustration. But like all of us, we probably should have seen that there was little chance of any of the staff sticking around from the beginning.
That's what happens when your team goes 3-9.
And finally, for what it's worth, many might be somewhat celebrating a complete overhaul of the staff now, but the true gauge of reactions will come at the end of next season. Should the runningbacks be ultra productive next year, most undergraduates may not even remember the name Ron Gould. Should we see any units falter, we might be longing for Jeff Genyk again.
Well maybe not that one.
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