Cal Promotes Line Coach Mike Bloesch to Offensive Coordinator

Cal announced Saturday that offensive line coach Mike Bloesch has been elevated to the Bears' offensive coordinator position, replacing Jake Spavital, who left Cal to become Baylor's offensive coordinator.

Bloesch will also retain his duties as Cal's offensive line coach, which means Cal still needs to hire a quarterbacks coach, a critical coaching position.

Bloesch presumably will be calling the plays for Cal's offense in its upcoming bowl game, which either be either the LA Bowl against Boise State or the Independence Bowl against a Big 12 team.

Before he arrived at Cal this past offseason, Bloesch spent three seasons with North Texas, serving as the offensive coordinator in 2021 and 2022 after being a co-offensive coordinator in 2020. 

He was also the Mean Green's quarterbacks coach in 2022 while working with the offensive linemen in 2020 and 2021.

This season Bloesch has been the Bears' offensive line coach and run-game coordinator, and Cal has averaged 181.1 rushing yards per game, which is Cal's best per-game average since 2012. Running back Jaydn Ott ranks first in the Pac-12 and fifth in the country in rushing (114.5 yards per game).

The Bears' pass protection also improved. Cal ranked 10th in the Pac-12 last year in sacks allowed per game (2.58), and this year the Bears rank fourth (1.50 sacks allowed per game).

"Mike has made a huge impact in his first season with our program, and we are excited to give him the opportunity to make an even greater impact moving forward," head coach Justin Wilcox said in a statement. "Mike has proven himself to be a versatile and skilled coach, as well as an excellent recruiter. It's easy to see why Mike has risen so quickly through the ranks to become one of the nation's top young coaches and recruiters."

"I'm excited about this opportunity and prepared for it," Bloesch said in a statement. "We have taken strides to becoming a great football program this season, and I can't wait to see what we can accomplish down the road. I want to win championships, and I want to win them at Cal."

The big question is whether the promotion of Bloesch will convince Ott, redshirt freshman quarterback Fernando Mendoza and other talented Cal offensive players to remain at Cal. It may depend who who is hired to be Cal's quarterbacks coach.

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