The one coaching candidate California must aggressively go after

The California Golden Bears are entering their hat into the ring in what is undoubtedly one of the more high-profile "coaching carousel" college football seasons in recent memory.

Several big-time programs have fired their coaches this season. That list includes, but is not limited to, Florida firing Billy Napier, LSU firing Brian Kelly, Penn State firing James Franklin (who has now become the head coach at Virginia Tech) and Auburn firing Hugh Freeze.

Cal is now a part of that notorious list after firing Justin Wilcox on Sunday after a 31-10 loss to Stanford.

They'll now look for another head coach with the guidance of former NFL head coach Ron Rivera, who is the program's general manager, but the Golden Bears may not have to turn far to find their next coach.

Cal should pursue Oregon Ducks' Tosh Lupoi

Well, at least they won't have to leave the West Coast, because the hands-down best target for them is Oregon Ducks defensive coordinator Tosh Lupoi.

Lupoi makes a ton of sense for Cal, mostly because he played for the Golden Bears as a defensive lineman from 2000 to 2005.

That's a huge tie for him to the program, but it's not the only tie. His first coaching gig was at Cal from 2008 to 2011, when he was the team's defensive line coach. 

Lupoi made some big-time stops as an assistant. That includes five seasons under Nick Saban at Alabama, where he worked as everything from a defensive analyst early on to a defensive coordinator in 2018. He then spent three seasons in the NFL as an assistant with the Cleveland Browns, Atlanta Falcons and Jacksonville Jaguars before Dan Lanning brought him in to run Oregon's defense in 2022.

That's one heck of a resume for Lupoi, and his time as a player at Cal makes him the perfect fit. He's 44 years old, so he's still young, and he's known as one of the better recruiters in college football. He cut his teeth as a recruiter at Alabama and had a hand in recruiting players like Najee Harris, Dylan Moses, Mack Wilson, Tua Tagovailoa, Jaylen Waddle and Trevon Diggs to Tuscaloosa.

Throw in the championship experience he got as a coach under Saban, and there really can't (or at least shouldn't) be another contender for this Cal job.

The Golden Bears must aggressively go after Lupoi because there will be other suitors for him. His place is clearly Berkeley, California, though.