BERKELEY — New Cal football coach Tosh Lupoi was in attack mode on his first day on the job.
Lupoi used the word over and over Friday during his introductory news conference to describe how he will approach everything from recruiting to hiring a staff to keeping his players on task academically, to winning football games.
“I do it a lot,” he said when asked about applying the word to nearly all things. “It’s how I wake up, how I’m programmed, how I’m wired. We’re not going to be sitting around tables doing a lot of complaining, I can promise you that. It’s going to be about attacking solutions.
“I love using descriptive and visual words and I learned some of that in my Master’s education program here at Cal Berkeley.”
Lupoi, 44, returns to Cal to become a head coach for the first time as Justin Wilcox’s successor after four seasons as defensive coordinator at Oregon. He spent six seasons (2000-05) as a player and student at Cal, then six more (2006-2011) to start his coaching career.
He was celebrated by about 50 former teammates included among 300 fans, boosters and staff at the Field Club in Memorial Stadium during a one-hour program also featuring Chancellor Rich Lyons and football general manager Ron Rivera.
Signed to a five-year contract Thursday night, Lupoi gives the Bears “a true alignment” of three leaders, all of whom were undergrads at Cal.
“Tosh gets this place,” said Lyons, the first Cal graduate to return as chancellor.
Rivera said getting to know Lupoi over the past week convinced him of something he didn’t think was possible. “I didn’t think anybody else could love this university as much as me,” he said.
Lupoi said it’s become a cliché too often used, but confirmed, “This is a dream job for me. This place means everything to me.”
Lyons referenced Lupoi’s “super-power skills,” especially his passionate and relentless recruiting efforts, which contributed to what Rivera said ultimately was “a no-brainer” decision.
Lupoi, who also has coached defense at Washington, Alabama and for three NFL teams, has spent the past four seasons at Oregon. He will remain with the Ducks for as long as they are alive through the College Football Playoff, but will also devote significant attention to his new assignment, even making quick return trips to the Bay Area when his schedule allows.
An East Bay native who never lost a game during his career at De La Salle High School, Lupoi said he is accustomed to getting limited sleep and acknowledged the next month will be busy.
The CFP championship game is not until Jan. 19 — three days after the Jan 2-16 transfer portal window closes — so that complicates Lupoi wearing two hats at once. He said he will visit with current players on the phone or via Zoom while Rivera and others on the current staff will work things from this end.
Lupoi met with the full team Friday morning, but has not engaged in individual discussions with players yet. Clearly, retaining freshman quarterback Jaron-Keawe Sagapolutele, who will lead the Bears against Hawaii in the Dec. 24 Hawaii Bowl, is a priority.
“He’s already established himself here quite a bit — I’m talking off the field — the leadership, the relationships,” Lupoi said. “I’m extremely excited to meet Jaron, meet the family and start that process with him. I’m absolutely pumped to attack this process together.”
Lupoi talked about how at his two previous schools as defensive coordinator he developed relationships with the quarterbacks that included Tua Tagovailoa and Jalen Hurts at Alabama under Nick Saban at Alabama, and Bo Nix, Dillon Gabriel and now Dante Moore at Oregon under Dan Lanning.
“We would challenge the quarterback to come into my office and to see things from the perspective that I do,” he explained. “To be able to offer that to the offensive players . . . how a quarterback can see that and how that can raise the level of play from him.”
Beyond that, he added, “Every one of those guys I just (mentioned) are going to be a part of JKS’s life moving forward.”
Lupoi said he will not rush the process of hiring assistant coaches and did not rule out retaining anyone from the existing staff, including interim head coach Nick Rolovich, whom he called “an excellent coach.”
But he also said he’s heard from multiple “high-level NFL coaches and coaches at the best programs in the country who want to come work here,” he said, adding that he already has interviewed three candidates.
“I think JKS has something to do with that, I think Ron Rivera has something to do with that. I hope I have something to do with that.”