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Football: Bears hire Todd Howard as D-line coach

Posted on by Jeff Faraudo

Jeff Tedford’s staff is intact again after the announcement Saturday afternoon that Todd Howard has been hired as defensive line coach.

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Here is Cal’s official news release on Howard’s hiring.

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Howard has 20 seasons of experience coaching in the NFL and in college. He spent last season as defensive line coach at Washington State.

He also has worked at UCLA and in the NFL with the Jacksonville Jaguars (2003-05) and St. Louis Rams (1998-99).

“I’m excited to have Todd Howard as our defensive line coach,” Tedford said in a statement. “He has a tremendous amount of experience as both a coach and player at the NFL and collegiate level.

“We’ve had an opportunity to play against several of the teams he has coached in the past, and I’ve always been impressed by the way his defensive line has played. He is also consistent with what we stand for at Cal and will be an excellent mentor to our student-athletes athletically, academically and socially.”

Howard, in a statement said: “This is an outstanding opportunity for me to work with Jeff Tedford and the Cal football program. Cal teams always play hard and are well coached, and I believe that my coaching experience and knowledge will be an asset to the program. I am familiar with this conference and coaching the defensive line at this level.”

Howard was a three-year starting linebacker at Texas A&M and an all-conference selection as a senior in 1986. He spent two seasons playing for the Kansas City Chiefs.

Howard replaces Tosh Lupoi, Cal’s D-line coach and top recruiter, who took a position at Washington on Monday.

Cal hired former four-time NFL Pro Bowl wideout Wes Chandler as its receivers coach on Wednesday to replace Eric Kiesau. who also left to become offensive coordinator at Washington.

 

Jeff Faraudo

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  • The Wisdom Cow

    Well, let’s hope he shines in person towards keeping the DL recruits interested. The resume certainly says it is a strong hire, though it lacks the pop of a Wes Chandler.

  • daredevilfan

    I don’t wanna jump the gun as I need to learn/hear more, but initially this leaves me underwhelmed. Given the Defensive recruiting classes from the past 2 years and the potential one this year, I felt we needed to make a big splash with this hire and get some excitement back. Stealing a coach from the bottom of the Pac10 isn’t what I was hoping for. Am praying I’m wrong…

  • The Wisdom Cow

    Daredevilfan, my remedies professor once said, “If you don’t read the footnotes, your children will starve!”

    Links are the equivalent of footnotes.

    Here is part of it that may cheer you up:

    “Prior to arriving in Pullman, Howard was at UCLA as the defensive line coach and associate head coach on defense with the Bruins going to bowls three of the first four years of his tenure. He coached three first-team All-Americans in Bruce Davis, Justin Hickman and Brian Price, the latter earning 2009 Pac-10 Defensive Player of the Year honors and now a two-year NFL veteran with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.”

  • wehofx

    Sounds good but I was hoping for a little more star power. I hope he can recruit. Arik and Azziz(sp) will be a good test.

    Got this T Howard clip from twitter:

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BMmtERq0ZUs

  • abe

    So washington is reportedly paying its assistants 2.7 mil with the new staff which is a little over a mil more than we do. looking at their rather impressive staff, especially on the defensive side of the ball, it looks like uw is primed to return to its formidable pac 12 foe self. on the flip side depending on how much our class continues to unravel, Breggs is reportedly looking at ucla, we may be headed in the wrong direction if we aren’t already. and the difference was?

  • Bobby

    Abe: Treggs.

    And $ does not lead to results. See: Nick Holt, d coordinator at Washington. Let’s not go CRAZY that u dub is about to be the next big thing in the pac. At least wait for a season?

  • Bobby

    Who can name the top 5 PAC 12 assistants by salary? Are the offenses and defenses they coach the top 1 or 2 in the league?

  • Eric

    I hear Treggs’ trip is strictly perfunctory. His dad is LA-based, but loves Cal.

  • go8ears

    abe almost sounded like a uw troll there

  • Juancho

    More fallout, darius hamilton removes us from top 3. Means yuri wright also not in play.

    http://www.maxpreps.com/m/article.aspx?articleid=0aca4360-6e43-e111-a43e-002655e6c45a

    I have a sense jordan payton is going to commit to washington this weekend. Trying to process that now to not be too bummed later.

    For anyone who remembers this offseason gives me a similar “so close” feelibg to when gerald wallace commited to cal basketball years back only to switch to alabama.

    We were ndamokung suhs second choice. Dirk nowitzki committed to cal before deciding to go straight to the pros.

    Lets close a great class and stop being close but ultimately heartbroken.

  • Juancho
  • calgrizzlybear

    now bring in the pain train seal the deal…another staff member w/ nfl resume

  • Gobears49

    This whole episode reminds me of when we were “so close” to being ranked #1 if we just beat Oregon State. We were close to being in the top 3 in recruiting if we just kept Tosh Lupoi, but Cal couldn’t cough up enough money to keep him and their remodeled stadium reasonably filled, and Tedford (probably) couldn’t recognize that he was being vastly overpaid and would have won a lot of people over to his side by giving up part of his salary to key assistants. Like our blown chance of being ranked #1 in football, it sure looks like we have blown our chance to be in the very top ranks in football recruiting, something I can’t see happening in the future. But, really, I hope I’m wrong, as I’m a Cal fan and always will be.

  • Gobears49

    Forgot to add that this is another instance as to why the word “typicalcal” should be added to the dictionary. “Typicalcal” refers to a the situation where Cal looks like it is going to win an imporatnt game or do something really good in one of its sports programs and then, out of the blue, something happens and that glorious Cal victory or achievement is suddenly taken away from Cal. Recent events which would meet the typicalcal definition would include.

    1. Losing to OSU in football when winning would have made us #1.
    2. This whole recruiting issue, where we were ranked #8 in recruiting and were about to move higher if we got Armstead (we still might, but we made it more difficult for us to do that by letting Lupoi get away)).
    3. Omake being kicked off the basketball team two years ago, just before the NCAA’s. That was a great Cal basketball team, with a lot of talent. had Kamp played that year we could have gone deep in the NCAA’s. Even without him, we could have beaten Duke had we had Omoke and Christopher had not been hit in the eye at the start of the game. A typicalcal event.
    4. On a lesser basis, losing Soloman this year because he is suddenly academically ineligible is a big loss, as he provided a lot of decent minutes for Cal, allowing them to rest their starters more. Now we have only seven players we can rely upon to play. If you listened to the Cal radio broadcast today, Cal probably lose to WSU because they have a lot of players they rely on and Cal was tired because of late travel arrangements to Pullman, they had to play on Saturday afternoon after a Thursday night game, and because, again, we only have seven players we can rely upon. Soloman having to leave this year is a small typicalcal event.

    Maybe others can chime in with other typicalcal moments.

  • Jim

    woulda, coulda, shoulda.
    I see, forget rules, keep guys playing no matter what rules they ignore, classes they can’t pass, even laws they break … are you serious?

    This is not Oregon, nor Washington.
    This is CAL.

  • Yoda

    Wow, what a bunch of whiners. Tosh Lupoi is a loser and Washington ought to get hit with sanctions for what he did. I’d hate to be his parents.

  • Gobears49

    Jim,

    I’m not saying at all that players should not be kicked off the team for good cause, or should be allowed to play if they fail classes. I’m just expressing my frustration as to how events seem to happen to foul things up just when very good things are about to happen to Cal sports. Typicalcal.

  • covinared

    Eric: Treggs Dad loves Cal? He was one of the best players on the best team we’ve had in the last 30 years. Quite an understatement.

  • eric

    Covinared – thank you, master of the obvious. Yes, the 1991 team was the best Cal team since 1975, and the only teams that come close are 1993 and 2004. Both the 1991 and 1993 teams did not have nearly the talent of 2004, or the Cal teams since 2004. Remember that Treggs was not drafted.

    And not every amazing Cal athlete loves Cal even though they did exceedingly well. Not sure DeSean Jackson is the biggest fan. And not every Cal player who loved Cal doesn’t consider or take other options. Tosh, anyone?

    Of course, my point was to say that, even though Treggs 2.0 lives in Los Angeles, and his dad works in Los Angeles, and even though Treggs 2.0 has announced he is visiting UCLA, we shouldn’t worry because the word on the street is that it a perfunctory visit.

    What would be the understatement of the year is the poor reflection on the current athletic department, including your deity, if Treggs were to decommit and go anywhere else. Hopefully Chandler’s hiring – a very good hire in my opinion – ensures that Treggs’ love is not lost.

  • covinared

    glad you cleared that up.

  • covinared

    I think Treggs will end up with Cal. I am puzzled over how much importance some posters here place on the signing of one indiviudal recruit, as if the direction of the program for the future hangs in the balance. It reminds me of the hype over Randall Carroll a few years ago.

  • MoreNCsarecoming

    Gobears49 Says:
    January 22nd, 2012 at 12:07 am
    Forgot to add that this is another instance as to why the word “typicalcal” should be added to the dictionary. “Typicalcal” refers to a the situation where Cal looks like it is going to win an imporatnt game or do something really good in one of its sports programs and then, out of the blue, something happens and that glorious Cal victory or achievement is suddenly taken away from Cal. Recent events which would meet the typicalcal definition would include.

    1. Losing to OSU in football when winning would have made us #1.
    2. This whole recruiting issue, where we were ranked #8 in recruiting and were about to move higher if we got Armstead (we still might, but we made it more difficult for us to do that by letting Lupoi get away)).
    3. Omake being kicked off the basketball team two years ago, just before the NCAA’s. That was a great Cal basketball team, with a lot of talent. had Kamp played that year we could have gone deep in the NCAA’s. Even without him, we could have beaten Duke had we had Omoke and Christopher had not been hit in the eye at the start of the game. A typicalcal event.
    4. On a lesser basis, losing Soloman this year because he is suddenly academically ineligible is a big loss, as he provided a lot of decent minutes for Cal, allowing them to rest their starters more. Now we have only seven players we can rely upon to play. If you listened to the Cal radio broadcast today, Cal probably lose to WSU because they have a lot of players they rely on and Cal was tired because of late travel arrangements to Pullman, they had to play on Saturday afternoon after a Thursday night game, and because, again, we only have seven players we can rely upon. Soloman having to leave this year is a small typicalcal event.

    Maybe others can chime in with other typicalcal moments.
    _____________________________________________________

    Wow just wow. Pastor Rick talked today about losers. I have read and seen it all now.You still wonder why Lupoi left and why 5* players don’t want to play for you. Losers.

  • Gobears49

    MoreNCsarecoming,

    The only item of the four I listed that occurred on the playing field or court was #1. All others occurred off the court. So I disagree that we are losers. Cal has done very, very well in the national rankings of overall college sports team excellence and will likely continue to do so.

    I think Cal is just a bit jinxed, at least for now in matters that occur outside of the actual sports contests. It’s fans are loyal and still believe we will make a big breakthrough in football soon and will finally get to play again in the Rose Bowl. A great recruiting class this year would go a long way to fulfilling that dream and would make the players who play in that game be long remembered by Cal fans.