Cal reportedly hiring former Washington State, Hawaii head coach Nick Rolovich as assistant

Cal is bringing former Hawaii and Washington State head coach Nick Rolovich on staff as a senior offensive assistant, according to ESPN’s Pete Thamel. Rolovich has not served in an extensive coaching capacity since his time Spokane ended in 2021.

Rolovich was ultimately fired from his post as the head coach at Washington State for his refusal to comply with a mandate for State of Washington employees to take the Covid-19 vaccine. Rolovich sued for wrongful termination, among other claims, in response. His case went to trial on Dec. 9, 2024.

Rolovich went 33-33 across six seasons as a head coach, four at Hawaii and two at Washington State, including the Covid altered 2020 season.

Rolovich is also not the only former head coach to join the staff in Berkeley.

Former Boise State and Auburn head coach Bryan Harsin is headed to Cal to become the new offensive coordinator.

It was previously reported Harsin was a candidate for the job after head coach Justin Wilcox removed Mike Bloesch from his staff last week.

Harsin has been out of the sport for the past two seasons after the end of his tenure at Auburn. That was following seven seasons at Boise State, his alma mater, as well as one at Arkansas State to start as a head coach. He also served the seven seasons prior as an offensive coordinator with a pair at Texas after five with the Broncos previously.

As a head coach for a decade with the Red Wolves, Broncos, and Tigers, Harsin was 85-36 (.702). That led to six bowl berths with five at Boise State and one at Auburn. However, after being 69-19 (.784) with the Broncos, he was just 9-12 (.429) while on The Plains.

He was then fired before the end of his second season there in 2022. In those ten years, those offenses averaged 33.1 points and 430.5 yards. Most of that success came with Boise State with 35.6 ppg. and 445.2 yards.

In his seven years working as an offensive coordinator for the Longhorns and Broncos, those offenses averaged 38.7 points with 446.8 yards per game. That, again, mostly was successful at Boise State with five very effective units that had averages of 41.4 ppg., with four seasons as a top-five offense and one as the top scoring offense in the country, and 460.1 yards.