Cal Sports Report

Jason Novak Named New Strength Coach for Cal Football

Novak was director of strength and conditioning at James Madison this past season

Jake Curtis

Jason Novak during his time as Michigan State's strength coach
Jason Novak during his time as Michigan State's strength coach / Nick King/Lansing State Journal via Imagn Content Services, LLC
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Cal announced on Friday that it has named Jason Novak as its new head athletic performance coach for the California football program. The position is commonly known as strength coach.

Novak was director of strength and conditioning at James Madison in 2024 after being the strength coach at Michigan State from 2020 through 2023.

At Cal, Novak presumably replaces Brian Johnson, who has been the Bears’ strength and conditioning coach the past four years.  The announcement about Novak makes no mention of Johnson’s status.

Novak earned a bachelor's degree in kinesiology from Stephen F. Austin in 1998 and his master's degree from Baylor in sport management in 2000.

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Jake Curtis
JAKE CURTIS

Jake Curtis worked in the San Francisco Chronicle sports department for 27 years, covering virtually every sport, including numerous Final Fours, several college football national championship games, an NBA Finals, world championship boxing matches and a World Cup. He was a Cal beat writer for many of those years, and won awards for his feature stories.

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