Cal Sports Report

Report: Cal OLB Coach Keith Heyward Leaving to Become UNLV Defensive Coordinator

He spent just one season on the Golden Bears' staff before leaving

Jake Curtis

Report: Cal OLB Coach Keith Heyward Leaving to Become UNLV Defensive Coordinator
Report: Cal OLB Coach Keith Heyward Leaving to Become UNLV Defensive Coordinator /

After just one season as Cal's outside linebackers coach, Keith Heyward reportedly is headed elsewhere.

Heyward is expected to be named the defensive coordinator at UNLV, according to Bruce Feldman.

Heyward was Oregon's safeties coach for four seasons (2017-20), and he added  co-defensive coordinator duties for his last three seasons at Oregon and was assistant head coach for the final two seasons.

Current UNLV head coach Marcus Arroyo was Oregon's coaching staff from 2017 through 2019, and Heyward was on the Ducks' staff at the same time.

Heyward was hired by Cal in January 2021 after Cal co-defensive coordinator and outside linebackers coach Tim DeRuyter left Berkeley to become Oregon's defensive coordinator.

None of the assistant coaches who were on Justin Wilcox's initial coaching staff in 2017 are still on the Bears' staff, and Heyward remained on the Bears staff for just one season.

It means Wilcox must hire another assistant coach after hiring Terrence Brown as a defensive backs coach in December 2021.

In December Wilcox turned down an offer to become Oregon's head coach. He later explained he believes Cal is on the cusp of breaking through.

"If we continue along this path, we can do some great things here," he said in December, "and things that haven't been done before."

In January, Wilcox signed a contract extension with Cal that runs through the 2027 season. The deal included a larger pool of money for assistant coaches, with the hope that would help retain assistants.

However, money is unlikely to convince an assistant coach to stay when he is offered a coordinator position as Heyward reportedly was.

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Cover photo of Cal head coach Justin Wilcox is by Darren Yamashita, USA TODAY Sports

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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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