Cal Football: Bill Musgrave Officially Named Bears' Offensive Coordinator

The hire had been reported on Thurday
Cal Football: Bill Musgrave Officially Named Bears' Offensive Coordinator
Cal Football: Bill Musgrave Officially Named Bears' Offensive Coordinator /

Cal head coach Justin Wilcox officially announced Friday that Bill Musgrave has agreed to become the Golden Bears' offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach.

The hiring of Musgrave had been widely reported on Thursday.

Musgrave has more than two decades of coaching experience in the NFL and collegiate ranks, including 13 seasons as an offensive coordinator.

"Bill Musgrave has a brilliant offensive mind and is one of top teachers of offensive football and quarterbacks," Wilcox said in a statement provided by the school. "Bill has incredible football knowledge and has been extremely versatile in the offensive systems he has run throughout his career, which is important. He also has a strong desire to coach again at the collegiate level, where he can help develop young football players at a formative stage of their careers. His competitiveness and humility stood out during the hiring process. Everyone that I talked to about Bill that I know and trust had tremendous things to say. He will be a great fit at Cal."

Musgrave also provided a statement.

"I am thrilled to join a Cal program that has exciting days ahead," Musgrave said. "I want to continue building upon what has already been started, which on the offensive side of the ball is a young group that showed tremendous progress last season and was playing its best football at the end of the year. Coach Wilcox and his staff have done a tremendous job of creating an outstanding culture and environment that is focused on teaching football, and one of the most enjoyable and satisfying parts of this job is to be able to play a key role in the development of young players. There is a tremendous opportunity to do that right now at Cal, and I can't wait to get started."

Musgrave takes over a Cal offense that finished last in the Pac-12 in both total offense and scoring offense in each of the past two seasons under previous offensive coordinator Beau Baldwin, who left Cal to become the head coach at Cal Poly. However, the Bears will have a lot of returning offensive players next season.

Musgrave has served as offensive coordinator during 11 of his 20 NFL seasons, including his entire stints at Jacksonville, Minnesota and in his second stop at Oakland. He was promoted to offensive coordinator during his first tenure with Philadelphia (1998), as well as at Carolina (2000) and Denver (2017). He also spent two campaigns as a collegiate offensive coordinator at Virginia (2001-02).

Musgrave has coached a total of 11 Pro Bowlers including wide receiver Amari Cooper, center Rodney Hudson, tackle Matt Kalil, running back Latavius Murray, guard Kelechi Osemele, fullback Marcel Reece and tight end Kyle Rudolph in addition to running back Adrian Peterson and the trio of quarterbacks in Steve Beuerlein, Derek Carr and Matt Ryan.

Musgrave played collegiately at Oregon, where he finished his career as the school's all-time leader in passing and total offense, while establishing 15 school records. He led the Ducks to their first bowl game in 26 years during his 1989 junior season before earning first-team All-Pac-10 honors in his final campaign as a 1990 senior.

Bill Musgrave Coaching History

Seasons: Team – Position
1997: Oakland Raiders – Quarterbacks
1998: Philadelphia Eagles – Offensive Assistant (Weeks 1-6); Offensive Coordinator (Weeks 7-17)
1999-2000: Carolina Panthers – Quarterbacks (1999); Offensive Coordinator/Quarterbacks (2000)
2001-02: Virginia – Offensive Coordinator/Quarterbacks/Tight Ends
2003-04: Jacksonville Jaguars – Offensive Coordinator (2003); Offensive Coordinator/Quarterbacks (2004)
2005: Washington Redskins – Quarterbacks
2006-10: Atlanta Falcons – Quarterbacks (2006-09); Assistant Head Coach/Quarterbacks (2010)
2011-13: Minnesota Vikings – Offensive Coordinator
2014: Philadelphia Eagles – Quarterbacks
2015-16: Oakland Raiders – Offensive Coordinator
2017-18: Denver Broncos – Quarterbacks (2017 Weeks 1-11); Offensive Coordinator (2017 Weeks 12-17, 2018)

Bill Musgrave File

Birthdate: November 11, 1967
Hometown: Grand Junction, CO
High School: Grand Junction HS
College: Oregon, 1991, BA, Finance & Accounting


Published
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.