Reports: Cal's Justin Wilcox Could Be Considered for Washington Job

The Athletic and Seattle TV station name a number of people who might be candidates to replace Kalen DeBoer, and Wilcox is one of them

When Washington head coach Kalen DeBoer became the head coach at Alabama this week it spawned speculation about who would be the Huskies’ next head coach.

The Athletic presented 13 names that Washington might consider to be the head coach of a team that reached the national championship game this season.

One of those names was Cal head coach Justin Wilcox. The Athletic said this about Wilcox:

Cal head coach Justin Wilcox produced a bounceback season this year, taking the Golden Bears to a bowl game. He’s familiar with Washington, serving as defensive coordinator in 2012 and ’13 before taking the same job at USC. His 36-43 overall record is not a great look, but Cal is an extremely limiting job these days, and Wilcox has shown an ability to adapt. Cal rose from 96th in scoring defense last year to 48th this year.

KING 5 news also mention Wilcox as one of five possible candidates, and says this:

The Cal head coach has ties to Washington from when he was a defensive coordinator for two seasons under then-coach Chris Petersen.

Justin Wilcox has spent seven seasons with Cal. In 2023, he led the Golden Bears to an appearance in the Independence Bowl.

When he was at Washington, Wilcox helped coach the Husky scoring defense to No. 29 in the nation in 2013, two years after they ranked below 105th in that category.

Would Wilcox be a serious candidate for the attractive Washington job despite coming off his fourth straight losing season and the 14th consecutive season in which the Bears finished with a losing conference record?

When Cal was 3-6 this season, there were questions whether Wilcox would be retained by the Bears. (He was in no danger of being fired.)

Wilcox was offered the Oregon head coaching job a few years ago, but turned it down.

The Huskies have already lost a lot of talent from its 2023 since DeBoer's decision to leave. Michael Penix Jr. and Rome Odunze are headed to the NFL with a lot of other players, and a number of transfers who committed to Washington have re-entered the transfer portal. That includes quarterback Will Rogers.

The other possible candidate mentioned by The Athletics included: Washington offensive coordinator Ryan Grubb, Texas defensive coordinator Pete Kwiatkowski, Iowa State head coach Matt Campbell, Kansas head coach Lance Leipold, Arizona head coach Jedd Fisch, BYU head coach Kalani Sitake, Florida State offensive coordinator Alex Atkins, Air Force head coach Troy Calhoun, Washington State head coach Jake Dickert, San Jose State head coach Brent Brennan, Former Auburn and Boise State head coach Bryan Harsin, former Virginia head coach Bronco Mendenhall, and former Seattle Seahawks coach Pete Carroll.

Cover photo of Justin Wilcox by Annie Rice, Avalanche-Journal, USA TODAY NETWORK

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