Cal Sports Report

Former Cal Center Mike Saffell Named Bears' Tight Ends Coach

Saffell helped coach the offensive line the past three years as a student assistant, but this is his first job as a fulltime assistant

Jake Curtis

Former Cal Center Mike Saffell Named Bears' Tight Ends Coach
Former Cal Center Mike Saffell Named Bears' Tight Ends Coach /
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Mike Saffell, who was a standout center at Cal three years ago, was named the Golden Bears’ new tight end coach on Saturday. He replaces Tim Plough, who is leaving to become UC Davis’ head coach but is expected to remain on the Bears’ staff through the Cal’s appearance in the December 16 Independence Bowl.

This will be Saffell's first job as a fulltime assistant coach.

Saffell, who was a four-year letterwinner as an offensive lineman for the Golden Bears (2017-20), has spent the past three seasons on Cal's football staff as a student coach (2021) and graduate assistant (2022 and 2023) working with the offensive line.

Saffell worked with Mike Bloesch, who was elevated to the Bears' offensive coordinator last week after Jake Spavital left to become Baylor’s offensive coordinator.

"Mike Saffell has been a tremendous asset to Cal football ever since he arrived as a player in 2017," Cal head coach Justin Wilcox said in a statement. "Mike knows this program better than anyone and is universally respected. He has proven over the last seven years that he is absolutely dedicated to doing everything he can to help us win, and it will be exciting to see what he will accomplish in his new role."

"I am grateful to coach Wilcox and the other coaches on this staff for showing their confidence in me," Saffell said in a statement. "Cal is a special place that has given so much to me, and I'm excited to be taking on this new role."

Saffell played in 28 career games with 23 starts, including all 17 Cal contests at center during his junior and senior campaigns before announcing his medical retirement from football with one season of eligibility remaining before the 2021 campaign. Saffell helped Cal to back-to-back bowl games with the Bears, appearing at the Cheez-It Bowl in 2018 before knocking off Illinois at the 2019 Redbox Bowl to finish 8-5 overall. As a senior, he was named the Pac-12 Football Scholar-Athlete of the Year.

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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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