Justin Wilcox
Wisconsin Badger football coach Paul Chryst is looking for a new defensive coordinator today after California officially announced the hiring of Wisconsin’s Justin Wilcox as their new head coach. Wilcox is expected to be formally introduced at a news conference on Tuesday. He coached linebackers at Cal from 2003-’05.
Wilcox replaces Sonny Dykes, who was fired just over a week ago.
“I couldn’t be more excited to become head football coach at the University of California,” Wilcox said in a statement. “It has been a dream of mine to lead a college football program and there’s no better place than here at Cal where I got my start and at a school that means too much to me.”
This is the first head coaching job for Wilcox. After hiring his coaching staff, Wilcox will have the challenge of improving one of the worst defenses in college football.
Cal ranked 125th in total defense, 127th in scoring defense and 122nd in yards per play out of 128 FBS teams last season. The Golden Bears finished 5-7. Dykes finished his four seasons at Cal with a 19-30 overall mark.
The Badgers will now be searching for their third defensive coordinator in the last three years.