Inside the meetings that officially moved the A’s out of Oakland
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Tim Keown, ESPN Senior Writer
THIS WAS John Fisher’s moment. It was a cold and rainy morning at Sutter Health Park in West Sacramento, with the microphone glitching whenever Kings owner Vivek Ranadive tried to heap praise upon the Oakland Athletics owner, but this was the place — the single, solitary place in the entire known universe — where people gathered to willingly extol the virtues of Fisher.
They cheered lustily, and perhaps naively, for this singularly uncharismatic billionaire. He owns something they believe they want and now — temporarily — have. The moment was the announcement that his historically bad baseball team, a team he systematically dismantled and stripped for parts to maximize profits, will play in a minor league ballpark in their neighborhood starting next season. For how long? Two years, three — whatever works. For how much? Well, for nothing, as it turns out.
On this morning, the first Thursday of April, none of it mattered. They cheered because they are employed by him, or might be soon, or by an entity that might profit from what this man owns. They stood and cheered because they gave this man whatever he wanted, despite knowing people in Oakland will lose their jobs and fans in Oakland will lose their team. They stood and cheered despite the piles upon piles of evidence that any affiliation with this man and his baseball franchise is likely to end in frustration and anger.
Ranadive, the dealmaker and owner of the Triple-A Sacramento River Cats, talked about the vision of his “great friend.” The mayor of West Sacramento, Martha Guerrero, addressed Fisher directly: “John, it’s hard work running a team.” Barry Broome, the president and CEO of the Greater Sacramento Economic Council (GSEC), touted Sacramento’s civic bona fides and suggested when the time comes for Major League Baseball to consider expansion, they just might have a champion for their city working on the inside. Later, drunk on the zeal of the moment, Broome said, “I think the Fishers are thrilled with the reception they’re getting today.”
He had to take it on faith. The man himself spoke for roughly 140 seconds. He stumbled through the perfunctories before waving his arm behind him, toward the minor league ballpark and each of its 10,000 seats, and ruminated on how exciting it will be to watch “Athletics players or Aaron Judge” hit homers in “the most intimate ballpark in the big leagues.”
His unwillingness, or inability, to name one of his own players is perhaps understandable. This is a man who, for the past year, has created such a toxic environment in Oakland that he can’t attend even a single one of his team’s games. That most basic act of attentiveness — sitting in the stands — is something he can’t do, despite his operatives continually criticizing Oakland’s fans for the same offense. It is perhaps the most joyless aspect of a joyless enterprise.
But here he was, about a week after thousands of fans in Oakland paid for parking in order to remain outside the stadium on Opening Day and yell at him to sell the team. He will bask in the glory of two or three rent-free seasons in Sacramento before he packs up for Las Vegas. It’s the never-ending formula, one Fisher plays clumsily but somehow successfully: There’s always a city overeager for big league recognition, willing to prostrate itself for the opportunity to stare into the void and believe it’s the sun.
John Fisher: hero.
Who would have thought?
And when the brief ceremony was over, and the wind and the rain swept sideways under the concourse down the left-field line, the hero was gone. Vanished. He shook no hands and took no questions. He walked right past the catered croissants and jugs of coffee and disappeared into the gloom of the late morning, the first to leave his own party.
THE VIEWS FROM the waterfront offices of the A’s in Oakland’s Jack London Square are magnificent: ferries coming in and out, light shimmering off the Bay, San Francisco’s skyline nearly close enough to reach out and touch (the site of the team’s abandoned Howard Terminal project is just a slight lean to the north). In a conference room situated to maximize the view, representatives from the team and the city of Oakland met at 8:30 a.m. on April 2, precisely 49½ hours before the festivities in West Sacramento, to discuss a lease extension at the Oakland Coliseum and settle, once and for all, the team’s fate in the city.
It was an upset of sorts that meetings with Oakland happened in the first place. After the A’s pulled out of a $12 billion project to build a ballpark at Howard Terminal — an undoable ballpark/retail/office deal the city was inching closer and closer to doing — last April, the mayor’s office sat back and waited to see if the team was interested in extending its lease. Spurned and exhausted by what it perceived as the disingenuousness of the A’s negotiating stance, the city was in no mood to make the first overture.
By early February, with no movement from the A’s, the city’s representatives assumed the team had found somewhere else to play. The MLB scheduling deadline for 2025 loomed, and commissioner Rob Manfred had decreed only that the A’s would play “somewhere in the West.” A’s president Dave Kaval floated possibilities with varying levels of feasibility: Oakland, Sacramento, Salt Lake City, the A’s Triple-A stadium in Las Vegas, Oracle Park in San Francisco.
The city went forward with leases for the Oakland Roots and Soul, the men’s and women’s professional soccer teams in the United Soccer League. And then, in mid-February, the team reached out to Oakland, in a move that echoed the clumsy “parallel paths” approach Kaval announced when the team pitted Las Vegas against Oakland.
“Approaching us halfway through February indicated to us it wasn’t super serious,” Oakland chief of staff Leigh Hanson said. “A normal negotiation would have started two months after they pulled out last April. So much trust had deteriorated, but we thought we’d give them the benefit of the doubt and realize their organization was going through a lot of transition. We felt it was our responsibility to the fans and the city to go forward and try to make it work on our terms.”
By April 2, the city was on its fourth meeting with the A’s, though little progress had been made. In this one, as was the case in each of the previous three, Kaval sat at the head of the table. Hanson sat to his left, directly across from A’s chief of staff Miguel Duarte. Oakland councilmember Rebecca Kaplan sat to Hanson’s left, with Alameda County supervisor David Haubert and Oakland policy chief Zach Goldman across from her.
Kaval spoke first, as had become his custom, and expressed surprise that the city’s lease terms had been reported by ESPN two days before the meeting. Those terms, as outlined on sheets passed around the room on this morning, included a five-year lease with a team opt-out after three, a $97 million “extension fee” and an agreement for the A’s to pay for the field conversion when the Roots and Soul begin playing in the Coliseum next year. The city also wanted the A’s to help secure assurances from MLB that the city would receive a one-year window to solicit ownership groups for a future expansion franchise.
Taken collectively, it was a big ask. Broken down individually, the extension fee was clearly the biggest obstacle for the team. With the A’s, money always is. Kaval said $97 million, payable whether the team stayed for five years or opted out at three, was a nonstarter and wondered how the city had come up with that number. He was told that Mayor Sheng Thao’s team had done its research, and the number factored in the cost the team would incur by relocating twice in the next three to five years, the $67 million annually the team receives from NBC Sports for its television rights for being in the Bay Area — a figure, the city says, that includes just $10 million in ad revenue, meaning NBC Sports subsidizes to the tune of $57 million per year — and the sweetheart $1.5 million rent the team currently pays at the Coliseum.
“This is above market rate,” Kaval said, and Hanson agreed. “It is,” she said, “and your deal now is criminally below market.” The city receives no parking revenue from the Coliseum, no cut of the food and beverage sales, only a small share of ticket revenue. The extension fee, Hanson emphasized, was not to be misconstrued as rent; it was simply the cost of staying in Oakland. “The goal,” she said, “is not to make this the cheapest deal possible. The goal is to make this work for the city.”
“Well,” Kaval said. “This isn’t going to work for us.”
Hanson said she shrugged. “It’s your responsibility to decide where you’re going to play baseball,” she said. “We pick up trash and we do cops and we care about economic development, but it’s not our responsibility to house you.”
This was perhaps the clearest sign yet that Oakland’s patience had worn paper-thin, and that the team would have to agree to city-friendly terms or find another place to play. Although the current administration had been in office just 15 months, the cumulative weight of the past 20 years of uncertainty fell on its shoulders. The benefits of staying in Oakland were self-evident: no relocation costs, no need to uproot employees, that television contract available only in the nation’s 10th-largest media market as ranked by Nielsen. And despite its many faults, some of them self-inflicted by the A’s, the Coliseum remains a big league stadium.
Though the city didn’t present financial terms until the fourth meeting, the basic parameters — a five-year lease with the team opt-out — were on the table. Sources say the A’s, however, never laid out an offer sheet, never presented so much as a single piece of paper with demands or suggestions. At one point during the second meeting, in March, Kaval suggested the A’s might be willing to accept “the Raiders’ deal” — two years and $17 million, the arrangement Raiders owner Mark Davis struck for the two lame-duck years in Oakland before he moved his team to Las Vegas.
“First of all,” Hanson said. “Please don’t call it the ‘Raiders’ deal’ — that brings back bad memories for everyone in this town. And second, that’s not going to work.”
The “Raiders’ deal” was the only negotiation tactic Kaval employed, according to sources familiar with the negotiations. There was still some vigorous back and forth, though. Kaval took exception to the city’s offer of a five-year lease, since the team believes its future Vegas ballpark — start date unclear, financing undetermined — on the 9-acre site of the yet-to-be demolished Tropicana Casino and Resort will be ready for the 2028 season, maybe even a year earlier.
Hanson said the city had worked its own numbers there, too, and those numbers indicated the A’s will need five years, minimum, before the Vegas stadium is completed. Left unspoken, sources say, is that significant doubt remains whether the deal in Vegas will happen at all, and the five-year gambit was a hedge against ever having to negotiate with the A’s again.
By the final meeting, Sacramento was already thick in the air. Kaval had made it known the team was in daily conversations with Ranadive and Sacramento, weekly discussions with Salt Lake City. There were those on the Oakland side of the table who believed Sacramento was a done deal before this meeting began — and they weren’t the only ones. Broome, the GSEC CEO, was in the room during the negotiations with Ranadive, and he told ESPN he knew Sacramento was getting the A’s 10 days before the official announcement.
But after that fourth and final meeting with the A’s, and after Kaval’s visceral objection to the $97 million extension fee, the mayor’s staff left the A’s offices at 9:30 and reconvened at City Hall to review the details. The discussions continued throughout the day, and by early evening Hanson got Thao’s approval to present a revised offer: a three-year lease with a $60 million extension fee.
At 7:15 that night, Hanson called Kaval with the new offer. She said he seemed interested — although he would later say the two sides remained “far apart” even with the revision — and he thanked her for the call. Within 24 hours, rumblings that Sacramento was the choice filtered out through the Twitter feed of “Carmichael Dave,” a Sacramento radio personality well-connected to Ranadive and the Kings. The next morning, Kaval called Hanson at 7:36 a.m. to give her the news. Fisher followed, five minutes later, with a call to Thao. By 10 a.m., at about the same time the A’s were on a flight heading for Detroit, Ranadive was standing at the podium, wind whipping his hair, thanking his good friend.
Afterward, Kaval said the decision to choose Sacramento over Oakland was based partly on the abbreviated time frame and partly on factors out of the A’s control, such as the expansion team assurances Oakland sought from MLB. The team had to act quickly, he said, to ensure the league office could put together a 2025 schedule with something other than “TBD” next to the team’s name. In effect, the A’s created an untenable timeline for Oakland, and then used it against them.
At the end of the workday in Oakland, Hanson gathered the mayor’s staff and headed across the street to Fluid 510, their favorite bar, to toast the end — the end of the negotiations and the parallel paths and the false hope and the reading between the lines. They weren’t celebrating the A’s imminent departure so much as the conclusion of a seemingly endless, and endlessly frustrating, back and forth with a team they never felt they could trust.
FISHER CONTINUES TO fail forward: free rent in Sacramento, $380 million in public money in Las Vegas, no accountability in Oakland. He received unanimous approval from the other 29 owners to move to Vegas. MLB, at the behest of Manfred, waived the team’s relocation fee because — according to a league source — it would be too burdensome for Fisher to pay. “So if we say there’s a relocation fee of $2 billion,” the source said. “Realistically, how are we going to get that?”
It’s difficult to see the value Fisher brings to the other 29 teams. He seems to have benefited from a billionaire’s version of the comfort of low expectations. His front office has fielded playoff teams — cheap, brilliantly constructed playoff teams — but those days are so distant they belong to a different era. His team’s payroll is last in the league, but that doesn’t come close to placing it in the proper context. The A’s 2024 payroll of $60 million is 41% lower than the 29th-ranked team, the Pittsburgh Pirates, in a league where even the Tampa Bay Rays and Detroit Tigers field teams with payrolls of more than $100 million. Since Fisher assumed sole ownership of the team in 2016, the team has had the lowest payroll in baseball three times and has never ranked higher than 24th.
The condemnation of Fisher has been widespread. Former Athletics pitcher and current Mets broadcaster Ron Darling said, on air, that he is “appalled” by Fisher’s behavior over the past six months. Broadcasters from the Tigers and the Angels — team employees — have publicly condemned the abandonment of Oakland. Retired pitcher Trevor May, who played for the A’s as recently as last season, appeared on the “Foul Territory” podcast and said, “Losing fans is one thing, but treating them this way sends a message to all fans.”
There could be other options. Golden State Warriors owner Joe Lacob said he has a standing offer to purchase the A’s and build a new ballpark on the Coliseum site, the same offer he made when then-commissioner Bud Selig approved the sale of the team to his old fraternity buddy Lew Wolff — and Fisher — in 2005. “And what team does Lacob own?” the league source asked rhetorically, since the answer is a team that left Oakland for San Francisco.
Meanwhile Kaval, ever the optimist, has touted the idea that Vegas will cure all ills, that the A’s will abandon their Moneyball ways and spend like gamblers on tilt when the Vegas money rolls in. Even if that is true — and history provides no indication that it will be — the A’s face three seasons of further belt-tightening before then. In an all-hands Zoom meeting before the official Sacramento announcement, Kaval informed Oakland staff that there would be significant layoffs at the end of the season. Much of the work done by specific departments — marketing, ticket sales, public relations — will be done by employees of the Kings and River Cats.
The city, which has taken so much of the blame, now will find its citizens jobless. And while the A’s have sought a new home for the past 20 years, only the past eight have been centered on Oakland. Of those eight, two were spent on a doomed-before-it-started downtown site at Laney Community College, and two of the Howard Terminal years were slowed by a pandemic. Even then, the city was within $97 million — the original extension fee was a history-rhymes clapback — of providing Fisher with everything he sought for his $12 billion Howard Terminal mini-city.
None of that mattered within the owners’ fraternity, where patience eroded and Oakland, an easy target of scorn, became nothing more than a problem to be solved. “After 15 years of this, owners are on Rob,” the league source said. “They want to know, ‘What’s happening in Oakland? Let’s go, it’s time to s— or get off the pot.'”
IN WEST SACRAMENTO, there are logistical questions that remain outstanding. The physics of the Triple-A River Cats, a Giants affiliate, and the big league A’s sharing a ballpark have yet to be determined. Significant improvements to Sutter Health Park are necessary to comply with the collective bargaining agreement and receive the approval of the Major League Players Association. Lights will need to be upgraded, bullpens revamped and a second batting cage constructed. The home clubhouse is currently beyond the left-field wall, an arrangement that seems less than optimal.
As the rain fell and the wind blew last Thursday, though, unchecked exuberance ruled the day. Broome said, “The only thing I asked of the Fishers is when they win the World Series in the next three years, they put that parade right in the middle of our town.”
He is speaking about the A’s, a husk of a team. Winning isn’t even a talking point, let alone a goal. Just a few years ago, the front office assembled a vibrant, young core — Matt Chapman, Marcus Semien, Matt Olson, Sean Murphy — that could have contended for years if contending mattered. What remains is bound together by baling wire and twine and revenue sharing.
Broome is undeterred. “All we need is a 19-year-old kid named Vida Blue, a 20-year-old guy named Reggie Jackson,” he said. “We just need three, four, five guys. We need to look in the Dominican Republic for a shortstop, for Omar Vizquel.” (Vizquel is Venezuelan.)
In Sacramento, it all feels fresh and new, the possibilities endless. Ranadive, the man who saved the Kings from a future in Seattle in 2013, stood in front of the smiling crowd and said Sacramento is in “pole position” for a future expansion team. He said it will no longer play “second fiddle” to anyone, even though second fiddle is precisely what they will be if Fisher succeeds in his plan to squat for two or three years before moving to Las Vegas. The A’s aren’t even putting “Sacramento” in their name, opting for the location-free “A’s” or “Athletics,” as if attaching themselves to Sacramento might imply something permanent, or real.
What’s in it for Ranadive? An MLB source insisted Ranadive and Sacramento were promised nothing more than a temporary visit from the A’s. “We don’t even have an expansion process in place,” the source said. “The owners have to vote to explore expansion first, and then put a committee together. There are no guarantees.”
Sources close to the negotiations in both Oakland and Sacramento believe Ranadive is making a calculation that Las Vegas is never going to happen. “Vivek is definitely bright,” one source who requested anonymity said. “He made an assessment: Vegas will eventually fall apart and wherever the team is at that moment is where it will stay. He’s not the only one who believes that.”
Wherever the A’s play in 2028, the team appears eager in 2024 to make amends with a fan base it has pushed away in recent years. After walking away from Oakland and choosing nine acres in a Vegas parking lot, the A’s seem to believe fans will embrace the nostalgia of the past 56 years and bid a fond farewell.
“We think there are a lot of people who are excited to come out and see a final game at the Coliseum,” Kaval said. “I’m hopeful that can be a positive experience, and we’re going to do everything within our control to make it positive. New memories can be made, and we have a whole season to do that.”
Kaval is standing a few feet from the podium at Sutter Health Park, far enough under the overhang to be free of the rain. He is talking fast, his eyes big, the words a torrent of spin and hope and his own unique brand of untethered optimism. He is speaking for a fan base that, rightly or wrongly, loathes both him and Fisher, to the point where it stays away from the ballpark or attends games just to protest their very existence. And now he is standing in the concourse of the team’s temporary future home, a nice minor league ballpark near the Sacramento River with views of the Tower Bridge and the city beyond, a 15-minute walk from the Kings’ state-of-the-art arena, ready to cleanse the past.
“I know people are receptive,” Kaval said. “I think it can be done.”
There will be promotions. Cheap seats. Alumni events. Nods to past glory. Family fun. Seventy-four home games remain on the schedule. Come on out, Kaval says, and help the A’s send the old gray lady off with a bang. “It’s baseball,” he says, eyes widening, “and baseball is all about having fun.”
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Adam Rittenberg
Ed Orgeron needed a rope.
In late September 2013, Orgeron had been named interim coach at USC, following the school’s infamous middle-of-the-night firing of Lane Kiffin on the tarmac at LAX. Orgeron had been a head coach at Ole Miss, and now had another opportunity, at a program he loved. He wrote down several things he wanted to do in operating the USC program.
First, he borrowed an exercise from former Trojans coach Pete Carroll, and obtained a rope from the fire department. He assembled everyone involved in the program — players, coaches, support staff, even administrators — and paired up groups for tug-of-war: running backs against linebackers, offensive line against defensive line, and so on.
“I got the coaching staff to pull against the administration, and I let the damn administration win,” Orgeron told ESPN. “If I knew what [would happen] at USC, I would have pulled a little harder.”
His main point was that neither side really gained an edge when pulling in opposite directions.
“I said, ‘I want everybody in this room — and there’s a lot of people — get on the same side of the rope, and let’s pull,'” Orgeron said. “That sent a message: One team, one heartbeat. When a firing happens, something is segmented, and you’ve got to try to piece it together as much as you can.”
Orgeron led USC to a 6-2 finish that fall but wasn’t retained. When he was named LSU‘s interim coach in early 2016, he once again did the tug-of-war exercise. After going 5-2 that fall, Orgeron had the interim tag removed. Three years later, his LSU squad won the national championship.
Interim coaches inherit vastly different situations at different points in the calendar, but they share a mission: to guide a ship jostled by change through choppy waters.
“When you become the interim head coach, it’s never a good thing,” said Tim Skipper, appointed UCLA‘s interim coach in September after spending the entire 2024 season as Fresno State‘s interim. “It’s never a good time.”
Interims must guide teams through a range of games, while dealing with a range of emotions. Amid uncertain futures for both players and coaches, interims make decisions for the moment. Some have major success, like Orgeron, and end up getting the tag removed. Others fully know they’re just placeholders and try to keep things from falling apart until resolutions are reached.
The 2025 season has placed a spotlight on interim coaches, as jobs have opened in every major conference ahead of a wild coaching cycle. We’ve already seen one game featuring opposing interim coaches. As most seasons wrap up this week, ESPN spoke with current and former interim coaches and identified some of the key things to do, and avoid, as they navigate a bumpy landscape.
The initial transition
Some coach firings are anticipated for weeks or months, while others, like Penn State‘s ouster of James Franklin after a three-game losing streak this fall, are jarring. But whatever circumstances surround the coaching change, interims are thrust in front of teams filled with emotion.
“When that happened on Sunday, it was like a funeral,” said Oregon State interim coach Robb Akey, named to his role after the school fired Trent Bray on Oct. 12. “We had to be able to pull the guys up and get them moving on.”
The timing of the changes also factors in for interims. Both Virginia Tech and UCLA fired their coaches only three games into this season.
“That’s a long time to try to hold a team together,” said Philip Montgomery, appointed to be Virginia Tech‘s interim coach from his offensive coordinator role Sept. 14. “Most of these guys were recruited by Brent and signed on for that part of it. When you rip that away from them, then all of a sudden, there’s a lot of emotions, and you’re trying to handle all of that and trying to somehow keep them focused, keep them jelled together, and for us, find a way to go win games and have a productive season.”
After Pry’s firing, Montgomery relied on his eight-year tenure as Tulsa’s head coach. He addressed the team, went over general guidelines and gave players the platform to vent.
“Once you laid [those guidelines] down, you can’t go back and forth with it,” he said. “It’s got to be steadfast.”
Skipper didn’t have the same experience to lean on, but he had been an interim the year before at Fresno State, taking over in July when Jeff Tedford stepped down and guiding the team to a 6-7 record. Skipper had played at Fresno State and was in his second stint as a Bulldogs assistant.
He arrived at UCLA this summer as special assistant to coach DeShaun Foster. Upon being named interim coach after Foster’s firing, Skipper had a plan from what he had done at Fresno State, but he barely knew the UCLA team. Since UCLA had an open week, Skipper held a mini training camp. He met individually with players and had them clean and organize the locker room.
“We were oh-fer,” Skipper said, referring to the team’s 0-3 record. “We just needed a win.”
He then took the whole team bowling, an activity usually reserved for the preseason or bowl game prep, and ensured every lane had a mix of players from different position groups.
“They just bowled their ass off and talked s— and had a good time,” Skipper said. “It was another opportunity to get them smiling.”
Managing the coaching staff
When schools fire head coaches, they usually retain the rest of the staff to finish out the season. The remaining coaches face uncertain futures. Unless the next permanent coach keeps them on, they’ll be looking for fresh starts.
“We all go home and you’ve got wives that want to know where we’re going to live and where we’re going to eat and how the bills are going to get paid,” Akey said. “We’re all in the coaches’ portal, too. It’s a unique situation that you wouldn’t wish on anybody. You wouldn’t wish it on an enemy.”
Interim coaches say the key is not letting the anxiety seep into the program’s daily operation.
“What to avoid is … to become these independent contractors that do our own thing, our own way,” LSU interim coach Frank Wilson said. “It’s not having letdowns and having self-pity.”
Interim coaches almost always come from within the existing staff. One day, they’re sitting among their assistant peers; the next, they’re at the head of the table.
“You need to take charge of the staff and make them accountable and be the head coach, but don’t be a butthole,” Orgeron said. “Don’t come across too hard because the day before, you were an assistant with those guys.”
After firing Troy Taylor in late March, Stanford general manager Andrew Luck brought in Frank Reich, who coached Luck in the NFL, to lead the program. Reich had more time to prepare for an interim season — he said he never would have taken the job any other way — but also didn’t know the players or assistant coaches when he arrived.
“I lean on them a lot,” Reich said of the assistants he inherited at Stanford. “I ask them what they think. Give me your perspective. Give me the context and history of this player, this citation. That’s a big part of it.”
Interim coaches often have to shuffle staff responsibilities, including playcalling. Montgomery kept offensive playcalling duties at Virginia Tech while also serving as head coach, just as he had done at Tulsa. Arkansas did the same thing when offensive coordinator Bobby Petrino was elevated to interim coach. Montgomery saw value in keeping Pry’s staff together, noting the stability would help the players.
Oregon State fired its special teams coordinator shortly before it did Bray, who also served as the team’s defensive playcaller. When Akey became the Beavers’ interim coach, he had to sort out responsibilities.
Skipper had an even more chaotic situation at UCLA, where defensive coordinator Ikaika Malloe parted ways with the school after Foster’s firing. Then, after Skipper’s first game as interim, offensive coordinator Tino Sunseri also parted ways with UCLA. Skipper had defensive coordinator experience but wanted no part of the role, given everything on his plate.
He asked Kevin Coyle, who had been Skipper’s defensive coordinator when he played, to make a midseason move from Syracuse and lead the defense. Skipper then looked internally and had Jerry Neuheisel, the 33-year-old tight ends coach who played quarterback at UCLA and had spent almost his entire career there, to become offensive coordinator. They were both coach’s kids — Neuheisel’s father, Rick, coached UCLA from 2008 to 2011 — and Jerry was among the first staff members Skipper got to know after he arrived.
“I was always like, ‘This is a smart dude, he knows ball, he’s going to be a coordinator one day,’ just me saying that to myself,” Skipper said. “And it just worked out that I had the opportunity to hire him and we made it happen.”
Recruiting and the future roster
As a longtime assistant and then Ole Miss’ head coach, Orgeron built a reputation as a ravenous recruiter. So what did he do when he became interim coach at USC and then LSU?
“I recruited even harder,” he said.
He held recruiting “power hours” every Monday with calls to prospects and recruiting meetings on Friday mornings and evenings. On Saturdays before games, Orgeron and the staff would gather, put on “College GameDay,” eat breakfast and FaceTime recruits, asking about their high school games the night before.
Orgeron’s pitch?
“This is USC, this is LSU,” he told the players. “Most of the things that you are committed to or the things that you loved about it are always going to be here. They’re going to make the right choice, and they’re going to get a coach that helps us win a championship. Stay with us, stay to the end, don’t change now, let’s see what happens.”
Orgeron made sure never to lie to recruits. He didn’t tell them he would be the next coach, even though he wanted to be.
The difference now from Orgeron’s two interim stints is that coaches also must monitor their own roster. Until a recent rule change, players were able to enter the transfer portal in the first 30 days after a head coaching change. Skipper’s main goal when named interim at Fresno State and UCLA was to have no players enter the portal. He also didn’t let up in contacting UCLA’s committed recruits and those considering the program.
“We’re trying to still spread the good word about UCLA football, UCLA as a university, as an academic institution, all of that,” Skipper said. “So we’re working to the end, ’til they tell us to leave.”
Interim coaches have limits in recruiting, though. They typically aren’t offering scholarships, as those decisions ultimately fall on the permanent head coaches. Reich, who knows he’s done at Stanford following the season, has deferred most questions about the team’s future to Luck.
Montgomery has spent most of his recruiting energy on the prospects who initially committed to Virginia Tech.
“Most of those guys are saying, ‘Hey, I’m committed but I’m open. I want to see what happens and who they hire and what they’re going to do, what’s the next move going to be before I fully say, hey, I’m back in 100 percent again,'” Montgomery said.
Managing the end of seasons
There’s nothing tidy about the end of the college football regular season. Even when there hasn’t been a coaching change, teams are scrambling to finish recruiting. Assistant coaches are often moving jobs. Players are thinking about what’s next.
Finishing the season with an interim coach only adds to the chaos.
This week, Montgomery will lead Virginia Tech into its rivalry game at No. 19 Virginia, but the Hokies last week hired their new coach in Franklin, who was out of work for barely a month. Franklin is contacting recruits and putting together his staff, while letting the current team finish out 2025.
John Thompson twice was named Arkansas State‘s interim coach for bowl games, as the school went through three consecutive one-year coaches (Hugh Freeze, Gus Malzahn and Bryan Harsin). When Malzahn left for Auburn in early December 2012, he took several staff members. Eight days later, Arkansas State hired Harsin. Thompson, meanwhile, was unsure of his future and charged with guiding the team through the GoDaddy.com Bowl.
“You’ve got coaches going everywhere, who’s going with this group, who’s going with that group?” Thompson said. “That was the most difficult thing. You’ve got guys that are trying to get a job, some that already have taken another job, but they’re still there with you.”
After his hiring, Harsin began sitting in Thompson’s meetings.
“Never said a word,” Thompson said. “I conducted the staff meetings, conducted practice, did everything, and he just sat there, you know? And he ended up hiring me [as an assistant], but that was kind of a strange deal. I said, ‘I’m not going to pay him any attention,’ but it was uncomfortable.”
The turbulent few weeks made wins in both bowl games Thompson coached that much sweeter. He “absolutely loved” coaching both Arkansas State teams, which featured players who had been through five coaches in five years, but never let the constant flux overwhelm their goals.
Some interim coach stories have happy endings, like Orgeron getting the LSU job two days after leading the team to a win against Texas A&M, or Kent State last month removing the interim tag from Mark Carney. More often than not, though, interims are not promoted nor retained, as programs reboot with new leaders.
They’re temporary stewards, coaching very much for the moment, and trying to maximize the experience for players.
“The name ‘Coach,’ the label ‘Coach’ means something, right?” Akey said. “We’re supposed to be growing young guys up. We’re supposed to be helping them develop. And, well, here’s the opportunity to do it, because you got hit with a bunch of adversity, and it’s going to happen to you in life.”
Cal‘s hiring of Ron Rivera as general manager in March signaled a potentially significant shift in how the program operated. Would a place that historically hasn’t invested enough in football or set particularly high standards for on-field performance shift its approach under Rivera, a former Chicago Bears linebacker and NFL coach?
The answer came Sunday with the firing of coach Justin Wilcox. Although Wilcox has guided Cal to a third consecutive bowl appearance, the program seemingly had plateaued at six wins under his leadership. An awful showing against archrival Stanford following an open week signaled to Rivera and the Cal brass that things wouldn’t be getting better under Wilcox in Berkeley. He never had a winning record in conference play (Pac-12 or ACC) and eclipsed six wins just twice in nine seasons. Wilcox couldn’t break the pattern, and Cal finally had enough.
Rivera now has control over Cal’s future and will spearhead the search for Wilcox’s successor. Cal has pledged to increase its overall investment in football and put together rosters that can compete in the wide-open ACC. Despite an uneven season, Cal has a rising star in freshman quarterback Jaron-Keawe Sagapolutele, who has said he wants to remain in Berkeley despite inevitable transfer interest.
Hiring a coach who can keep JKS and other key players from the current roster will be important. Cal also has to sell itself as a serious football place. Stanford is stabilizing under GM Andrew Luck, and as the other West Coast member of the ACC, Cal must display similar commitment to attract coaches who can take the program further than Wilcox did.
Here’s a look at the candidates for the Cal job, as well as key players and recruits to retain. — Adam Rittenberg
Candidates | Transfers | Recruits
Five candidates for the job
Oregon defensive coordinator Tosh Lupoi: He enters the search as the clear favorite to land the job. Lupoi, 44, is a former Cal player who has accelerated his career at Oregon and would galvanize the school’s approach toward personnel. He has long had a reputation as one of the more aggressive recruiters on the West Coast and should upgrade Cal’s talent base with the right support. After stops at Cal and Washington early in his career, Lupoi spent five seasons with Nick Saban at Alabama. He then coached with three NFL teams before joining coach Dan Lanning in Eugene and helping Oregon to a Big Ten title in 2024.
Alabama offensive coordinator Ryan Grubb: His next stop likely will take him to a head coaching role. The only question is, where? Grubb has been alongside Kalen DeBoer at several spots, including Washington, where he served as offensive coordinator in 2023 when the Huskies reached the national title game. He then spent 2024 as Seattle Seahawks OC before rejoining DeBoer in Alabama. Grubb, 49, also worked with DeBoer for part of a five-year run at Fresno State. He’s familiar with the area and would bring an exciting and innovative offense to Berkeley.
San Diego State coach Sean Lewis: If Cal wants an offensive-minded coach with experience within the state, Lewis makes a lot of sense. The Bears need no introduction to him, either, after losing 34-0 at San Diego State back in September. Lewis, 39, built his reputation with a fast-paced, productive offense, but his second SDSU team has leaned on its defense, recording three shutouts and five other games in which it allowed 10 points or fewer. The Aztecs are 9-2 this fall, and Lewis could be headed for his first conference championship. He led Kent State to its bowl win in 2019.
New Mexico coach Jason Eck: Berkeley is a different sort of place, and Eck is a different kind of dude. His fun, eccentric personality might make him a great fit at Cal. He has done great work in his first season at New Mexico, reshaping the roster and guiding the Lobos to an 8-3 record that includes wins at both UCLA and UNLV. Eck, 48, went 26-13 at Idaho with three FCS playoff appearances and top-10 finishes in 2023 and 2024. A former Wisconsin offensive lineman, he coached the position for years and likely would help an area that has held back Cal.
UC Davis coach Tim Plough: He’s already working in the University of California system — always a plus for Cal hires — and has worked for the Bears already, as he spent the 2023 season as the team’s tight ends coach before landing the UC Davis job. The 40-year-old is 19-6 at Davis with a No. 5 finish last season. He also played quarterback there and is on his third coaching stint at his alma mater. Plough is young and hasn’t spent much time in the FBS but could pay off for Cal. — Rittenberg
Five important players to retain
QB Jaron-Keawe Sagapolutele: The prized quarterback recruit from Hawaii was a late riser in the 2025 recruiting class and initially signed with Oregon before having a change of heart within weeks of enrolling and transferring to Cal. Sagapolutele beat out veteran Ohio State transfer Devin Brown for the starting job this offseason and has been everything the Bears hoped for and more as a freshman starter.
The 6-foot-3, 225-pound left-hander leads all FBS true freshmen with 2,787 passing yards on 62% passing and has put up 16 total touchdowns and nine interceptions. Sagapolutele publicly said he plans to stay at Cal prior to Wilcox’s firing, and sources told ESPN that the school has been negotiating a new deal with his camp that would make him one of the highest-paid QBs in the ACC. Will Sagapolutele be willing to stick around and put his trust in a new regime? Or will he hit the transfer portal and earn that massive payday elsewhere?
LB Cade Uluave: Uluave has been an impact player from day one for the Bears, earning Pac-12 Defensive Freshman of the Year honors in 2023 and developing into a 23-game starter for their defense. The 6-foot-1, 235-pound inside linebacker is tied for the team lead with 82 tackles this season and has racked up 10.5 TFLs, 3 sacks and 6 pass breakups on the year. The Utah native has one more season of eligibility and had a Day 3 draft grade going into the season.
LB Luke Ferrelli: The redshirt freshman earned praise from Wilcox earlier this season as being perhaps the most improved player on Cal’s roster. Ferrelli’s production is certainly backing up the praise. The 6-foot-3, 230-pound inside linebacker had zero college playing experience entering 2025 but has already put up 82 tackles, five TFLs, a sack and an interception through his first 11 games and has three more seasons to keep improving.
RB Kendrick Raphael: The NC State transfer has thrived as the featured back in Cal’s offense with a career-high 742 rushing yards, 178 receiving yards and 12 total touchdowns. The Bears had a big reset at this position after losing all their top backs to the portal after the 2024 season, but they ended up finding a difference-maker in Raphael. The junior ranks seventh in the ACC in yards from scrimmage and has one more season of eligibility.
OLB TJ Bush Jr.: The 6-foot-3, 265-pound edge defender was a Freshman All-American at Liberty in 2023 and has had a good first season against Power 4 competition, with nine tackles for loss and a team-high 5.5 sacks. Bush is a three-year starter with one more season of eligibility who had good options in the spring portal earlier this year and likely would again if he goes back on the market.
Three key recruits
TE Taimane Purcell, No. 13 TE-H in 2026: Purcell is the highest-ranked of four offensive prospects from Hawai’i in the Bears’ incoming class. At 6-foot-4, 225 pounds, he projects as a high-upside, all-around tight end with blocking ability and the tools to become a highly productive downfield target at the Power 4 level. With Wilcox out, Cal could soon face competition to hang on to Hawai’i’s No. 3 overall recruit, who held interest from top Big Ten and SEC programs when committing in June.
DE Camron Brooks, No. 49 DE in 2026: One of two four-stars left in Cal’s 2026 class, Brooks is a long, athletic edge rusher from Thomasville, Georgia. He visited Clemson, Florida State and Ohio State before committing to the Bears in April, a move that marked a significant out-of-state recruiting win for Wilcox and his staff. Brooks could now represent an exciting late addition for one of the nation’s bluebloods if he decides to reopen his recruitment.
RB Victor Santino, No. 29 running back in 2026: Santino has been committed to Cal since June and remains the program’s top-ranked in-state pledge in 2026. A powerful downfield runner, Santino also projects as a potentially elite pass catcher out of the backfield and in the slot. He picked the Bears over Boise State, Kansas, TCU and Utah in June. With top programs still scouring the running back market, Santino could be subject to fresh interest before the early signing period opens on Dec. 3. — Eli Lederman
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Andrea Adelson
Florida State coach Mike Norvell said Monday he does not believe his team is far off from competing for championships, one day after the school announced he would return for 2026.
In his first comments since the announcement, Norvell said during his weekly news conference he is grateful to the administration for the belief in “what is ahead of us.”
Florida State is 5-6 and needs to beat Florida on Saturday to get to bowl eligibility. Of its six losses this season, four have come in one-score games. That includes two losses — to Virginia and Stanford — in which video replay review had an impact on the ultimate outcome of the game.
“I don’t think we’re far off,” Norvell said. “I believe that we are close. You lose six games and it sucks. We have absolutely not been close to the expectation of what I have for this team and for what is the overall expectation of Florida State football. But I do believe in where we’re going. I do believe in some of the progress that we’ve been able to see, but it’s not consistent enough.”
Indeed, Florida State has outgained its opponents in 10 of 11 games this year and is one of the best teams in the country in third-down conversions. But critical mistakes at inopportune times have continued to hurt the Seminoles.
The latest: Two special teams turnovers in the fourth quarter of a one-score game against NC State last Friday night that ultimately ended in a 21-11 loss. Florida State ranks in the bottom third of the country in turnover margin (minus-4) and among the worst teams in the country in red zone offense.
Yet this is the same team that beat Alabama to open the season.
“It still ultimately comes down to making the plays in those critical situations that are going to push you to having that success in the game,” Norvell said. “We’ve done that against really good teams this year, but we’ve also put ourselves in position to have some production, but not do the things that are necessary to go win the game.”
As part of the announcement that Norvell would return for a seventh season was a pledge to “institute fundamental changes in specific areas to improve performance.” When asked directly what changes he planned to make, Norvell said his only focus this week was on Florida.
Asked about a possible reevaluation of his front office and personnel department, Norvell said he is always evaluating the program.
“There’s a lot of things that we’ll continue to take a broader scope look at as we get into the offseason,” Norvell said. “But I’m evaluating throughout the course of the year in every part of our program to be able to take the proper steps for us to be the best that we can be.”
Norvell also pointed to the way his team has played as another reason for optimism because “they are battling every single day,” even when the results are not there. Florida State has gone 3-13 in the ACC over the last two years, and the last road win it had in the regular season was against the Gators in Gainesville in 2023 to get to 12-0.
There are young players Norvell believes this team can build around, including Mandrell and Darryll Desir, Ousmane Kromah, Jayvan Boggs and Micahi Danzy.
“When it comes to the talent on this team, we’ve got really, really good talent,” Norvell said. “Some guys that are playing as true freshmen right now, they’re showing that they’re going to be some of the best players in college football here in the next few years.”
While there might be some skepticism in the Florida State fan base about bringing back a coach who has four losing seasons in six years, Norvell vowed not to let anyone down now that he has one more year to turn the Seminoles around.
“I’ve been confident that if I could keep my head down and just continue to work that the opportunity would be there,” Norvell said. “I’m not gonna let them down. I believe what it’s gonna be, and I know what we have to continue to do, and we’re gonna get it done.”
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